Tuesday, June 13, 2006

La Dolce Vida

For about a year now, I’ve been longing for several pieces in a series of artwork, known as “Women & Wine,” by local artist Kathy Womack. In her series, she does a brilliant job of capturing women celebrating the joy and bond of friendship. When I heard that her Downtown gallery, located at 5th and Brazos, was pairing up with local group “Women Gone Wine” for an event, I knew I had to attend.
Inside every woman lies the secret desire to be a lady of leisure and live la dolce vida,” says Womack, and even though that desire may be a very, very secret one for some of us, it is nonetheless true. It was such a pleasure to have this event at her gallery, where we could wander around and look at all the marvelous pieces she has created, all while supporting a good cause.
Women Gone Wine is a fairly new fundraising organization offering casual, fun ways to learn about wine while also contributing to local non-profit organizations. They have monthly activities, and, from what I have seen so far, they are all bound to be great fun for great causes! (I also attended "Belly Dancing and Bubbles," where I learned how to mesmerize men prey with my belly dancing prowess! Oh, yeah!)

Of course, at the forefront of all the Women Gone Wine events is wine, and we had two selections the evening of the Kathy Womack Gallery event. We enjoyed Rancho Zabaco Dancing Bull Zinfandel 2004 and Louis M. Martini Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon 2003. We partook of the wine along with a selection of cheeses and strawberries and chocolate. Yummy!

9 comments:

El Jefe Maximo said...

Cabernet Sauvignon is good, although I'm usually more of a merlot person.

As for cheeses...try Gruyere (works okay with Zin, or Pinot Noir), or Parmigiano Reggiano, super with Shiraz or the Cabernet.

I like cheese TOO MUCH...have to smuggle it in and hide my cheese stores so wife doesn't find them. When I go on cheese buying expeditions, I'm accused of living not the Dolce Vida but the Vida Loca.

Candidly Caroline said...

See ... I know it's not the "thing to do" these days, but I actually prefer white wines to reds ... Gasp now. :)

And, with cheese, I eat very little because when you are single, buying cheese is just too much of a commitment. It's like buying a loaf of bread. When you buy it, you are saying you are going to eat that entire loaf of bread before it goes bad because otherwise, it would be wasteful. And that is just too hard for this single girl to do, most of the time at least.

Moral of the story: Very little cheese or bread comes in to my house so I get my fill when I go places like this.

El Jefe Maximo said...

Yeah, you got a point about the single person and quantities of cheese...unless you want to help the molds of the world, and they already get plenty of assistance in this climate.

As for whites, seems like everyone I know drinks them. I like them okay. There is a chardonnay called St. Clement (Calif.) that's really good, bought a bunch of 03 a while back. La Crema isn't bad, and neither is Chateau St. Jean.

I'm also partial to Pinot Grigios, usually Santa Margarita. There is a real inexpensive one called Fish Eye that's real good. You don't find many Pinot Grigos from the US that are too good, but that's an exception. They have a chard, but I'm not as partial to it, a shade too sweet.

Rats...now I wish it was the weekend and I could open the wine.

Anonymous said...

Nice paintings and you guys look great! (Like I said, you're GLOWING, CC!)

-Q of S

Candidly Caroline said...

Oh, Ellen!

Now, you're going to make people start wondering what the "glow" is all about! ;O

And, thanks for the suggestions, Jefe. I'm a brie person as far as cheese goes.

Anonymous said...

OMG, are you preggers?

Candidly Caroline said...

No, No, No, NO!
I definitely am not, not, NOT!!

My "glow" must be something else!

El Jefe Maximo said...

Hmmmmmm...and that's not zactly denying you're glowing, either...so you MUST be glowing...

Guess we'll have to wait for you to clue us in on what, or whom, the cause might be...

Candidly Caroline said...

Is it getting hot in here? ;)