Tasting wine like a pro

I taste wine all the time, but I'm no pro.

I just like wine.

Don and I are always trying something new. In fact, we hardly ever buy the same thing twice. And now that I work for BevMo! I get even more opportunities to try wine.

One thing I'm still learning to do is pair wine and food together for a harmonious union.

When it's done right everything tastes so much better. When it's done wrong, it can be really wrong. You might think there is something wrong with the food, or the wine. When the reality is they were not meant to be together. Kind of like Ben and Courtney. No, wait, they deserve each other. More like Sandra Bullock and Jesse James or Demi and Ashton. I knew they would never work out.

I participated in a really fun wine + food pairing session at the Wine Sisterhood conference a few weeks ago. I've been meaning to share it with you. It's simple to do and would be fun with a bunch of friends. You just need 5 bottles of wine and a simple plate of food to do the exercise.

The tasting was led by Leslie Sbrocco, famous wine aficionado, judge, TV host of Check Please Bay Area, founder of Thirsty Girl, and really funny lady. She had us in stitches with her Kathy Lee Gifford stories.

Leslie Sbrocco

We looked at the wine, swirled it, smelled it and of course tasted it. No vigorously sloshing it around or slurping. That's weird. Just a quick swirl to open up the wine, sniff and sip.

Everyone enjoyed mixing and matching the different wines with the different foods on the plate to see what tasted good together, and what tasted great together. Nothing tasted bad. In fact, we all the loved the nutty Parmesan sample so much we all wanted more.

They poured us a Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Moscato, Pinot Noir and Cabernet. The food was a lemon, strawberry, Parmesan cheese, honey and another cheese which I didn't taste because I thought it might be goat cheese and that is one cheese I don't eat. baaaaaah

There's no right or wrong way to do this. The idea is to try the different wine flavors with sweet and salty items so you can taste how they work together.

Give it a try with some friends and let me know what you think!

I like the thirsty girl logo and tag line so much I joined the crusade. Now I'm a thirsty girl. Click the logo to find out more about what the thirsty girls are doing.

**This is not a sponsored post. I'm just a goofball, giving them a plug.**