Over the course of my writings, I have written about my assorted junior high reunions and assorted planning meetings.  Recently an alumna that could not make the last reunion was in town and created a mini get-together of some old friends, this is what makes social media so gratifying.  The other participants all live in the general vicinity of where the alumna was staying, so I suggested a restaurant that would be convenient for the majority, and I make the extra effort to make it down to where we would meet.

There was a slight disconnect about some possible invitees, but in the end, it was a nice evening with some story telling, mainly from a raconteur, but a most enjoyable time was had.  Even cell phones were kept away from the table for the most part, until it was discovered by all of us technology challenged, that something could be achieved with our phones that was unknown to the majority of us.  All of this was discussed through several courses of food and the fact, that all of us had dined at different times at this very same restaurant.  Some even mentioned that the actual size of the restaurant had grown since the last time, they had been there, and that was news to me, as I only had short history of this location.   We all ordered different dishes of homemade Italian cuisine and we were surprised or did not remember how ample the servings were, consequently there was no room for dessert that evening, but the conversations more then made up for the missing last plate.

I took it upon my self to select a red wine that I thought would be easy for everyone to enjoy with their meals.  Since some were not really into wine, I did not want to select anything too dry or tannic for the meal.  I chose a bottle of Sartori Valpolicella Classico Superiore 2009, with the grapes from the Montegradella vineyards.  This was a D.O.C. wine from the Verona area and was a Valpolicella Classico in the designation.  The Superiore means that it has been aged for at least a year by the wine maker and it had to have an alcoholic proof of twelve percent.  The grape varietals for this wine are Corvina Veronese, Corvinone, Rondinella and Croatina.  The wine had a good color, a slight nose but a very balanced taste and was very smooth and it complimented everyone’s dinner for the evening.  That was the result that I was hoping for and it was accomplished without any fanfare or heavy wine making discussion, after all we were meeting out of friendship and not for a wine dinner.