Learn basic tools that will help you appreciate the facets of wine through Wine 101, a casual course for beginners and those who want to brush up on some wine knowledge.
The course is part of Brew School, a noncredit program launched by CNM Ingenuity. Courses can be taken individually. The courses, which began in September, focused on beer. The final course offering, on Dec. 4, will focus on Ale Beer Styles.
Chris Morosin, an instructor of hospitality, beverage management and culinary arts at Central New Mexico Community College will lead the Wine 101 course. He has also pitched having courses on sparkling wines from different parts of the world and one on wines from the Loire Valley in France.
“We’re hoping to build some of these noncredit courses. It’s kind of a pipeline for people who want to do professional training as well as consider our (brewing and beverage management) degree program, whether it’s beverage management or culinary arts,” he said. “There are many other places you can get that kind of beginning wine information. Most liquor stores and wine shops in town have classes. We just wanted to make sure that we were representing what CNM has to offer as well.”
The class will focus on building participants knowledge of basic wine information.
“I build most of my 101 type classes on wine, developing that basic language that people use when they identify wine,” Morosin said. “Whether it’s by the grape that it’s made from, the production techniques and probably most importantly where the grapes come from, most of the wines I have for this one are mostly from outside of the country. I tend to start with kind of the spiritual home of wine, (which is) France. They’ve been doing it for quite a while. They’ve developed a lot of the language and terminology that people use when they’re talking about wine. Usually we start there. The goal of the classes is, hopefully, people who want to try wine from anywhere, whether it’s New Mexico or California, they’ll have some more tools to discuss it and know what to look for.”
Wine 101 will feature five wines that participants will be able to taste as part of the class. Morosin also will field questions on other wines not mentioned in the course.
“We have two French, a New Zealand, one from Australia and one from Oregon,” Morosin said. “One of the big things we tend to do in these classes early on is kind of contrast, where we choose Old World and New World, wines that are coming from France, Italy, Germany, Spain and wines coming from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South America. We’ll be comparing winemaking, same or similar grapes, so a sauvignon blanc from France and a sauvignon blanc from New Zealand and just sort of seeing differences and similarities that way.”
