Wine and Art

Thursday night S and I headed to another evening of culture at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. A few weeks ago we bought tickets to an evening of wine tasting and art learning..because let's be honest, who does culture without drinks? Not us. 

In case you missed it, S and I are currently on a mission to explore more of Houston's culture scene with museums, events and whatnot. 

Our evening plans also came on the heels of an insane day at work. I was entertaining kids all day so their mom could participate in a media opportunity for Mother's Day airing in May. It involved an afternoon of pampering at the salon for her…and an afternoon of child care for me. It was totally worth it but totally exhausting.

This is how you entertain toddlers in a conference room.

Let's just say by the time work ended, I was in desperate need of happy hour so it was perfection that S and I had planned a wine tasting. When we showed up at MFAH, I was quite impressed. The entire room had tables set just like this ready for us to drink and be taught all about wine and art.

The light cheese and crackers that served as our dinner until a post-wine tasting dinner.

Each table had this nifty place setting with six glasses to help you keep track
of what you were drinking. 

We were also given a handout to take notes on the wines and in our case also write notes to each other about annoying people in the class...You know because every class has ONE.

The Art Part

The class started with an overview of The Age of Impressionism exhibition going on now…the only thing I remember is that impressionists paint how they see something as opposed to how it looks. Now that I am rewriting that I don't think it makes sense….that's the result of getting distracted by all the wine glasses staring me in the face, all I wanted to do was see them filled up.

So what did we drink? What did we learn? 

Please note this is all interpreted in my terms but if you file these away, they could keep you occupied mentally the next time you are drinking wine with boring people. I don't really know what that is like but I imagine it sometimes happens.  

You want wine to speak to you. How do you get your glass of wine to speak to you?

• The color of the wine tells you its age. 
• The smell gives you a preview of what you are going to taste. 
• Swirl it on the table and then stick your nose inside to try and figure out what you smell.
• "Start wide with all your options and then narrow it down" 
• It should be noted S and I were really bad at this all night.  We constantly guessed wrong or didn't know what to guess. 
• The acidity level determines how tart or dull the wine tastes. 
• The more saliva in your mouth, the higher the acidity 
• The less saliva in your mouth, the lower acidity 
• How well you can see through the wine will tell you how light it will be. 
• Hold up the glass to a white piece of paper and see how well you can read the words through
• Not going to lie, S and I were pretty good at this tip.   

What did we drink?
I have to be honest. We drank a lot of wines that I am pretty sure I would never be able to find at my local HEB or in the $10-$15 bottles of wine section we usually frequent. All were white wines except the last two. But here we go…

1. Chateau de la Ragotiere Muscadet (2012)

• My least favorite. 
• Pair with seafood and salad. 

2. Clos Roche Blanche Touraine Sauvignon Blanc (2011)

• I understood that this was a Sauvignon Blanc and my understanding stopped there. 
• Pair with lots of food, especially cheese. 

3. Ladoucette Comte Lafond Sancerre Blanc

• During this taste I learned that when you are drinking sweet wine, you are really drinking rotten grapes. 

4. Domaine Pichot Vouvray (2012) 

• This one was our favorite.
• It was made of 100% Chenin Blanc…whatever that means, we think it's important. 
• Pair with Asian food and apple tarts. 
• Considering I make apple tarts all the time, good to know.
• Also I have never had wine with Asian food…adding that to the list of things I need to try.

5. Paul Thomas Sancerre Rouge Chavignol (2010) 

• Had tastes of strawberry/cranberry  
• This was the 1st red wine of the night. We preferred this one over the next one.

6. Domaine de Pallus Les Pensees de Pallus (2011) 

• Tasted kind of spicy and earthy. 
• Not a fan. That's pretty much what you need to know.

At the end, S and I had saved a little of each wine and went back and re-tasted each of them. Before we did this, S gave me the wise advice that whichever ones we didn't really like we should just take like a shot. Totally worked. 

Afterwards we were in desperate need of food other than the few pieces of cheese and crackers we had been snacking on and headed to Niko Niko's. This was a big personal accomplishment because I was finally able to check it off the list of places I need to try in Houston…it was delish, just like everyone said it would be. 

My overall thoughts: Super fun evening but I doubt I will ever find wines like these again because in order to do that I would need to take a class in how to navigate the wine section of a store. 

Not going to lie, seeing this when you are trying to find a quick bottle of wine is
just a little overwhelming. 

Couldn't have said it better myself…
Cheers to many more wine tastings and culture evenings!