Happy Earth Day!

We had our first wine and book get together! We had six of our friends over and although it started slow we all had a great time and already have a book and date chosen for the next one! We experimented with wine, cheese and a new book!

Our set-up of wines and food 

Let's start with the book... overall everyone was apprehensive at first, but we all agreed once you get past the first couple chapters you're hooked. Of course some of us, got down to the wire and chose to look up the remaining chapters on spark notes ;-) Nonetheless we started off talking about whether or not we would recommend the book to others as a way to judge the book. Everyone agreed that we would recommend it to our personal connections, but we would not recommend it to young adults. The book is very dark themed and it was hard for us to see a younger audience truly grasping the deep aspects of the book. On the other hand, we all have heard great things about the movie and that it is more geared towards young adults because it is lighter. We also discussed our favorite parts of the book 

(caution: If you have not read the book these might be spoilers!) The following were some of the favorites:

1. Rudy's capture of Liesel's book in the river

2. Mama's interruption at school to bring Liesel home

3. Endearing swearing throughout

We all seemed to truly enjoy the time period and were interested in hearing more historical type of information about that time in our world's history from a very different perspective. We also discussed our favorite twists and turns and things that we didn't expect out of this book. Overall it was a very laid back discussion and it was really just how we felt about the book. 

Now to the wine and food! Like I mentioned in earlier posts, we had three German wines (which are all posted on the wines page) We had one red called Beringer, a classic Gewurztraminer, and a dessert one called Auslese. Everyone liked all of them for the most part which is classic of wine lovers :) The cheese on the other hand didn't go over as well. We had two German cheeses and Harvati with herbs. The German cheese muenster went over better than the butterkase but, the muenster was very plain and the butterkase tasted similar to plain cheese curds. Overall it paired well with the wine but everyone's favorite was the Havarti with herbs. It had a lot of flavor and was a good texture for crackers and wine. When it came to the wine the Beringer and the Auslese were most well liked; although the Gewurztraminer was liked by a few. The full reviews are posted on the wines page!

Overall we are all very excited that we are doing this and we enjoyed each others company. It was really refreshing to gather with friends and talk about the food, the wine, and the book.

We really enjoyed talking about other things in our lives as well, but there were no H's in our wine tonight and I think that it is really important to sit back, relax, and have a wine glass half full attitude.

Cheese Shopping

Hi! It's been awhile, but our book and wine party is on Tuesday! Today my Dad and I went cheese shopping for German cheeses. We went to The Fresh Market and although their selection of cheeses was great there were only two German cheeses to choose from. We thought this was really interesting because we were expecting more...Maybe its just not very popular around here. Anyway we chose a Muenster cheese as well as a Butterkase which oddly enough is from Wisconsin! Even the German cheese isn't really from Germany!

Also I've decided to start posting pictures of wines that we have tried with information and our review of them on the wines page. The wines that we try on book club night will also be posted, but only after they have been included in the post about our party that night! We really love wine and trying new things so I want to share the new wines we have tried outside of book & wine club night! See you again on Tuesday! 

Our First Meeting

Welcome! First post happiness :) Our first book and wine club meeting is scheduled for Earth Day, April 22nd! We chose The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak for our book and everyone is busy reading! So far I'm a little behind in reading, but it's very good so far! We're all very excited!

Me and my mom, Mel, decided to provide three wines; one red, one white, and one dessert wine. We also decided how fitting a German theme for wine would be. Me and My dad, Brad, went shopping today for wines and we had so much fun! We went straight to the Germany section and looked around for awhile! They had a huge selection and we enjoyed looking at all the different wines. We chose three, but they will be revealed and discussed on Earth Day! Can't wait to try them and share!

My dad in the Germany wine aisle :)