I am teaching Wine Education for the DWs college class reunion

[vintner Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close vintner]

The DW came home one night a few months ago and told me she had news for me. Oh this is going to be interesting.
I am speaking for about an hour and a half on wine education to her college class reunion.
Now I see that I am on the schedule. Guess it is going to happen.

Part 1 will be home winemaking, equipment and methods and how they compare and differ from commercial winemaking. I have a lot of power point slides of 'me vs. them'. I will then serve one of my wines. Maybe I should start with serving wine.

Part 2 will be an introduction to cold climate wines. I am in search of 3 Minnesota or Wisconsin wines made from grapes. Cold climate wines are made from grapes that can survive the cold weather of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. There may be other states in the category, but these three win most of the awards. These wines are not up to California wines (as example) but are fast approaching the quality and production levels.

I am trying to find wines that either have won the Governor's Cup award or have placed high in the Cold Climate Wine Competition. I have found 2 wines I like: Four Daughters LaCrescent (white) and Indian Island Marquette (red).
I am looking for another and am willing to do a lot of tasting to find it!

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Two thoughts:

First, try Forty-Five North in the U.P. I have not had it, but Scott Harvey, a very highly respected Napa Valley vintner and winemaking has been doing some nice work with Michigan Rieslings for several years now, and he is involved in this operation. So by reputation, I would expect this to present well.

Second, I suggest you post your question in the World of Woot Wine forum at wine.woot.com. You will receive many knowledgeable responses and suggestions. There are some very active wine afficionados in the area who have good knowledge of the local industry.

You can skip Carlos Creek winery. Wine in name only, and the last time I was there (which was the biggest waste of a tasting fee I have ever experienced) most of what they pouring was fruit blends. In my first visit I challenged the person about the source of their grapes, and they replied that it was all estate grown. No appellations on the bottles. I immediately challenged that statement, as I was pretty darn sure they are too far north to effectively grow some of the varietals they were pouring. At which point the person admitted that they were using California grapes for most of their reds.

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

I can't help with wine recommendations, but I'd certainly give your post a big Like!

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

I drink mostly 90% Italian wines. If you need help with those let me know

[vintner Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close vintner]

Chateau St Croix Winery has a great Marquette wine (Thoroughbred Red) but it is blended with syrah from California, so I didn't want to use that one. I am not hot on Frontenac, it is an older vine/wine so nothing new with it. Same with Maréchal Foch, old news. There are a few wines and wineries that I will be trying over the next few weeks. I may be searching this weekend for a few wines. Saturday night may be set up with several wine glasses for tastings.

T.R. - I know Carlos Creek. Grew up in Fergus Falls, so have stopped in at Carlos Creek on one of my trips back home. I would say they are more for events than wine. They have won some awards in the cold climate competition.

I have provided a link for information on cold climate winning wines.
http://mngrapegrowers.com/Websites/m..._Release-R.pdf

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

You should consider having someone tape you and putting it on youtube.
Then you can make some money off your video.

[vintner Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close vintner]

I did my wine education session last Saturday.
Overall, it went well. I had a good group of power points that I did up front to show differences of winemaking from the commercial side to the home winemaking side. Had some nice comical ones in there like Lucy stomping grapes to keep it fun. That part went well.

And then we started pouring wine.

This is a class reunion. People would be coming in after the start and meeting up with someone they had not seen since college or since the last reunion and the chatter would get louder. The wine certainly helped that. Normally the volume goes up at the 3rd pouring. I lost them at the first glass.

I did get through the session and the 5 wines being tasted (two of mine and 3 of cold climate wines, all Minnesota grown).
I got a lot of compliments at the end, and was told that many people liked my wines, some better than the MN wines.

After the wine tasting event was dinner, then the dance. During the dance, there was a tradition done by one of the earlier classes. Apparently, streaking started at this college, so I watched a bunch of guys and one gal taking a victory lap through the hall. Don't look down, don't look down. Ooops, I got mooned.

College-very different experience than the technical school I went to.