Lab #5 Wine Tasting awesome event

Last Tuesday, me and a couple of friends attended a pretty awesome event for wine lovers. If you never came to Quebec & plan to come soon, it is important to know how much we love wine.

SocialGrapes.com is an iphone app to guide wine appreciators towards a variety of choices, depending on their taste. Their founders are doing something which I personally have never seen in Montreal: Every week, they conduct a "Blind" wine tasting event called the "Social Grapes Lab" in their office, which is located in Montreal's Old Port. The wine tasters then fill out a form with their comments and ratings on each wine (and remember, they have NO IDEA where it comes from, the name, ingredients. well...except alcohol of course), all of that while
enjoying some great cheeses, meats and more. This gathering of data helps the app developers to have a better understanding of people's preferences when it comes to wine regardless of the brand or region, which are the aspects that can highly influence certain purchasers. Furthermore, the qualitative information they gather is majorly based on how people experience the wine along with how they can describe its flavor. Finally, towards the end of the event, they reveal the wines and give you the opportunity to order your favorite bottle(s) at an interesting price.

Red wine with the prosciutto, white wine with the smoked salmon. Delightful.

Innovative, fun and useful, this type of research along with its associated event are part of a great idea. 

Not only does it help wine amateurs by making them experience the gastronomical diversity of wines, it also gives wine connoisseurs a different perspective on products they may have never even considered. For example, I usually prefer wines from France or Sicile and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my favorite wine of the night was actually from the Morgan Winery... in California! All of the wines we tasted that night were under 30$. Except for the sparkling wine, the white and red wines all at least three years old! 

What is even greater about their "experiment" is that they will host your office parties, happy hours or other similar event for FREE! So the friendly staff will come to your event, bring their wines to be tasted and in exchange, all you have to do is fill out their survey.

Next week, they will host a white wine event in their trendy loft and although I am not the biggest white wine fan, I will definitely be attending it. Who knows? Maybe they will help me discover a white wine that I will finally fully appreciate, since I usually use it to cook and only drink it while I cook :)

Screen shot of the application

Like them on Facebook to get more information on their upcoming events! The entrance is only 20$.
Click here to check out their website and download their iPhone app.

See you at the next event!