COURSE DESCRIPTION

The Southern Hemisphere:
Chile, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa

Overview

Each evening we will explore and taste the wines from one or more of the Southern Hemisphere’s five major wine producing countries. Participants will taste eight regional 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.

Wine Class 1: Chile and Argentina

Chile’s claims to fame are many and we will explore them all: Cabernet Sauvignons that rival the best of Napa and Bordeaux; its singular success with red Carmenère wines; and its Chardonnays and Sauvignon Blancs which are among the world’s best wine buys. Many French wine people think Chile produces the New World’s best wines…not a bad recommendation.

Argentina, the wine world’s “sleeping giant,” is the fifth largest wine producer in the world, but until the mid-1990’s few people outside the country knew its wines. Now it is known world-wide and we will taste its famous Malbec, a minor Bordeaux blending grape that Argentina has turned into an international star, its Torrontes, fast becoming known as one of the best value white wines on the market, and its high quality international varieties.

Wine Classes II and III: Australia

Australia is among the 20th Century’s biggest wine success stories. In the last 20 years it shot up to become the  largest wine exporter to England and the 2nd largest wine exporter to the US (behind Italy, ahead of France).

We will find out why when we tast its extraordinary range of big, mouth filling, value wines – Shirazes, Cabernet Sauvignons, Chardonnays, sweet Muscats and Port-style wines.    We will taste world-famous Shirazes and Cabernet Sauvignons from South Australia (Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra, etc), Chardonnays and Semillons from Hunter Valley, sweet Muscats and Takays from Victoria (Rutherglen, etc.), and  from the other side of the country, 3,000 miles away, Cabernet Sauvignons and Chardonnays from Western Australia (Margaret River, etc.).

Wine Class IV: New Zealand and South Africa

New Zealand is the new guy on the block and it is turning heads like no other country. We will taste two of its wines which are conquering the wine world – its over-the-top, exotic, intensely-flavored Sauvignon Blancs and its refined, fruity and spicy Pinot Noirs.

While South Africa has been producing wines for 300 years, it was only after apartheid was ended in 1991 that its wines were exported to the United States. We will taste its famous and unique red grape, Pinotage (a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault), and its well-regarded international wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Riesling.