Wine tasting

OK, so there was no post for March 4... I have an excuse: My internet is still down and the Iphone connection I'm using doesn't work great during peak hours.

Besides, I spent the entire day preparing for the wine tasting. It's now 1:30 AM and the last of the guests have left. Some thoughts:

• Never serve 16 different wines. Even with small samples people were sloshed by #8.
• Price and appreciation are completely separate. The wine tasting was blind. People liked several cheap wines and didn't like most every one of the expensive ones. My favorite example is two wines from Jacob's Creek where the "Reserve" bottle ($22) was disliked whereas the regular Joe-Schmoe Jacob's Creek ($12) was loved.
• I covered every label and gave each guest a clipboard with sheets to comment on each wine. When throwing a party there's a fine line between really cool idea and GEEK. As I was buying the clipboards I was thinking, "Steve, you may be crossing the line here..." Fortunately, they were appreciated and most took their wine commenting duties seriously.
• In the final tally the cheapest wine - $8 - got better reviews than all of the over $20 bottles.
• Ann played hostess and I basically spent most of the time getting cheese and the next round of wine. Ironically, by the end of the evening I had had only two samples of wine.
• The Coke fridge played it's normal spectacular role: Guests wanting water, juice, pop, etc., didn't feel any need to ask.
• I charged people $15. My costs were much higher but nobody had an issue with paying a cover fee. Many paid the $15 and still brought cheese or a bottle of wine.

I don't mean to brag, but I'm 3-3 on parties. Thanksgiving, Christmas and the wine tasting have all been home-runs. My goal is to be the guy that throws the parties that everyone wants to go to. In the US that would be arrogant, but here the bar is very low.