gned as a way to say thank you to our club members, as well as a way for them to get to know one another a bit better. It also happened to coincide with the much anticipated release of our 2005 Optu red wine and 2007 Optu white wine (also our fall wine club shipment), which are both fabulous wines. While I spent most of the night running around in circles, trying to meet as many people as possible, filling orders and passing out shipments, I think everyone had a great time. Our event “Getting Toasty in the City” was held at the Northwest Wine Academy - my old stomping grounds (along with a few other wine club members!) from when I took some classes there a few years ago. If you live in the Seattle-area, are interested in wine and want to
enhance your knowledge, I would strongly suggest you check out their program. Not only were they kind enough to let us host our party there, but the school gathered together a team of absolutely wonderful volunteers who came to set-up, pour wine all night long, and then stayed to tear it all down again. A big thank you to Reggie, Stacey and all of the volunteers – I literally could not have done i
t without you!We were lucky enough to host a few master coopers from Seguin-Moreau, the infamous cooperage from Napa Valley. These hard working guys did barrel toasting demonstrations throughout the evening. Guests were able to watch a barrel being made all the way from being a pile of wood, through assembly and toasting to the finished product. I heard a rumor about a wine club wine being made from the barrels we all got to see produced…
One of my favorite parts of the night was definitely the food. After seeing an Airstr
eam trailer driving around the city, making lunch in different neighborhoods each day, and then reading about them in Food & Wine Magazine, I knew that we had to have Skillet Street Food join us at this event. Josh and his crew pulled their trailer into the parking lot and started cooking up a storm. They even featured two dishes to pair with our new releases that evening: THE BURGER was incredible alongside the Optu red and their PRAWN PO’BOY was awesome with the Optu white wine. There was also a caprese salad and herbed fries that I managed to taste between tasks (thank you to Ben and Dara for making that happen!). As I mentioned earlier, I got to meet so many wonderful people. Thank you to everyone who came that night and made it such a special event. A really BIG thank you to club member Laurie Hodges who took all of these wonderful photos that you’re seeing in this post (along with the pic of me at the top). Also, thanks to Duane at Winefoot and Doug and Josh with Wino Magazine for all of their kind words. It was great to have you there. Next time I see everyone, please take the time to come up and say hi!
