Wine Appreciation Classes!

Turtle Run has been hosting Wine Appreciation Classes since its beginning with much fanfare and delight of many.  The owner, Jim Pfeiffer, who first studied wine at Miami University’s school of geography, and later taught the Advanced Beverage Class at Sullivan University’s culinary school, is mentioned by author Tim Hanni, Master of Wine in his incredible work “Why You Like The Wines You Like”, is very passionate about all subjects about wine.

Here are some of the topics Jim includes in his classes:

–Great Wines of the World:  A class on just Turtle Run wines would be fun, but not nearly as fun as mixing in some of the greatest wines in the world.  Don’t be surprised if you taste one of those $75 plus bottles.

–Wine Judging:  Ever wonder how the wine magazines come up with their scores?  We’ll judge a few of these world-class gems to teach you the fine points in critiquing wines from different oaks to different types of residual sugar.  Yes, there is a taste difference between sweeter wines in which fermentation ceased and natural sugar from the grapes left behind to those in which sugar was back-added.

–Why You Like The Wines You Like!  Before meeting Tim Hanni, Jim was well on his way to researching this vexing question.  Jim’s research started by understanding why people like sugar, and subconscious responses to flavor recognition.  Tim’s book adds more sizzle by adding in, among many things, the physical differences between people’s taste bud counts and subsequently how those counts drive different preferences, along with subconscious responses to flavor.  So we’ll teach you Tim’s technique on how to count your taste buds and tell you about subconscious drivers.

–What is Flavor Anyway?  The flavor is determined by all 5 senses.  The last time Jim discussed this topic and then proved it, the staff thought one attendee was going to “lose it”.  The poor guy’s foundation on flavor knowledge was flipped on its head.  This leads to…

–Delusional Food and Wine Pairings, and throw in the wine glass too!  This past fall, Jim wrote a fascinating article about wine glasses and set about to prove that there was no such thing as a red wine glass and a white wine glass.  Yes, the wine may taste different out of different shaped glasses, which we prove in this class, but after learning about subconscious flavor recognition, the physical differences between people, and understanding how your senses actually work, the whole concept of established food and wine pairings and glass shapes is pretty well disrupted.  Let Anarchy of Wine begin!

Jim will also sprinkle in a dose of historical facts about wine.  From barrel aging to the shapes and colors of the bottles, to printing on corks, to the capsules too.  There are historical common-sense reasons for them.

In 3 hours, we’ll have a great dinner along with sampling 20 plus wines.  You’ll learn a lot about wine, wine history, wine regions, and things like that which you can use to impress your wine-savvy friends.  But you’ll learn something much, much more valuable — the reason your spouse, family, and friends receive different taste sensations than you do.  I mean, how many times have you tasted something you think absolutely rocks, whereas someone else doesn’t like it, such as

Reservations are $50 per person and dinner is included.  Wine Appreciation Class will run from 6:30 to 9:30 PM but sometimes they run longer.  Reservations are required, so please call: (812) 952-2650.