Quite the opposite.
Since I am charged with choosing the wines, Psychology and Logistics are the furthest thing from my mind.
The hostess can deal with that.
The gang wanted all reds, available at LWS,and wanted me to buy all the wines and then pay me. The wines averaged a little over $37 per bottle. I made tasting notes for all of the wines and served them all blind. Most of the guests were inexperienced who, while unable to correctly identify each wine, did come up with some great descriptors.
My wife identified all of the wines correctly.
At the end, I opened a '69 Spanna from Nervi to show aged Nebbiolo.
2014 Barbera d’Alba DOC “Tre Vigne”, Vietti
2014 Etna Rosso DOC, Graci
2011 Brunello di Montalcino DOCG, Scopone
2010 Taurasi DOCG “Fatica Contadina”, Terredora Di Paolo
2012 Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG, Sartori di Verona
2008 Gattinara DOCG, Nervi
They all enjoyed and most plan to go shopping today.
Next time they want me to do French reds (I can certainly handle that!)
You ended up with a nice cross-section of Italian grapes there, Scott. I know nothing about wine distribution in your neck of the woods, but are brands like Felsina or Produttori not available? Both of them would have fit in nicely with an introductory tasting like this.
It sounds as though it went really well. I’ve long thought that women generally have better palates then men. Is it okay to say that or will I be offending someone?
Lots of good red suggestions already. Since the only Italian white non-wine people tend to know is pinot grigio, I like the idea of introducing them to something like soave, gavi di gavi, arneis, verdicchio, or orvietto