Nirvino Gran Crew Steps Out

July 18th, 2008 by linda

With many friends who have a love for great food and wine, we have casually discussed forming a wine/dinner club as a topic of conversation when getting together with friends who share similar interests.  At a recent gathering, several couples, along with my husband, Dan and myself, happily made the commitment to form a wine/dinner group.  What a sacrifice right?  Making time to enjoy good food and wine while certainly in excellent company.

So Wednesday night was the inaugural get together with our friends.  Since many of us are Nirvino devotees, we aptly named our group, Nirvano Gran Crew” (catchy huh?).  For our first “outing”, each couple brought an appetizer and a favorite bottle of wine.  I think one aspect of my love of wine stems (no pun intended) from great memories with friends enjoying wine either at home or while on vacation.  We chose a Merryvale Las Amigas Merlot ’03 to bring with us.  Merryvale wines, particularly Beckstoffer Vineyards are some of our favorites. 

As we all arrived last night, excitement was in the air!  Most importantly it was great seeing friends you don’t see on a daily or even (unfortunately) a weekly basis.  Our hosts for the evening, Andy and Cathy, set a great table for us.  We gathered and enjoyed some great food: various cheese, mango quesadillas, stuffed mushrooms and an awesome ahi tuna appetizer.   Our wines for last night ranged from Prosecco to a Shane Syrah ’06 (I must say this was my favorite wine of the night – full bodied with essence of black cherry) and everything in between.  The wonderful thing about the food and wine is that it in many ways it is a great connection to the couple who thoughtfully prepared and selected the food and wine we enjoyed.

The buzz at the table (again no pun…) was contagious.  It is great to sit back at a gathering like last night and listen to the conversation and laughter with good friends.  We did get down to business and set up our basic structure for our first round of dinners.  We set dates to get together once a month at a house (otherwise you know what happens…), the hosts will set the menu and any needed assistance from our group.  I think this is a great idea in that it will allow each couple’s style and expertise to shine through on their night!

Our evening ended with an eye toward August and our next installment of the Nirvano Gran Crew Supper Club.  I hope our beginnings spur you to call some friends and set up your own group.  See you next month for the August chapter of the Nirvino Gran Crew adventure in food and wine!

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