Hawks and honey: What I learned at Frances After Hours Wine Tasting {with Postino Wine Cafe of Upward Projects}

Last night was a small event hosted at Frances Boutique here in Central Phoenix. I found the event on Frances' twitter page and was eager to attend. I asked a few friends to join me and most of them did! We had a great time trying new wines, admiring all the awesome local craftsmanship and shopping...

We arrived just as the sun set and were excited to taste all the wines.

We were promptly greeted with this adorable Frances bag, along with 3191 Quarterly : Issue No. 11. Which was a pleasant surprise!

Macey had never been to Frances! Gretchen and I were a little too excited to show her all the local and artistic cards they offer.

Honestly, I like this store more than Anthropologie, I mean I like them both, but this is like Anthropologie on LOCAL crack. It's the best! {groceries & shit reusable bags?! yes, please}

Oh and not only did Postino provide FREE wine, they also had bruschetta {from Postino} and pub food from Windsor. You know I LOVE my Upward Projects Restaurants.

Gretchen and Macey checking out some hello apparel local tees {on my gift list!}

All ready for us!

We started with Cava, which is a sparkling white, from Spain {so you know I love it}. I didn't realize the bubbles were formed by a second fermentation process that occurs within the actual bottle {as opposed to large scale 2nd rounds in huge vats}. If you haven't had a Cava with in-n-out french fries on a Friday night, you haven't lived {although I'm sure the fries at Windsor would also do just fine, I'm just talking from personal experience}.

Sorry, Brent, if I caught you off guard mid pour!

Second wine was Airen {pronounced I-wren} another Spanish wine, this one from 70 year old vines AND they only allow one bunch of grapes to mature on a vine, so it's the most energized bunch of grapes possible! {as opposed to allowing the other bunches to mature, they're removed so only one grows, I believe he called it EcoHarvesting} This was a great white, but I'm more of a sparkling or reds girl myself,

The Grenache was a french wine which like the first three grows in limestone soil, allowing for softer body and very refreshing taste.

I thought it was interesting that Brent explained to one woman that sometimes you'll see sediment or particles in the wine, and that's because the wine isn't filtered. So when you see that you know the wine wasn't filtered and that by filtering the wine you can loose elements of the full flavor, so it's actually a good thing- which was interesting since Husband and I recently enjoyed a bottle of red that had such particles and we weren't sure what it was from, sadly google didn't have much to offer on our initial search so I guess he really is an expert.

Our fourth and final wine was the Negroamaro, Gretchen really liked this one, but I preferred the Grenache. The Negroamaro is oak aged and while it gives it a taste of complexity, I don't necessarily enjoy that aged flavor with the smokiness. But I will say I appreciated his explanation of these grapes growing in full sun and the warmth of the hills, I could taste that experience as Brent explained it.

After the tasting Brent invited anyone up to try any wine they missed or more of one they really enjoyed. Since I was DD I abstained but the other lovely ladies tried more Cava and Tammy got a full explanation, since she arrived a bit late.