I was part of the set-up crew today-our last set-up day for wine class! After set-up, we were served a breakfast of french toast made with brioche and covered in sugar, cardamom and cinnamon. We also had amaretto semi-freddo (ice cream for breakfast, lol) and the usual granola and fruit and coffee. Yum!
Chef Dale came in to give a lesson on table set-up. We learned that there are three menu styles:
1. A La Carte: all items on the menu are priced separately.
2. Table d'hote or Host Table: there is one price for a menu but you get a choice of salad, appetizer, entree.
3. Prix Fixe: One menu at a fixed price.
There are four service styles:
1. American Service: food plated in the kitchen
2. French Service: food prepared and/or served at table side
3. English Service: food served family style
4. Russian Style: banquet style
He also felt we had lost the art of good table manners and service. He went over placement of charger, silverware, glasses, etc. As always, you start on the outside and work your way in with your silverware. You can also replace all the silverware with each course if you don't have room to set up the proper numbers of knives and forks. I guess we will cover napkin folding once we get into the kitchen and start cooking!
After a short break, we moved on to Germany and Austria. Until the 20th century, there were only two great wine producing countries: France, of course, but the other may come as a surprise-Germany. While outstanding wines could occasionally be found elsewhere, no other country came close to these two for the supremacy of their wines. Today Germany still produces some of the world's most majestic wines. What is most remarkable about Germany is that ANY wine at all can be made in a country whose vineyards lie in the northen most extreme of where grapes can ripen. At northern extremes every nuance of terrior is magnified. The best wineyards are alsways plantged on south-facing slopes to catch the light and warmth of every available sunbeam. Most of the vineyards are planted in the river valleys of the Rhine and Mosel Rivers since the bodies of water act to moderate the severe climate. The most prevalent grape grown in Germany is Riesling. Although Germany does produce red wines, most of their wines are white. German wines have a singular quality known as transparency. Rarely found in wines elsewhere, transparency is not so much a thing as a sense that the wines' flavors are utterly naked. The best way to understand transparency is by tasting a top German Riesling and a California chardonnay side by side. The riesling will have real clarity of flavor, the flavors of the chardonnay by comparison, will seem more diffused. "If riesling is like sheer silk stockings, chardonnay is opaque tights."--Karen McNeil
The Germans have a interesting system of measuring sweetness in their wines. A label using Kabinett, which is first picking is the least sweet. Spatlese is a late harvest, which means it is sweeter. Auslese is select picking, which is sweet but not a dessert wine sweet. BA and I will use BA, the German word being VERY long, means berry select picking. This means the grapes are left on the vine to shrivel so they are sweeter. This is the first level of a dessert wine. TBA is the next level and means dry berry select picking. This means the grapes are
left on the vine until they are raisins and then picked. This sweet grape makes a rare dessert wine. The last category is Eiswein or Ice Wine. Eiswein must have at least a BS intensity. The grapes are left on the vine until they are frozen and then harvested and wine made. It gives the wine a unique flavor. Troken on a label means the wine is extremely dry.
Not much was said about Austria, although they do have some good wines. The major grape players in Austria are Gruner Veltliner (white) and Blauer Zweigelt (red). We did taste wine from both these countries. the German wines were not as sweet as I expected them to be and were quite enjoyable.
We were on our own for lunch today. I told some of my classmates I was going home next week for a few days. Chris (one of the guys in my class who wants to open a restaurant with me because "we think and feel the same about food" said to me' "Denver is home for you now, April". I had to laugh.
Debbie let us out early, everyone was a little roudy as we knew this was the last wine class. So I came home and made some bread pudding to use as a dessert for the reception tomorrow, then studied for my exam tomorrow. I sat out on the patio for a bit until one of the guests came and was talking on her cell phone complaining about many things to whomever was on the other line. It has been interesting learning all sides of "innkeeping".
We have an hour of class tomorrow just to take our exam so I will be finishing early again. Wish me luck and say a prayer! I still need to study so I can take my ISG exam Sunday at 5pm (this is the first level exam for the International Sommelier Guild). They will be testing us on different things that most of what we were tested on in our class. So a little more studying before I get to visit Reno!
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