Happy Friday and welcome to the weekend. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been looking forward to tonight's TwitterMoms Wine Tasting Tweet Up (#tmwc) all week.

So let’s talk about what we’ll be sipping. The selected bottle is the Panarroz Red ’06 out of Spain. How you taste this wine will depend on your individual likes and dislikes, however, the Panarroz is generally described as full of berries, a little peppery, smokey, and with a smooth mouth-feel.

The wine is actually a blend of three different kinds of grapes, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. As a quick primer, Grenache is an easy going grape, often used in blends and can range from fruity to pretty intense. Syrah is actually the same grape as Shiraz – the friendly, full-bodied, fruity grape that many of us know from Australia. Mourvedre is usually described as earthy and rustic. These three grapes play well together and blends are sometimes called GSM wines. That means if you can’t find the Panarroz at your local store, you should look for another wine blended with the same three grapes. Look in the Spanish section as well as the Australian section where they are often a bargain. (In the French section they can get pricey.)

So what to nibble while we get down to it with the girls? For the west coast sippers signing on at 5pm PST we’ll need an appetizer. And for the east coasters who will be quaffing at 8pm EST, I think we should choose a dessert. The time zones in between can schedule dinner around which way they want to go.

The good news is that GSM blends love food and pair really well with roast meats, duck, stews and anything smokey or grilled. Frankly, I may hold off on dinner and join you with pepperoni pizza. But it can be challenging to eat and tweet so I’ll focus more on the finger food.

For the appetizer, TMs who want to make this easy should try BBQ flavored chips or Fritos. Not exactly gourmet (or on any diet plan I know) but I’m betting they’ll taste good. I think smoked and salted almonds would also do the trick. For those who want to put in a bit more effort and possibly a trip to the store, I would go with cheese. Asiago, manchego, gorgonzola, parmesan, and chevre--are all good choices here. And if you find yourself with extra time (ha, ha), I would go with BBQ’d ribs or chicken wings.

Now for the dessert people. This is more challenging. Here’s my brainstorm – dark chocolate covered pretzels! I think the sweet and salty will pair up well with this wine. Feel like baking with the kids after school? I’m thinking dark chocolate brownies would work well too. If I was making them for myself, I would probably sneak some espresso in there because you don’t want them too sweet. Actually, have any of you tried those spicy chocolate bars? Those would probably rock with this wine.

Please comment or @LauraZavelson me and let me know what you ate with this wine and if you liked it. Also let me know if this is the kind of food & wine info you’d like to see on Twitter Moms.

And remember, it's always 5 o'clock somewhere. Cheers!

Laura Zavelson is the Chief Muse of creative services firm Calliope and author of Evenings for Two, a blog about food, wine, romance and restaurants. She has been fortunate enough to live within eating distance of many of the great American food cities including New York, Miami, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. Laura currently lives in Chapel Hill, NC and is mom to Caitlin (9) and Brandon (6). Date night with Bill is still her favorite night of the week.