As part of First Friday festivities there will be a Nibble & Sip Event at River Bend Winery.

Bon Vivant Savant, Louisville's premier face-to-face events and networking company and River Bend Winery (120 South 10 between Main and Market) celebrate the Trolley Hop with a Nibble & Sip of KY from 6:00p-8:00p.
This KY Happy Hour will feature 2-3 complimentary KY Nibbles including KY Proud Cheese and Vegetable Trays and RBW Fried Chicken Tenders provided by River Bend Winery and KY Proud, some Hummus Platters prepared by Jennica's and KY Bison Bites by event savant, Jo Self. Guests will receive two complimentary glasses of wine of choice as well as 20% off all bottles of wine to drink-in or take-home! River Bend Winery masters only 100% Kentucky-grown grapes, which makes for winning wines!
To get the crowd grooving while enjoying good food, good wine and good people-Australian artist who has made Louisville his home, Pauly Zarb, will provide entertainment. Pauly plays a little bit of everything.

Ticket Price in Advance: $15 for Bon Vivant Savant members, $20 Non-Members
Ticket Price at the Door: $20 Members, $25 Non-Members

Just yesterday I told you about the great conversation I had with Scott Harper, wine director for the Bristol Bar & Grille. Well today let me share with you his very cool new video podcast called the Bristol Barrel Podcast. The first episode is on Ordering Wine at a Restaurant. He touches on several of the points we discussed as well as going into detail about what information a wine list is telling you, how much wine comes in a bottle and smacking people upside the head(!) (boy, do I love Scott Harper).



Well done Scott.

Remember when I said I knew very little about bourbon before diving in to Bourbon 101? Well I know even less about wine. Way, way less about wine. So I was a little intimidated when I sat down to speak with Scott Harper wine director for the Bristol Bar & Grille. I needed not be though because Scott was very patient with me and eager to share his knowledge.

The impetus for sitting down with Scott was to talk about the Bristol's year long wine special. To celebrate the local institution's 30th anniversary wine prices, both by the glass and by the bottle, are marked down to wine store prices at all of the Bristol locations through September 2008. If you're not familiar with the difference in wine markup at wine shops and liquor stores versus restaurants let me just say it's significant. For example last Friday evening my partner ordered a glass of Sonoma Cutrer Russian River Ranches Chardonnay at a downtown restaurant. At that restaurant the wine sold for $10 per glass. At The Bristol that wine is currently $6.75 per glass. A bottle at the other restaurant is listed at $40 per bottle, at The Bristol it's $21 per bottle. Those are not insignificant savings.

Scott shared with me lots of information about wines he considers particularly good deals, wines that he highly encourages people to try during this reduced price bonanza. I'll share those recommendations with you a bit later but truthfully my favorite part of the conversation was how genuinely interested in helping people enjoy wine Scott was. By this I mean he had absolutely none of the pretension you might expect from someone whose title is "Wine Director/Sommelier."

Corbett's is presenting a special dinner with Hahn Estates Vineyards winemaker Adam La Zarre on February 28. The five-course dinner will having featuring pairings from Wimbledon Wines with an emphasis on Hahn Estates.

"Wimbledon Wine Company specializes in importing estate winery brands from California and New Zealand including Hahn Estates.  Adam LaZarre, the winemaker at Hahn Estates, garnered much attention for the MontereyCoast vineyard with distinctive bottles of Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Meritage. His efforts have earned several distinctive national and international awards."

Complete menu after the jump.

Special Wimbledon Wine Dinner
February 28, 2008
$75 per person + tax and gratuity
Reservations required, call (502) 327-5058

Corbett's
5050 Norton Healthcare Boulevard (Old Brownsboro Crossing)
Louisville, KY

Primo is presenting a Tuscan Wine Dinner on Thursday February 21, 2008 at 7PM. The dinner is $55 per person, reservations are required so you should call soon if this is your kind of event. The dessert course alone sounds delicious enough to make a reservation: Castagnaccio: Chestnut & Flour Cake w/ Tuaca Glaze and Tuaca & Finlandia White Russian

Tuscan Wine Dinner
Thursday February 21, 2008
7PM
$55 per person
Call for reservations: 583-1808

Primo
445 East Market
Louisville, KY

Complete menu after the jump

We're coming up on the last Friday of the month, that means it's time for the Frankfort Avenue Trolley Hop. Proximity to Fat Tuesday (it's February 5) means this week's trolley hop must have a Mardi Gras theme.

