Flipflop Wines & Soles4Souls - A Perfect Combo

The lovely folks at flipflop sent me another three bottles of their scrummy wines to try.  Yes, I said scrummy - scrumptious and yummy - scrummy.  Moving on...

After the overwhelming success of the last three bottles, expectations were very high.

Neither Super Dad nor Wendy could be with us this time around, although Wendy did try out the wines later.  Super Mom, Engineer, and I felt very strongly about pressing onward and having a tasting anyway so that we could make some educated comments just for you.   Isn't it nice to know that there are selfless people out their willing to have a party and drink wine just so that they can tell you about the experience?  Ahem...

We also had the pleasure of lovely Miss Tessa's company.  I think she was amused at how serious we took the tasting. 

Wine is no laughing matter Tessa; it's serious business.

Okay.

That's better.

 Can I have some too?  No, you're underage.

Here's what we came up with:

Our first wine was the Chardonnay.  We thought it tasted a little grassy, tart, dry, and woody.  We all agreed that it was a bit bitter for our tastes.  What it was perfect for was the base of a kir - a white wine and blackcurrant liqueur cocktail.  The dryness of the wine was a perfect foil to the syrupy liqueur.

The next wine we tried was a Cabernet Sauvignon.  This one was peppery, spicy, plummy, warm, and again, rather dry.  I think that this one would be wonderful as the base for mulled wine at Christmas.  It already has a lot of deep undertones so it lends itself to the addition of  a cinnamon stick, a little sugar, and some cloves.  Divine...

So the last wine we had was a Merlot.  I'm not usually a fan of Merlot, but just like the last time we had flipflop wines, my preconceived notions were challenged.  This one had an oaky taste and was fruitier than the previous pair we tried.  As a group, we actually liked this one the best.  All four of us wrote the word "drinkable" on our notes.  "Drinkable" to us means that you could enjoy that wine with a meal or by itself.  In other words, it could have equally a starring role or a be part of the supporting cast and do itself justice either way.    

Our overall impression with flipflop wines are that they are quality wines without the price tag normally associated with this caliber of wine. 

Now on to the next best thing (besides the taste and the price) about flipflop wines.  The makers of flipflop wines have teamed up with Soles4Souls to increase the awareness of the charity.  They have asked bloggers to help collect shoes to send to children around the world who do not have shoes. 

In our household, and dare I say, in our country, shoes are something taken for granted but for millions of children, they are a luxury.  In many developing nations children are required to wear shoes if they are to attend school but many of those same children, do not have any footwear and therefore cannot go to school.  Parasites and diseases often are spread through bare feet, and people with no shoes run a high risk of infection. 

That's why Soles4Souls is such a great charity, it doesn't matter your political affiliation, your religious beliefs, or where you fall on the "tastes great" "less filling" debate, everyone can agree that folks are better off wearing shoes.

Diva and I decided to clean out our shoes and we lined our hallway with 22 pairs of shoes without breaking a sweat.  A dear friend of mine saw them and asked why I had decided to make my hallway an art installation.  I explained to her about both flipflop wines and Soles4Souls and she immediately said that she had some shoes that she would like to donate.  So now there are 32 pairs of shoes lining our hallway ready to be boxed up and sent to Soles4Souls.

I would encourage you to consider cleaning out your shoes too and sending any gently worn pairs to Soles4Souls.  The recipient sure will be glad that you did.