Yesterday afternoon we met up with some friends and attended the Sheraton Wine Tasting held at the Sheraton Hotel in Rokko Island. We’ve attended several times before, but because of the popularity there was a whole lot more people and quite a few more wines than usual. We walked into the ballroom, and the place was filled with people milling around tasting wines. About a quarter of the ballroom was dedicated to food, and the rest to local distributors showing their wines, which luckily came from all over the world.
This was the first time for our neighbors (Fukumi) to taste wine formally, so I gave them a few tips and sent them on their way. Everyone enjoyed the event, I think, and some of us went home with some bottles afterwards. The most unusual highlight was when some strange guy came by each table and ate the remaining foods off of the plates that were discarded, using his hands. Somewhat unexpected in the ballroom of the Sheraton hotel. They also had two ‘entertainment’ portions to the event. One was a duo playing live music, but the volume was so loud that nobody could talk to the people pouring and we couldn’t discuss the wines with each other. That lasted about 45 minutes, and after they finished their last song (We Are The World) we were able to get back to the business at hand.
Also they had a “wine tasting contest” which was apparently people guessing the vintage, variety, country and appellation of a mystery wine. They conducted the tasting on stage, but really there was nothing much to do for the audience. I felt bad for the emcee – whose idea was this? Had there been a bit more drama (maybe involving a live alligator or something) things might have been more entertaining.
Still, all in all we could taste a lot of wines for the first time, and I think everybody learned a lot about their taste in wines. Mission accomplished.
