Good friends, good music, good food, good wine, what could be better? It is easy for wine club members to serve up a great time. For a perfect no-fuss wine party, order appetizers from your local gourmet deli or select a variety of cheeses. Sample a selection a few days ahead of time with your wine club wines and pick the best pairings. Serving charcuterie? See our what to include and what to skip on your charcuterie board. Or see 500+ recipes (with pairings!) that the small, family wineries we feature have shared with us.

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Delicious & Festive!

“Mushrooms make a delicious, crowd-pleasing party food fried in this light, crisp batter,” says Emma Lipp, Head Chef and partner at the acclaimed Valley Bar and Bottle restaurant in Sonoma. She created this recipe to pair with her father’s COHO Wines Headwaters 2017 Napa Valley Red Wine, a Merlot-based Red Blend.

“While any mushroom will work in this recipe, we recommend a mixture of chewier, sturdy trumpets and festive hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, which look extra lacy in their tempura party dresses. The dipping sauce flavoring is based on Japanese dashi, the umami-rich base in Japanese cooking. The earthiness of the mushrooms combined with the delightfully savory sauce, all brightened by texture, lemon and chili, pairs wonderfully with the bright, deep fruits of the 2017 Coho Headwaters.”

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Made Simple by Private Chef Robin

Family and friends gathered around a festive table laden with delicious food and fine wine is one of the most magical parts of the holiday season. To help you create unique, memorable and, best of all, stress-free holiday get-togethers, we invited Private Chef Robin, author, teacher and wine country chef extraordinaire to give you her best tips and share her favorite menus.

There is no “wrong” way to serve wine, but these tips can help elevate our wine club members’ experience.

Wine can be served many ways.

Let It Rest To Avoid Travel Shock in Wine

Most of our members would be happy to drink their monthly wine club shipments right away, but when you receive a shipment of wines, it is best to let them rest for a few days in a cool, dark place before enjoying. This should eliminate any travel shock.

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Be ready for gatherings with toasting tips, wise words, and some delicious appetizer recipes (plus a bonus cider recipe!).

Toasting Tips This Holiday Season

This is the time of year for gatherings of friends and family at parties and festive feasts. So we’ve pulled together some toasting tips for you:

1. Typically, the host of the gathering will offer the first toast. Although at weddings, often the Best Man has the honor of offering the first toast.
2. It is considered proper to ask the host for permission to offer a toast, and to thank the host as part of the toast.
3. Please make sure all glasses are filled before beginning your toast.  Although we favor sparkling wines for toasting, non-alcoholic drinks are fine as well.
4. If someone is giving a toast to you, no need to stand.  Just sit and (hopefully) smile.  And no need to drink to yourself.
5. In most cases, shorter is better.  That saying about brevity being the soul of wit may apply here.

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Peg Crowley, Co-Founder of Pegasus Estate Winery in Santa Ynez rides her horse through the vineyards.

California’s wine country is not just a mecca for wine lovers. Why? Because vineyards are often located in some of the state’s most scenic, historic, vibrant regions. If you’re visiting appellations with someone who is just not into wine, this is good news.

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A tasty tasting is ready at Wrath Winery, a wine club favorite

If you are thinking about hosting a wine tasting, there are four basic types of wine tastings you can organize. They range from knowing what types of wine you are tasting and evaluating them, to tastings where you are trying to figure out what you are drinking, the vintage, and where the wine is from. These four basic types of wine tasting are horizontal, vertical, blind and double blind.

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Are you ready for some football?  From chips and salsa to BBQ pork ribs See which wines to pair with all your favorite eats with our easy wine pairing chart!  Need more recipes?  Browse hundreds of winery recipes.

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This article originally ran in a 2003 edition of Uncorked. Uncorked is our monthly wine club guide to the wines and wineries we are featuring, and includes wine tips, toasts, and insight into the world of small wineries.

Giving a Thanksgiving Toast

Toasting is a fine art that some of us have never tried!  Here are some helpful hints on making a good toast, plus some favorite toasts for your Thanksgiving table.

• Be relaxed and have fun!  Enjoy giving your toast–it’s an act of friendship.
• To get the attention of your audience, stand up as you toast.
• Make your toast simple and brief.  Remember, “Brevity is the soul of wit!”

Here is a sampling of toasts to try, all by that famous author, “Unknown!” Salud!

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Thanksgiving Wines

by Charlie Olken, Guest Editor

The beauty of Thanksgiving is that almost any wine will work with the usual turkey dinner, and yet no wine is perfect. There are too many flavors, textures and levels of richness and sweetness to make any one grape the perfect choice. About the only absolute I have followed over the years is to avoid heavy reds like Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Petite Sirah. And, except for the rare light and fruity versions of Zinfandel, I avoid that grape as well.

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