A couple of weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure of being invited to a tasting for Cultivate Wines at Tavern along with some Nashville blogging friends.

Cultivate is a wine maker that sources grapes from around the world to create premium wines at the best value possible. We sampled four different Cultivate wines along with some tasty, properly paired food for each one.

We tried Double Blind (an Italian Pinot Grigio), Dream Walking (a California Chardonnay), The Feast (a California Red) and The Gambler (an Argentinian Malbec).

Now I'll be the first to tell you that my wine knowledge is limited (my favorite is whatever you serve me), but even a wuggle ("wine muggle", duh) like me could tell that these were all something special. I mean, Chardonnay's not my favorite and Dream Walking was really good.

But, what's even more special about Cultivate is that their mission is a "fulller life for all". They pride themselves on on creating relationships by creating wines meant to share with friends while you celebrate life. In fact, just by holding the tasting, they enabled Nashville bloggers to see old friends and meet new ones.

Additionally, Cultivate shares with those in need. Through their program, The Give, Cultivate gives 10% of their sales to causes related to education and basic human needs.

They gave us each 2 bottles to take home to share. I chose The Gambler and Double Blind.

When I thought a bit about sharing and living a full life like the Cultivate philosophy says, I immediately thought of my friends both near and far. I don't see either group as much as I'd like to, so we cherish any time we do get to spend together.

Sometimes, we go through phases where we only see each other at the "milestone" events since we are usually required to go to these types of things. What's missing, though is time just spent together between those events. Everyone stays so busy, or the distance is great (or both) and it's easy to put getting together on the back burner.

However, this is a big year for quite a few of us as our first born children will be graduating high school and going on to college. There's a lot of excitement and a bit of the fear of the unknown ahead for us, but I can't express how much it helps to have good friends going through the same thing.

This is a really stressful time of year for people with high school seniors. As tempting as it is to just down the two bottles myself, I'm saving my wine for when plans become a little more in focus, and we can get together.

I will share one bottle with my friends here in town, and the other will be for friends I only get to see once a year or so.

After all, it's a new phase in our lives, too and that's going to be extraordinary.

Be sure to check out @CultivateWines on Twitter, and visit the Cultivate Wines Facebook page.