Virtual Vino LIVE! Kicks Off

Detlef with ZiZi, Cathi, Roger, Brian

This week, we finally got enough of the moving pieces together to produce our first three Virtual Vino LIVE! wine tasting shows.  Blaine Millet and I have been working on this on and off for many months.  Our celebrity tasters were Detlef Schrempf, former Seattle Supersonic, and Roger Reynolds, Co-Founder of Coldstream.

Providing the "glue" for the interview format was radio host, Brian Calvert, who did a great job of keeping us on task as we tasted three different wine flights for the three different shows.  First we blind tasted three Merlots, second we tasted four Cabernet Sauvignons and last we tasted four Roses.

Brian Calvert overseeing the blind tasting.

Our responses to the wine were intended to be "uncorked and unscripted" which seemed to be easy since none of the wines were bad wines and all were very drinkable.  Part of the program called upon us to guess the retail price of the wines we were tasting without seeing what they were.  We each had our turn guessing the retail price and holding up our guess for the "audience" to see.  Detlef, who is very funny and kept me laughing throughout, was right 90% of the time and couldn't resist pointing it out to everyone by saying 'Winning!" in his German accent as a good imitation of Charlie Sheen each time his white board was the closest to the price.  Plus, though both Roger and I would post an even price such as $25 as our guesses, Detlef would write an odd price such as $14.85 and he would be right!

Detlef, Cathi, Roger giving our tasting opinions

ZiZi, our little Yorkshire Terrier seemed to be quite taken with Det and spent her time trying to get him to pick her up and hold her.  The juxtaposition of his towering heighth and her miniscule frame was amusing to see together.

The charities that we were supporting with our participation on Virtual Vino LIVE! were the Detlef Schrempf Foundation, Pacific Northwest Ballet, the YMCA of Greater Seattle, Todd Stabelfeldt Foundation, Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Outdoors for All Foundation.

Blaine and I look forward to getting this set up so we can produce several shows each month and support the wineries in generating more revenue which will in turn supprt the selected charities.  Thank you Roger and Detlef for agreeing to be the guinea pigs!!  Cheers!