Wine may not be the drink of choice on most college campuses, but that did not deter Miriam Gottfried ’05 and Sarah Hexter ’05 from co-founding the Wesleyan Wine Guild, a group of students that meets weekly to taste wine from all over the world.
“People associate wine with high class things above the college level,” Gottfried said. “But we want to show that wine is accessible to everyone, including students. We buy quality wines that are still affordable.”
The Wine Guild began as a Romance Language student forum last semester, in which students of legal drinking age not only learned how to properly taste wine, but also studied the traditional winemaking process and European wine culture.
“I used to hate wine and was strictly a beer-drinker,” said Dave Bryson ’05, a Wine Guild member. “But last semester I needed a half credit, so I took the wine-tasting student forum. What I ended up learning was an appreciation of wine. Wine is more than an alcoholic beverage. It has a whole culture about it.”
The student forum was popular among students, as it brought in many speakers to work with the class, including Romance Language Department faculty and wine distributors from the area. However, concerns and liability issues soon prompted the University Administration to limit the wine drinking to outside of class.
This did not sit well with Gottfried.
“Tasting wine serves a didactic purpose,” she said. “One cannot learn about wines without tasting wines.”
Although there were many requests to keep the class alive for this year, Gottfried and Hexter decided that an unofficial student group would be a more appropriate and relaxed setting to learn about and enjoy wine.
“We wanted to work on our own schedule and thought that a club, rather than a class, was the best way to do that,” Hexter said.
Students in the Wine Guild pay $50 for the whole semester and meet at a different member’s house each week. Each meeting has a theme that unifies the particular wines being tasted. The themes can be a region for vineyards, such as Bordeaux, or a variety of grape, such as pinot grigio.
“Wesleyan students drink a lot of Carlo Rossi, but the sight of that now makes me nauseous,” Gottfried said. “There is a life after Yellow Tail.”
Ocassionally a guest speaker attends the meetings to provide insights into the wine. The Wine Guild also works with John Bagley, the owner of Forest City Wine and Spirits on Main Street, and Richard Kamins, the owner of The Bottle Shop on South Main Street.
“We’ve had really helpful input from liquor store owners,” Hexter said. “They have been huge assets in helping us build our own knowledge of wine and choose which wines to taste. It is also a great way to know the community and build connections with Middletown.”
Properly tasting wine is an intricate procedure: the taster must first pour about two ounces of wine into a glass. Then he or she swirls the glass, taking careful notice of the wine’s color and “legs”—streaks that stick to the glass and can tell you the wine’s alcohol content. After examining the hue, he or she smells the wine’s “bouquet.”
According to Hexter, the “nose” of the wine is far more important than how it tastes and can reveal the wine’s age, alcohol content, and variety of grape used. Finally, the wine is slurped to trap air in the mouth, and sloshed around on the tip of your tongue. Although serious wine tasters spit out the wine, most students of the Wine Guild do not adhere to this custom.
“Tasting wine is actually something that will help students in the future” Gottfried said. “If you have some knowledge of wine it can benefit you in terms of social and business situations.”
The Wine Guild is also a nice place to socialize and have fun, according to Bryson. The wine is usually accompanied by French bread and homemade brownies.
“We want people to enjoy themselves and gain a better appreciation of this awesome beverage,” Hexter said.
The Wine Guild’s future, however, remains uncertain, as most of the members will graduate this spring.
“Hopefully someone will keep it going” Hexter said. “It’s certainly worth it.”
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