BU of book cover page

Wine Seminars Outline
Olive Oil's Objectives

• create a recurring audience for wine dinners
• educate and inform patrons to create a more knowledgeable guest
• Give customers another reason to come to Olive Oil's

Wine seminar attendees' objectives

• learn about wine in a non-threatening environment
• expand their knowledge of wine
• be able to express what type of wines they like and dislike
• Pair wine with food
• order wine from a restaurant wine list
• pick out wines in a retail wine store
• have fun with friends

Wine Seminar Objectives

• "Teach" about wine in a non-pedantic way
• make each session fun, informative and inspirational
• utilize feedback from each session's attendees to personalize the week's material
• cover a progression of subjects about wine, making each week stand-alone, i.e., not dependent on any other session
• present each seminar in a consistent manner, including specific sub-topics relating to main topic such as:
  • wine and food pairings=create menu with chef
  • taste a selection of wines related to the topic / region
  • sensory analysis of wines tasted: going through all the steps each time
  • what other wines taste like this one?
  • wine vocabulary building

Wine Seminar Typical Structure and Flow

• Outline for this wine dinner/seminar posted online on website 1 week in advance
• 15-20 minute "meet and greet" cocktail time before seating
• Introduction of current week's topic
  • History of winemaking in region
  • Geographical and climate influences
  • Best-known wineries and producers
  • Q & A for input from group
• Serve first course with first wine(s)
  • Sensory evaluation, tasting
  • Group discussion of wine and food pairing
• Serve second course with second wine(s)
  • Everyone changes seats before this course!  Get to know your new tablemates
  • Taste and discuss second wine
• Serve last course
  • Back to your original tables (if you would like!)
  • Taste and discuss 3rd wine
• Steve will circulate throughout dinner to speak with each table individually
• Group discussion of wines and food pairings
• Preview of next dinner's subject

Wine seminar schedule featured on Steve's web sites, including facebook, my space, twitter, wine 2.0, linked in, etc
Wine Seminars: Proposed Topics (1 per session)
How Wine is Made

• Grape Cultivation and harvesting
• Wine production: white wine vs red wine
• Where does the alcohol come from?  And can I get some more please???(kidding!)
• Fermentation, maceration, malolactic
• Stainless steel vs oak
• Aging wine before bottling
• Racking, filtering
• bottling and packaging: decisions, decisions!

Tasting and Evaluating Wine

• Involving all your senses
• Take your time!  You'll get to the drinking soon..
• Does it taste like it looks/ smells/feels?
• Classifiying the wines you taste
  • What makes a wine heavy?
  • What is sweet?  And how sweet?
  • Why does this wine make my mouth feel like someone dragged a teabag across my tongue???
  •  Oak? Butter? Toast? Caramel???
• HMM, this wine tastes totally different when I have a piece of cheese with it..
• How the heck am I supposed to remember all this stuff?

Wine and Food Pairings

•  Like with like
• contrasts
• classic pairings
• are there really rules for this stuf???

Napa Valley Wines and Wine Regions
Sonoma Valley WInes and Wine Regions
Mendocino, Santa Barbara, Paso Robles and Central Coast Wines
Wines of Oregon and the Northwest
Wines of Southern Italy: Apulia, Basilicata, Campagna, Sicily, Sardinia
Wines of Central Italy: Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Rosso di Montalcino and others
Wines of France: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone, Loire
Fortified and Dessert Wines

• Oh no, I don't like those wines, they are too sweet!
• Surprising pairings with sweet wines
• Port: tawny, LBV, Ruby and Vintage
• Sherry: not just your aunt's Harveys Bristol Cream
• Sauternes: the king of dessert wines