Up early today. This week I am one of five people responsible for setting up the "tasting room". We have to polish all the wine glasses used, water glasses, put white linens on the table, set up each place setting (paper place mat, 6 wine glasses, one water glass, and a "spit glass"), set out water pitchers and one box of crackers per table. As Cassie (the girl who sits next to me in wine class) says, they have absolutely no taste but start to look good when you are hungry. The crackers have no taste because they are used, along with water to cleanse your palate between glasses of wine. Then we go back upstairs to the main school building for breakfast. Today they made waffles with sides of strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream. There was also the usual homemade granola and yogurt, dry cereal and coffee.
Today the Food Network was shooting a segment on one of our chefs, John Parks. We had to stay away from the front patio of the school as they were shooting outside (it has finally turned sunny!). Can't wait to see it on TV. Apparently Food Network shot a segment earlier on ice cream. I plan on looking that up. Yeah Cook Street!
Debbie did a recap today on yesterday's class. Thank goodness! Piedmont, in northern Italy makes both red and white wines. The red grapes are Nebbiolo, Barbera and Dolcetto. Piedmont's white grapes are Moscato, Cortese and Arneis. The two most famous DOC's are Barolo and Barbaresco. Piedmont has a continental climate and is mountainous.
Veneto, also in northern Italy, has two main DOCs. Soave makes white wines with the Garganega, (sounds like a syfy movie-Gargantua vs Godzilla, lol) Trebbiano and Chardonnay. Soave also makes Prosecco-a tasty sparkling wine. The other DOC is Valpolicella which makes red wines. The grapes used for these wines are Corvina, Molinara and Rendinella.
After this, we started in on central Italy. Central Italy has four regions: Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Marche and Umbria. Tuscany is where Chianti and Chianti Classico are made. All Chiantis are made with the Sangiovese grape. They also make white wines made with the Vernaccia and Trebbiano grapes. There are even "Super Tuscan" wines-wines that do not fit into the typical chianti mold. It amazes me that
there are so many grapes out there!! Emiglia-Romagna is primarily a food region, although the do make Lambrusco Reunite. Some of you may already be familiar with Reunite (ree-u-neat-ee).
Because of the Food Network shoot we were on our own for lunch. Four of us ladies went to Venice (not the city but the restaurant across from Union Station). We thought that if we were studying Italian wines, we should be eating Italian food! Venice has a happy hour that goes from 11am to 7pm! Glasses of wine we were $6.00 (say, these are the same wines we were drinking this morning!!) and small plates of food for $4.50. They offered gnocchi in a creamy pesto sauce, squash filled ravioli, bruschetta, stuffed mushrooms and so much more. Needless to say, we had a wonderful time!
Back in class we covered southern Italy. Each student was given a different area to present-everyone did a great job! Southern Italian regions include: Lazio (this is the region Rome and the Vatican are in), Abruzzi, Molise, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily and
Sardinia. Lots of history in these regions! I won't go into all the grapes grown in these regions, even I can only take so much, lol!
Tomorrow we move on to Spain. A whirlwind tour of Europe! I am going to add the list of wines we have sampled in class, which at this
point is well over 100. Even Debbie was shocked at the number of wines we have tried!
"Even Cabernet Sauvignon, when it is grown in Tuscany, is a Tuscan Cabernet. It has it's own style.". -Marchesi Piero Antinori
P.S. I took a loaf of my bread to school and everyone loved it. I had given it to Chris because he wanted to try it, but he shared it with everyone. I told him if I had know that and I was any kind of a friend, I would have brought some olive oil with it! (The Mediterranean holy trinity: bread, olive oil and wine).
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