Wines Of Southern France | Zoom Wine Class

SOUTHERN STARS Wine in the south of France – the Mediterranean arc that stretches from Italy to Spain – is about 1,000 years older than wine in the rest of France, and it shows. These wines tend to be rugged and rustic, highly blended from multiple grapes, and extremely expressive of the particular place they come from. In this class, you’ll experience a range of wines, from Provence in the east and the southern Rhône Valley all the way west to Corbières in Languedoc-Roussillon. You’ll learn wines, grapes, geography, and history in the most delicious way possible. By the time this class is over, you’ll be speaking Châteauneuf-du-Pape fluently!

#RESTAURANTSTRONG Thank you for tasting great wine for a great cause! Part of each ticket will go to benefit the #RestaurantStrong Fund supporting restaurant people across the country impacted by Covid-19 . And the wines you buy to taste along in class, all that goes right to your local wine shops.

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS I’m going to open and teach these three wines.

2019 La Chapelle du Bastion Picpoul de Pinet (Languedoc, southern France)

2017 Cellier des Chartreux “Chevalier d’Anthelme” Rouge (Côtes du Rhône, Provence, southern France)

2016 Château Aiguilloux “Cuvée Tradition” Corbières (Languedoc-Roussillon, southern France)

You can order from Solera: A Shrine To Wine at our Roslindale campus. Solera is open for curbside pick-up Saturdays and Sundays right now. You can also order them from your favorite local wine shop. Do not be shy about getting comparable wines if you need to – there’s a ton of great equivalents out there that we can easily learn from too.

HOW ABOUT FOOD? Here are a few food pairing suggestions for each wine. Feel free to use this as a guide, come up with your own ideas and have fun with it all!

Picpoul de Pinet + Chèvre | Grilled mussels | Roasted green grapes

Côtes du Rhône + Grilled sausages | Sheep’s milk cheese | Green olives

Corbières + Spicy cured sausage | Fourme d’Ambert (raw milk blue cheese) | Sautéed black olives

THREE WINE GLASSES & A WEBCAM You can go as big or as little as you like. Taste along with all three plus all the foods, pick one or two that sound especially good, or just tune in and learn about wine with whatever you have in your glass.

After you sign up, you will receive a confirmation email with the Zoom link and password for the tasting class. You’ll receive an email reminder a couple of days before, then a reminder an hour before class starts.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND “Wines Of Southern France” is an introductory course for beginners and enthusiasts. It assumes some exposure to wine but little or no formal wine knowledge. This program is appropriate for both consumers and professionals in all wine, food, hospitality and service industries.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN Students will learn technical wine tasting, southern French signature grapes, wine and food pairing basics, and fundamentals of wine style. The emphasis is on providing an introduction to the south of France, building wine vocabulary, and becoming fluent in expressing your own wine tastes.

PROGRAM FORMAT 1 hour online program

PROGRAM SYLLABUS (tentative) Seven “S” System Of Wine Tasting | Wine’s Sense Of Place | Sunny Southern Stars

REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS Guests, students and certificate candidates must meet the legal minimum age for the retail purchase of alcoholic beverages in the country where the program is being held: 21 in the USA and China.

YOUR EDUCATOR

JONATHON ALSOP is founder & executive director of the Boston Wine School, author of The Wine Lover’s Devotional and In Vino Veritas, and a commentator for National Public Radio on WGBH | Boston Public Radio and Under The Radar.

He began writing about wine, food and travel in 1988 and emerged as a wine expert through his syndicated wine column. He has contributed numerous articles to the Associated Press, Frequent Flyer Magazine, La Vie Claire, Beverage Business Magazine, Mobil Travel Guides, Fodor’s Travel Guides, Boston Globe, and many others.

Jonathon founded the Boston Wine School in 2000 where he teaches wine and food classes in a dedicated 100% snob-free zone. His new book Wine Life: A Collection Of Verses will be published in 2020.