Ok everyone. You are the first to hear the news. I'm starting a new business as part of Oregon Wine Tours, Inc. I've been thinking (honestly) about doing some wine education, but one of my pet peeves is a person doing wine education with out the proper education or certification to do so. Harry Ryan has been a good friend of ours for many years and has taught me a great deal. He has driven for me since I started and now it's time we take this a step forward. Harry is a certified sommelier trough the Court of Master Sommeliers. He is also certified as a wine educator. He is a professional wine judge. He has worked for years making wine and in the tasting room. He has taught hundreds of people in a class room like setting. He is highly sought after for his knowledge and experience. He knows more about biodynamic farming than most. He has worked under what I consider one of the best wine makers anywhere. He has been studying for his Master Sommelier title for several years now. I'm very lucky to be able to work with Harry and to call him a friend. He knows his wine, he is passionate about it and is excellent at teaching it. I've learned a great deal from him and I hope you can too.
I'm introducing Wine Education To Go. I'm combining a wine tour and structured, class room wine education. When you think about it, who wants to learn about anything in a room? The best way to learn is to be interactive. Well, we can't exactly go into a winery and start stomping on grapes, but you can see the equipment, touch the equipment and even smell the equipment. You learn about the soils by looking at, touching and yes, smelling the soil.
We will have three different classes all built on the same structure. We visit three wineries. Each one with a specific focus on a wine topic. You will be given a booklet at the start of the tour with all of the information you will cover during the day. Plenty of photographs, drawings and easy to read text on your wine course.
First is the wine evaluation. Basically how to taste and evaluate the wine from the perspective of a wine judge. After all, Harry Ryan is a wine judge. You will learn in detail what the color and other visual attributes mean to a wine. Learn about the bouquet of the wine and start to develop that sense of smell. Taste the wine and learn to pick up those hints in the back of the taste...
The next stop we start to learn about Oregon's wine history, the soils and AVA's and what makes Oregon, Oregon. We go into the winery where we see the equipment used in making the wine and talk about the different choices the wine maker has when making their wine. Why they use native yeast instead of packaged and other choices they make. One thing I am frequently asked is how do they get that strawberry or cherry taste in the wine? Do they put berries in when fermenting the wine? We talk about that.
Then wrap it all up at the end of the day with extensive food and wine pairings. We provide several types of foods and a couple of different wines to try different combinations of whites and reds with fruits, cheeses, meats, nuts, chocolates and so on. You might be surprised what you can learn here. I've certainly learned to keep an open mind!
I've just posted the web site so we are now official. I've spent hours and hours to prepare this. Again, I've designed the web site myself, created the logo which isn't a huge stretch from Oregon Wine Tours, but it's that way for a reason. Harry Ryan has done the printed material and I've edited it and put it in the format which we use in each class.
The groups will always be between 6 and 10 people so you get very individual attention. The classes are fun, interactive, you taste some nice wines and learn a ton about wine. It is an intense day of learning.
Ultimately I want to start providing tasting room consulting, train tasting room staff on wine and how to better serve their guests. I've seen too many tasting rooms with people who knew nothing about wine and trying to b.s. their way through answering questions. I've seen too many tasting rooms where they pour the wines in no particular order and trash talking other wineries. I am the biggest preacher on wine should be fun and unpretentious, but... Not stuffy, just proper. Be able to answer basic questions and be able to make the experience more enjoyable for everyone.
I hope this works as well as I think it will. Any comments? Please give me your thoughts on this.
Go enjoy a nice bottle of wine with a loved one.
Cheers!
