Wine tasting and singles

On the weekend, I worked an event at a wine bar called Bottlerock in Culver City, where a group of singles which formed on a site called meetup.com convened to do a wine tasting and a sort of relaxed singles meeting thing.

There were three flights of wine being poured, and I was the last flight. The first flight was being poured by a couple who owned a small distribution company that distributes primarily Santa Barbara boutique wines. The second flight was poured by a winery owner whose family makes wine up in the Gold rush country, which I think I recall is the Sierra foothills area, outside of Sacramento. My flight was just 2 white wines, meant to refresh the palate, the 2007 Hans Wirsching Estate Silvaner and the 2007 Monchhof Urzig Wurzgarten Riesling Kabinett. Both wines showed well and were well received by the mingling singles.

The thing that struck me about the event was how much singles mixed well with wine tasting. It is such a natural combination, it seems. You have wine in your glass that you can focus on and use a bit of intellect about, but not too much, and have enough left to focus on the conversation before you. The wine relaxes without knocking people out too much.... food is ordered to accompany the beverage, and all is well in the world of the single person.

It is not that I don't think married people or coupled people do well in wine tastings, it is just that I think singles and wine tasting can be a niche thing that can be quite successful for establishments that want to beef up their events. And for singles, I think going to a wine tasting to meet people is such a fun way to do that compared to something totally awful like speed dating or drinking coffee.

Anyway, I had a good time pouring wine for 3 hours, and even managed to sell some!