Classes in motion

September 4, 2013

Wow! I can't believe how many views I've received on this blog since my last post. I hope you all like what I've written. I've also been able to upload my photos onto Facebook, so go take a look if you'd like.

Anyways, since it's been a few days, I felt I should write another post. However, nothing much has happened since I've mostly been in class or doing work for class, so this entry will be brief.

On Monday, I pretty much just cooked a bit, read a bunch, and headed off to my 5 hour wine class. We talked about the wine making process for reds and whites and briefly touched upon dessert wines. Near the end of class, we watched a film about a tragic accident in the Hunter Valley region. One of the oldest wineries in the area exploded due to flammable liquids accidentally being ignited by flying sparks. Two men perished and one left burned on most of his body, though luckily alive. It was so depressing to watch, yet fascinating at the same time.

Yesterday, I had wine class again, but at 10 in the morning. We had a guest speaker, a winemaker that worked with my teachers back when they owned their winery. The speaker, Michelle, walked us through the wine tasting process. The first set was water which had been flavored with sugar, acid, and vodka (yes, they spiked our water!). I could taste the sugar and the acid, and I knew there was something in the third, but since I never actually drank vodka, I had no idea what that one was. From there, we had 3 white wines, which we later learned were riesling, sauvignon blanc, and chardonnay, and then 3 red wines--pinot noir, shiraz, and cabernet sauvignon. We had to describe what we smelled and what we tasted. I don't think I'm any good at that because when people were listing different aromas and flavors, I could not understand where they were getting them from, though Michelle agreed that they were there! Hopefully I get better with time, because at this point, I'm just lost.

Today will be spent reading and preparing for my quiz tomorrow. Then I have to start on my paper for the wine class, which is due next week. This Sunday, my wine class will be departing for Hunter Valley! We will be there through Monday, visiting various wineries and tasting their different wines. It should be a lot of fun; I will let you all know how it goes!