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AMERICAN WINE SOCIETY
A non-profit corporation Northern Virginia Chapter |
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| “Music isn’t better because you
play it louder. A novel isn’t better because it is longer. Wine isn’t better because it’s bigger bodied and more powerful.” -- Kermit Lynch, wine merchant and author |
FEBRUARY MEETING:Last month, we started off with four social wines, each in a brown bag, so we didn’t know what we were tasting other than the varietals that were labeled on each bag: Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Everyone seemed to enjoy these wines and commented on the pleasant components of each. When the wines were un-bagged, most everyone was surprised to find that they were all Charles Shaw wines, or as commonly referred to as "two-buck Chuck." However, with transportation, taxes, etc., they sell for $3.29 a bottle here – still a great value!Sitting down, each participant found six glasses in front of them, each already filled with a different wine. We were instructed to taste/evaluate each wine individually, using the specially developed tasting sheet, looking for sweetness, acidity, tannin, body, and flavor. Then, each participant was served a plate with six different types of food on them: dry roasted almonds, chevre (goat cheese), gravlax salmon, paté, milk chocolate truffles, and gorgonzola cheese) Our next task was to taste each of the food samples with each of the wines, noting which combination worked well, which was a fair match and which didn’t match at all. Everyone really had to work at this tasting! But, everyone had fun and said that they all really learned why some types of food and wine combinations work so well and others don’t. Just for the record, the wines we tasted are listed in the table below. All in all, it was a fun and truly educational evening, and something that will encourage further mixing and matching of food and wines.
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MARCH MEETING:Jerry Motter is on the slate to present our next meeting He will be spending more time "out of the bottle" as he will be explaining how to decipher a wine label and all the information contained there. But rest assured, we will open those bottles and taste what’s inside! The meeting is scheduled for Friday, March 19, 2004 at St. Mary’s Church. The gathering will begin at 7:30 p.m. while the formal meeting should get underway at 8:00 p.m. Please RSVP at least 24 hours in advance if you are planning to attend so we will have enough of everything. Call 703-941-2384 or complete the following RSVP form. |
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OTHER NEWS:
Yes, that’s right, we are entering the 21st Century and beginning to
use e-mail. For those of you who have provided us an e-mail
address in the past, you will be getting this notice both by e-mail and
snail mail. If you wish to receive only e-mail notification in
the future, please respond back to me via e-mail letting me know.
If not, you will continue to receive snail mail notification
only. Also, if you have not received an e-mail notification and
would like to, please provide your e-mail address to me and you will be
"converted." But, please, do remember to RSVP
at least 24 hours in advance whenever you are planning to attend a
meeting. |
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See you on the 19th!
Cheers, Dave Barber |
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| P.S. Please feel free to forward this link to
friends who share your
interest in matters of the vine. Or, send northern-virginia-membership@aws-va.com
their names to add to our mailing list. P.P.S. If you are no longer interested in getting Northern Virginia AWS news, please send a note to northern-virginia-membership@aws-va.com and ask to be removed from this email list. |