Introductory Evening Wine School, Tuesdays, 8 September to 13 October
Evening Wine Schools
Join us in our atmospheric cellars to discover the world of wine at one of our Evening Wine School courses. Your host will guide you through a carefully tailored programme, designed to build your knowledge through tasting and learning.
Whether you’re looking to build the foundations of your wine knowledge or want to dig a little deeper, you’ll find our courses are a truly inspiring way to learn. Our sessions begin with a delicious apéritif before you sit down with your fellow students to taste and learn; you’ll also have a selection of nibbles – such as olives, nuts and cheeses – to enjoy as the evening unfolds.
To help guide you through the course, you’ll receive a folder for your notes and course materials; you’ll also receive a certificate on completion of the course.
Further information
Evening Wine School classes are held in the Pickering Cellar, 3 St James's Street. Your course will comprise between four and six two-hour sessions, starting at 6.30pm.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
Book
Description
Join us in the historic Pickering Cellar here at Berry Bros. & Rudd for our fun, interactive Introductory Wine Course. You will learn about wine over six Tuesday evenings, with the help of one of our talented Wine Educators and the support of our brand-new Course Book published by Berry Bros. & Rudd Press.
The course begins by looking at the factors that influence the balance of wine, learning about alcohol, tannins, acidity, aroma and flavour and how to describe wine, as well as spotting levels of oak influence and ageing. The following five sessions are dedicated to studying three or four different grape varieties and contrasting key examples from Europe and the New World.
The idea is to have fun whilst harnessing your natural tasting ability, applying your observations to facts about the provenance of the wines. During the course we tackle all sorts of questions and aim to challenge common myths about wine – and most importantly increase your confidence in tasting. Cheese, nibbles and our Head Chef’s canapés are served at each session, along with plenty of water.
Tuesday 8th September 2015
What is in a glass of wine and how to sense it
Tuesday 15th September 2015
Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon
Tuesday 22nd September 2015
Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot
Tuesday 29th September 2015
Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Chenin Blanc
Tuesday 6th October 2015
Pinot Noir, Gamay, Shiraz/Syrah, Zinfandel
Tuesday 13th October 2015
Grenache, Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Tempranillo and a review of all grape varieties covered.
Hosted by Barbara Drew,
Event details
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