It’s 2020, the bars are closed and summer is canceled. Wanna know what’s been helping me through quarantine? Wine. That first sip at the end of the day…tastes so good when it hits your lips! I recently made an at-home wine tasting for us and i want to
I love wine and have gotten more interested in it since moving to California in 2017. It’s so fun tasting new wines and figuring out the perfect food pairing. I’m not an expert by any means. Although I think it’d be really interesting to take a sommelier class someday!
Wine can be pretty intimidating. It’s like a learning a new language. There are SO many varietals to choose from and new terms to use when discussing wine. I used to not even know what the word “varietal” meant. I would just choose wine based on the label design I liked best. Well, sometimes I still do that! I couldn’t tell you what kind of wine I liked or didn’t like, beyond saying “nothing sweet or pink.” And when I say pink, I’m referring to the pre-rosé all day era when the only pink wine readily available was boxed white zinfandel.
So fast-forward to living in California and having learned that a 1.5 liter bottle for $9.99 was not the height of sophistication. Wine tasting has now become a hobby of mine. And since we can’t frequent our favorite vineyards and tasting rooms right now, I’m bringing wine tasting home.
Wines We Chose
We picked up three different bottles of wine for my at-home wine tasting experiment. Two of them we had never tried before. And one we had had before with dinner at the Hitching Post in Solvang. We were so excited to see it in our grocery store, we had to buy a bottle (or three)! Here are the three wines we choose for our at-home tasting:
Hitching Post – Hometown
Chronic Cellars – Purple Paradise
Aime La Vie! – Syrah/Grenache Rosé
At-Home Tasting with Friends
Even though this tasting included just the two of us, I think this could be a fun group activity, too! Instead of the regular Zoom happy hour, grab some friends and have everyone select a bottle of wine. You can curate a shopping list and ask everyone to buy what bottles they’d like to try (or are able to find locally). Everyone can take turns playing sommelier as the group moves from wine to wine.
Pour, smell, swirl, sip, discuss. Repeat as desired. Or until you run out. Ha!
You never know, an at-home wine tasting could help you discover a new favorite wine! I hope this idea gives you some inspiration in the at-home fun department. For more quarantine-friendly fun, check out my post on pandemic picnic ideas.
Cheers, y’all!
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