Back to school - week 2

Now that I knew my way to class,  I had no excuse for being late. I weaved my way through the dancer filled hallway enroute to the class.  As I breathlessly entered the doorway I was greeted my the instructor for the evening, Ms. Finnegan, who asked for my first and last name. After I stated my name I heard someone say, "Technicolor". I turned quickly to see who remembered the name of the blog.  It was the owner, Mr. Youman.

Most students were seated in the same seat they had sat in the previous week. There were a few exceptions - I was one of them. This evening I sat in the last row in an end seat.  The instructor reviewed several topics from the previous week with the class. To help the class identify various scents items were distributed to the class to smell(e.g. green apple slices, orange slices, a package of seaweed).

 My classmate turned to me, pointed to a glass and asked, "do you know what that is?" I poured the a few of the leaves into my hand and chewed them. My classmate watched expectantly. I replied, " I think it's mint, but I can't tell if it's packaged as a tea or just a package of mint. I'll ask the instructor." I asked the instructor which made a few students look to see which glass I was referring to. The instructor asked what I thought it was. I replied that I thought it was mint. When she confirmed that I was correct, my classmate, nodded and said, "impressive".  I say it's life experience and sensory memory- I've grown mint in the past, brewed it for drinking and have used it when cooking.

A fellow diner recently told me that I should think of wines and spirits in terms of regions and not by varietal (i.e., I enjoy Spanish tempranillo wines versus I enjoy tempranillo wines). The focus of this evening's class provided a good foundation to understand the primary growing regions for several varietals and how climate, soil conditions, drainage and aspect (soil in relation to sun)can impact the grape's taste and aromas.

Two factoids that stood out in my mind:

Pouilly- fumé  is Sauvignon blanc
Pouilly - fuissé is Chardonnay

We also talked a great deal about Geographical Indications (GI), Protected Geographical Indications (PGI) and the organizations that support and enforce the indications. For example, only sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France can be called Champagne.  Hence the sparkling wines of California, Cava from Spain, Prosecco from Italy.

Our homework assignment? Try wines during the week and apply the classification system used in class. This along with the information discussed in class would help reinforce topics that might appear on the exam.

The exam...in 4 weeks . Time to do more homework and make more flashcards! The midway point of the class was next week. Yikes!


Week 3: methods used in the production of sparkling wine and the style of these wines.


Be well,

Technicolor girl