As many of you have seen through my instagram posts, I started taking a wine class! It is a wine certification class through the Wine & Spirit Education Trust – Level 2 Award in Wine & Spirits. I am absolutely loving the class so far, and wanted to share a bit more about the class!
Some background :
I love wine. I learned about wine from my parents and learned to appreciate all the varietals (even though I was convinced I hate merlot – not to sound too cheesy!). Specifically, I learned the basics real quick about how to pair wine with food. I have always been fascinated by how wine is made and the art & science of it all. Throughout the years, my interest has heightened and during a recent trip to Napa in January, I found out about the WSET program (Thanks Jessica Baker!). Maybe I should take the class, I asked myself. its a great way to learn more about wine in a more academic (less boozy) situation. Almost serendipitously, when I returned from my trip, I did this ‘team-bonding’ activity at work in which we did a Strengths Finder exercise which helps identify your top inherent strengths. One of my top five strengths is Learning. No shocker here. I absolutely love to learn. I have always loved school and I love continually finding new things to learn. I’m not sure if its all the wine I drank in Napa or these two key things, but I booked the wine class by the end of the day!
So I’m only a few classes in, but already have learned a great deal. We started by learning how to actually taste wine and ALL the spitting that’s involved! We quickly delved deeper into each grape varietal. This has allowed us to go from learning about the grape (Syrah) to the regions its grown in (northern Rhone, France) to understanding the climate and environment (steep hills, sunlight, and good drainage) to then understanding how the wine is usually made (manual harvest, typically using oak, sometimes mixing Syrah & Viognier) to the characteristics of the final product (complex, ageworthy wines, herbaceous, spicy notes) – for example! So before even taking a sip of a wine, I can already tell you some valuable things to know about what you’re able to drink !
I’m so fascinated in learning more about how the uncontrollable nature impacts the wine – the climate, environment, soil. And then how the artistry of wine making is this mysterious artsy-science that produces something beautiful a
nd unique that we get to enjoy! In these classes I’m going a bit deeper than what I think everyone needs, but all my wine drinking friends can benefit from what I have learned. Just knowing how to review a wine menu when you don’t recognize anything, can be valuable. I’m thinking about doing some mini-lessons with my girlfriends where I just talk to them about some of these basics, while drinking wine, of course.
I’ll continue to share things I learn in the class through this blog. In the meantime, I’m going to leave you with some fun facts I’ve learned!
- 17g of sugar = 1% alcohol (in wine)
- If you see the word domaine on the label, it refers to the producer, who makes wine exclusively from the grapes grown in their own vineyard
- Pouilly-Fume = Sauvignon Blanc & smokey, Pouilly-Fuisse – Chardonnay & tropical fruit
- Pinot Noir is very picky about where its grown! (so demanding, but easy to drink!)
- Oak treatment (ex. aging wine in oak barrels) adds to the taste – common flavors include toast, vanilla, and coconut
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