The highlight of the theme is the Mardi Gras Ball at the Mellwood Art Center featuring food, drinks and lots of entertainment.

Other events include Tarot Card Reading at Crescent Hill Gallery, Mardi Gras Music at Margarets Consignment and Collectibles, Live jazz from the Jeff Sherman Band at Varanese and music and wine tasting at The Wine Rack.

The Tyler Park Neighborhood Association is throwing (holding/sponsoring/putting on?) a wine and cheese tasting at Mid City Mall on Sunday January 27, 2008. Wine, cheese and hors d'oeuvres will be provided by local merchants. Tickets are $15 with proceeds being used for Tyler Park restoration.

This sounds like a fun event to benefit the Tyler Park neighborhood. The only catch is that there are only 200 tickets available and you can only purchase said tickets on either Saturday January 12 or Saturday January 17, 2008 between 11AM-1PM at Mid City Mall.

Blog Tartare is indeed the place for wine tasting information. First they let us know about the one at Gemelli, now they tell us that The Wine Market on Bardstown Road "holds wine and cheese tastings the second Wednesday of every month." The next event is tomorrow January 9, 2008 and the theme is "Fireplace Wines."

Wine and cheese tasting
Wednesday January 9, 2008 4:30-6:30 pm.

The Wine Market
1200 Bardstown Road
502 451-7446

Blog Tartare tells us that Gemelli Wine and Spirits on Brownsboro Road offers monthly wine tastings.

The next tasting, which focuses on Zinfandel, is Thursday, Jan 24, 6:30-7:30. The class is limited to 16 people and costs $15 per person. Reserve your spot by calling 895-1400.

Gemelli Wine & Spirits
3626 Brownsboro Road
(502) 895-1400

November's First Friday Gallery Hop looks to be a really good one. Highlights include:

The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft is wrapping up its celebration of Day of the Dead with food, music, art, a sugar skull contest, fire dancers and face painting. Visitors to this event are encouraged to bring photos and trinkets to place on an open altar in honor of loved ones.

The KMAC Gallery Shop will be featuring a selection of works by Geoff Carr from his Day of Dead Series, and the complete show of those works will be on display at Carr + Waite Studios (221 S. Hancock St.) during the Trolley hop 

The Kentucky Center will have live music by Leah Ann Yost and complimentary hors d’ oeuvres provided by Jarfi’s Bistro. New Works in Encaustic by Joel Javier will continue to be on display through November 15. "Joel Javier earned a BFA in studio art from Murray State University in 1999 and has been working as the Wallace Grant Education Outreach Coordinator at the Speed Art Museum since 2005. From 2003 to 2004, he was the Speed's Art Learning Center Coordinator. Javier has served as artist intern and resident at Bernheim Arboretum and Research."

The Frazier International History Museum has Norman Rockwell's "Home for the Holidays" from 5PM-9PM. The exhibit spans Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post covers from 1916 to 1959.
A cash bar and light hors d'ouveres will be available.  All galleries and the Frazier Museum Store will be open and admission is free.

Glassworks will have glassblower John Oleson demonstrating the creation of his wine goblets as well as wine tasting with selections from around the World with Guest Wine Industry Professional-Chris Webb, bluegrass music by Tom Cunningham and Lance Brown and 20% off all wine related glass art.

Name: Uncorked at the Zoo presented by Louisville Uncorked
Date: Thursday September 20
Time: 7:30pm
Location: The Louisville Zoo
1100 Trevilian Way, Louisville, Ky

Benefits: Friends of the Zoo
Wine Tasting: California Whites

At each Uncorked event, a different variety is selected for tasting (for example: Merlot). Participants get together in up to teams of three and select a wine they'd like to present. Three bottles of the same wine are brought. The wines are bagged, tagged, and offered to the participants for tasting and scoring. At the end of the night the scores are tallied and the team's wine with the highest score wins.

Each tasting is dedicated to a different charity that is an integral part of the event: helping organize the festivities and providing educational material letting people know about their cause. Each participant is asked to give a minimum suggested donation of $15.