There's a type of wine aficionado who's more of an elitist than an enthusiast.
"Maybe you've been invited to your boss's house and he's a wine snob, full of hot air," said Mike Dombrowski, beverage specialist at Art of the Table, a specialty food, drink and retail store near downtown Grand Rapids.
"You don't know what to bring him because whatever it is, you know he won't like it."
That guy's not welcome at Art of the Table's wine tasting classes, held every week at Louis Benton Steakhouse in downtown Grand Rapids. In fact, one recent "Wine Wednesday" session bore the title 'Outsmarting the Fancies' and focused on wines that offer full flavor at minimal price. Other sessions have included a "Wine 101" class that showed students how to analyze the tastes of various wines, and a "California Under Twenty" sampling of west coast varieties that outperformed their $20 per bottle price tags.
The idea is to introduce wine to novices who don't know Bordeaux from Beaujolais, while maintaining a level of education that keeps the sessions relevant to knowledgeable drinkers as well.
"Our classes are non-pretentious," said Amy Ruis, owner of Art of the Table. "Some people are afraid of wine, so we're not snobby in teaching about it. We're welcoming and warm. But our classes aren't dumbed down, either," she added. "Whether you're a connoisseur or new to wine, you'll get a lot out of them."
Three Buck Chuck Sucks
Each Wine Wednesday session includes samplings of six wines, usually a combination of reds and whites, most in the $20 to $80 per bottle range. And selections aren't the standard "grocery store wines" that other area tastings offer, Dombrowski said. Many of Art of the Table's wines come from small vineyards and lesser-known wineries whose fare can't be found at the local D&W.
"You're not going to get Kendall Jackson Chardonnay for the 50th time here," Ruis said.
It's this variety and focus on quality that drew several students to a Wine Wednesday session at Louis Benton in late March. Gathering around a white-clothed table in the restaurant's dining room, they chatted with fellow drinkers and nibbled at cheese and fruit while examining the six bottles of Meritage they would soon sample.
Two of those students, Nancy Zuker and Deb Anderson, represented opposite ends of the style spectrum. Zuker, a hospital sales representative, noted that she has a discerning palate and can pick out the nuances in various types of wine. To her, the beverage is a refined pursuit that gets better the more she learns about it.
"I love the sophistication of wine," she said. "Every bottle is a way to boost my knowledge."
Anderson, a broker’s assistant, sat next to Zuker and laughed when she heard her friend's perspective. "I don't mind trying the cheap stuff. I'm perfectly happy with 'Three-Buck Chuck,'" Anderson said, referring to the Charles Shaw wine that sells for about three dollars a bottle. "But I do like understanding the history of wine. It makes me more willing to spend $40 or $50 for a bottle of it."
Tasteful Tips
After Anderson, Zuker and their fellow students settled themselves at the table, Bradford Hammerschmidt began his presentation. Hammerschmidt is a wine distributor, and with each version of Meritage – a wine that includes blends of grapes from the Bordeaux region of France – he offered information about the producer and regional history, then delved into an analysis of its appearance, aroma and flavor.
"What do you guys get out of this?" Hammerschmidt asked, inviting students to taste the plum-colored liquid in their glasses. They offered a few suggestions – "smoky," "earthy," a simple "fantastic." A few wines later, after the server brought each student a lamb appetizer, Hammerschmidt urged them to try the meat with their beverage. "It really brings out the flavor," was a common refrain.
"It's cool that (Hammerschmidt) sits down with us to drink and relax," said John Rogers, an engineer who has attended several other area wine tastings. Rogers noted that the relaxed atmosphere was something that set Art of the Table's tasting apart.
"It's much more personal. And the quality of instruction is top-notch," he said.
Nancy Zuker agreed. "This is far more intimate than many other tastings. You learn so much about the history of the wines, the types of grapes and how they're grown. And it's great to meet other people who are wine lovers – it makes for a more personable experience."
Art of the Table has sponsored the Wine Wednesday sessions since its 20003 opening. The cost ranges from $20 to $30, depending on the wines offered. A typical class draws 12 to 35 students, though popular topics attract enough people to require additional sessions.
When Art of the Table held its first class on Spanish wines, attendance was so good it produced another session called "More Spanish Wines." That one, in turn, drew so many people its third incarnation became "Even More Spanish Wines."
Tuscany and Bordeaux are also big, and so are "Big Fat Reds," a crowd pleaser that focuses on "in-your-face red wines" every year around the holidays, Dombrowski said.
The caliber of wine and quality of instruction attract many students to these weekly classes, but ultimately one thing keeps them coming back – and it’s something the Wine Snob, with his talk of point systems and fancy locales, doesn’t understand. Wine Wednesdays' comfortable setting – and the conversation that flows along with its drink – offers a key reason many aficionados return week after week.
"It's just nice to sit down with friends and have a glass of wine," Rogers said.
Photographs:
Wine class participants examine a bottle of wine at Lous Benton Steakhouse
Art of the Table owner Amy Ruis presents a wine to the group
Wine swirls in the glass
Participants discuss a wine
Taking notes on color, aroma and flavor
Photographs by Jeff Dykehouse - All Rights Reserved