COURSE DESCRIPTION

The Rising Stars:
Spain, Portugal, Germany and Austria

Overview

Each evening we will explore and taste the wines from one or more of these four European countries. Participants will taste eight wines each night. These wines, plus colorful maps, information sheets, and an interactive, educational environment, will afford participants a full taste of each country’s wines, its history and “terroir,” its classic food and wine pairings, the standards according to which its wines are normally assessed, and where it stands among the other great wine regions of the world.

Introduction

What these four countries have in common is that they have long lived in the shadow of the two largest producers of wine in Europe, Italy and France. On a more positive note, they share having distinctive and rapidly growing niches in the wine world. Their new-found recognition in the international media has recently transformed them into major exporters into the US market.

These countries have centuries of wine-making experience, and their wines, made from native grape varieties, grown in unique climates and soils, offer wonderful alternatives to the standard fare of Cabernets and Chardonnays. Taken together, they provide a marvelously varied palate of wine varieties and styles.

Wine Class 1 and II: Spain

Spain is “HOT” – and not just in climate. Experimentation, modernized winemaking practices, investments in older wine areas such as Galicia and rediscovered regions such as Priorat, and low prices, all contribute to Robert Parker’s recent conclusion: “Spain is indeed hot, and I predict that…Spanish wines will increasingly become the darling of wine consumers throughout the civilized world.”

We will travel the length and breadth of the country, tasting the renowned Tempranillos and white Viuras from central Spain, the Sherries from southern Spain, the Cavas, Garnachas, and Cabernet Sauvignons from Catalonia, and the Aglianicos and Mencias from Galicia. Spain has more acreage planted to vineyards than any other country in the world, and we will learn why many think Spain is more like a “New World” wine producing country and one set to challenge the preeminence of its close neighbors to the north and east.

Wine Classes III and IV: Portugal, Germany and Austria

We have all drunk or heard about the Ports and Madeiras of Portugal.  What we may not have drunk or heard about are the dry table wines from grapes such as Periquita (formally Castelão), Fernão Pires(also known as Maria Gomes), Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, and Touriga Nacional. In addition to Ports and Madeiras, we will taste Portugal’s dry table wines and, in the process, learn why four Portuguese red wines were chosen as among the world’s best in a November 2003 blind tasting by five of the world’s leading wine authorities.

Jumping across that other wine country (France), we land in Germany, home of the Riesling grape variety, thought by many to make the best food wine in the world, and by yet others to make simply the best wine in the world. No country displays the Riesling grape as well as its native Germany. (Worried about drinking overly sweet German Rieslings? Don’t be, because most German Riesling is not.)

Difficult as it is to separate Germany from its prized grape, there are other grapes and wines in Germany, even red wines! In fact plantings of red wines have tripled in the last 20 years and Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot have joined the ranks of local varieties such as Dornfelder (Germany’s equivalent of Beaujolais), Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir), and Blauer Portugieser. Yet Germany is still a white wine country and, in addition to its Riesling, it makes wines with a number of  unique white grapes that everyone should know, because they are so good: Scheurebe,  Silvaner, Rieslaner (a cross of Riesling and Silvaner), Ruländer (Pinot Gris), and Müller-Thurgau. Speaking of wines everyone should know, let us not forget Sekt, Germany’s sparkling wine, and its late, late harvest dessert wines.

Austria is not a sub-region of Germany. Its whites are generally fuller bodied and fruitier than their German counterparts and its reds more robust and spicier. It is known to produce the most exciting wines in central-eastern Europe.  A minor craze developed in the US in 2005 over Austria’s Grüner Veltliner, pitched in local restaurants as the perfect alternative to the all-too-familiar trio of Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. We will explore the regions of this lesser-known country, taste its signature grape, Grüner Veltliner, and discover its other distinctive red and white varieties.