Wine Tasting

Many students have joined our sommelier, Todd, recently to learn about red wines, especially the Chiantis.  The evening began with a little lecture about the different wine classifications throughout Italy. The wine classifications the students learned were: (from lowest to highest level of quality) VDT: Vino da Tavola (Table Wine), IGT: Indicazione Geografica Tipica (Higher quality than table wines, but do not follow the Chianti’s rules of wine making; in this category you will find wines like the Super Tuscans.), DOC: Denominazione di Origine Controllata, DOCG: Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (both DOC and DOCG refer to wines from a very specific region in Italy and have to follow specific rules of how they produce their wine, DOCG is a higher quality level of wine than the DOC).

After their introduction of the different classifications of wine they were finally able to put their taste buds to use as they tasted the wine. Todd asked the students to judge the flavors, texture and aromas they smelled and tasted by whether it was flowery, smoky, oaky, fruity, bitter or smooth. He also explained to the students the meaning of tannins: by having the students swash the wine around their teeth in order to test how strong the tannins were by how much the wine “stuck” to their teeth.

This was definitely interesting to see all the students trying to figure out what they were really tasting. The students walked away from the tasting session with some wine knowledge basics.