JAYPLAY entertainment news February 22, 2001 For comments, contact Erinn R. Barcomb at 864-4810 or email jayplay@kansan.com www.kansan.com/arts
Kelli Graves, Overland Park graduate student (left), Courtney Lynch, Shawnee sophomore (center), and Nicholas Semrau, Lawrence resident, share a bottle of Willamette Valley pinot noir. Oenophiles and enthusiasts gathered last Saturday to taste, compare and enjoy a wide selection of red and white wines at the home of Jerry Hammann, Omaha, Neb., senior.
Don't stop Wining Wine party offers alternative to beer bashes
Story by Sarah Smarsh Photos by Jamie Roper
The trees in the front lawn glowed with strings of gold lights. Aromas of shrimp.
cheese and chocolate wafted from the front door, along with sounds of mellow music. Inside the house, smiling people in ties and skirts mingled across the hardwood floors. They all held wine glasses as they hovered near tables of hors d'oeuvres and rows of half-full wine bottles.
What did you do last weekend?
Drink beer?
While you might have been guzzling a six-pack, about 60 students and Lawrence residents escaped the college-town social mold and attended a wine-tasting party.
Jerry Hammann, Omaha, Neb., senior and the party's host, provided an atmosphere of good wine, good food and dressy attire for those seeking an alternative to keeg parties and noisy bars.
The "wine party," as Hammann and his friends called it, was the seventhe he has held in the last three years. To the ritual, which has become a well-known social event among many groups, everyone brings a bottle
of wine or a snack.
"I just love getting my friends together and letting them meet other groups of friends," Hammann said, with a glass of red wine in hand.
The crowd was composed of mostly 20-somethings, but party-goers ranged in age "from 18 to 46," according to Hammann. Some of the wine lovers traveled from Omaha, Neb., the Kansas City area, Topeka and Oklahoma. A variety of ethnicities
Jerry Hammann's Wine-Tasting Tips:
- Start with a sweet, white wine and gradually move to darker reds. Beginning with dry wines will shock your taste buds and compromise the tastes of lighter wines.
- Rinse the mouth or suck on a slice of lemon when switching wines to clean the palate.
To enhance a meal, drink white or blush wines with pasta and red wines with most meat dishes. Port wine complements desserts.
Robert Rodriguez, a Lawrence graduate student who said he'd been drinking wine for 14 years, called himself a "connoisseur of fine wines, especially South American wines." Rodriguez said his love for the drink stemmed from its flavor.
filled the room, including African Americans, Brazilians and Argentineans. But everyone had one thing in common—a love of wine.
"Wine is the only alcoholic drink where you truly enjoy the taste," Rodriguez said. "You don't just drink to get drunk."
But Shana Paoalazola, a Shawne resident and 1998 University of Kansas graduate, said she enjoyed reaching an altered state with a nice red wine.
"It makes a warm feeling—a very nice drunk." she said.
Paoalazola also said wine made her drunk more quickly than other drinks.
Paoalazola said she had been to three of Hammann's wine parties. There, she and her husband found "intellectual conversation" in a "dressy, classier, more elegant" environment.
Carl Sumler, of Lawrence, said he normally drank beer. But Sumler, who drink white zinfandel at the party, said he had learned to appreciate an occasional glass of wine.
"Wine is more of a relaxed drink to me," he said.
Sandy Rubin, Shawnee freshman, said Saturday's gathering was her first wine party. Rubin, who said she usually hung out on Massachusetts Street and normally drank mixed drinks, said sweet white wines were another drinking option.
"I don't like the taste of beer that much," she said. "Beer is so heavy."
But Rubin said she didn't agree with the stereotype that wine drinkers were snobs.
"The atmosphere is very conducive to getting to know people." she said.
Debbie Taylor Ness, a Lawrence third-year law student who said she attended all seven
of Hammann's wine parties, disputed another stereotype — that wine-drinking was too expensive for most people.
"You don't have to make $100,000 a year to enjoy wine," Taylor Ness said, sipping a dry, red variation.
Hammann, who said he "developed a taste for wine" as a member of the California coast guard, agreed students could have misconceptions about costs.
"The people in the Midwest don't really enjoy wine like they should," he said. "You can get a good bottle of wine for $4.99."
Chris Paoalazola, an attorney in Shawnee, said he liked expensive wine to "enhance a meal," but agreed wine drinkers didn't have to "swish it around" in their mouths or subscribe to Wine Spectator.
"The best thing about wine is that you can enjoy it on any level," he said.
Rodriguez, who is from Argentina, said people enjoyed wine "with every dinner" in his native land, the fourth-largest wine-producing country in the world.
"In the United States, especially among young people, they don't drink wine. They waste their time drinking beer just to get drunk," he said. "That's why this is a unique party."
Hammann said he was happy to offer a "sophisticated" social alternative.
"Every time I've had the parties, I've had people come up to me and say, 'This is the best time I've had in my college career,'" he said.
Edited by Jacob Roddy
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