Wine and art museums are two things I love and this "post-Christmas" weekend, I experienced them both in ways I never have B4.
I.C.E. Wine
With all the wines I've tried from the many different regions of the world, I still freeze up at the liquor store when I need to pick out a bottle on my own. Knowing my handicap, my husband contacted the Institute of Culinary Education (I.C.E.) here in NYC and found us a wine tasting class to take. Sure, we've gone to wine-tastings before but all of them were led by salesmen looking to push bottles out the liquor store or winery door. Those tastings were interesting and fun but I walked out with nothing more than a slight buzz and a new bottle to bring home. The class at I.C.E. was the first time I ever analyzed the color, aroma and taste of wines. Our class specifically focused on wines from Tuscany, Italy and we tasted 9 red wines of varying ages, price points and vineyards.
I learned how a young wine has a purple hue when tilted in the glass and an older wine has more of an orange hue. I learned that a young wine has a very thin (tight) waterline and that with an older wine the waterline breaks up and blurs. I also experienced the smell of a "corked" wine as one of the bottles had begun to turn. Even though that part wasn't planned, it was a good experience because I often doubt myself if a wine doesn't taste quite right. Next time I'll return it.
Lastly, I was reminded where on my tongue certain tastes come to life: sour and acidic tastes on the sides. sweet and salty on the front and bitter on the back. I never knew that the middle of the tongue doesn't have many taste buds. Seems like a waste, doesn't it? I also never knew that flavor is a combination of taste and smell and that's why when wine lovers taste a wine for the first time they not only swirl it around their mouth, they also suck in a bit of air. The air brings the aroma of the wine and when combined with the taste in the mouth, it produces the flavor.
I confess, I didn't quite get a hang of the simultaneous swirl and sucking action so I can't say I noticed a difference between taste and flavor. As for spitting (which you're supposed to do after every taste), I have a second confession to make: I stopped spitting after wine #4. They were just too good to spit into a cup.
If anyone is interested in taking a wine tasting class, I recommend I.C.E. Our class size was small, less than 20 people. The instructor was knowledgeable yet fun, and the class included an overview of the region as well as the tasting. Overall, it's a great night out and it makes for a unique gift. You can find their schedule of upcoming cooking and wine classes here if you're interested.
Hide and Seek at the Met
After a night of wine tasting (good thing I spit out 4 of the 8 wines) we held our first-ever family scavenger hunt at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. My husband, my brother, my 2 brothers-in-law and I embedded ourselves in the museum and my 6 nieces and nephews, with the help of their moms, had to find us. When they found one of us, they had to perform a dare to earn a stamp on their Adventure Passport and receive a clue to find the next embedded relative.
We were embedded at Cleopatra's Needle, the Temple of Dendur, next to the four horsemen in Arms and Armor, under the Kwoma Ceiling in Arts of Africa, Oceana and the Americas and last but not least, next to the Christmas tree in Medieval Art. Each of us wore an elf hat and each of us got some strange looks and funny questions from other museum-goers while we waited to be found. Thanks to the kids' navigation skills we were all found before being kicked out for loitering. As for the dares....
- walking like an Egyptian around the Needle;
- completing a trivia crossword puzzle about the Temple of Dendur;
- finding 2 specific artifacts in Arms and Armor;
- finding 2 more artifacts in Oceania and doing an energetic Polynesian dance;
- counting the number of angel ornaments on the Christmas tree
...they were all completed successfully and in good humor and we ventured home tired, but triumphant.
There are professional scavenger hunts and races you can do in various cities around the country but I recommend designing one for yourself in one of your favorite public places. It's fun and it will make you appreciate that place even more.
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