It takes a Master of Wine to be able to guide one
through France
and get a general idea of what this great wine producing country is all
about. And that’s what Bob Campbell MW
did at his French Wine Certificate course on Monday 28 June. Bob took a group of wine enthusiasts through
the main wine regions of France,
outlining the important bits, such as size, soils, climate, grape varieties,
classification systems and more, as well as tasting a broad range of wines. It really was too much to take in –
‘information overload’ - but Bob kept to the noteworthy stuff, and kept it
light-hearted, with personal anecdotes, along with a slide show of views,
scenes and panoramas. Thank goodness for
the booklet that has all the detail that can be referred to at any time later. The ‘tour de France’ took two and a half
hours, whereas any self-respecting wine geek would need two and a half years to
do the same trip!
The wine selection was pretty amazing:
The wines of the night were the Schoffit Alsace
Gewurztraminer ‘Harth – Cuvee Caroline’ 2007, Chapoutier Condrieu ‘Invitare’
2007 and the Montille Beaune 1er Cru ‘Greves’ 2006.
Keep an eye out for the next Bob Campbell ‘French Wine
Certificate’ course, hopefully scheduled before the end of the year.