Randy and I belong to a wine group. Have I mentioned this? It's a collection of seven couples who have gotten together every single month for the past ten years to "taste" wine. I say "collection" because our getting together in the first place was all happenstance.
In the late summer of 2000, Randy and I signed up for a college course called "From Vines to Wines" at our local university. We had drunk some wines and wanted to know how to pair them with foods. For six Saturdays we went to a nearby winery for a two-hour class. The vineyard owner told us how wine was made, types of wines, hosted a tasting event, and taught us the vocabulary that goes along with wines. We sat, each Saturday, with the same group of people of varied ages, but never actually spoke with them, as the "wine guy" did most of the talking.
At the last lesson, when some of the classmates brought their mates, the wine guy suggested that we might want to form a group, get together occasionally, and taste some wines. Right then, one of the women in the class passed around paper and had us write our contact information, so that we might taste wine with people who were as knowledgeable as we now thought that we had become. I suspect that we envisioned ourselves as potential "wine snobs," at that point.
A few weeks later, we went to the home of the organized woman, each bearing a bottle of wine of the same type and an h'ors d'oeuvre. We tasted, took notes, wrote down our tasting results, swirled the wine in our glasses, and began to talk with each other as we did so. All we'd had were our first impressions of each other from sitting quietly in the same room for twelve hours. I am sure we were all curious about each other, and we'd been given an opportunity to investigate!
The collection included eleven people ranging from middle twenties to mid-fifties. We interacted well, got to know each others' names and basic information, and someone said they would host the group the following month, which meant that we were going to get to know each other a little better.
I will not go into detail of the next ten years, 120 months, 120 tastings with this group which we named The Wineos. Nor will I mention the hundreds of bottles of wine that we have drunk. I will, however, tell you that we have tasted just about every flavor of the grape that exists, and we've only poured one or two bottles onto a bush. (Hence came the term, "Bush Wines") We even had Fortified Wine Night one time...........terrible stuff.............We have also eaten some delicious foods to accompany the wines, and shared recipes with each other.
I will tell you some of the things that have transpired over these ten years, during which these people have become our "family."
We have had four new marriages. Along with Randy and I getting married the next July, one couple got a divorce, and then each got remarried within a few years. The wineos all danced at one of those weddings, and we were happy for both new couples. Both of these newlywed couples have remained in the Wineos, remarkably, and everyone gets along beautifully. Our group had grown to thirteen people, with this. Wedding showers accompanied the wine group events! One cold December, we sat as a group at the wedding of our youngest member when she married a former Marine: member number 14. We celebrated with wine made by the bride's mother!
One young couple adopted twin Russian orphans, and we have watched these two boys grow up. Two of the couples have delivered new baby boys, and we have had baby showers along with our wine.
Two of us have suffered the death of beloved sons by accident and health issues. The wine group sat together in a synagogue for one, and drove sixty miles to pay condolences for the other. The Wineos were there for both grieving families.
Two members have lost fathers, and one a mother, as well. We attended the only funeral that was local, but hurt during the others for the grieving son.
There has been the death of pets, celebrations of degrees and passing of the Bar, job changes, health threats, thousands of jokes, and anything and everything that a normal "family" goes through over the course of ten years. One couple has recently moved out of state, and we are tossing around ideas for a field trip to visit them, as leaving town does not mean leaving the family.
Do we still take notes on what we are "tasting?" No. We are too busy sharing our lives with each other, catching up on what has happened since the previous month, caring for each other, and being "family" for one another.
Each December we have a gift exchange game..........same game........and even some of the same gifts are exchanged each year, since it's a white elephant gift game. At Halloween, we've had marvelous costume parties. We contribute to a fund throughout the year to finance one really big Anniversary of the Wineos event, when we buy finer wines than we normally taste to accompany a lovely dinner. The hosting couple each month usually invites a guest or two to add to the conversational mix. No two wine events are the same. We've visited a winery together for one, a wine bar for another, and know our way around each others' homes and kitchens pretty well by now.
The Wineos "met" at our house last night. We had a table covered with appetizers and six bottles of wine. We ate, we drank, we laughed, and a few of us shed a tear or two. Last night we had "Cabin Fever Night," and each of us brought a poem to read aloud. Just like our group, the poems were diverse: limericks, Beatles lyrics, light fare and dark, all delivered around our fireplace by and to the people in this patchwork quilt of a "family" that we have put together so lovingly for these past ten years. We truly are family.
L'chaim!
copyright: KP Gillenwater
