The Zins of Wine

Yesterday we had our Wine Club. This is our second year, our eighteenth month to be exact, and we all love it. Wine is of course the centerpiece, but our friendships are deepening and I suspect will soon be our main purpose. Unless the occurrences of yesterday continue.

Initially we just called ourselves Wine Club and it will probably always be our 'name', but we have also deemed ourselves the  Zinful Ladies; so for the purpose of saving the guilty I will refer to the members as ZL1, ZL2, etc.

The "meeting" yesterday was at ZL1's house. Lovely home. Beautiful furniture with one drawback, the sofa and two of the chairs are white. I repeat WHITE. I'm sure you can see where this is heading. ZL1 hands us our first wine and mentions to me (sitting in one of the white chairs) that there may be a splash of the wine (a very red grenache) on the bottom. I grab a napkin, wipe and then place it on the table, ever conscious of the white of the chair's arm looming underneath my arm. ZL2, who is sitting next to me is not so lucky. She was not warned or aware and within minutes is shouting, "Oh no ZL1, I didn't realize there was wine under my glass and look what I have done!"

Yup, there is a beautiful red ring on the very white arm of the chair.

You can imagine the panic.

We holler for club soda, ZL1 has none. Would tonic water work the same?

I google wine stains and we have none of the supplies. Not even the treatment which is to use white wine.

Just exactly how does a Wine Club remain so unprepared on spills?

Ah, well we were. Eighteen months and no spills. We must have thought we were immune.

ZL1 and ZL2 do their best, but really only make it worse. ZL1 was having the furniture cleaned on Friday anyway, but I seriously doubt it can be repaired at that point. We all felt bad, especially ZL2 and it sort of started us off on a rocky note. But after our second glass we managed to move on.

Then as our time together neared an end, we had tasted our four wines and told most of our stories, ZL3 decided she wanted just one more taste of Wine #3. She reached for the bottle, but inadvertently knocked over Wine #2, which none of us cared for.

It tipped.

She caught it rather quickly, but not before it splashed to the floor. To the CARPET. (not white, but a light tan, no matter, red wine manages to shine through)

ZL1,2,3 and 4 jump to the rescue. One thing we did learn in the google search is that if you can get the stain wet with water immediately, there is a good chance for a removal. So there seems to be some success.

And not five minutes later ZL5 accidentally hits her glass and it leans, just LEANS, and she catches it but not before the teeny, tiny amount of wine in the bottom slips out and dots the carpet.

OMG, what is happening today? Again the cleaning crew jumps into action and the red splotches are gone.

I'm quite positive ZL1 was happy to see us go before she is forced to redecorate in a beautiful shade of burgundy.

She also mentioned,  even though she loves red wine, next time she will host there will only be whites in our midst.