This class will meet at 8:00 at Hart Winery. Joe Hart will take you out into his vineyards and demonstrate pruning techniques and why pruning affects the quality of the wine. A tasting of his award-winning wines will follow. Next stop will be Baily’s Winery for Lunch and wine tasting. Your tour will then take you over to the new extravagant South Coast Winery Resort for a sneak preview and more tasting!
 

- The Art of Wine Tasting ~
~ Understanding Wine Jargon ~
~ What Wine Taste Characteristics To Look For ~

Learn how wine judges evaluate wines, break down components of wine into ethanol solutions expose your nose to different aromas. How do you know whether a wine you are tasting represents the true flavor, aroma and quality of that grape? i.e. Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay. How do you know what to look for? Be not troubled, this is the class for you my friend.
 

The Médoc is situated north of the town of Bordeaux, on the left bank of the Gironde. Médoc is divided in two parts, the Haut-Médoc in the south, near the town, and the north part traditionally called Médoc. Wines from Médoc are red. They are delicate, medium colored, they are fine and elegant; often tannic when young, harmonious and splendid when matured.

Haut-Médoc is also a land of red wine. They are generous, not too powerful red wines with a delicate bouquet of vanilla and black fruits.
 

Saint-Emilion is the oldest wine area of the Bordeaux region. The wines are considered the most robust of the Bordeaux. They are generous, very colored, and reach their maturity quicker than other red Bordeaux.

With less than 2,000 acres, Pomerol is the smallest wine producing area in the Bordeaux region. Actually, Pomerol is more a community where the vineyards are family-shared. A ranking is not warmly welcome. You will not find typical huge Bordeaux chateaux as in the Médoc area. However Pomerol hosts one of the most famous of all – Petrus. The Pomerol wine can be more robust than others in Bordeaux. They have an exclusive velvety quality. Pomerol is at its very best when the bottle reaches the age of 15!
 

The area of Graves gets its name from the soil. Graves are a mix of gravels, clay and sand carried out by the river. Two third of Graves wines are white. Among the best white wines in Bordeaux, they are generally fresh, fruity and dry (some time half-dry).

Sauternes is famous for sweet wines such as Yquem, Raymond-Lafon and Rieussec. They are among the best dessert wines in the world. Sauternes is made with noble rot (also called botrytis, a moisture covering the grape). Sauternes are often delicious, golden, unctuous and delicate. The famous roasted note comes when Sauternes is a little bit older.

In the southern part of the Bordeaux region, Barsac is famous for outstanding sweet wines In Barsac, wine growers have the choice to market their wine under the Barsac AOC or Sauternes AOC. It means that all Barsac wines could also be Sauternes wines while Sauternes wines cannot wear Barsac on their label. Barsac is maybe a little bit less liquorous and more fruity than Sauternes.
 

Hop on a bus at the Mira Costa San Elijo Campus in Encinitas and discover a virtually unrecognized treasure of vineyards and wineries in Mexico. Lunch at L.A. Cetto's restaurant and visit three wineries.
 

Almost all of the best values in California Cabernet come from older, more established wineries that either own significant Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc vineyards in key districts (which means they paid yesterday's land prices) or have long-term contracts with top-quality growers. In addition, they're not heavily dependent on expensive new French oak for barrel-aging, but instead prefer a mix of new and used barrels made from French and lower-cost American wood. These wineries are also serious about selling high quality wines at reasonable prices because of the direct impacts on their bottom lines.

Chardonnay drinkers haven't had it this good in years. With the saturated markets of grapes and wines both, prices for all but the most exclusive labels look very attractive. There are literally dozens of outstanding Chardonnays to choose from for less than $25 apiece. If you do a little bargain hunting, you can find some delicious wines for around $15.
 

Almost all of the best values in California Cabernet come from older, more established wineries that either own significant Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc vineyards in key districts (which means they paid yesterday's land prices) or have long-term contracts with top-quality growers. In addition, they're not heavily dependent on expensive new French oak for barrel-aging, but instead prefer a mix of new and used barrels made from French and lower-cost American wood. These wineries are also serious about selling high quality wines at reasonable prices because of the direct impacts on their bottom lines.

Chardonnay drinkers haven't had it this good in years. With the saturated markets of grapes and wines both, prices for all but the most exclusive labels look very attractive. There are literally dozens of outstanding Chardonnays to choose from for less than $25 apiece. If you do a little bargain hunting, you can find some delicious wines for around $15.
 

