Wine Studies

Designed for adults who are beginning to study wine seriously and want to enhance their interest in wine, improve their sensory awareness and abilities to evaluate and describe wines. Practical and aesthetic aspects will be discussed including, winemaking and its influences on style, understanding labels, wine buying and storage, matching wine to food, an overview of grapes, how to taste wine, and major wine regions. A range of wines will illustrate each evening’s lecture topics with emphasis on currently available, premium California wines with some European counterparts. Separate evenings will be devoted to chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel and sparking wines.

Understanding the world of wine seems so complicated these days! Wine labels are confusing, everyone has a different opinion about what is best, and the same grape can have several names depending on where it's grown. Can you trust the store clerk's opinion? How about a wine critic's? Or a friend's? What if you had enough knowledge to trust yourself to know what to buy? That's what this course will give you! Through tasting and discussion we'll explore the legendary regions of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Tuscany, and others. We'll also investigate the amazing wines emerging from Spain, South Africa, Chile and more. Discover how to taste like a pro, and more importantly, what you like, what you don't like, and why.

Italy has a long tradition of grape cultivation-the ancient Greeks called the region Oenotria. This class will feature wines from several well-known regions of Italy exploring what makes them distinct from each other. You'll identify Italian grape varietals, viticultural practices and winemaking styles, with a special focus on recent innovations and traditional techniques. Discover the language of the Italian wine labels as well as the country's Wine Laws and various systems by which its wines are classified. Finally, no class on Italian Wine would be complete without a discussion of Italian cuisine, as the two are inseparable.

Each class will be devoted to a single, premium Californian wine such as chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel and Pinot Noir. Special tasting note sheets will guide students to an understanding of such terms as balance, complexity, aroma, bouquet, fruit, tannins, body and aftertaste. You will develop an understanding of labels, wine buying and storage, matching wine to food, and wine service. Smell and taste samples of individual wine components will demonstrate their uniqueness.

Food and wine, the perfect marriage? Like all marriages, the pairing of food and wine can have its moments of doubt. There are certain rules to enable everyone to enjoy food and wine without having to be structured with "red wine with red meat and white wine with fish and poultry." These classes will pursue the idea of pairing what we want to eat with the wines we want to drink. The ingredients and tastes of wine will be identified and then tied into foods commonly and less commonly eaten. The class will follow how our perceptions of combinations change as we taste wine and food separately and then alternately. As a result of this, the class will learn to identify what makes tastes change as the wine and the food is tasted. Why some dishes have to be cooked quickly and others slowly, to bring out the mutually compatible elements. Why some cheeses are better with red wine and others with white wine.

Do you want to start your own wine collection based on your own interests and preferences? In this wine tasting class, you will study the history of specific grapes from various regions and learn about the effect of climate on grape growing and wine production as well as the normal longevity of wines and how wines should be stored. The complementary relationship between food and current vintages is also covered. Gain a fundamental understanding of wine making, tasting and production so you can begin to collect and store wines for future consumption and enjoyment.

What do you do when you've gotten reservations at a four-star restaurant and the maitre d' hands you a 50-page wine list that looks like an unabridged dictionary? Do you go ahead and order the most expensive bottle and hope you've done the right thing? Do you close your eyes and throw a mental dart at the list? Do you ask the waiter for advice, or the sommelier? What if you have never heard of any of the wines? Is Macon Lugny red or white? And isn't Dolcetto d'Alba an opera you once slept through? This experiential two-evening course takes the anxiety out of one of life's great pleasures - a restaurant meal. Ordering wine from a restaurant list or buying wine in a store today can be very challenging, given the huge number of wine choices, both domestic and imported. This course will demystify the wine ordering process. You'll learn how to read a wine list with confidence, choose quality wines at any price level, pronounce imported wine names and choose the right wine to pair with any cuisine. We'll taste and discuss 8 to 10 wines at each session, including Old and New World selections.

While we all love our French Bordeaux, Italian Barolo and Spanish Rioja, there is more to European wine than those familiar classics. This class is for experienced students of wine who want to learn about the latest in European wines. There has been a quality revolution in Spanish wines, an explosion of Italian wines and some great recent vintages of German wines. You'll also explore the latest in French wine regions and look at upcoming regions such as Austria, Portugal and Greece.

One of the world's benchmark wines, Bordeaux are not just expensive red wines! Discover the diversity of Bordeaux wines from everyday reds to the finest Grands Crus Classes, dry whites and unctuous sweet wines. The course will begin with an overview of the history and quality factors that define Bordeaux and explore Bordeaux regions by breaking it up into six families of wine. The course will also give you a primer on the Grands Crus Classes, those select wines whose exclusive ranking in independent classification systems distinguishes them from other wines in their respective appellations.

Where do the original Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines come from? More than any other fine wine region, Burgundy claims a longer history and the most intensive study of vineyards which define the word terroir. This course will cover the history and appellation system of Burgundy as well as the five main regions of Chablis, the Cote d' Or, the Cote Chalonnaise, the Maconnais and Beaujolais. Explore the climate and soils of these regions, as well as winemaking methods which result in unique expressions of these flagship grape varieties.

This wine tasting class will cover the history, wine regions, climate information, weather patterns, types of grapes grown and general information on each of the three countries studied. Since South Africa was settled first in the 17th century, it will serve as a benchmark to Australia and New Zealand's development of their wine industries from settlement in the late 18th century to today. Wines from each county will be served, identifying the grapes introduced and their sources, and how the wines differ from their "home county/source" wines. Information on foods that are indigenous to the areas will be shared as well as ethnic backgrounds of the early settlers that affected wine production.

Explore the history of the wine producing areas of Europe and study similar wines from non-European countries. Wines from these areas are compared by considering the grapes used as well as the similarities of climate and culture. Throughout the course, you can record similarities and create your own personal library of various tasting experiences. The food and history of the wine producing areas are discussed and incorporated into the lectures to provide an overall appreciation of the wine tasted and give you confidence when selecting your wines for specific foods.