Yeah. That pretty much describes all of my favorite things–and my night last night!

The Food Network is launching their own line of wines, and I was invited to a tasting event last night.

The line, called Entwine, aims to make food and wine pairings less scary. They partnered with Wente Vineyards, and Karl Wente, whose family founded the vineyard more than 125 years ago, was there, and let’s just say, he’s not too hard on the eyes.

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Food Network star Anne Burrell was there, and she encouraged anyone scared of wine to just drink more of it. I can’t say I’m afraid of wine, but I can still get on board with that. She says when she was in culinary school, her wine class scared the crap out of her. She had no idea what any of those wine words meant, and couldn’t taste any of the notes she was “supposed” to taste in the wines. These Food Network wines use the language of food, rather than the language of wine, in their descriptions.

For example, the chardonnay, one of my favorites (and I’m not usually a chardonnay girl), is just described as “easy-drinking, with crisp fall fruit.” I know what that means. I can get behind that. The tasting notes say it pairs well with “potato chips; grilled cheese sandwiches; shellfish; goat cheese; cream sauces; roast chicken and hanging out with friends.” I can get behind that. Wine doesn’t have to be pretentious. (Really, nothing needs to be pretentious.)

Our names and where we were from (it wasn’t just a blog event–there was tons of “real” media there, too) were written on our wine glasses–a really cute touch and something Ashley and I agreed would be easy to do for a party.

There was also lots of great food.

Chickpea fritters? Be still, my heart.

Scallops? I was a happy girl.

GRILLED CHEESE? OMG. I was in passed hors d’oeuvres heaven.

In our goodie bags, we got wine (score) and this cookbook, which I’m excited to try.

After leaving this event, I headed downtown to Swift for a runner happy hour that Laurel put together. Have you joined the awesome NYC Marathon Facebook group? No? Do it. We talk about running together and getting beer together. We’re fun.

See? Fun. And we even got a dude to come. (More dudes, please!)

So: wine or beer? And what’s your favorite wine or beer?