Over the past two months, my husband and I taught an eight-week wine course to a class of 14 students. Not only was the class informative and hopefully, entertaining, it was also extremely useful for us to create a curriculum that was not too broad or too vague. It was also fantastic to revisit some wine laws that may have slipped our restaurant minds in the past few years.

We composed the class very similarly to the Windows on the World Wine Course that Kevin Zraly has taught for the past 25 some years. We began with French Reds, then French Whites, America, Germany, Spain, Italy, Southern Hemisphere and ended with Wine & Food pairing. For the most part, I felt like the class room (ages 23 - 65) took a great deal from the course, the entire time tasting wines they were not familiar with.

As in most classes I teach, I found the greatest satisfaction came with the Germany class. "Isn't Riesling too sweet?" is a common phrase I hear from many Americans' mouths when I suggest one for the dinner table. We spoke about the many styles and personalities of what we believe to be one of the greatest wine grapes known as well as its phenomenal ability to age. We talked about the beautiful harmony created in ones mouth when a bite of fatty ribeye is chewed followed by a swig of Auslese.

All fourteen students came back the next week saying they tried the bizarre food & wine pairing and were not the least bit disappointed.
When it comes to wine & food, Riesling is almost always a definite. From buttery popcorn to spicy chilli to a rare steak, Riesling has so many amazing traits that make it an instant hit with food.
Before poo-pooing this noble varietal, find out more about its place on the dinner table (or lunch table) as well as in the cellar.