Celebrating the holiday season with hosts Mary Ann and Wayne Ballard
Joan Newcomer
Jingle, jingle, jingle! Joy, joy, joy! The Wine Knots have much to be joyful about. Good friends, good cheer and a very special anniversary were the topics of excited conversations at the home of Wayne and Mary Ann Ballard this December night.
The Ballards recently returned from a Caribbean cruise in celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary! Both their son and their daughter, along with spouses, joined them on the cruise to make it truly a family affair. Fortunately for the Wine Knots, their son toasted the occasion with a very special French Champagne.
Mary Ann and Wayne decided this wine, Montaudon Champagne Extra Dry, would be the perfect choice for our December wine tasting. Being a champagne blend it is one of the world’s most distinctive wine styles. It is a sparkling wine produced from 40% Pinot Noir, 35% Pinot Meunier and 25% Chardonnay grapes. These grapes are most famously associated with the Champagne region of northern France. Only wines made from grapes of this region can legally be called Champagne. Champagne Extra Dry is the term used to denote wines that sit roughly in the middle of the champagne sweetness scale. The Wine Knots found it to be the perfect wine to toast the birth of the Christ child as well as the Ballard’s special anniversary.
Of course, no one left the party hungry as the appetizers were plentiful and the desserts sweet, almost as sweet as the fellowship we shared. We are looking forward to a wonderful and wine-ful 2017.