A wine tasting

This weekend we have celebrated our first major event in the Gospel Hall: a wine tasting. 

We have been members of the 4 G's - the Greymouth Gourmets' and Guzzlers' Club - since we arrived in Mawhera Greymouth. The club, now in its 39th year, meets once a month to explore wines and enjoy kai (food) together. Given that we came through Athens and spent two months in the city last year from December, it felt appropriate to have Greek wines as our theme, with Greek food to accompany. 

The format of the afternoon and evening is to taste each wine as a large group and have a conversation about it before breaking up into smaller groups to re-taste each wine, this time poured out of a carafe so that no labels can give the game away as to the wine's identity. The group discussions that ensue as different points are argued about taste, look and smell are lively but never argumentative, even though the wines are swallowed and not discarded as in formal wine tastings! There is a winning group each time we meet and the prize is that everyone gets to finish the wines off with the food. Everyone went to a great deal of trouble to make the kai: lamb, moussaka, salads, cheeses, olives, dips and sauces galore. 

It is wonderful to have been able to inaugurate our home as a venue. Here are some photographs from the wine tasting, before the guests arrived. If any readers are in Greymouth Mawhera please get in touch and come and visit.