December Wine Club

For the month of December our wine club focused on dessert wines.  This meant things were a little different since we weren't studying one varietal from various regions.  It was harder to not know what we were 'blind' sampling because of the different bottle shapes and even the colors (from white to red to tawny).  But it was an interesting evening and we all really enjoyed the selections from this month.  (note - if you are following along in the book Wine With Friends, note that Dessert Wines were actually the September month.  We adjusted the schedule a bit to suit our needs.)

I think the thing that struck me the most about dessert wines is that they aren't just the super sweet table wines (that I don't really care for).  They are truly designed to serve as an accompaniment to dessert or even as dessert itself.  I have lived 50 years and had never before tasted port or sherry, although both have featured prominently in books and movies I have enjoyed over the years.  :)  Turns out I really like port and dislike sherry.  Fun to know!  We also learned about late harvest wines, ice wines, and even 'noble rot' which is a 'desirable mold' that forms on some grapes under certain conditions and leads to a sweeter wine.

As always, it was a wonderful evening with these dear ladies.  I look forward to wine club night each month!

Andrea, Dana, Megan, Judy, Hannah, Laura, Barb, Janet, Lisa

Although dessert wines obviously pair well with desserts, we read about several savory foods/recipes that would also accompany the wines.  Yes, it turns out dessert wines aren't just for sweet foods!

Baby 'bellos with leeks and goat cheese

Mexican chicken soup with fixings

cheese plate

salted mixed nuts, spicy/sweet mixed nuts, orange chocolates, chocolate covered pretzels,
blue cheese (yes, it was amazing with the port!  Really!)

Sweet Potato Croquettes

Fig and Prosciutto pizza

Sandeman Ruby Port
#7 on Wine Tasting sheet

Hogue Late Harvest Riesling
#5 on Wine Tasting sheet

Sauternes (comes in half bottle size)
#9 on Wine Tasting sheet

Chocolate Wine
#6 on Wine Tasting sheet

August winery Ice Wine
#1 on Wine Tasting sheet

PX (Pedro Ximenez) Cream Sherry
#3 on Wine Tasting sheet

Mocha Wine
#4 on Wine Tasting sheet

Sandeman 10 year Tawny Port
#8 on Wine Tasting sheet

Late Harvest Chardonnay (comes in half bottle size)
#2 on Wine Tasting sheet

My rating scale is 0-5... you can see I really enjoyed this months selections!  :) 

I LOVED this gift from Judy (and all)   :)

Here are the videos we watched to go along with our reading this month.