Yes, our May [June] 21 wine class was all about butter and grass. What the #!%% does that have to do with wine you ask? Well we actually tasted those flavors in the four wines we tried. We had a non-buttery 2005 Beaujolais Blanc, Appellation Beaujolais Controlee from France and buttery 2005 Reaction Chardonnay from the U.S. Well guess which one took the taste prize. Mmmm, butter!!! And I might note that the Reaction had a 14% alcohol content compared to 12% for the Beaujolais. Remember last month’s lesson? Then we had the grassy wines: a 2006 Bogle Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc from California and a 2005 Barons de Rothschild Bordeaux (also a sauvignon blanc), both of which demonstrated the taste we were looking for. Think fresh mown lawn, fresh herbs – audacious herbaceous. In the end, though, butter ruled. Well, duh!
It’s getting exciting now that we’re learning about these specific flavors. The next class, scheduled for July19, will focus on something near and dear to my heart – spice!! We’ll taste an American gewurtztraminer and an Alsation gewurtztraminer on the white side and an old world and new world syrah (aka shiraz Down Under) on the red side. We’ll make it especially fun by having a number of actual spices available to make comparisons. And then, if that’s not enough, we’ll take a look at floral tastes for dessert with some moscato d’asti. Oh, my beating heart! For this month’s class, our last until September, we’ll concentrate on the rest of Chapter 3 of Andrea Immer Robinson’s Great Wines Made Simple (pages 64 through 78). Don’t forget, we have a copy of the book on loan at the Club Bar if you don’t have a copy of your own. It’s informative and a thoroughly enjoyable read.
We’ll get started with the tasting at about 7:00 p.m. We all usually stay for dinner and have a little more wine, of course. And don’t forget, there will be the special dessert tasting afterwards.
It’s never too late to join the fun (and we do have fun, especially after tasting and retasting four wines!). Classes are $10 per person per class – a real bargain considering the amount of wine you may try.
Hope to see you on July 19!
Suzy Marquard