April 21, 2008 | 4:24 pm

Wined to perfection

Posted by Dikla Kadosh

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From Celia Soudry, honorary Calendar Girl:

At one of the most luxurious and largest athletic facilities in Los Angeles, JDaters and wine lovers alike strolled around the Sports Club Oliver Cafe to mingle with singles and taste more than 20 kosher wines. Wally’s Wines & Spirits and JDate put on a merry daters’ fete on Thursday, April 17.

Sipping a variety of reds and whites, I started getting tipsy right around the 10th tasting. After a while I lost count. In a similar state of wine-iness, the women sitting at my table started getting friendly and introduced themselves. Curious about my dating situation, one woman in her early 30’s asked if I’ve had any luck on THE Jewish dating website. Clearly I would not be sitting next to her had I found my prince kosher on JDate.

“It has its ups and downs,” I answered.

At one point, I found myself conversing with a quirky messy-haired massage therapist, who made a dramatic sour expression and released a long sigh as she tasted a wine harvested in a metal barrel as opposed to the traditional oak barrel. I inquired if she was having a good time. She answered bitterly, “I’m moving to Israel because there are no men here.”

Moving along to another table, I learned about different grape varieties along with the nature of dating as I watched men boldly introduce themselves to women, attempting to initiate conversations out of thin air.

Singles events can be torturous, but an abundance of wine definitely helps soften the blow. Also, events such as this one inject a much needed touch of reality to the seemingly fictitious world of digital dating. Although the crowd was a bit above my age range (the average seemed to be mid-30’s), I connected with a few wine sellers and yes, even a couple of JDaters, who hopefully found a reason to have butterflies in their stomachs and not just the comforting warmth of the wine.

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