Hot to Trot Red Blend Archives

Sip Happens Party Recap

A month ago, I wrote my Sip Happens Party post about an awesome wine party link up I was planning with Val from Chicken Scratch, Eva Marie Taylor and Erin from Living in Yellow. Well the time has finally come for me to share all of the details with you!

A quick recap of what this is all about:

Open the Google Doc here to sign up to be a part of the Pay Pal Cash Giveaway.

Because the featured wine was 14 Hands Hot to Trot Red Blend, which is inspired by the wild horses that roamed Washington State, I decided that my Sip Happens Party would have an equestrian theme. We had a fantastic time and I can’t wait to host another one!

Here is my table setup, I decided to feature all 14 Hands Wine so we had Chardonnay, White Blend, Pinot Grigio, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and the Red Blend.

Table Setup

I also visited DeVries Cheese Shop in Eastern Market to procure all of my cheeses. We had Gouda, Manchengo, Brie and Cheddar. I have a horseshoe shaped cake pan that I used to make the bread. Here is the recipe from Wilton. I did end up making the roast that I mentioned in my previous post and it was delicious! It went great with the red wine.

Cheese Tray

For dessert, I got to try out my new fondue pot and had all sorts of dippers (marshmallows, apples, strawberries and rice krispie treats).

Dessert Station

I also found these cute chocolate horseshoes on A Taste of Kentucky’s website.

Chocolate Horseshoes

I also asked all of the women to wear their cutest riding boots and equestrian themed outfits. Everyone looked super cute!

My guests

We were pretty informal about tasting the wines, everyone could try and pair the wine at their leisure and when they were done I had them rank their favorites from 1-6. My wine glass writer metallic pens came in handy because people could keep notes on their wine glasses. I seriously LOVED these pens! They were so much fun and came right off in the dishwasher.

Wine Glass Writer Pens

I had to get this picture of everyone in their riding boots!

Riding Boots!

The final wine ranking for the night was:

Red Blend
Pinot Grigio
White Blend
Chardonnay
Tie between the Cabernet Sauvignon and the Merlot

The Red Blend was a big hit! We crowned the winners:

Sip Happens Party Winners!

For party favors, I gave out these adorable Forever 21 horseshoe necklaces. I got little burlap bags from Michael’s and used a red fabric pen to write FEED on them (like a horse’s feed bag). I think this was my favorite detail:

FEED Bags

Forever 21 Horseshoe Necklace

I had SO much fun hosting this Sip Happens Party! I cannot wait to do this again! I would love to hear how your Sip Happens Parties went and I can’t wait to check them out on the link up!

If you didn’t get a chance to host a party this time around you can check out Val’s post about how you can still link up. The link up will be live from Monday, February 3 at 12:00am and close Friday, February 7th at 11:59pm, so you have this whole week to link up. The hosts will feature their favorite post on all three blogs on Monday, February 10th. Make sure to come back on the 10th because they will also kick off the giveaway and announce their new Guest Host for the next Sip Happens Party link up!

For more Wine related posts, click here.

Sip Happens Party

In my last few Wine of the Week posts, I have teased a fabulous Sip Happens Party…well the day is finally here and we are ready to reveal what the party is all about. If you follow my friend Val from Chicken Scratch, you may have noticed that she recently celebrated her blogiversary and decided to start a new wine series. Val has been a faithful follower of my Wine of the Week series so I decided to get in on the action.

Val, along with Eva Marie Taylor and Erin from Living in Yellow have created a wonderful wine tasting party for all of us to join in on. Here’s how it works:

We provide the wine idea, party printables and food pairings and then you get your girlfriends together for a fantastic wine tasting party.
During the party, we would love to see your photos on Instagram using the #siphappensparty hashtag.
On February 3rd we will all link up so you can share all of the party details and tell us what you thought of the wine.

And that’s not all – we are doing an awesome wine giveaway which includes:

PayPal cash to host your next party
Sponsorship package on Living in Yellow
Necklace from Chicken Scratch’D Designs
Wine Coasters from Eva Marie Typography
Wine Carrier from Detroit Duchess

The giveaway will begin after the party and run from February 10-14, so stay tuned for more details on how to enter.

Open the Google Doc here to sign up to be a part of the Pay Pal Cash Giveaway.

Erin, our guest host, chose the wine, 14 Hands Hot to Trot Red Blend and Eva created some awesome party printables that you can download here.

What wine tasting would be complete without food pairings? Here are some tasty treats that will complement your Hot to Trot Red Blend:

For a wine tasting party you want to make sure to have some oyster crackers around so your guests can cleanse their palate before trying different wines and combinations.

Appetizers

Since the 14 Hands Hot to Trot Red Blend is a combination of Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon for your appetizer I recommend crackers with Gouda, Cheddar and Manchego cheeses. Try a piece of each cheese with your Red Blend and you will be surprised at all of the different flavors you discover. For my fellow Detroiters, I like to head down to the DeVries cheese shop in Eastern Market when I am doing a wine tasting because they have the most amazing selection of cheeses.

Main Course

If you want to serve dinner at your party you might consider a Prime Rib or Pork Chops to complement the wine. I found this great Rib Roast recipe from Martha Stewart that would be perfect. You could also add some of the Hot to Trot wine to the bottom of the pan while its roasting. I also found this recipe for Herbed Adobo Pork Chops that you marinate overnight and throw on the grill, so delish!

Dessert

At any wine tasting you want to make sure to have milk chocolate and dark chocolate available for tasting. You can just have a few bowls of hershey kisses to make it easy and they really bring out the flavor of the wine. For dessert, I like the idea of melting dark chocolate for a fondue and having various fresh fruit dippers out on the table. I received a fondue pot for Christmas, so this would be the perfect opportunity to test it out. For 1 bag of chocolates you would want to mix 1 cup of heavy cream into your fondue pot.

I am super excited to host my own Sip Happens Party and cannot wait to see what you come up with! Please let me know if you have any questions in the comments below.

Now download your invitations and get to sipping!