Crepes and Betanque

Because I have trouble saying no to free things, and especially free things like delicious wine, I signed up for a party with Stormhoek. They're a winery out of South Africa, but they have this whole underground, grassroots marketing plan wherein they supply wine to people having gatherings. It's very Internet based, so I imagine most people having these parties are bloggers and flickr people who can't shut up about their lives (hi!) and then talk about the wine on their mediums and then next time you fine readers are in a wine store, you might go: oh yeah! The Internet wine! No, but seriously, people who give out free wine are tops in my book, and the fact that it was yummy wine just made it that much better.

I initially planned the party for July 3rd, but those plans got scrapped when us Nathan's reporters realized how busy Hot Dog Eve was going to be. So the party got moved to July 2nd and we turned it into a garden party. Abby and I had been on this idea for awhile, each of us picturing everyone in breezy white outfits, playing croquet, and laughing daintily as we ate tiny foods and sipped chilled wine. But as it turned out, the day was like 123-degrees with 95% humidity: extra New York pleasant. But we were undeterred, and rallied ourselves to bake tiny scones and tiny biscuits for tiny egg and sausage sandwiches. In case you didn't read that last sentence carefully: we TURNED ON OUR OVENS FOR HOURS. That, my friends, is love for the garden party. Anyway, the how the wine was being shipped was a little unclear, and we knew only that it should definitely be there by the 3rd. Only it wasn't. Ever the resourceful host, I (after freaking out a bit the night before), went and bought some good ol' Carlo Rossi (Willow's jug wine of choice Sophomore year of college) and made up a big batch of sangria. I don't know if you've ever made sangria before, but you can't fuck it up. It's like, jug of wine, brandy soaked chopped fruit, orange juice. Ta da! Crisis averted.

Some bloggers we've never met showed up in spirit. Like Delicious Days's asparagus tart! And the sweet Norwegian cheese Robin loves! l

But while the sangria was cheap, it was not free. Thus, another day was scheduled for the wine party. Bastille Day! Jennie jokingly suggested making crepes, but oh ho ho, we called her bluff and soon a joke email turned into Jennie hosting everyone on her rooftop deck for a crepe smorgasbord. I went to pick up the wine, not knowing exactly what to expect. I'd told them we would have maybe 15 people at the party and they said: perfect. But how many bottles of wine does that mean to you? The lovely people at Stormhoek unfortunately mistook us for a crew of dainty sippers and sent over four bottles. I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth; I completely appreciate how much free wine that really is. I'm just saying perhaps we are a bunch of drunkenly wine-lovers.

Anyway, the wines were really great and since we were only eight that day, four bottles was a perfectly reasonable amount. (To start with. The spirit of the French revolution made us very thirsty.) We started with the whites, a pinot grigio and a sauvignon blanc, both of which were crisp and fruity. Mmm, what's better than a frosted glass of white wine on a rooftop in the summer as the sun sets behind the skyline? The reds were good, too, though I think I preferred the Shiraz (nice and sweet) to the pinotage, which was a bit spicy. The label on the pinotage said it goes well with hearty vegetarian dishes...LIKE RATATOUILLE! It didn't say that, we just had ratatouille, so it was like all the forces in the taste world converged at our little party.

I'm sure the storming of Bastille in 1789 was a pretty good Bastille Day, too, but there probably weren't chocolate banana crepes involved.