A Wine Club Thanksgiving!

Our Fortified Wines

Last night was Wine Club night again, and it was my mom's turn to host. She put out a beautiful Thanksgiving spread, complete with fancy (and I mean FANCY!) hors d'oeuveres. See the photos below for the details. My favorites were the deviled quail eggs with caviar! So tiny, but so delish! Our class covered fortified wines, i.e. wines that have had spirits added to them halting the fermentation process and increasing the alcohol content. Fortified wines include, ports, sherrys, and Australian Muscat. Most of them tasted somewhat how you'd expect, but the "fino" sherry caught us all by surprise. It smelled wonderful but it tasted briny and sort of salty and...quite frankly gross. It was a little like sparkling water, with the same mineral quality mixed with pure alcohol. Anyway, you won't fine me ordering that off the menu ever. I'll stick with the sweet cream sherrys. We learned that wines began being fortified after the English boycotted French wines in the late...1700's (I think, I can't remember). England started getting their wines from Spain and Portugal, but half the time it was no good by the time it reached England. So they started adding grape spirits to the wine to stop the fermentation (which if it continues too long produces vinegar) and voila! they had a wine that could withstand the journey, and practically NEVER  went bad. Ports come from Portugal, sherry from Spain, and of course Muscat from Australia. 

After class we (the guests) made fun Thanksgiving bouquets to take home while mom finished cooking. We had a wonderful and hearty (thank goodness, because I'd just sampled 6 fortified wines!) Thanksgiving dinner! We had cranberry stuffed turkey, brussel sprouts with apricots (OK, ok, I admit I am not the biggest fan of ye'ol brussel sprouts because I find them to taste very bitter. But the way she made them, the outside leaves were SUPER delicious, especially with a bite of apple and almonds!) And there were sweet potatoes as well. So tasty. I even had seconds!

The night was topped off with pumpkin mousse and homemade gingersnaps dipped in white chocolate! It was such a great "party"!

I'll tell you, I don't even miss the parties I used to have in college. Kegs full of cheap beer and 7 different kinds of potato chips. No sir! This is how I roll now. Beautiful, thoughtful food, a little education about what I'm drinking, and plenty of time to sip and enjoy with friends. What a night! And what a perfect meal to get in the holiday spirit! Thanks mom!