High School graduates have permeated my psyche these days.  A couple more and I think the season will draw to an end for this year.  It has been an interesting time and a very happy time to see all of these relatives getting ready for the next stage of their lives.  While I have attended plenty of graduation parties from way back in my teens, I have to say that the parties are getting much more organized and structured, but I guess the party concept is the same.

We had another nephew graduate and the party was at the parent’s home.  They had a large tent set up in the valley of their backyard with plenty of tables for all of the revelers.  One nice addition, because of the extreme heat that we have had, was a couple of large commercial fans to keep a breeze going.   There were also some tables set up in the house, for those that may have found the heat unbearable.  The food was all catered in, and the theme once again was of Mexican food.  They had about sixteen linear feet of assorted items to make hard and soft tortillas and assorted side dishes as well.  The table of food culminated with a couple of cooks who were making “to order” quesadillas and individual bags of tortilla chips for the dips.  I would be remiss not to mention the big cake and all the other pastries and sweets for after dinner indulgences.

There were plenty of beverages available for the teens and the adults.   There were a couple of large vessels with signage that read “Adult Sangria.”  There was a keg of beer which reminded me of my youth.  There was also an assortment of wines, both red and white and a rosé.  I started with Chateau Miraval Cotes de Provence 2017 the wine that has become popular, because of its owner Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.  The winery originally made Vin de Pays until it was modernized and the celebrity owners have partnered with the Perrin family to produce the wines.  The Cotes de Provence originally carried a VDQS designation until 1977 when it became an AOC designation; eighty percent of the Cote de Provence is Rosé.  This particular wine is a blend of Cinsaut, Grenache, Syrah and Rolle with ninety percent of the juice aged in Stainless Steel and the balance in barrels.  Of all of the wines that I had at the party, the last wine was a pleasant surprise.  I am sure that they must have found this bottle and I am not sure how it was stored, as they are not really wine drinkers, but what ever they did, it worked.  Towards the end of the party they opened a bottle of Louis Jadot Macon-Village Chardonnay 1996.  Louis Jadot began with his first vineyard Clos de Ursules in the 1820’s and became a negocient in 1859 based in Beaune, one of the centers of the Burgundy region of France.  The Louis Jadot firm has a portfolio of wines from the basic regional wines to some of the most lauded vineyards in the region.  This particular wine falls somewhere in the middle, but I was just amazed that the wine was absolutely fine, I mean I was ready to casually pour it down a sink, but it wasn’t necessary at all, it was delightful without any foxing or darkening of the wine.  A great way to end the party for us, before the long set of goodbyes when ever we leave a family function.