Wine study week one

Our first fly

Where wine produced in the USA?

The first week of wine study class and the first week of the last (fifth) semester at the school. Time flies. Did not expected that it will be so fast. Wine class is harder than I expected.  There are A LOT of information, indeed too much. Every time we try to limit it amount a bit, we have an answer from the instructor 'haha, class with major in wine have to know much more'. It's true.

During our first week of study we learned about different types of wine (I thought there are two - red and white. LOL) how grape are grown, the general steps in wine production and some other technical details. We also studied wines of USA. It was a surprise to learn that in the USA wine is made not only in California, but also in
Oregon, New York, Washington and some other places. Actually all 50 states produce wine, even Hawaii and Alaska.

I learned how to taste wine and spit it. The first day was difficult, then it's became the second nature.

Sauternes - my favorite so far

The California is the biggest producer in the USA and probably the best one. However we tasted one very good vine from Carolina. It was made with scuppernong grape and had a great flavor and taste. Sometimes this grape is also called as Muscadine and it has distinct taste of Concord grape.

The other great wine we tasted was Sauternes from Bordeaux. This is wine treated with 'noble rot'. Noble rot is special type of fungus and grape seems to be rotten completely at the harvest, however it starts fermentation process while on the vine and drastically increase the level of sugar. As a result yeast have a lot of 'food' and the wine is quite strong in alcohol. I love it.

Other than that the week was quite simple. Boot camp in the morning (helped the chef) and the class in the afternoon.