Sometimes there is really no reason to have a party, except for “because.”  Since everyone got together for a graduation party brunch, the entire afternoon and evening had a gaping hole in the calendar.  Not to mention that the entire family was together, and there was a reason to continue with the revelry.  I mean if you think about it, it really would have been a shame to let the festivities of the day drizzle away so early.  So almost in the vein of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland saying “let’s have a play” we ended up saying “let’s have a party.

One of my Bride’s sister took off with the idea, she had just had her whole house painted and she was having a party.  She also has an in-ground pool and a big hot tub, not to mention that she still had tables and chairs in the garage from an earlier graduation party.  I am always amazed at the amount of noshes appear even before the grills are fired up.  Cheese, fruits, nuts, vegetables and assorted humous dishes appear early on, and even though we were all sated from the brunch, I guess there is always room for munchies, especially when there in Euchre and other card games being played.  I am always entranced watching how people just end up filling in for someone else at the card table and the rounds never slow down, even with the musical chairs.

We had brought some wines to accompany the different phases of this ad-hoc party and so did some of the others.  We brought a bottle of the Black Star Farms Arcturos Dry Riesling 2017 to get a response to the sweet wine drinkers and this wine was still too dry, but we tried.  In their Twentieth year of production Black Star Farms on Old Mission Peninsula in Michigan, they were honored to receive the 19’th Annual Canberra International Riesling Challenge (CIRC) -Best Wine of the 2018 Challenge and only the second time an American wine came out on top.  There were 567 Rieslings from six countries (Australian, New Zealand, USA, Germany, France and the Czech Republic).  The Black Star Farms Arcturos Dry Riesling 2017 scored 98 points, in addition to taking home Best Dry Riesling and Best American Riesling.  I don’t think we bought enough of this really pretty wine.  We then went to a bit crisper white wine and opened up some Chateau Ste. Michelle Sauvignon Blanc Columbia Valley 2016.  Chateau Ste. Michelle is the oldest and one of the most highly regarded wineries in Washington State.  They are best known for their Riesling.  It was originally founded as the American Wine Growers in 1954 with the merging of two companies that were formed after the repeal of the Prohibition Act in the 1930’s; the National Wine Company and the Pomerelle Wine Company.  In 1967 they introduced vinifera wines after working with Andre Tchelistcheff and they were released under the label of Ste. Michelle Vintners.  The Sauvignon Blanc was just an easy to drink wine that was produced using Stainless Steel to make the wine fruit forward and crisp.