Web & Wine Night - June 14th

I'm happy to report that Web & Wine Night was a striking success. Participants were treated to an informative technology education session from Burlington Bytes that focused on SEO, Design, Social Media, & Web Development, while the wine component of the evening explored "The Effects of Terroir and Winemaker Influence," in a presentation led by yours truly.

The effects of terroir and winemaker influence are some of my favorite wine subjects to discuss, and I really appreciated the level of interaction and engagement from the "Web & Wine" crowd. Our 4 wines from France, California, and Oregon, generously provided by Baker Distributing, provided a fantastic example of how the aforementioned factors can affect the taste and character of a wine. 

Our four wines were as follows:

• 2014 Christian Moreau Chablis, Chablis, France
• 2013 Healdsburg Ranches "Slightly Oaked" Chardonnay, California
• 2014 Joseph Drouhin Laforêt Bourgogne Rouge (Pinot Noir), Burgundy, France
• 2014 Argyle Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon

This event was hosted at 2 Church Street, at The Cellar at EB Strong’s. Light appetizers from EB Strong’s catering were also served.

I'd like to extend a big thank you to Burlington Bytes for inviting me to speak, to the staff at EB Strong's for ensuring that the evening ran so smoothly, and to Baker Distributing, for generously donating the wines for the evening. Also, thank you to the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce for sponsoring this fun event!

This was a great time, and I look forward to conducting more tastings along these lines in the near future!

Update on Thursday, June 30, 2016 at 5:38PM by truthinjuice

Here's another great summary of Web & Wine from Business Vermont!

Sparkling Wine: Not Only for New Year's

New Year's Eve is the one evening each year when nearly every wine drinker opts for a bottle of sparkling wine. The pop of the cork, and the effervescent tingling of bubbles on the tongue is an deeply ingrained New Year's tradition, almost like gifts under the tree at Christmas. Sadly, despite this country's affinity for bubbles during the holidays, sparkling wines are largely forgotten during the rest of the year. This does not have to be, nor should it be the case, for sparkling wines are some of the most versatile food wines in existence. A good Champagne can easily bridge the gap between foods that would normally require separate wine pairings, such as steak and lobster. It tames spice nicely, making it a nice match for Asian dishes and sushi. Finally, it is equally well-matched for both light and hearty fare. Champagne's descendents and relatives (Cava, Prosecco, American Sparkling Wines) each have their own virtues as well. Since there is a plethora of sparkling wine articles in circulation this time of year, I'll keep this brief, but I will make the plea that you not constrict your sparkling wine consumption to holiday celebrations. Sparkling wines have so much more to offer.

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Fall Wine Discovery Wraps Up With Champagne, Classic Rioja

Last night marks the first night in the last six weeks that I did not have a wine class to teach, and truth be told, the evening seemed a little empty. Our Fall Wine Discovery series at Levity concluded Monday, November 26th. Our core group of tasters, along with a few drop in guests, gathered to taste some stellar wines, and review the key themes of the course. Over the six weeks of the class, I attempted to provide an introduction to wine appreciation, covering topics ranging from the basics of wine tasting, to the influences of the winemaking process, to the concept of terroir, to an overview of the wines of France, and the wines of Italy.

My goal with the course is to broaden the horizons and palates of the attendees. Over the past six weeks, we have tasted wines that nearly everyone is familiar with, such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The course explored nuanced aspects of these wines, such as when we demonstrated the effects of oak aging and malolactic fermentation on Chardonnay. The course provided overviews of familiar wine producing regions, such as Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Napa Valley, but in an effort to illustrate the vast number of wines and wine producing regions that consumers can access today, also highlighted more lesser-known wine producing regions and grape varietals, such as Ribolla Gialla, Saumur-Champigny, Savennieres, and Gamay, among others.

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Exploring Italy with a Special Guest: Wine Discovery Week 5

Monday night marked the penultimate class in the Fall Wine Discovery Series at Levity. This has been an incredibly fun course to teach, with a great core group that has been augmented by drop-in attendees. Over the last five weeks, we have covered a multitude of topics, ranging from the basics of wine tasting, to the influences of the winemaking process, to the concept of terroir, to an overview of the wines of France. Each of the classes has built upon the material covered in the classes before it. This past Monday, armed with the knowledge accumulated over the previous four weeks, our core group of wine explorers embarked on an overview of one of the world's most complex wine producing countries: Italy.

It is impossible to do justice to the entirety of wine production in Italy in a single evening. The country is comprised of over 300 DOC zones, and more than 800 distinct grape varietals can be found within Italy's borders. Nonetheless, in last night's class, we covered the basics of Italian wine, including the Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC), which governs wine production in Italy, and is even more restrictive than France's analogous AOC. Other terminology relative to the classification of Italian wines such as Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG), Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT), and Vino da Tavola (VdT) were also explained.   

Wine Discovery at Levity with Rafael Flores of Artisanal CellarsExplaining the basics of Italian wine is always fun, but the true highlight of last night's class came in the form of a special guest. As much as I love talking about Italian wines, I could not have been more thrilled when Rafael Flores, founder and owner of Artisanal Cellars, accepted my offer to join the class for our discussion of Italy.

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Wine Discovery Week 4: The Wines of France

In the fourth week of our Wine Discovery Series at Levity, we focused on the wines of France. On Monday night, we discussed the French appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) system, and how it governs the production of French wines, as well as other agricultural products in France. We moved from a discussion of the AOC moved to an instruction of how to read a French wine label, and then explored a few key French wine regions in detail. 

We began the evening with two white wines from the Loire Valley, a Saviennieres and a Muscadet. After briefly touching on the history of those two regions, and the general characteristics of their wines, we changed over to red wines for our exploration of France's two most heralded wine producing regions: Burgundy and Bordeaux. 

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