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Wine Tasting Open - Picnic Party at the Winery

January 2005

Diane in Ridhfield, Mn

My husband loves a particular wine and it comes from a vineyard near where we live in the Twin Cities.  I called the vineyard to find out when the Wine Tasting Open House for the previous years wine was to be held. Co-incidently, the dates worked out perfectly in June so we started planning.

Invitations had wine bottles and cheeses.  We got to the vineyard early and set up an 8'Xl0' green and white canopy we bought in a camping store. We had cardtables with linens out in a grassy area.  We were not alone with this idea.  Others had been doing it for years. 

We brought wicker baskets for garlic toasts that we had made. Different cheeses and spreads were set out with interesting gourmet crackers from the grocery store shelves.We made a watermelon basket filled with fresh fruit and relatives brought salads and desserts. 

I bought clear, plastic cake plates that we used as snack plates and clear plastic silverware. The napkins were from the party store also with wine bottles in an aged color.

The vineyard provided wine glasses when each guest paid their own $5.00 to try the 9 different wines.  Then they purchased a bottle for themselves and joined the party outside. 

Many people bought my husband a bottle of wine as a gift.  It was a great time out in the country surrounded by music that the vineyard had hired to play inside.  They also had cheese samples within the building to have with the wines so it was a beautiful day of friends, laughter and lots of wine and memories. 

Oh, I forgot to say that the bees took over the foods but stayed away from us, luckily.We did this two years in a row.  This year will be his 50th so I really need to plan something over the top which is how I found this website...lots of great ideas.  Thanks.

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