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With the holidays just around the corner, in this episode we’ll talk about what wines to serve, an easy way to figure out how much you’ll need at your holiday party and learn about the most celebrated November Wine, Beaujolais.

 Hi. My name is Mark Adams and welcome to “The Really Fun Wine Show”.

The show that entertains and educates you about wine

A really funny thing happened recently.  I was at a wine festival when a woman who was about 70 came up to me and said I saw your video.  Now, I have a healthy ego and of course presumed she realized I was in all my videos and said tongue and cheek…That was a good looking man in that video wasn’t he?  She said in a deadpanned tone.  Nah, he didn’t do much for me……

I about fell on the ground laughing so hard.  I waited for her to crack a smile.  Throw me a bone, something.  But she never did.

Evidently, she was talking about one of my winery videos Ive done in the past and didn’t realize I was in the video. 

I choose to believe she was just messing with me. That’s the story I sticking with anyway.

So if you see me out somewhere, do me a favor and tell me you saw me in the video.  I don’t think my ego can take anymore 70 year old ladies yanking the proverbial chain.

Enough of that, lets get into this weeks show.

Parties, weddings, holiday events, Lions Tigers and bears, oh my!  If you’re serving wine at this year’s shin dig, how much do you need?

It’s actually pretty simple and here’s a rule of thumb.

Each bottle has about 25 ounces or about 5, 5 ounce glasses, or 6 four ounce or 25, 1 ounce….I’ll stop here, you get the point.

Recently, I happened to see the Christmas Vacation movie with Chevy Chase, you know the one where Clark Griswald tries to celebrate Christmas with his entire family.  (BTW, this was the vacation movie that didn’t have Christy Brinkley in it.  Part of the reason it was the worst of the series…) Now if you’re family is like Clark Griswald’s, that might mean planning on several bottles per person.

But in reality for the non Griswald civilized crowd that we are no doubt referring, I would suggest figuring on 2, 5 ounce glasses for every person over 21. Some will drink more, some less.

I would also keep a few bottles in reserve, you can drink it at another time or use creative packaging and give any remaining bottles to your guests as party favors.

Thanks, Clark.  See you at Wally World!

Now lets go to our question of the week

 Crystal Myers writes in

 Dear Mark:

I’m having a holiday party and would like to know what wines would be best to serve? 

I see people obsess over this choice quite often.  Let me put your mind at ease.  They’re going to like whatever you put out.

It’s FREE!

Crystal, I’m presuming your family is NOT like Clark Griswalds…so here’s what I suggest.

Since wine tastes are very different, I would keep the selections of wine simple. Have something familiar like Chardonnay and Merlot and then something less familiar for the more daring in the group.   The more daring may prefer something some heavier and spicier like Shiraz and Zinfandel.   I would also assume there will always be guests who are new to wine or don’t care for the more traditional wines.  Their tastes are usually sweeter and lighter.  A light wine like white zinfandel or a flavored wine like strawberry, green apple or raspberry will do the trick.  This way there is something for everyone to drink.

If that doesn’t work……. offer them a Budweiser.

Crystal, I hope that helps.  I do go to a lot of parties and if you would like an interesting guest…

 What wines would you suggest Crystal serve.  Help her out and add your comments to the comments section.

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 For reading her question on air, Crystal Myers receives a $25 gift certificate to use toward custom labels wine at AmberCrestWinery.com    If you would like to submit a question to be read on air, click the ask mark pages and type away. 

 Now lets go to our wine of the week.

 Today happens to be the 3^rd Thursday of November.  So it’s no coincidence that today’s wine of the week is Beaujolais.

 Beaujolais’ claim to fame is that every year on the 3^rd Thursday of November, over 65 million bottles of this wine are consumed worldwide.

 This is because the wineries of the French region Beaujolais lead mainly by famous winemaker George LaBeauf decided to do a little marketing by seeing who could be first to get that years wine to cafes and restaurants of France each year.  They turned their efforts into a race and ultimately a marketing campaign for their wine.  But over time instead of racing they agreed that the 3^rd Thursday in November would be the big day.  Over time the tradition spread to the rest of the wine drinking world.  So on this day, over half of the years Beaujolais wine is consumed.

 Beaujolais is based on the gamay grape and is grown just south of burgundy in France.  Because of its production process, it is very low in tannins and has a very fruity taste that is very good.  It’s these characteristics that make this an easy drinking wine and a great first red to try.  Remember younger wines tend to have more fruit taste.  As wine ages, the tannins break down and the fruit flavors change into a drier, more complex taste.  So if you like fruiter wines, Beaujolais is the ticket!

 So here’s the wine skinny on Beaujolias:

 *Always released the 3 Thursday in November

*Easy to drink red

*Fruity taste

*Great red wine with holiday meals.

 Try something new, give Beaujolais a try, you’ll be glad you did.

 OK wine fans that concludes our show for this week. Thanks for watching. Please remember to sign up for show updates and leave your comment in the comment section.   Our next episode we’ll talk about stuff you really need to know about corkscrews, learn how to make custom wine labels and we’ll learn about a well known Spanish Wine, Rioja.  To see our past episodes go to Really Fun Wine Show.com  and click the past episodes button.  So see ya next time. Same bat time, same bat channel.

Cheers!

Mark Adams