Terrapin virtual tasting set up for Jan. 28

Couple of note from Terrapin Station Winery in Cecil County, Md., near Elkton. They have scheduled a wine dinner at Agro Dolca restaurant at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 20. Cost is $55 per person. It's a five-course Prix Fixe menu paired with five wines from Terrapin Station. For details, go to the Terrapin Web site.

Have written on several occasions about the plans for a virtual tasting, the first that I'm aware of in this region. It has been scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28. And I'll steal the remainder of the commentary from the winery's latest e-letter.

"So what's a virtual wine tasting? Glad you asked!

Since our fans are located all over the state, we decided to steal an idea that Morris experienced once to enable people to try wines and talk about them online. This is how it will work:

1. You acquire the wine for the tasting at your local retail store so that you can taste along with the event. A complete listing of our stores can be found here. If your local store does not have the wine we plan to try, tell them to call us and we will make sure they have it for you. The wine we are tasting at this event will be our 2008 Cabernet Franc.

2. Before the tasting visit Talk Shoe. While it is not strictly necessary to set up a login account, it does make your experience better.

4. A few minutes before the show, login and join the show. During the show, we would taste and talk about a wine or wines while everyone online tried them along with us.

5. During the show you could ask or post questions or comments. If you use a telephone connection you will actually be able to speak and ask questions when the mic is open. Otherwise, you can always type your questions.

We ask in advance that you be patient as this is an experiment and frankly we'll be learning on the fly. A little genuine spontaneity isn't such a bad thing."