downing the water as the rain comes down

Rehydrating myself from the weekend of wine tasting.

I have to thank Chatty's Hubby for leading our intrepid crew through the sprint known as ZAP which filled the two large Fort Mason arenas. After having traveled the Amador Valley during their wine festivals, we decided to equip ourselves with Wine Glass Necklace holder. It doesn't seem so secure at first, but considering it's minimalist design it's quite effective.

The ZAP festival must have followed Vinography's tips on a good public tasting event because it looked just like that. It didn't get as fancy as plastic card readers, but I'd say covered most of the list.

Good thing I've been working out the past couple of weeks because it is quite a challenge to race through ZAP. After receiving your wine glass they hand you a 30" french bread baguette, that I ended up stuffing with the various cheese tables throughout the event. Yummy!

Of the four of us, Tom had the plan to maneuver through ZAP, so we followed him, dashing darting and tracking him through the sea of Zin drinkers. Thing about wine tasting events, although there's alot of bumping into people through the crowds, most people are quite amiable, "oh no excuse me, excuse me" as they finish off their sips.

If I had to go through ZAP by myself, it would be rather overwhelming. How do you choose? Where do you begin?

A good general rule for the completely lost is that if there is a huge crowd waiting to get a taste, particularly if it's at a smaller table, and especially if it's not just because the winery is giving out some plastic lei. In one sense, Tom is right that it's difficult to give into trying every table or trying a wine because the people serving seem sad that no one wants to drink their wine. Because the really sad part is that the wine really is so bad that no one wants to drink their wine. To drink yourself through the room will burn out your tongue and your brain by the time you hit the back wall. But hey, if those wineries take my hubby's advise and get cute people (men and women) then at some point most people will try out anyone's wine.

But it's like reading poetry, you can't always read the stuff you only like, you have to go out there and try reading something new and you especially have to read the stuff you don't like and still don't like after you read it, simply to better understand why you like the things you like and why you hate the things you hate. OK, I'm not sure if that last sentence made any sense, so maybe I should drink more water.

You can check out the list of the 17 or so wines we tasted here.