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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Back at BRIX, Exploring Europe's Legacy in South America

From June of 2008, to July of 2009, I had the pleasure of working as a Wine Consultant at one of Boston's premier wine retailers, BRIX Wine Shop. Owned by long-time friends and wine afficionados, Carri Wroblewski and Klaudia Mally, BRIX has taken the Boston wine scene by storm since their opening in 2003. Featuring stunning architecture, and a selection of wines that is quite possibly beyond compare, BRIX has become a destination location for wine lovers in the Boston area.

This past weekend, I went to Boston to see The Tragically Hip live in concert at The House of Blues. The Hip, as their loyal following affectionately refers to them, have been my favorite band since I was a senior in high school, and I make it a point to see them whenever their tour schedule brings them into the New England area. However, as I was making plans to see the concert, I thought I'd check in with Carri to see if I might make a homecoming to BRIX, and host a tasting at the South End shop on Saturday night.

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Recap: Wine Discovery Week 3: Terroir

Monday night marked the 3rd week in our Wine Discovery series at Levity. We had a few newcomers join us for the class last night, adding to what has been a great group of wine enthusiasts. Our class last night focused on terroir.

Terroir is the French term for soil. In the vineyard, it encompasses soil type and geographic factors which may influence the quality of wine. The philosophy of terroir holds that where a wine is grown is of paramount importance when determining the quality of a wine, moreso than the winemaker or winery that produced it. While this viewpoint is hotly debated, it cannot be completely discounted, as wines from certain regions (Chablis, Barolo, Burgundy, etc.) have characteristics that simply cannot be replicated elsewhere, despite the best efforts and intentions of winemakers.

What exactly it is that makes good wine is debatable, but to some extent all quality wines result from a combination of good winemaking and good grapes. However, with that being said, it should be recognized that in some cases, the best style of winemaking is to simply guide the grapes from the vineyard to the bottle, with as little intervention as possible. When wines are overly manipulated, the inherent character of the grape and the region are lost, leaving us with wines with a homogenous flavor profile, and a lack of geographic identity. I'm not opposed to modern winemaking techniques, or the judicious use of oak, but I want my wines to display a sense of place.

On Monday, we explored terroir by tasting through the following line-up of wines:

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