Shiraz may be Australia's marquee wine, but in recent vintages, Chardonnay has shown the most improvement. While Chardonnay shows the most dramatic improvement, the entire Australian wine scene has enjoyed dynamic growth. Shiraz and Shiraz blends still dominate. But savvy consumers are discovering non-Shiraz wines that have devoted followings in Australia -- the most interesting (other than the Chardonnays) being Cabernets, Rhône-style blends and Rieslings. Even a few Merlots and Pinot Noirs deliver enough pizzazz to turn heads.
 

The Syrah grape seems to grow well in a number of areas and is capable of rendering rich, complex and distinctive wines, with pronounced pepper, spice, black cherry, tar, leather and roasted nut flavors, a smooth, supple texture and smooth tannins. In the Rhone area of France it finds its way into various blends, as in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Languedoc-Roussillon. Known as Shiraz in Australia, it was long used for bread-and-butter blends, but an increasing number of high-quality bottlings are being made, especially from old vines in the Barossa Valley.
 

New Zealand has had striking success with Sauvignon Blanc, producing its own perfumed, fruity style that spread across North America and then back to France. Sauvignon Blanc is a white with a notable aroma, this one "grassy" or "musky." The pure varietal is found mainly in the Loire, at Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, As part of a blend, the grape is all over Bordeaux, in Pessac-Léognan, Graves and the Médoc whites; it also shows up in Sauternes.

Sauvignon Blanc grows well in a variety of appellations. It marries well with oak and Sèmillon, and many vintners are adding a touch of Chardonnay for extra body. The wine drinks best in its youth, but sometimes will benefit from short-term cellaring. As a late-harvest wine, it's often fantastic, capable of yielding amazingly complex and richly flavored wines.
 

T he northwest portion of Oregon is celebrated for its cool-climate grape varieties, including Pinot Gris, Riesling, Chardonnay, and especially Pinot noir.  Oregon's Umpqua Valley wine region, Applegate Valley wine region and Rogue Valley wine region are located in the southwestern portion of the state.  These regions, along with the vineyards of the Columbia Gorge wine region, are generally higher, warmer and drier than those in the northwestern quadrant of Oregon State.  Bordelaise and Rhone varietals can be grown in these regions.  A rich variety of  "micro climates" in southern Oregon and Columbia Gorge regions also provides distinctive vineyard locations, capable of nurturing high-quality Frenc! h Burgundian varieties such as Pinot noir and Chardonnay, as well as those of Bordelaise (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Semillon and Cabernet franc) and the Rhone Valley (Syrah).

A ll totaled, Washington wine regions produce more wine grapes than any other state in the U.S., except California.  Located on approximately the same latitude (46ºN) as some of the great French wine regions of Bordeaux and Burgundy, a variety of climates and soils combine with the long summer sunlight hours of northern latitudes to create prime growing regions, predominantly in the valleys and on the hillsides of areas east of the Cascade Mountains. 
 

Chardonnay the king of white wines, for it makes consistently excellent, rich and complex whites. This is an amazingly versatile grape that grows well in a variety of locations throughout the world. In Burgundy, it is used for the exquisite whites, such as Montrachet, Meursault and Pouilly-Fuissè, and true Chablis; in Champagne it turns into Blanc de Blancs. Among the many other countries that have caught Chardonnay fever, Australia is especially strong. Chardonnay was introduced to California in the 1930s but didn't become popular until the 1970s. Areas such as Anderson Valley, Carneros, Monterey, Russian River, Santa Barbara and Santa Maria Valley, all closer to cooler maritime influences, are now producing wines far superior to those made a decade ago.
 

Curiously enough, one of the most frequently mispronounced wine words is not French but English. But it looks French, and therein lies the problem. "Meritage," a registered trademark coined as a contest entry in 1988, is intended to rhyme with "Heritage," but that doesn't deter many wine experts from giving it a French twist as "Mehr-uh-TAHJ." Red Meritage must consist of two or more of the following varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot, St. Macaire, Gros Verdot and Carmenere. See if you can determine the blends in the wines sampled in this class.
 

Spain's major contribution to red wine, Tempranillo is indigenous to the country and is rarely grown elsewhere. It is the dominant grape in the red wines from Rioja and Ribera del Duero, two of Spain's most important wine regions. The Spanish red grape variety Tempranillo is getting the attention of many California winemakers too and they are coming up with some great results. Join us for a tasting of these fine wines.
 

Every day at Friars Folly Wine Cellar is a “Wine Tasting” day. Stop by between 2:00 and 6:00 and taste three to five wines

The “Wine Tasting” flights are s $7.50 for three wines and $11.00 for five wines.

You also have the opportunity to purchase these wines at a 20% discount if you order the flight.

Enjoy your “Wine Tasting” flight with a "Wine Country" Cheese, Meat, Fruit, Nut & Olive Plate for $7.95 during the "tasting hours" of 2:00-6:00.