Florida International University wine Prof. Barry Gump is spending the next three weeks at Tianjian University of Commerce in China, teaching English-speaking Chinese hotel and restaurant students about how to appreciate wine. Here’s his blog from his first class. (The photo is Prof. Gump back in Miami with his FIU class.)
My class has 47 students enrolled in it. I was quite impressed with the interest in wine. At our first meeting I introduced myself – a chemist teaching about wine – and my wife, Kitti, who is a professional in the wine hospitality industry. After I ramble on about wine, Kitti talks about typical items used in wine tasting rooms. We brought an extra suitcase of foil-cutters, bottle openers and such to show the students.
The first lecture covered the general reasons for tasting wine, developing vocabulary, and steps along the way to wine appreciation. We discussed the “Six S’s” -- See, Swirl, Sniff, Sip, Spit, and Savor. I also provided the class a wine wheel – a cardboard circle listing every wine aroma and flavor known to mankind, from “cut grass” to “gunflint,” and a sample of a wine evaluation form.
Kitti demonstrated a dozen foil cutters – devices to remove the plastic or metal seal over the cork -- and corkscrews. And then we let various members of the class try them. Each class gets four bottles of wine to smell and taste.
We were warned by one of the other faculty here to not expect any questions or responses from our students. It’s how they’re expected to respond in formal classroom settings. You can imagine how great it was when students started asking questions about points in the lecture, how to use the aroma wheel, how to manipulate the AhSo (an unusual wine bottle opener) and so on. When asked to volunteer to cut the foil or open a bottle, we had to pick from many volunteers.
We tasted a Sauvignon Blanc and a Chardonnay with this class, and talked about aroma, flavor, and finish/aftertaste characteristics. Again, there were questions from a number of students, and several stayed after class to continue asking questions. All in all a fun class tonight.
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