Today we are sitting and waiting for the hoards to descend upon our last "open house" before we take the place off the market. Even though I put an ad for the open house in the local paper and paid for it up front, it didn't appear in Sunday's paper ... not happy!

It is a gorgeous day at about 60 degrees and perfect blue sky, so while waiting for the big sale, I thought I'd talk about last Sunday.

Last Sunday, being the last Sunday of the month, is of course the Messina Hof wine tasting appreciation seminar. February's subject was chocolate and wine pairings in honor of Valentine's Day. The class is about an hour and a half long and starts at 3 in the afternoon. It runs until we sample all the wines present and then keep going till all the wine is gone. There were about 30 people in the class.

We started with a muscato and white chocolate which was a real surprise as I thought only dark chocolates went with most wines. Then to a riesling with a fruit filled chocolate. Of course, the dark chocolates were still the best with an excellent syrah paired with a bon-bons and mousse and then of course the port paired with a piece of the heavy sweet dark stuff ... wow!

Next month will be our last and the subject will be white wines and food pairings; then we move our wine education to Ontario for the summer.