The Wine Crawl.

So, my friend Linda is quite the social animal, which is one of my favorite things about her; her social activities usually involve wine, which is one of my other favorite things about her.  She's very inventive, as well:  there are never enough reasons for consuming good wine, and Linda seems to be full of them.  However, this spring, she came up with a doozy, which she dubbed "The Wine Crawl." 

You see, we live in a homey, tree-lined neighborhood in L.A.  I've written about this before.  It's one of those neighborhoods that produces shock in East-Coasters and denizens of the Bay Area alike.  It's so homey that at least 5 -- count 'em:  5-- of the 15 participants in the Wine Crawl grew up in the neighborhood, bought homes, and are now raising families there.  No doubt because they have access to such mighty-fine wine drinkin'.

But I digress.  Here's how you put on a wine crawl:   You pick a bunch of houses.  Each house is responsible for a country.  The residents pick a representative wine or two from that country, and pair it with some typical foods.  Preferably bite-sized, preferably not too much.   Each house gets 1/2 hour.  You gather at the first house, do you thing, and WALK to the next house.  (The walking part is extremely important, for reasons you can imagine.)  It's like a progressive dinner, only with tasty vino.  It would also make a great fundraiser, BTW -- email Wine Giques headquarters and we'll give you some pointers. 

We had eight houses.  Yes, it took us four hours.  Yes, we were a little looped.  But super happy.  And in no danger of being picked up for drunk driving, although jaywalking was a distinct possibility.   Because it was such a successful and flavor-laden event, and because I am currently distracted by the lovely glass of Aurora 2007 Edna Valley Syrah Rose that I am sipping in celebration of Memorial Day, I'm going to detail what we ate and drank in a series of posts. (Those of you in online media will understand that this is a transparent attempt to drive traffic.  But you'll forgive me.)

Here's the list of countries we visited on the First Bi-Monthly MWWQA* Wine Crawl:  California, France, Spain, Australia/New Zealand, Argentina, Japan, Italy, Armenia, and Dessert (yes, it counts as a country.  Actually, we had port, so let's call it "Portugal.")

California
Obviously, there are a multitude of choices for California wine.  But given that we were just starting the evening, our hosts chose wisely:  Roederer Estate Brut Rosé NV.  The "NV" stands for "non-vintage," meaning that the wine is made from grapes from several years' harvests.  Please note that we were drinking sparkling wine, not Champagne.  The French are very picky about that designation, reserving it only for wines from the Champagne region of France; given that Roederer is French-owned, they'd toss you out of the tasting room if you even mouth the word.  "Bubbly" is acceptable, however.  The wine is a blend of chardonnay and pinot grapes, which give it its lovely rosy hue.  For noshing, it was paired with the perfect accoutrement:  caviar.  A bit of beluga, a bit of salmon roe, a little sour cream and tiny potato pancakes.  Alas, 30 minutes seemed too short a time to spend on such a classic combination -- especially for a bona-fide fish-egg addict like me.  But soon it was time to head to the next stop on the Wine Crawl:  France, which was a mere two blocks away!  So we smartly turned on the heels of our Calleen Cordero's and trotted out the door.  (You knew I'd work shoes into this post somehow, didn't you?)   

Next post:  Le marche a genoux du vin!  A bientôt, mes copains.   

*Mid-Wilshire Wine Quaffing Association
Photo by Ruth L., via Flickr.  Creative Commons, some rights reserved. 

Comments

[Suenartia]

I've never heard of the Aurora Rose. Tell me more about it.