Resident physical stability and coherence are always a concern in senior living communities. On the surface, this program is to help residents unlock the wonderful world of wines and the people who make them. The underlying focus is to help create a way to help residents enjoy alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages while looking at ways to reduce or remove the alcohol percentage they are drinking. Weaving storytelling and sharing memories into the tasting will slow down how much is consumed and create a much more meaningful experience.

Wine tastings allow residents to learn the stories behind the wines and the people who make them. Instead of this being a typical tasting where participants are encouraged to taste for the different "notes" and flavors they taste in the wines, we will focus on memories of times, places, and people they remember by the taste of the wines. 

For example, I recently tasted a wine that made me think of lilacs. It reminded me of the beautiful, fragrant lilac bushes surrounding my grandparents' home. Using the wines to trigger memories will make the experience much more meaningful and create talking points to start a conversation with others.

Zero-alcohol wines and spirits are a reasonably new category expanding daily. A New Zealand winery approached us about how to get introduced into the senior living markets, and we are excited to bring this winery and others that we have tried and tested to this market.

After personally tasting more than half of the alcohol-removed wines currently on the market, we have done our homework to share the best values in this emerging category.

So often, at a "happy hour" with residents, someone does a 4-8 oz pour or more of one wine. It makes it very easy to sit and drink instead of genuinely enjoying the wine and realizing how much wine you drink. You can manage wine intake by serving multiple wines and pouring a "splash" (1-2 oz). Having participants learn and talk about the wines will create a more interactive learning experience. Changing the size of the pours can also help with costs. You will have happier residents by serving less volume and better quality wines.

We love to work with communities to design a wine list specifically for their residents and to create a program focusing on alcohol content, winery history, availability, and affordability. The lists would be updated at least twice yearly to change with the seasons and new harvests.

Most communities change their menus monthly. This is an opportunity for a community to highlight a special wine or winery monthly. It would be a pairing with whatever seasonal offerings the chef is highlighting on the menu with a focus on creating perfect pairings for your guests and residents.