Our 30 Days of Local Wine campaign takes place throughout the entire month of December. Each day we’ll be featuring a different local wine from several of the Essex Pelee Island Coast wineries along with recipes for food, cocktails (yes, wine cocktails), desserts, party tips and more. Click here for the complete list of 30 wines.
Also, we want to see how you enjoy your local wine. We encourage you to use the #30DLW hashtag on Instagram to win prizes like a day for 2 on a tandem bicycle on our award winning Wine Trail Ride Cycling Tours. Click here for more details on the 30 Days of Local Wine Contest.
If you’re looking to serve a bottle of wine that’s exotic and different to your guests and family, than the Traminer Muscat from Pelee Island Winery is right up your ally. It’s definitely not your run of the mill bottle of white, with an intriguing blend of Gewurztraminer and Muscat Ottonel, which is a variety of the Muscat grape producing a lighter flavour and pale colour of wine.
The delicious aromas include lychee and rose pedal scents, which Pelee Island says makes this their most exotic tasting wine yet. You can pair this enticing bottle with light foods like pasta with white sauce, seafood, fruit salad, old cheese or Asian fusion.
Now, let’s say you were looking to be the hostess with the mostest and invite a gaggle of folks over for a wine party, but, weren’t too familiar with what to do. Let us help you with these easy tips:
How Much to Buy
Estimating how much wine you’ll need is always tricky. It’s always easy to just grab one of everything, but, that can get a little pricey and leads to everything being opened and a bit of each being drank. As a rule of thumb, I usually go with at least 3 drinks per person throughout the evening. A 750 millilitre bottle has about 4 fair sized glasses of wine in it. Better to err on the side of too much than not have enough. Keep the receipt. You can return unopened bottles of wine.
What to Buy
You can do this a number of ways. Maybe you want to stick to one type of white and one type of red. Have a Riesling and a Cabernet Sauvignon from each of the wineries and compare the differences from each. Think about adding a bottle of two of sparkling wine. Better yet, whether people prefer white or red, host a Pinot Party and serve only Grigio or Noir!
Temperature
White wine should be served between 40-50F and red wine between 55-65F. Simple as that.
Food
Think small. If you’re serving hors d’oeuvres, the general estimate is 6 per person, per hour. Have hot and cold and make sure to include vegetarian options. Be sure to include a few “palate cleansers” like crackers, bread.
Do a little research. If you’ve purchased the wine at a local winery ask the staff what types of food pair well with the wines you’ve bought. They’ll always have great recommendations. You could also check out our Pinterest board for several great recipes that have been paired with wine.
Glassware
While you can serve red and white out of the same type of glass, you’ll want to serve champagne and sparkling wine in a fluted glass. For larger parties, think about renting glassware if you don’t have enough of your own.
The Personal Touch
So you’ll want to keep the total glassware down to a minimum so you’re not using the two days following the party doing dishes. Wine charms? Lame. Customize each glass for the special someone to hang on to with wine markers. Is there a cat lover in the house? Broadcast that to the entire party with a special message or drawing on their glass. The great thing about wine markers is they shouldn’t smudge when holidng the glassware but easily wash off with some soap and water.
Fun tip: we recommend keeping the markers out all night. After a few drinks you could have some hilarious depictions drawn throughout the night.
