With the Taste Of The Vineyard coming up on June 13 and June 15, 2013, I’d like to tell my story about the one and only time I went to this lovely and delicious event 20 years ago in 1993.

My daughter Deb and I decided  to treat ourselves to The Taste of the Vineyard. It’s put on every year by the Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust. Restaurants, caterers and beverage purveyors from around the Island gather under tents to present some of their specialities to be tasted. We’d never gone before and it seemed like a fun and different thing to do. Off we went to the Vineyard for a glorious long weekend of eating, shopping and tasting. The weather turned brutally hot all along the Eastern seaboard, it verged on 100 degress which is unusual for mid June. A few hours before the Taste was to begin welcomed thunder storms rolled in and dropped the temps about 25 degrees. The evening was cool and clear and perfect.

We donned our new outfits and headed over to the grounds of the Preservation Trust which are located at the Dr Daniel Fisher house in Edgartown. The house is a beautiful Federal style home surrounded by lush gardens. It’s gorgeous.

We gingerly and hungrily entered the tents where all foods and drinks were on display. Lots of eager tasters were already there. We got our dishes and start wending through the crowds. We found seats and set about our tastings.

The tables were set with crisp white tablecloths.. in the middle of the tables were mounds of sand with seashells and rocks scattered about and a large hurricane lamp with candle sitting in the middle of the sand. Simple and tasteful, much like the occasion. The bite sized portions of appetizers and entrees were just satifyingly enough. Had to leave room for the abundance of dessert samples after all.

But… the thing that mostly interested me was trying for the first time the Frozen Cappuccino from Espresso Love one of my most favorite places on MV. I returned to our table with my cup, eager to taste what smelled and looked delicious. I set it on the table… or at least I thought I had… but no, I had sort of placed it precariously near the edge and it landed in my daughters lap, almost the entire cup of cappuccino!!!!!  On her new skirt !!

(The part of the original skirt is now being portrayed by a stand-in)

One that she loved and had hoped to wear many, many times. I felt awful, I still do… it was an accident. I mean after all I myself had gotten a drop or two on my new shoes. We cleaned her up as best we could and I believe she went and got me a second cup of frozen cappuccino. I set it down on the table and… it hit the rocks and there before our eyes it oozed from the rocks and sand onto the table cloth. It looked like the tide had come in… it wasn’t pretty and it was embarassing. Could it be that maybe the third time would work! I had to find out so off I went for the third cup of frozen cappuccino. I walked carefully back to the table, avoiding being bumped or nudged. I approached the table… Deb grimaced… I held the cup tightly in both hands… I bent to set it down… and… I did it, I made solid contact with table. I then raised the cup to my lips and actually got to taste the frozen cappuccino and I have to tell you… it was good, it was very very good, it was joy to my tastebuds. I loved it and I still do, I try to have one at least once during every trip to MV. And of course I feel compelled to apologize each time to my daughter for her long lost beautiful skirt.

This blurry picture of the two of us was taken at the end of the evening. At least we’re laughing… probably at my humungeous, but then trendy glasses.