Wednesday the 28th we had lectures over how to make dessert wine and sparkling wines, then later tasted four of them in lab. We had a sparkling wine made from 100% Chardonnay grapes, a rose made from both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, a super sweet wine made from a blend of grechetto, trebbiano, procanico, and sauvignon blanc, and a vin santo that I absolutely despised. My favorites were the first two, with the third being my third favorite and the final clearly being my least favorite. The third wine, Calcaia, is actually produced from grapes that have undergone botrytis rot, which is a rot that attacks the acid in the grape, allowing the sugar to grow.
We were assigned a group project a few weeks prior that had the final paper due on Wednesday. Each group was assigned a region somewhere around the world that is known for wine production. We were to learn about our region, what types of grapes are predominantly grown there, and come up with some type of business/vineyard/company that sold at least four different types of wines. It was a pretty fun project, but a bit much for only having two weeks to do it. I was assigned the part of the “Marketer”, so I was in charge of creating the marketing plan, describing sensory characteristics, creating labels, determining prices, and working with the other members (Owner, Viticulturist, Enologist) with everything else. More on that later. We turned in our paper Wednesday afternoon which was a huge relief!
After the nightly dinner at Tonino’s, our TA had planned for us to have a little sangria in the park with all three Maymester groups. We each brought a cheap bottle of wine and some fruit and dumped it into the community sangria bucket, and it turned out to be pretty good! We probably had a little too much fun for a Wednesday night, but we decided to stop by the Lion’s Well for a little bit after we grew tired of the sangria. Group presentations were in the morning, but if our TA was out with us it wasn’t that bad, right?..at least no one danced on top of the bar!….
