Appreciation.

A month or so or go, I received an e-mail inviting my wife and I to a Wine Club Appreciation night at Terra Blanca winery...an evening of wine tastings and 'light appetizers' to thank members of the wine club.  My wife and I agreed that it sounded like a great expense free weekday date-night.

Cue the laugh track...my wife and I going to a winery and walking out of their 'expense free'. 

Now, you will just have to take my word on this...but it was perhaps a perfect job of allowing products to sell themselves.  There was a perfect 'lack' of selling pressure.  I know for a fact that there were some folks there who were just tasting what was offered, and enjoying the crackers, chips, fruit and dips without buying ANYTHING.

No such luck for us, though.

Hey...I don't feel scammed or cheat...there is nothing there that my wife and I did not talk ourselves into buying.  One of the smart things they did was open up the 'back' wine library, so it was an opportunity to get some older wines(2002's) that had been stored in their cave's instead of in my kitchen.  That is three of the above bottles...a 2002 Syrah that my wife felt was to DIE for, and two bottles of their 2002 Malbec, which is the best wine I have ever tasted.  The final bottle, off to the left, is their newly released 2009 Batholith, a blend of Merlot, Cab Sauv, and Syrah, that was the smoothest, best tasting wine that they released tonight.

Plus, they had chocolate chip cookies! 

Well played, Terra Blanca...well played.