Fighting Cancer With Wine & Food

Every year we host a number of wine tastings at our home as a way to share our homemade wines with friends and explore new and interesting food and wine pairings. Our most serious and purposeful tasting is not held at our house however, rather at the home of long-time family friends, Tom & Marilyn where they live in Connecticut. This tasting is where we fight cancer with wine and food. Our third annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer wine tasting was held on September 25th and yet again was a fun time and a successful way to raise funds for the American Cancer Society.

The turnout was lower than we all had hoped, but we all agreed that the unusually warm September day may have had some people out enjoying the last of summer. If it was raining we would have been overrun and might have run out of wine! No harm, no foul.

My brother Tim joined us again this year with several wine and beer selections. Our Grapecrushers (wine-making club) president Noel Powell had hoped to join us, but got backed up with projects at the last minute and had to drop out.

We brought the following Ancient Fire wines to share:

2008 Gewurztraminer/Riseling Blend
2009 Syrah/Mourvedre Blend
2009 Chateauneuf-du-Pape
2009 Plum/Riesling
2010 Petit Verdot
2010 Viognier
2010 Chablis
2010 White Blend (Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Viognier)
2010 Strawberry
2010 Blackberry Cabernet

Margot's goat cheese, smoked salmon and dill bites are pretty and tasty!!

For snacks we prepared goat cheese, smoked salmon & dill bites, three kinds of cheese and crackers, honey-cinnamon flan, bite-sized caprese salads and dark chocolate. My sister-in-law Abby also made her caramel apple dip which contains cream cheese, caramel sauce and granola served with sliced apples. Tom & Marilyn provided trays of fruit which all together made for a nice spread.

Drawing prizes!!

My parents organized the door prizes and drawings with contributions from themselves, Margot & I and Tim & Abby. We had bottles of homemade wine, Thomas Hooker Beer, signed copies of The Next Harvest about New England wineries, a breast cancer awareness basket and a Vermont country basket with a selection of Vermont food products. My mother alos parted with a Vera Bradley bag which made one of Tom & Marilyn’s neighbors one happy guest!

More prizes!!

We got off to a slow start but once a number of guests arrived Tim, Abby, Margot and I were busy talking about different types of wines, beers and suggesting guests try them with the different snacks available. The smoked salmon bites paired nicely with the white wines and the Plum/Riesling made a good match for the caramel apple dip. Margot’s Blackberry Cabernet was the most popular wine all day and found a nice opposite in the dark chocolate.

Tim explaining the Thomas Hooker mixed pack and tasting invitations.

At the end of the day we raised $478 with more donations expected before our event next month. I can’t think of a better way to share something we love so much with friends and give back to our communities. It truly takes the strength of families and communities to fight cancer. We are here, we are fighting and we will win. Fight Back!!!

I can't tell if Abby and Margot are manning the bar or drinking it all!!

If you would like to make a donation to support us in the fight against cancer you can donate online via http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/MakingStridesAgainstBreastCancer/MSABCFY11NewEngland?px=1344507&pg=personal&fr_id=28138

Thank you for your support.

Cheers!

--Jason