the making of “summer whites”

Cam and I love wine.  A favourite vacation of ours before having kids was meandering through BC’s Okanagan each summer trying out the new wineries and haunting our favourites. Even after we had Matt, we took a couple of trips with wine top on the agenda (including through Italy enjoying Montepulcianos, Super Tuscans and Trebbianos amung others that were new to us). Here is a picture of Matt with a random lovely winery staffer at one of our favorite wineries in Italy – Poggio Antico … and then one of him right after he got his treat for the day – nothing like a gelato fix for a nine-month old 😉

It’s amazing though, what three kids did to our wine appreciation … we are now connoisseurs of the 11pm brand – you know the type right? We barely get through the day, enjoy the kids, dinner and play – often not having wine for fear of falling asleep because we’re so tired – and then after everyone is asleep and  we are both caught up on work we head to the hot tub or the fire place and open a bottle of wine.   Bliss.

We used to have a party every summer called summer whites – it was our untrained way of grabbing some friends and having a party around blind white wine tasting.  It was a blast.  People wore white. Wine was white. Music was good.  And the best part were the people – an amazing group of friends. Lack of time and shifting priorities had the ‘whites’ on the back burner for a couple of years but we’re bringing it back this summer.  We had a little ‘pre’ summer whites earlier this summer – tasting some of what beautiful BC has to offer and are looking forward to signing off summer with some great friends old and new.

For this event I started with the wine, and a budget.  Decided to get a good assortment of white wine from around the world and kept the varietals relatively similar … so for this time it meant nothing super sweet, and nothing super dry (think sauvignon blanc to pinot grigio).  I visited our local wine expert at Everything Wine (warning : it’s a candy shop for wine lovers!) and together we picked 6 wines to taste in a good range from the “old world” (France, Italy, Spain) to newer world (Australia, New Zealand, California, BC)  We ranged between $13/bottle to a high of $36/bottle.   We chose an order and I snapped a pic with my phone so that I’d remember it later!

I put together tasting sheets, and had a little fun visiting my pals at Home Depot earlier this week – with some particle board and close pegs I’m making my own clip boards.  I put together one sheet with the wine types, regions and costs in case people wanted to go out and get a bottle they really liked later.  Then looked through some cookbooks for appetizers that would pair well with each of the wines.  I’ll put together a cheese plate to compliment the wines, and some sweet treats for the end of the night, and have water out throughout the night as well.  I’ll post more on the wines and food we chose after the night.

So … now we just need the rain to hold off (so that we can enjoy one last summer evening under the stars), my second set of meringues not to crumble (first set are a sad mess on the counter), and our kids to sleep through (umm…yeah).