What a wonderful Christmas!  Great family, food, fun and fabulous wine!  Our traditional prime rib this year weighed in at a whopping 18 pounds!  Most of the grandkids are teenagers now and can they eat! 

On past holidays, I gave small sips of wine to my kids.  Now that they are grown, I get to set the table with a wine glass at every place setting, although most of my family falls into the "novice" class when it comes to wine.

First challenge: I had to find something red and on the sweet side for some of my guests (not all of them like wine).  Recently, we got a new Italian wine: Costarosa Sangue Di Giuda (D.O.C.) . The varietals in it are Barbera, Croatina Uva rara, Vespolina and Pinot Nero.  The taste is sweet , like a sweet grape juice and great for dessert, but also nice with a meal for those who don't normally drink red wine.  

Everyone loved it!  One bottle for eleven didn't go far, but everyone got a sip.

We also had a bottle of 2005 Collalto Cabernet Sauvignon which was the favorite of mine with the prime rib.  Rich and smooth with appropriate tannins for the meat.  A second bottle of wine was opened; again, Italian.  La Gerla Rosso Montalcino, 2007.  Another winning selection for dinner.  This wine was medium bodied and had intense fruit.  My novice wine drinkers favored this one out of the two dry wines.  Eventually, they'll come to love and enjoy dry, red wine as much as I. I'm sure of it, but until then, it's good to have choices!

Marie, Northwest Florida Wine Supervisor