Wine Club presidents drink with 150 club members, one expert
Jon Adler, WG'07
Issue date: 10/2/06 Section: Insider
- Page 1 of 1
"Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever" - Aristophanes (450 BC - 388 BC)
As all Wharton wine lovers know, the Wine Club's lofty purpose is to educate our refined members about wine by carefully tasting and comparing different wines in classy and dignified surrounds, rather than merely necking the nearest open bottle of Two Buck Chuck (yes, it's really a wine) - at least in theory. Though judging from the dozens of bottles lying empty after last Wednesday's club-wide tasting, the club may instead be comprised of closet hard-core drinkers seeking a thin veil of respectability - and what's wrong with that, anyway?
The Wine Club's first tasting of the year was dubbed "Trend-O-Licious," so-called because it celebrated wines that represent current trends and phenomena in wine today. We were pleased to welcome almost 150 members to Penn's Newman Center, though missing from the attendees was my Co-Prez Healy Jones, who inexplicably and idiotically signed on for elective second year accounting classes and so was MIA at a quiz. Yet another reason why Accounting sucks - you miss out on WINE - and why this article is, unfortunately for you dear readers, all me.
Our master of ceremonies for the tasting was the hilarious W. R. Tish, former editor of Wine Enthusiast magazine, who now freelances for a number of publications and develops corporate and private wine tastings via his website, www.wineforall.com.
Tish is a Harvard alum, and he immediately depressed the crowd by pointing out the fun career you can have when you're an Ivy League graduate who doesn't go to business school versus a future in banking or consulting (on this note, money quote just last week from WG'06 grad, fellow Aussie and now consultant Chris Adams: 'Well, reality has really slapped me in the face. The two year, surreal party that was business school is finally over. I have already stopped using words like "MBA café," "Rosie's" and "Wharton hot," and replaced them with "value added" and "deliverables."' Bugger.)
We kicked off the tasting with Zardetto Prosecco di Conegliano, an Italian sparkling wine with a hint of apples, which is a real bargain at $10 a bottle. We all know that New York bars are expensive, but when we learned that they charged $10 a GLASS for this wine, the room collectively gasped in horror and second year Diamond students vowed to negotiate the price down when next in town. Tish used the Prosecco to outline for our many wine rookies the fundamentals of tasting: assess the colour for age or maturity, inhale the wine deeply to smell the complex aromas on the nose and taste the wine by swirling it around all parts of your mouth, looking for acid, sugar, tannins and general intensity of flavours. Most importantly, savour the experience...
Our palates suitably refreshed, we moved onto The Crossings 2005 Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. Although it pains me as an Aussie to praise anything Kiwi (ok, they play a mean brand of rugby), their "Sav Blancs" are bloody good. In a similar vein to our last Wine Club article, Tish traced Sauvignon Blanc's rise from Pouilly Fume and Sancerre, across to California as Fume Blanc (courtesy of Robert Mondavi) and finally to its new home in NZ's Marlborough region. He explained how the acidity of the wine allows it to cut through the fat contained in food (which is why we drink wine and not grape juice with food), noted the absence of oak in the wine and, to the screams of laughter around the room, highlighted the "cat's piss" aroma that the wine displayed (see, I was not making that up).
Tish contrasted this wine with the Vinum Cellars 2005 "CNW" ("Chard No Way") Chenin Blanc, Clarksburg, California, which many swore blind was a chardonnay due to its floral notes and stone fruit aromas. With this wine, he talked about some of the more technical aspects of winemaking, namely malolactic fermentation, whereby tart malic acid is converted to softer-tasting lactic acid to produce that "buttery" taste often associated with chardonnay. My sense was that overall, the members (and especially the ladies) preferred the Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc to the US white.
Then came the blind tasting: Old World vs. New World. Vidal Fleury 2004 Côtes-du-Rhône vs St. Francis 2002 RED, California. Served in paper bags (the Wine Club is a byword for class) so as to hide the label, each member came to their own verdict as to which wine was which. Opinions flew thick and fast across the table as members attempted to put Tish's wine tasting tips into practice. Most tables, to their credit, were able to pick the difference - the RED was a blend of four disparate grapes culled from diverse regions to create a "fruit grenade," whereas members used words like "dense, rich, flavourful and soft" to describe the southern Rhone Valley blend.
Our final pairing of the night was a study of contrasts: the silky, cherry flavours of the Yamihill Valley Vineyards 2002 Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon (my personal favourite, but I am Pinotphile) versus earthy, tannic flavour of the Château Carignan 2003 Premiéres Côtes de Bordeaux" (what the English might call a "claret"). Wine Club member David Kim (WG'07) insightfully assessed this classic Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot as demonstrating "heavy notes of Pepperidge farm spicy salami mixed with slim jims, with hints of toe cheese. Pretty good, actually. =)."
Our palates challenged, our tongues loosened and our sprits lifted, the members finished off the evening by "tasting" most of the remainder of the bottles before trailing off into the Philadelphia night.
My impression was that we all learned a lot about wines and tasting, and had a brilliant time into the bargain. This doesn't happen without the incredible support of my fellow Wine Club Board members. Without the dedication in particular of Zach Ventress, Camille Garriga, Andrew Rostami, Chris Mendez, Jed Brawley, Michelle Shinn and Jac Fourie (all WG'07), plus some partners and helpful friends, the tasting could not have been the success that I feel it was.
Most of all, I would like to thank Tish, who donated his time and wines to us for the event and showed us what a funny and inspirational wine educator he is. He's been a great friend to the Wharton Wine Club over the years and we appreciate his spending the evening with us. We encourage you to check out his company's web site, www.wineforall.com, and email him questions that you might have about these or other wines. In vino veritas!
