I have been on a quest to learn about wine for a few years.  Over the last few years, if you asked me what effort had I made to learn about wine, and if I answered honestly, I would say “Not much”.. until the opportunity fell into my lap a few weeks when I received two bottles of wine from The California Wine Club.

Before I received the two bottles of wine The California Wine Club sent, I wouldn’t buy wine for home, choose wine at a restaurant, or drink wine because I was ignorant about how to really ‘taste’ wine, how to choose wine, what glasses to use, etc..

So here I am, on my quest to learn about wine and I realized that the first and most important step for me was to…stop worrying about it!   Worrying about which type of wine to choose and which wine glasses to use kept me from buying or trying ANY wine.  What fun is that? That sure didn’t get me very far.

I was thrilled when I received my first of three monthly wine shipments from California Wine Club, last week.  After I received the shipment, I planned two of our week’s meals according to the wine.  The first of which you’ll see in the photograph above.  I paired a pasta & alfredo sauce meal with a Chardonnay.

I was sent two bottles of wine via California Wine Club’s Premier Club membership, their oldest and most popular wine of the month club. The Premier Club is a great way to learn about wine and the California wine scene, perfect for the wine novice (that’s me!) or aficionado. Just $36.45 per month plus shipping, handling and applicable sales tax.

I enjoyed the first bottle of wine with my husband.  We probably didn’t use the right wine glasses, but that’s ok.. I’m just getting my feet wet with my wine education.  I prefer fruity wines and this Chardonnay served just that.  This is a light wine with tropical fruit flavors and a hint of vanilla.  The delicate crispness went of this wine very well with our pasta meal.

Want to impress your husband and friends?  
You can become an instant wine and food pairing expert!

California Wine Club has a new iPhone/iPad app out called CWC food and wine pairing wheel (iTunes download link).
This, free for a limited time, food and wine pairing wheel app makes it easy to find the right wine to go with your meal.  Next time you go out for a date night, don’t rely on the server to tell you what wine would go well with your meal.  Decide for yourself by using the food and wine pairing wheel app.  It’s simple to use, just choose a meal type from the list across the top of the app; poultry, seafood, pasta, starters, cheese, or dessert, and then spin the wheel below the list to choose the type of food you will be enjoying.  Under each type of food, Lobster for example, you will get a list of results.  For Lobster, the recommended wine is Chardonnay and two types would be Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc.  Easy, isn’t it?  Don’t forget to use the app while you are grocery shopping.
The app is now free so hurry and download CWC Food and Wine Pairing Wheel app before CWC begins charging for this very useful and easy to use app.

Connect with California Wine Club:

• CaliforniaWineClub.com
• Like California Wine Club on Facebook
• Follow California Wine Club on Twitter
• Follow The Boring Wine Guy on Facebook to get usable wine advice and easy to understand wine tips.
• Follow @boringwineguy on Twitter

Discount Code Offers:

1. Use code mommyinsider to get 10% off every gift order you place.    Wine makes a fabulous holiday gift.. don’t forget to stock up for Thanksgiving!

2. If you would like to try The California Wine Club, you can use the same promo code and not only will you get 10% off your first month, but you will also get an extra bottle of wine in your first month’s shipment just for being a The Mommy Insider reader!   There is no obligation to stay past the first month.

 Win a One Month Premier California Wine Club Subscription! {Ends 10/18}

We are giving a lucky reader a one-month Premier subscription to The California Wine Club.

Mandatory Entry:

Go to California Wine Club’s Facebook page or follow Follow California Wine Club on Twitter and mention that The Mommy Insider sent you!

Then leave a comment below telling me which you did and why you’d like to win.

3 extra entries:

• Blog about this giveaway as a separate blog post on your own blog
• Add a comment to any non-giveaway posts on this site (must be relevant to the post you are commenting on).  Tell me in the comments below what post you commented on.

2 extra entries:

• Like The Mommy Insider on Facebook
• Follow @mommyinsider on Twitter
• Subscribe to my email newsletter or RSS  feed
• Tweet about this contest (up to 4 times per day). Your Tweet MUST include the name of the item being given away, my Twitter handle (@mommyinsider), the word giveaway, and a link to this post.
  Example tweet: “I entered to win a 1 month California Wine Club membership from @mommyinsider!  You can enter here: http://wp.me/plszx-2tV  #Giveaway”

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Contest Rules
This contest is open to U.S. residents 21 and older. Utah residents are excluded from this contest. No P.O. Boxes.
Entries accepted through 11:59pm EST October 18th.
The winner will be chosen at random and will be contacted via email.  Winner must respond within 24 hours or a new winner will be chosen.
One IP address per household.
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Disclosure: I was offered a one month subscription to California Wine Club for review purposes.  My opinions are 100% my own and are not influenced in any way.  I write only about products and services that I have used and enjoy, unless otherwise stated.  You can read my full Disclosure Policy here.