©This story is property of The
CyBurr, the online version of The Burr,
Story by Sarah Jones
It was just
after
“Don’t take this class if you’re hung-over,” Michelle Snyder, senior organizational communication major, whispered.
The pillows are necessary for the bus ride shuttling the group to local wine venues, she explained.
On the last
day of the Environment of Wineries and Vineyards in
The 2-credit pass-fail wine tasting
workshop is one of
Erickson, a geography professor, began the class 10 years ago with his colleague, Thomas Schmidlin, who left the workshop when he was named chair of the geography department.
Since the beginning, the class filled up almost immediately and spawned an extensive waiting list, Erickson said.
“I knew it would be a popular topic,” he said. “It seems like almost everyone on campus has heard of it or knows someone who has taken it.”
Many students often cite word-of-mouth as their introduction to the class. Kristy Kalnitzky, senior marketing major, said she heard about it through friends when she was a freshman, and looked forward to taking it when she was of age.
The
workshop consists of three days of class that run from around
The group travels to various wineries, restaurants and wholesalers in the region. “I wouldn’t suggest going hung-over,” said Kalnitzky, who took the first session of the class.
From Busch to Bully
Hill
Wine tasting workshops like this aren’t unique, Erickson said. The difference in the one offered here is the size as well as the traveling.
He said
that all geography departments at
“There’s a lot of geography in understanding wine,” Erickson said. He also teaches a 3-credit graded course on the geography of wine.
Most universities fill a lecture hall then offer the tasting part through a lab taught by a graduate assistant, he said.
The idea for this incarnation came from another geography innovation—the mobile environmental workshop.
“The idea of putting students on a bus grew from that,” Erickson said. “We just visit wineries instead of environmental control agencies.”
“We’re going to do this family style,” he announced, passing a bottle around. “Help yourself.”
Few people finish their sample, though not entirely due to displeasure with the wine.
“I can’t finish this so early in the morning,” senior conservation major Aimee Bowling said through soured lips, as Stack introduced the next bottle.
Erickson asked students to declare their preference of the two. The group was evenly split.
“A lot of people say you have to drink red wine with red meat and white wine with white meat,” Stack told the group. “But if you don’t like red just drink white. It’s about finding what you like.”
Growing
up on “Busch Beer and tequila,” Stack said he didn’t develop an appreciation
for wine until he started working at
Reading wine books like “Wine for Dummies” is a good way to start, he said, but it won’t mean anything without tasting.
“Wine is a fun alternative to beer,” he said. “Pick a Friday night where everyone brings their favorite bottle.”
Kalnitzky said the class helped her develop her tastes.
“It was nice to see that wine is sold in containers besides boxes,” she said. “There is good stuff out there.”
Stack also said shopping at a store with a wine specialist can be comforting to a beginning wine drinker.
“They want to help you because they want you to come back,” he said.
He emphasized that once beginners like Kalnitzky discover their favorites, it’s important to try new things.
The
Wine Culture
Tony Carlucci, an independent wine educator and the workshop’s other instructor, said many young people don’t understand how to properly drink wine.
“We don’t live in a
wine culture,” he said. “In
Growing up in an Italian family, Bowling said she has been a wine enthusiast for a while.
“I started when I was young,” she said. “Under supervision, of course.”
Because many households have only one parent, or both parents work, sit-down family dinners have lapsed, Carlucci said. And wine is intended to be enjoyed with food.
The eating situation is even worse for college students, who have notoriously poor diets, he said.
“Young people tend to rush a lot,” Carlucci said. “Wine is a slow-me-down sort of thing. Young people aren’t in that mindset yet.”
Naturally, Erickson explained the lack of an American wine culture from a geographical standpoint.
“There’s an
association of wine with ethnicity,” he said.
“People who come from
Even families that
come from traditional wine producing countries like
The eastern American climate and
soil didn’t help, he said. Initially, nobody grew classic grapes in the east,
but by the late 1800’s Germanic wines were being produced, with
Unfortunately, wine snobs still turn up their noses at those initial exports, Carlucci said.
“
But Carlucci said
that image is improving, with several wineries, like Firelands
Winery in
He said about 20 new wineries have opened in the past five years.
“Ohioans are drinking more wine,” Carlucci said. “But there’s still an image problem in the state, as well as out.”
Unlike several western
states such as
The Winery at
The picturesque winery was started by the late Andy Wineberg more than 20 years ago, and is now run by Andy Troutman.
The wine tasting group is situated in the winery’s window-lined, modern country tasting room. A multi-level deck encases the room, with steps leading down to the rolling hills and distant silver pond.
Kalnitzky said she was so taken with the site that she brought her friends out for a Saturday afternoon picnic.
Troutman, a native
of
“I thought ‘Who
grows grapes in
Troutman tells the student to grab a glass as he offers a sample of his products.
“You may be wondering about these labels,” he said, referring to the quartered design with romantic iconography.
Wolf Creek Wines feature the Relationship series, started by Wineberg, he explained.
The series begins with Twilight and Afterglow—then moves into White Lies, Original Sin, Red Flag and Sweet Revenge.
“With every new wife
there was a new label,” Troutman, who also owns another vineyard in
After lunch at the
Olive Garden in Chapel Hill Mall in
“I bet most of you guys didn’t even know this was here,” Erickson said to the group.
Viking Vineyards has
a completely different look from the Winery at
In their faire isle sweaters, owners Jeff and Dana Nelson seem just as likely to pour visitors a cup of hot chocolate as they do a glass of wine. In fact, Viking’s specialty is a mix of Red Wine and chocolate that has been compared to a cherry cordial, Dana Nelson said.
However, after a long morning, and a brief, unpleasant trek into the vineyards, most students were too exhausted to enjoy their surroundings.
Snyder ducked back inside before Jeff Nelson had finished explaining his grape vines.
Still, when it’s over Snyder said she learned a lot.
“You don’t have to know a lot to appreciate wine,” Erickson said. “But you have to know a little.”
A tool for getting
ahead
Bowling said that she had been to
wine tastings in
“These tastings are actually pretty close to what you’d get out there,” she said. “This class has a good range of wines, but it’s definitely a beginner class.”
The average wine drinker is over 40, makes at least $50,000 a year and is college educated, Carlucci said.
“It’s a good for me because I’ll be going into business,” Kalnitzky said. “I’ll be going to dinner with clients or entertaining, so I’ll look like I know what I’m doing.”
Erickson said he hopes to open a non-credit section for people who work as servers in restaurants or in stores.
Ultimately, Erickson said the goal of the class is for students to learn enough about wine to be able to either enjoy it socially or take it to the next level.
“Keep it fun,” Carlucci said. “The neat thing about wine tasting is there’s
a lot to learn.”
E-mail: sejones2@kent.edu
©This story is property of The
CyBurr, the online version of The Burr,