Share & Pair Sundays: Celebrate Togetherness With Wine and Food

What could be better than spending a spring Sunday with friends over a glass of wine and a bite to eat? That’s the idea behind Share & Pair Sundays, a new initiative from the same team that brought us Come Over October. After the success of that campaign, Karen MacNeil, Kimberly Noelle Charles, and Gino Colangelo, the trio behind Come Together—A Community for Wine Inc., have created a new initiative to last all spring.

Running every Sunday from March 23 through May 25, Share & Pair Sundays spurs wine and food enthusiasts to get together each week and foster connections over shared wine and food. The movement starts on the first Sunday of spring and runs for 10 consecutive weeks. 

“The idea for Share & Pair Sundays is that every Sunday afternoon or evening, invite some friends or family, colleagues, or neighbors to share some wine and have some food — it’s a very simple idea,” says MacNeil. “It’s about being together at a time when all of us are painfully aware of social isolation and the effect that it has had on all of our lives.”

MacNeil stresses that the gatherings need not be anything fussy — it could be as easy as Pinot Grigio and potato chips. The goal of Share & Pair Sundays is simply for wine drinkers to gather in person. 

Try pairing wine with grilled meats in the summer!

“It’s a social idea,” MacNeil told VinePair. “I’m concerned that wine is starting to lose the historic role it has played in life. If you’ve ever had wine with a stranger, at the end of that, you are that person’s friend. I don’t want people to forget that wine has social value.”

The combination of food and wine naturally encourages the engagement of chefs and restaurants, food bloggers, and food influencers, and MacNeil encourages Share & Pair Sundays participants to post their meetups on social media. Friends can convene at one of the many restaurants and wineries planning to participate in the campaign. 

Share & Pair Sundays aren’t only happening in restaurants and wineries, though. MacNeil says there are an infinite number of ways to gather, such as bringing a baguette, some cheese, and a bottle of wine on a hike or on a picnic. The possibilities are endless. The point is that it’s a fun way to interact and enjoy wine. 

Gather around the table with a glass and good vibes.

Share & Pair Sundays can also be celebrated at home. MacNeil herself plans to create a dispatch from her kitchen, with friends in attendance, with videos pairing wine with everything from guacamole to oozy cheeses. She says that when hosting, people often think something has to be more elaborate than it needs to be, and that’s where things become intimidating. Some of her fondest food memories are the most simple — sharing a wine and a dish that she loves with friends is really the key to hosting the ideal gathering. MacNeil will often set out several wines so people have the opportunity to try several different options. 

Share & Pair Sundays will give people the chance to explore all sorts of combinations from guacamole and a Riseling (a surprisingly perfect pairing) to the classic combination of grilled steak and Cabernet Sauvignon. 

“Sharing a little bit of wine and food is a categorically wonderful thing to do. As human beings, it is in our nature to want to be together,” says MacNeil. “And wine and food have always been the foundations of togetherness.”

Wine is a communal adult beverage. The Share & Pair Sundays campaign asks that you consume wine responsibly and in moderation.

This article is sponsored by Share & Pair Sundays.

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