Opportunities for wine education abound – but the best begin in the bottle

It doesn’t matter what grape was used or even where in the world a wine was made; wine basics are the same everywhere. White or red. Dry or sweet. Light or heavy. But once you understand the elementary aspects of wine, there is so much more to learn. Yet trying to educate oneself about wine is almost like looking in an encyclopedia if you are trying to bake a cake. There are thousands of books and Web sites on the subject, each filled with wine facts, opinions, charts and graphs. The information is in there, but how do you find it? Books are a good place to start (I have long found that Kevin Zraly’s “Windows on the World Complete Wine Course” and “Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book” give the most thorough and the easiest-to-understand information), but nothing beats learning through experience. I have always suggested that one of the greatest resources for enhancing your understanding of wine is right in our own back yard: local wineries and their tasting rooms. Visiting the places where wine is made offers multiple opportunities for learning, from sampling specific wines and chatting with winery staff about them to sensory experiences that make things click. I had my own such experience more than 20 years ago, when it finally registered with me what flavor and aroma was associated with oak. For years I had tasted oak in wines, but I found it very difficult to separate it from other flavors. One day, while I was visiting Mount Pleasant Winery in Augusta, a shipment of beautiful new oak barrels was being delivered. It happened to be raining, and the smell of wet oak filled the air – and the concept of oak flavor and aroma finally clicked for me. You’ll get the most out of a winery visit if you approach it with the dual purpose of enjoyment and education. There are well over 100 wineries in Missouri and Illinois open to the public, most with trained staffs eager for information-hungry visitors to sample their wines and soak up their knowledge. And although virtually all wineries are educating consumers in some form, there are a few that conduct organized events and classes focused on learning about wine. Phyllis Meagher at Meramec Vineyards in St. James offers Wine School 101, where she focuses on breaking down the taste of wine into its various parts and flavors, and then building a vocabulary to describe them, with exercises useful for novices and experts alike. The Adam Puchta Winery in Hermann offers various sweet, savory and spicy crackers and chocolates during its wine tastings; while not officially a class, it is a good lesson on pairing wine and food flavors and is complemented nicely by a food-pairing section on the winery’s Web site. Mount Pleasant is among the most aggressive promoters of wine education, offering classes about cooking with wine and buying wine in restaurants for corporate or group bookings. Seminars open to the public focus on introducing the basics in Wine 101 and setting aside perceived gender differences in Wine for Women. The most in-depth offering seems to be the port class, which includes a multivintage vertical tasting of Mount Pleasant port with complementary desserts. Mount Pleasant also offers a walking tour and lunch in the vineyards that shows interested students how vines are planted, grown, pruned and trellised. All of the classes are conducted by winemaker Mark Baehmann. Several local wineries also offer educational information online. Augusta Winery has very visual tours – of a vineyard throughout the growing season and of grape harvest to winery storage – on its Web site. Stone Hill Winery in Hermann has two informative presentations online dedicated to the basics of wine consumption and production. But the greatest educational experience for me is the 10-year vertical Norton tasting at Stone Hill. Held every April, the always-sold-out event presents attendees with the unique opportunity to taste 10 vintages of Stone Hill Norton. Samples from each year are lined up in front of each taster to exhibit not only the quality of the grape but the changes that occur in wine as it ages over a 10-year period. Many good classes are also available at wine shops and restaurants around town. I am incredibly encouraged about the opening of the St. Louis Wine Clinic, led by Advanced Sommelier and Certified Specialist of Wine Chris Hoel of Monarch Restaurant and Wine Bar. Held at Busch’s Grove in Ladue, the eight-week course covers the world of wine, from grape varieties to the production process to wines from each of the world’s major wine producing regions. (Hopefully, the curriculum will include Missouri wines in the future.) If you want to learn wine casually or formally, numerous options are available to you in our area – though, ultimately, the best place to start is to simply get a good corkscrew and start opening bottles.