The Wine List

The Richmond Wine Expo, a fancy festival of wine and cheese tastings, was this weekend, but my friends and I decided to forgo the hefty entrance fee and be recessionistas by throwing our own wine and cheese party!

Here are a few differences between our wine tasting and theirs...

* The wine expo had connoisseurs to spout off pretentious wine descriptions ("oak on the nose", "notes of baritone", "smooth, silky finish" and the like). We had our own descriptions ("grapey", "oakey", "I dunno... it tastes kind of dirty").

* We wrote our descriptions on my friend Mali's dining room wall. In black Sharpie.

No, I'm not kidding. Mali had stripped all the wallpaper off her dining room the day before and is planning on giving it a good coat of Kilz paint later this month, so she wrote all of our descriptions on her wall so we could keep the wines straight. We were keeping it classy.

* Did we nibble on fussy appetizers? Yes, but then we also gorged ourselves on cupcakes, cookies, fruit, cheeses, and artichoke dip. Complete gluttony.

* No one did the elaborate sniff, swirl, sip, and spit, although Mali lugged around an industrial size dump bucket for anyone who couldn't finish their glass.

* At the Wine Expo, they discussed the growing seasons, harvest conditions, and regions where the grapes were grown. Our discussions were more like, "Oh, you bought the Riesling from Cosco? I got my Chardonnay for five bucks from Whole Foods."

Here is an absolutely terrible picture of Dan and me standing in front of Mali's wall where we wrote descriptions:


Believe it or not, this was the best of the pictures we took. Dan looks a bit psychotic because he opened his eyes really wide after taking two pictures with them shut. He was a bit tipsy by that point.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and we didn't take that many with Mali's camera, but you get the general idea. A very classy event indeed. No box wine for us that night!

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On an unrelated note, I wanted to write two quick thank-you's to two of my favorite blogs!

First, a big thank you to Josie from With a Wink and a Smile for my "You're a doll" blog award! So sweet and encouraging! If you want to see an incredible blog on fashion (from how to find steals to updates on Project Runway), hers is definitely the one to visit.

Second, I actually won an amazing giveaway from Hanako66 at Through the Looking Glass! Thank you so much! If any of you are interested in checking out a new blog, hers is amazing! Fabulous outfits with amazing photos (this girl has style), quirky Etsy finds, fabulous recipes (marshmallow milkshake, anyone?)... she has it all. I highly recommend.