One of the most enjoyable aspects of wine is enjoying it with friends who are like-minded. Wine can be daunting to newcomers, so I solved that problem long ago when I created a small gourmet group.
Newcomers to wine were welcome and soon were won over to wine’s finer aspects.
I figured that if I could entice two other couples to agree to get together on a regular basis to share wines, eventually those with less knowledge would gain greater insight, and the experiences would be so sybaritic that people wouldn’t want to miss a meeting.
The first group I formed was in the early 1980s. It was just three couples (two married friends and us). We gathered for what we agreed would be casual food and good wines. Our group had no name, but it was the envy of friends who lived just far enough away that it made no sense for them to join us.
We started one night with only chardonnays. One was a Pouilly-Fuisse from France’s Maconnais. And I can see why this wine was a little hard to appreciate: It was fairly tart. The best wine that night was the more succulent 1977 Trefethen chardonnay, the second most expensive wine. It cost me $7.50!
Subsequent events proved more interesting. We kept the themes simple. Zinfandel was more popular than event No. 3, petite sirah. The latter was wonderful, but the host served food that was so light the wine overpowered it.
Doing your own homegrown gourmet group doesn’t have to entail anything expensive. But a few simple rules can make it more meaningful.
1. Try to aim for one bottle for each couple. With three couples, we would have three or four bottles. Each individual agrees to bring one that conforms to the evening’s theme.
2. Choose a theme that works best with the food that the host of that evening event chooses as the main dish. If it’s pasta or meat with red sauce, Chianti is good. If it’s fillet of sole, perhaps try sauvignon blanc or pinot blanc.
3. The host usually brings an extra bottle of the theme wine in case one bottle turns out to be either spoiled or terrible.
4. Small notepads or index cards allow guests to take notes. It is also a good idea to leave the price tags on the bottles so participants know how much each wine costs.
5. Establish a price range for the wines. If the price range is too low, the wines will probably not be very distinctive. I'd choose a price range with a minimum of about $15-$20.
6. One basic rule is that the purchaser gets to take his or her wine home with them—assuming there is some wine left in the bottle!
