Amidst the severe weather systems of last weekend, the John Paulding Historical Society hosted their Annual Wine & Cheese Tasting fundraising event. The weather did not keep the guests away with well over 150 people in attendance. The Valentine’s theme was spread throughout the banquet hall area of tables and stage as well as an overflow area going into the museum. The local wineries represented at this festive event include Leisure Time Winery in Napoleon, OH; Lumberyard Winery & Supply in Napoleon, OH; and Sycamore Lake Wine Co. in Columbus Grove, OH. The cheeses all came from Antwerp’s grocery store, Hometown Pantry.
Six rounds of wine and cheese pairings were presented with a final 7th dessert bubbly paired with a dessert buffet.
The first round started with a slight semi-dry chardonnay & pinot grigio mix, Hocus Pocus, from Leisure Time Winery paired with Asiago. The next round featured Rafter’s Red from Lumberyard Winery & Supply. This wine is of the dry variety and paired well with the Port Cheddar. The 3rd round moved into the semi-sweet wines featuring Middle Aged from Leisure Time Winery and was paired with Havarti. The 4th round presented a sweet wine from Sycamore Lake Wine Co. called Sycamore Blush. This wine paired well with the Baby Swiss. The sweet taste of concord grapes was featured in the 5th round from Sycamore Lake Wine Co. called Sycamore Red. This wine was an excellent match for its cheese counterpart – Mediterranean Sunset. The 6th offering of the night was a semi-sweet peach flavored wine, Rusty Nail, from Lumberyard Winery & Supply. Rusty Nail was a perfect match for the Provolone paired with it.
The finale for the evening’s tastings spotlighted an imported sparkling Spumante from Italy, Raspberry Sparkletini Spumante. The guests chose their desserts to go with this bubbly drink from a wide variety of sweet treats prepared by the JPHS event committee. There were chocolatey brownies, cookies, cream puffs, and eclairs to tickle the palate’s fancy.
To end the evening, the committee had sold raffle tickets before and during the tasting to give guests the opportunity to win prizes that were donated by various donors. Some of the raffle items included gift certificates to local food eateries, wine baskets from the featured wineries and merchandise from area businesses. The JPHS committee also auctioned off some of the unopened wine of the evening. The guests and businesses were all very generous in supporting the landmark museum that houses some of the most precious artifacts of Paulding County, Ohio.
The planning committee included Chris Dangler, Rocky Dangler, Tammy Clark, Cindy Kauser, Liz Pessefall and Rena Rager. The fearless table servers were Russ Rager, Liz Pessefall, Shelly Gawronski, Mike Kauser, Andy Rager, Amy Kennedy, Very Minich, Megan Dysinger, Zach Dysinger, George Carter, Debbie Carter … along with the out of sight help from Ryne Dangler, John Kennedy and the EMCEE, Dennis Clark.
