Myself, my darling girlfriend, and our friend Katie spent almost two hours last night sampling eight sparking wines at GiraMondo’s “Wines of Summer: Champagne and Other Bubbles” event. True to his word, host Laurent Guinand provided a range of sparking wine from around the world, not a suite of cheap cava from Trader Joe’s – though after learning from his presentation just how many varietals of grape the Spanish use to make cava I think my darling girlfriend and I may have to host an all-cava tasting. From his handout: Macabeo, Parallada, Xarello, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Trepat, Monastrelle, and Grenache.
Monsieur Guinand was also very gracious when I identified myself after the event, completely refraining from asking the entirely justified “Did you feel like you got a sufficient selection, punk? Well, do ya?” We chatted briefly and he said that he, as GiraMondo, has been doing these events a little more than a year in a few local locations. In some other events he hires and manages for the entire event. In locations like last night’s Woman’s National Democratic Club the facility staff is used. The WNDC servers weren’t quite as perky as they could have been – at times he had to adjust his presentation a bit on the fly to allow time for them to get around and fill everyone’s glass with the next wine. It was handled well, however, and the post-tasting light dinner was tasty.
The events are on hold till the fall, I presume to allow for the selection of wine tours they offer. They’re not my cup of tea, though they did inspire my darling girlfriend and I to discuss planning a cooking tour of Italy at some point in my life. While I may not be the wine enthusiast she deserves, I do have some finer tastes. Perhaps GiraMondo will put together an event for beer-preferring philistines like myself, titled something like “Find the wines you can tolerate, perhaps even enjoy: An evening for the wine-adverse” or “Coping with your wine-loving spouse: Pairing wine with the beer drinker.”
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
Well I used to say something in my profile about not quite being a “tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy” but Tom stole that for our about us page, so I guess I’ll have to find another way to express that I am a man of many interests.
Hmm, guess I just did.
My tastes run the gamut from sophomoric to Shakespeare and in my “professional” life I’ve sold things, served beer, written software, and carried heavy objects… sometimes at the same place. It’s that range of loves and activities that makes it so easy for me to love DC – we’ve got it all.
