Recap of TG Taste Event Featuring Villa Maria Estate Wines
Last Wednesday, Andy and I participated in a virtual wine tasting organized by Thirsty Girl.com, a member-driven community that brings together women who are passionate about wine, food, travel, libations and fun. Now, just because it’s mainly women involved, it doesn’t mean that men get shut out of the fun. There were a few males that joined our group during the twitter tasting to give their opinions on the wines we tried.
Approximately once a month, Thirsty Girl (follow them on twitter here) chooses a featured winery and sends wine samples to members of the Thirsty Girl group (made up of wine writers and bloggers). Then we all sit down at a scheduled date and time to review the wines, give the winemaker valuable feedback, brainstorm and sometimes execute the perfect wine pairings, and almost have more fun than you would at a cocktail party. Which is a lot like twitter is anyway. One big virtual cocktail party.
This time around, the featured winery was Villa Maria Estate Wines, a family-owned estate in Auckland, New Zealand. The wines we sampled were a 2012 Villa Maria Estate Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc and a 2011 Villa Maria Estate Private Bin Pinot Noir. Some of the people who joined Andy and me for the tasting included @urbanblissmedia, @oakmonster, @alawine, @luscious_lashes, @dvinewinetime, @thienkim, @stilettowines, @keridwyn, @sonadora, @mywinespot, @dreamsofjamaica, @travelwinechick, @VillaMaria_Wine, and the winemaker himself, @AlastairMaling. I am sure I am leaving out a few people, sorry! 😦 Anyway, I took some of my favorite comments from the evening and posted them below. Enjoy!
The first comment is from the best wine drinking buddy I know. 🙂 My boyfriend and partner in wine, Andy. Follow him on twitter here. Here’s his description of the Sauvignon Blanc.
Urban Bliss Media had some thoughts on a food pairing for the Sauvignon Blanc. You can follow her on twitter here.
The winemaker, Alastair Maling (on twitter here) commented on the Sauvignon Blanc’s uniqueness:
The real fun started after opening the Pinot Noir. Here are some thoughts from Andy and me:
@jillshough had a great pairing idea:
The salmon recipe is located here.
Then leave it to me to cause trouble! Thirsty Girl (@beathirstygirl) asked if any of us had paired the wines with food during the tasting and I responded like this:
The wine maker quickly shot me back with this (funny!)
A common observance on the Pinot Noir is that it improved quite a bit (as most wines do) the more it aired out in the glass or decanter. Then another pairing idea:
Another feature on both of the wines I liked (along with a few others) is that the wines are screw cap closure (key in portability)! As commented by @theeleanorprior:
What a good time we all had, and I can’t wait to do it again next month! 🙂
You can also find Thirsty Girl on Facebook here and you can find Villa Maria Estate Wines on Facebook here. And if you’re on twitter, be sure to follow Head Thirsty Girl @lesliesbrocco and Thirsty Girl @beathirstygirl!
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