I might ALMOST be a wine expert...not...but I'm getting close

     Last night I went to my first wine tasting with “Wine in Provence.” It was a student tasting that took place in the “Le Cave” (the cave-like basement) of a restaurant called “Pasty Cosy.” We got to sample a white wine, multiple rosés, two reds, and a dessert wine; AND we got to sample some food from the restaurant. The owner, Fabian, made up some tapas, a few dishes of pasta, and some desserts for the (about) 35 of us. The food was SO good. The wine tasting itself was so helpful because it was more of an education on how to behave at a wine tasting, and no questions were off limits. By the end of the night I decided I wanted to be Brian and Hilary – the people who own “WineInProvence” and ran the evening. 

 

The rules of wine tasting. The six S's:

1. Stem – You hold the wine glass by the stem as not to warm the wine within the glass.
2. See – Look to see there is nothing floating in your wine(cork particles, bugs, etc), and also note the coulor etc.
3. Swirl – Swirl the wine in the glass, but make sure not to splash the wine out of the glass. Swirling is necessary to aerate the wine which releases all the flavor and aroma as the wine has been sitting in the bottle for months or years.
4. Sniff – Aromas are strongest right after swirling. Make sure your nose is directly over the glass - you're gonna look silly.
5. Sip – Sip the wine. The first sip you should wash around your mouth (not cute). The first hit of the alcohol on your taste buds shocks them and you need to distribute that same shock all over your mouth(a sort of habituation) and re-sip before you can really get the flavor of the wine. This is why you really shouldn't rush tasting the wine in front of a waiter. Take your time to taste – a few sips if necessary – because you're not going to realize it's crappy wine until after a bit.
6. Savor – After all this you can enjoy your wine. One way to really enhance the flavor is to “trill” the wine. This is when you place your tongue on the bottom of your mouth and kind of pool the wine on it. You then tilt your head down (to avoid choking) and suck air over the wine to send a burst of aroma in to your sinuses.

     We also learned a lot of random wine facts. Did you know France keeps about 80% of the wine it makes, and only exports 20% to everywhere else in the world. No wonder it's so expensive in the US!

     We learned about different corks, which is best, and why. Corks only last about 25 years and it's a delicate process to re-cork old wine without letting air slip in, so the wine won't oxidize. Recently, there has been an anti-cork movemenst as the Cork Tree Forests are dwindling - and it's perfectly okay to have wine corked using synthetic cork and plastic – just as long as the air stays out. If you receive a bottle of wine in which the cork has turned purple all the way through you have obtained a bad bottle of wine where oxygen has infiltrated. 

 

     We learned the names of the different sizes of wine bottles, of which some are biblical references. You have your standard bottle of wine, then your magnum - which is double the size, and somewhere in there you have imperial (not so weird) , then starts the real funky names: Jeroboam (a.k.a. Double Magnum), Rehoboam, Methuselah, Mordechai, Salmanazar, Balthazar(he was on of the Wisemen), Nebuchadnezzar, etc. until you get to Melchizedek, which is 30 liters of wine. Whoa.

      Another thing – all wine, when pressed, is white, even if using red, purple, or black grapes. Red and Rose wine are created by letting the skins set in the juice. The length of time dictates how deeply colored the wine will be. 

 

      The whole scene was very laid back, both Brian and Hilary were super approachable, and they were very candid about how half of what wine snobs says is absolute bull. Hilary got a certificate in International Wine something or other from a school in California, which is also where she grew up, near Napa Valley. Brian majored in Political Science and French at the University of Portland, but worked for a year in a vineyard in Virginia with WWOF. The two of them met in Aix, where Brian had come to work on his French, and Hilary had also come to work on her French (at the same school I'm attending) and get her foot in the wine business. Hilary threw a little wine tasting for her friends and caught the attention of Brian. They started having wine tastings/educating-s for friend's parents who came to town and would want an English explanation. Things really took off and the two of them decided they should make their operation legit. They now have regular tastings, tours, wine cheese/chocolate pairings, food classes, etc. for English speakers in the area. I want to be them. Done. 

 

     Anywho, it was a very successful evening. 

Next week is our first break. There are about 6 of us going to Bordeaux(where I shall employ my new wine knowledge), then Lyon, and then on to Venice, Italy for some Carnival Festivities before returning to Aix for a little bit of that school thing....

 Clare (who I go to the UR with) was also there!

Did I mention I'm having an amazing time here?