Educational Wine Mini Courses

As I discussed in March, the core mission of the OCWS is Wine Education. At the April 9 tasting, I conducted the first of several Mini-Courses at 6:00 p.m., before the tasting began. 

This course was entitled “American Viticultural Areas, an Introduction to AVAs.” I discussed the definition of an AVA from the U.S. government’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), and the difference between AVAs and Appellations. The TTB designates AVAs, also known as viticultural areas, to (1) allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines, and (2) allow consumers to better identify wines they may purchase.

I briefly discussed the 193 AVAs in the United States, of which 107 are in California. We then talked about the Napa AVA which includes 14 sub-appellations, Sonoma and its 13 sub-appellations, Mendocino AVA with its 9 sub-appellations, and the Central Coast AVA with its 27 sub-appellations. We looked at some of the distinct characteristic that each AVA offers and the things that make it different from others. I discussed history of some of the wineries in each AVA.

When making wines, the TTB requires that with Appellations, not less than 75% of the volume of the wine is derived from grapes (or other agricultural commodity) grown in the labeled appellation of origin. With an AVA, not less than 85% of the volume of the wine is derived from grapes grown in the labeled viticultural area.

During future monthly events, we will be offering more Mini-Seminars to further our educational goals. Upcoming topics for these mini-seminars include…

· How to read a wine label

· Oak options including American, French, Hungarian barrels, Oddballs: Russian, Canadian, whiskey barrels, and barrel substitutes: chips, powder, cubes, oak tea

· Vineyards and Vineyard Management

· The effects of aging on wines

Watch the OCWS newsletter, website, and facebook page for dates and times for these upcoming Mini-Seminars. We hope to see you at these events!

Please let me know your thoughts about these topics as well as your ideas for additional seminars.