3rd Wine Tasting and the rest of the weekend

Did I ever tell you that I love weekends (especially the long ones)... ;-) Went home Friday afternoon to start the preparations for the wine tasting on Saturday. Made white chocolate and coconut mousse and baileys dream pots as they needed to set overnight. Saturday morning I went to town to do the last minute shopping but I skipped breakfast this time. ...and then the cooking started. I had 9 wines for the tasting and planned to serve different finger food with each one. So I decided on crostini with white bean topping, stuffed mushrooms (mini), springrolls, mini peppers filled with homemade creme cheese and roasted garlic, cherry tomatoes filled with pesto and tartlets with mushroom and port filling.

For the dessert wine I had the white chocolate and coconut mousse which was served in dark chocolate cubs and the baileys dream pots which were served in espresso cups....and may I note here that there was nothing left but crumbs...;-) I so guess the guys liked the food. For the wine, the clear winner was Montepulciano from the Dragani in Italy. It had a deep ruby colour, an earthy nose and a dry smooth finish. It's a wine that goes easily with pasta and pizza as well as with some young cheeses. The looser of the tasting was Santa Carolina Sauvignon Blanc which scored only 59. There was no bouquet from it and the taste was a bit too acidy for most of us.

This time we had a mixed group (we are normally a girls only group) and the dynamic was amazing. Adrian joined us with his lovely wife Piluca and Caz brought funny Jan along. We had a ball and in future we will be open to all.

We parted about 2am and I am already planning the next one....watch this space.

Sofie had a great idea on Sunday......why not go to Tralee??.....So we went to Tralee on a shopping spree...and did we shop. On the way home I was so tired that not only fell asleep in the car (I am really the most boring passenger) and after arriving back home placed myself on the couch and enjoyed a glass of Merlot. Yesterday I was 'softly' awaken by a hard knock on the door and my dad calling me to help him in the garden.....devoted daughter that I am.....peaked at the clock .....wait here it comes......5:30......yeap I mean 5:30 in the morning.....and I really got up and planted turnips until 9am when I decided that I need breakfast. After a nice and generous bowl of granola and yogurt I was ready to tackle the weeds in the potatoes....but gave up 30 minutes later.....they are much more determent than I am...more from the kitchen garden later.

So, here I am again, Tuesday morning and ready to face the rest of the week...hope you all had a ball...;-)

I tried to upload the list of wines but it seems that this didn't work very well. So here is the list of wines and the scores:

Jacobs Creek Sparkling Rose 70points

Santa Carolina Sauvignon Blanc 59points

Marie Louise Parisot Chablis 87 points

Fontana Candida Frascati 72 points

Les Jarmelles Syrah 81points

La Coccinelle Merlot 87points

Dragani Montepulciano 93points

Poggiotondo Chianti 85points

Chardonnieres Muscadet 82points