Steve is thrilled to host you for a fun wine tasting. Here’s everything you need to know!

🚚Wine Deliveries

All wine was shipped by FedEx and will arrive by the 1st of the year. If you have not received your wine or are having difficulty with delivery, please email us or text or call 802.440.0437 and we will happily help.

Someone 21+ (with the i.d. required in your state) must be home to sign for the wine. If you are picking it up locally this is also required.

If no one answers the door, FedEx will leave a door tag. Please use this door tag to communicate a better time for delivery. You can also opt to pick up the wine locally on your own schedule. Walgreen’s and FedEx stores are the most common pickup locations.

🍇🦶🏼 The Wines

We’ve sent you two full-sized bottles of Burgundian wine to learn about pairing with. Not sure what Burgundian wine is? No worries - you will!

🥂 Chablis

Transport yourself to the cool, limestone-rich hills of northern Burgundy with a beautiful, chilled Chablis, a style of Chardonnay you’ll find on every menu. Crisp green apple and citrus take center stage, but there are other interesting flavors lurking beneath that you’ll soon notice. This wine is an exceptional example of why wines from cooler parts of the world are perfect for pairing with food.

🍷 Pinot Noir

We’ll stay in the rolling vineyards of Burgundy with this elegant Pinot Noir. Bright red cherry and raspberry take center stage, layered with subtle notes of forest floor and dried herbs, all wrapped in silky tannins and fresh acidity that make this one of the most popular food wines in the world.

Wine Storage

You can store your wine on its side or standing up. We recommend standing it up in the fridge starting the day before your tasting.

Take both out when the tasting starts.

The Tasting

You’re in for a great time. With two bottles and some bites in hand we’ll explore two classic food wines from France’s Burgundy region. Don’t worry: no snobbery here. You’ll learn a little about the wines but the real magic is understanding how to alchemize them with food to make gastronomical gold. Learn how to select the right wine from a wine list (including why you NEED your phone), so that you can enjoy your meal fully.

This is not a nose-in-the-glass, these-grapes-were-picked-on-a-Tuesday tasting… go ahead and pour yourself a glass to enjoy during trivia!

🧀🍓 The best way to explore your wine is with a nosh. Check out what pairs well with the wines we’ve shipped for this tasting! Consider this a forever reference - you do not need to cook anything for this tasting.

That said… having a few things on hand will help you really understand how wine and food work together. We recommend choosing a few of the following:

• cheese - plain goat is great but anything you have in the fridge is fine! (Avoid anything smoked/spiced/sweetened)

• potato chips or buttered popcorn

• a sautéed mushroom (you can even put a mushroom in the microwave)

• cherry/grape tomatos

• charcuterie (slice of prosciutto or a cured meat, roasted chicken also works)

• chocolate chips or a square of chocolate (not milk chocolate)

• one of these from your spice rack: Thyme, Parsley, Chives, Tarragon, Marjoram, Rosemary

• dried fruit

🎥 Your presenter gets a little self-conscious when they’re talking to empty squares, please turn on your camera for the tasting! Believe us, it’s waaaaaaaay more fun when everyone jumps on camera and interacts! Speaking of which…

We are highly interactive and love to answer questions and make the tasting perfect for our guests. We’ll use the chat and Zoom’s reactions and hand-raising functionality to make sure we get to everything. If you’ve got something to say, let us know – we want to hear it! Your group is fairly small, so come with your questions and take advantage of having access to a certified expert.

✅ Please make sure your Zoom display name matches the name you registered with. This helps us during trivia and throughout the chat when we’re chatting with you! We don’t want to call you “Grandma’s iPad!”

The tasting is about an hour, but… Please feel free to join the waiting room 15 minutes prior to your tasting for some fun trivia and the chance to win a prize from couch + cork.

Any questions? Call, email, text… we’re around. ALSO: we never keep, save, share or sell your phone number or email address.

Resources

If you’re a note-taker, you’ll be happy to know we use AI Companion to take our notes - just let us know in the chat or during the tasting if you’d like the notes sent to you (it will not put you on a marketing list).

We’ve put together a handy sheet on how the climate where grapes are grown affects the wine.

Here’s our guide to tasting white (and orange) wines.

And our guide to tasting red (and rosé) wines.