As all Wharton wine lovers know, the Wine Club's lofty purpose is to educate our refined members about wine by carefully tasting and comparing different wines in classy and dignified surrounds, rather than merely necking the nearest open bottle of Two Buck Chuck (yes, it's really a wine) - at least in theory. Though judging from the dozens of bottles lying empty after last Wednesday's club-wide tasting, the club may instead be comprised of closet hard-core drinkers seeking a thin veil of respectability - and what's wrong with that, anyway?
The Wine Club's first tasting of the year was dubbed "Trend-O-Licious," so-called because it celebrated wines that represent current trends and phenomena in wine today. We were pleased to welcome almost 150 members to Penn's Newman Center, though missing from the attendees was my Co-Prez Healy Jones, who inexplicably and idiotically signed on for elective second year accounting classes and so was MIA at a quiz. Yet another reason why Accounting sucks - you miss out on WINE - and why this article is, unfortunately for you dear readers, all me.
Our master of ceremonies for the tasting was the hilarious W. R. Tish, former editor of Wine Enthusiast magazine, who now freelances for a number of publications and develops corporate and private wine tastings via his website, www.wineforall.com.
Tish is a Harvard alum, and he immediately depressed the crowd by pointing out the fun career you can have when you're an Ivy League graduate who doesn't go to business school versus a future in banking or consulting (on this note, money quote just last week from WG'06 grad, fellow Aussie and now consultant Chris Adams: 'Well, reality has really slapped me in the face. The two year, surreal party that was business school is finally over. I have already stopped using words like "MBA café," "Rosie's" and "Wharton hot," and replaced them with "value added" and "deliverables."' Bugger.)
We kicked off the tasting with Zardetto Prosecco di Conegliano, an Italian sparkling wine with a hint of apples, which is a real bargain at $10 a bottle. We all know that New York bars are expensive, but when we learned that they charged $10 a GLASS for this wine, the room collectively gasped in horror and second year Diamond students vowed to negotiate the price down when next in town. Tish used the Prosecco to outline for our many wine rookies the fundamentals of tasting: assess the colour for age or maturity, inhale the wine deeply to smell the complex aromas on the nose and taste the wine by swirling it around all parts of your mouth, looking for acid, sugar, tannins and general intensity of flavours. Most importantly, savour the experience...
Our palates suitably refreshed, we moved onto The Crossings 2005 Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. Although it pains me as an Aussie to praise anything Kiwi (ok, they play a mean brand of rugby), their "Sav Blancs" are bloody good. In a similar vein to our last Wine Club article, Tish traced Sauvignon Blanc's rise from Pouilly Fume and Sancerre, across to California as Fume Blanc (courtesy of Robert Mondavi) and finally to its new home in NZ's Marlborough region. He explained how the acidity of the wine allows it to cut through the fat contained in food (which is why we drink wine and not grape juice with food), noted the absence of oak in the wine and, to the screams of laughter around the room, highlighted the "cat's piss" aroma that the wine displayed (see, I was not making that up).
Tish contrasted this wine with the Vinum Cellars 2005 "CNW" ("Chard No Way") Chenin Blanc, Clarksburg, California, which many swore blind was a chardonnay due to its floral notes and stone fruit aromas. With this wine, he talked about some of the more technical aspects of winemaking, namely malolactic fermentation, whereby tart malic acid is converted to softer-tasting lactic acid to produce that "buttery" taste often associated with chardonnay. My sense was that overall, the members (and especially the ladies) preferred the Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc to the US white.
Then came the blind tasting: Old World vs. New World. Vidal Fleury 2004 Côtes-du-Rhône vs St. Francis 2002 RED, California. Served in paper bags (the Wine Club is a byword for class) so as to hide the label, each member came to their own verdict as to which wine was which. Opinions flew thick and fast across the table as members attempted to put Tish's wine tasting tips into practice. Most tables, to their credit, were able to pick the difference - the RED was a blend of four disparate grapes culled from diverse regions to create a "fruit grenade," whereas members used words like "dense, rich, flavourful and soft" to describe the southern Rhone Valley blend.
Our final pairing of the night was a study of contrasts: the silky, cherry flavours of the Yamihill Valley Vineyards 2002 Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon (my personal favourite, but I am Pinotphile) versus earthy, tannic flavour of the Château Carignan 2003 Premiéres Côtes de Bordeaux" (what the English might call a "claret"). Wine Club member David Kim (WG'07) insightfully assessed this classic Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot as demonstrating "heavy notes of Pepperidge farm spicy salami mixed with slim jims, with hints of toe cheese. Pretty good, actually. =)."
Our palates challenged, our tongues loosened and our sprits lifted, the members finished off the evening by "tasting" most of the remainder of the bottles before trailing off into the Philadelphia night.
My impression was that we all learned a lot about wines and tasting, and had a brilliant time into the bargain. This doesn't happen without the incredible support of my fellow Wine Club Board members. Without the dedication in particular of Zach Ventress, Camille Garriga, Andrew Rostami, Chris Mendez, Jed Brawley, Michelle Shinn and Jac Fourie (all WG'07), plus some partners and helpful friends, the tasting could not have been the success that I feel it was.
Most of all, I would like to thank Tish, who donated his time and wines to us for the event and showed us what a funny and inspirational wine educator he is. He's been a great friend to the Wharton Wine Club over the years and we appreciate his spending the evening with us. We encourage you to check out his company's web site, www.wineforall.com, and email him questions that you might have about these or other wines. In vino veritas!
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