The other evening, my partner and I joined some friends at a dinner party in the City.  (For those of you who don’t live in the San Francisco Bay Area, “The City” always refers to San Francisco in local parlance.)  Our hosts requested that we bring the wine.  Now that I’ve written a book about wine, that seems to be my defacto role.  All I knew was that they liked white wines, were serving soup and there would be 6 of us.

An artist’s rendition of a proper dinner party.

Taking a huge stab in the dark, we brought a bottle of the Andis Rose, a bottle of Sera Fina Malvasia Bianca and a bottle of Gold Hill Champagne.  My original thought was that we could start with the Champagne, then have the rose with dinner and finish with the Malvasia Bianca with dessert.

When we arrived however, I learned that we were starting with a cheese plate, then a salad featuring apple slices, a hearty vegetarian ribollita, and finishing with ice cream.  In quick consultation with our hosts I decided to switched it up.  We started with the Rose, paired with a brie and an herbed chevre on crackers.  The Malvasia Bianca was paired with the salad.  And the Champagne was paired with the ice cream.  I think that the Rose would have paired nicely with the soup, but it was a really nice start to the evening.

The meal was wonderful, the company sterling.  The wines were paired nicely and fell right into their role: accompaniment to food and friends.