Tweetup in Cleveland
I always look forward to my #winechats on twitter and Laura is a fellow “winelover” that I’ve been chatting with through the years. She lives in Cleveland and its always nice to catch up when we have those monthly wine gatherings.
Most years we plan a trip out to Erie, PA to visit Neil’s family and Laura lives just a couple hours from there. During our last few family visits, I hoped we’d be able to have that tweetup but it took a few trips to make it happen.
Once we knew we’d be able to get together with Laura and Joe she got to planning. She had the night all mapped out beginning at Vino Veritas, an urban winery in the Brooklyn part of town. They picked us up at our hotel and we made our way over there. We were greeted by Vino, the official winery dog. Usually Laura and Joe bring their dog Magee, but not tonight so Vino was sad. He perked up throughout the night though and was super well behaved. My kind of dog!
We made our way into the tasting room where we found Anthony the owner. Laura and Joe have visited so many times that they already knew which wines we should have. And of course we needed to get a cheese tray too!
We began with the Doggone Rosé, a perfect beginning to our #pinksociety tweetup. Since I’ve done quite a few wine tastings in Erie, with Neil’s family, I’m pretty familiar with the local grapes. During my swirling of the rosé I could definitely identify some local varietals. When Anthony brought over the cheeseboard, I had to see if my wine sniffer was up to par. The rosé was a blend of Vidal and Concord, check and check, both from the area!
Now that the beautiful cheese tray was in front of us, we had to dig in. Well, we took photos first, then we grabbed some tasty cheese. We enjoyed some Tutti Bella, Garlic curds, Brie, and Cheddar with chives that evening. In addition to the cheeses, there were some local honey, assorted fresh fruits and bread. A meal fit for a king if you ask me.
We weren’t there to take notes and analyze each flavor like I might have subjected Neil to at home, so instead we just went around the table and all called out our favorites. Laura really liked the brie. I’d guess it had to do with that delicious honey that was drizzled over it. Joe liked the cheddar with chives. I chose the Tutti Bella but didn’t write down why I liked it. 🙃 There was honey on there too and it’s an aged cheese so I guess those worked in its favor. Neil said they were all good and I’d have to agree that there wasn’t a bad cheese in that collection.
Once we finished the rosé we moved onto the Sicilian Stallion, Laura and Joe’s favorite at Vino Veritas. It’s a red blend and it contains so many grapes that I might have missed a few when I was recording them all. You’ll find Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Merlot, Sangiovese, Alicante and Barbera in this wine.
We sipped the red, hung out and got to know each other. Because I’m the wine and cheese girl, I paired it with all the cheeses to see which ones went well. I decided that both the Garlic curds and Cheddar chive cheeses provided a good match. It’s likely because this Italian blend was meant to drink with food.
We were all having a great time, sipping wine, discussing life and touring the vineyard! We saw the big pigs and ducks, went over to the pond and played in the vines. We actually ended up having the entire place to ourselves.
After we finished another bottle of the Sicilian Stallion, we decided to head off to Opal, another of Laura’s favorite places. We got some dinner and bubbles there. You may have heard of this restaurant as Laura has posted many times from there on #pinkparty. I couldn’t wait to finally see it. So off we went for more sipping and chatting.
It was a terrific night out with new friends and I’m sure it's an event that will happen more often now. Thanks to Laura and Joe for taking us around and showing us a good time. See you again soon!
Check out some of the pics from the rest of the night here.
