WINE TASTING CLASSES
IN ENGLISH
By DAVID RYDER WITTER
My classes of wine appreciation are designed to:
• Learn how to taste wine to fully appreciate all
its qualities.
• Differentiate among grape
varieties.
• Identify some of the French wine regions
and their wines.
• Learn the basic principles of matching
wine and food.
• Understand the basics of serving and storing wine.
• Learn the best way to store wine.
Each session has different students and different wines,
but each contributes to the goals stated above. The following
list of subjects is usually covered but individual classes
will not include all elements. Beyond the basic wine tasting technique, subjects covered reflect the particular interests of each group.
• What type of wine glasses is best?
• Opening the bottle
• Reading the label.
• 5 tasting steps: see, smell, swirl, sip, and savor
• Vocabulary: terms basic to enjoying wine
• Using the evaluation sheet
• Tasting the wine
• Buying wine
• Storing wine
• Cooking with wine
• Matching food and wine
• Wine in restaurant situations
The classes are small to enable all students to fully
participate. They are held at my apartment in the center
of Paris. Light food appropriate to the wines will be
served during the tasting.
At each session there will be featured wines from particular
regions in France. The wines selected for these seminars
represent either smart values and/or significant regional
or grape characteristics
