6 September 2008 by Melinda Johnston
The Dinner Party of Awesomeness (And a lot of wine)
To celebrate our move to outer Suburbia, we decided to hold a Dinner Party of Awesomeness for a couple of our friends. The first consideration, of course, was what wine to have. We visited the friendly guys at Quayside Wine Cellar. If you haven’t checked out their tiny, overstuffed store, get in there. The guys who run it know their stuff, to the point of knowing, “What wine says, ‘I’m happy you’ve installed new bamboo floors?’”
When we went in, they were offering samples of a Luna Argenta Prosecco. I’d just read an article about Prosecco, the Italian’s affordable answer to Champagne, and I was eager to taste it. It’s good. We picked up the Luna Argenta, and a bottle of Rigamarole Rose. How can you not like a wine whose label proclaims that it is a “menagerie of (what else?) pink dolphins and flamingos.”
After picking up the wine, the next task was cleaning. I was a bit embarrassed to take out the recyling past a crowd of home buyers checking out an open house. What’s worse, potential neighbors thinking I’m taking out 14 wine bottles because I’m a slob or a lush? Oh well. We got the house clean, and a veggie lasangue and a Black Forest cake in the oven.
When our guests arrived, we started with a glass of Joie 2007 A Noble Blend. This is an amazing wine, as we’ve mentioned before. That didn’t take long to drink, so we opened up the Luna Argenta Prosecco. There is a reason Italians drink it by the litre. It was dry, sparkling, and disappeared from our glasses in no time. I’m convinced it evaporated.
We were all getting a trifle flushed ourselves by this time, so out came the Rigamarole Rose. It has a beautiful fuschia colour, very much the colour of flamingos. It’s just lovely, and perfect for adding some rose-coloured glassed to a summer dinner party. It had an intense aroma of fresh, sweet strawberries. The smell of this wine is worth the price of bottle alone. Though it has such a sweet smell, this is nice, dry wine, that drinks entirely too easily. It like a wine cooler for adults.
A lovely evening was had by all, even the kitty cat who wandered through the porch door and made friends. I can think of nothing nicer than enjoying three excellent wines with good company.