It may not have been Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, as described in the famous Billy Joel Song, but the St. Joseph’s Home for the Holidays Wine Tasting certainly was a Holiday Delight. Italian lights canopied from wall to wall, twinkling above our guests, like stars in the night. Red and Gold glittered stars and poinsettias glistened from the walls. Three large Christmas trees sparkled on the stage as our ‘Piano Man’, 15 year old Charlie Romano entertained us with his sweet musical talent.
With over 30 wines to sample, there was a choice for every palette. Meatballs, shrimp, cheese and crackers were just some of the delicious hors d’oeuvres. Just in case you still needed some sweets to top off the evening – chocolate mousse, pumpkin mousse, mini cannolis, pecan bars, and several more desserts filled the table.
The near capacity crowd not only sampled the wines, but learned of each wine’s bouquet, varietal, vintage, blend and region and much other information from our skilled representatives. Our thanks to Brad Smith from Heritage Wine Cellars, Kevin Mc Dermott from Wirtz Beverage, Rick Saxinger from Maverick Wine Company, Dave Shoaf from CLD Imports and Matt Joy from Vintage Wines, who brought their wines for us to sample.
A very special thanks to Jerry Kohn and Dobby’s Worldwide Liquors in Palatine. Jerry organized the wine vendors and helped to choose the wine varieties and Dobby’s graciously donated all of their profits from the evening’s wine sales, to St. Joseph’s Home.
Our dear friends who helped us with our food are Mr. Bob Bates from Windy City Provisions, who supplied the Boar’s Head cheese and meats, Mr. Ron Caminiti from Rubino’s Seafood who donated the shrimp, Rose Packing donated the meatballs, Vittorio’s de Roma, our neighbor in Palatine, provided the bruschetta and Joe Caputo and Sons donated the cannolis.
Congratulations to Joe Mathias who won the raffle and took home 30 bottles of wine, but not before fielding many requests from the crowd to be included on his holiday party invitation list!
Many God bless all of our friends for helping to make St. Joseph’s Home for the Holidays our most successful wine tasting!
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