Appreciating wine
MONTAGUE — Alex Meloi who runs Meloi’s Liquors in Montague presented the first of the three Oktoberfest Wine Camps at Westfall Winery in Clover Road, Montague on Sept. 14 with his partner Diane.
The participants learned how to appreciate wine, gaining knowledge usually reserved for wine enthusiasts in a fun, easy-going atmosphere.
Sharing wine knowledge
Meloi, who took a full wine sommelier course in New York City, explained he created this course to bring a part of the knowledge he learned to anyone who wants to be able to understand what’s behind the many labels and prices in a wine store.
“Now you can go to the German wines section in a wine shop, and you’ll be able to read the label and understand what kind of grape it’s made of,” he said at the end of the session I.
He added more knowledge is added at each session.
Meloi had maps set up at the end of the room, and he pointed out the different countries and regions where the wines came from.
Team tasting
On arrival in the sunny Barrel Room at the winery overlooking the fields (the winery’s wines were not tasted — the wines were from German speaking regions in Europe), participants were divided into four teams of four to six, and one person was elected to be the Captain.
Diane filled in the glasses in six rounds from bottles whose names were hidden inside a paper bag, and the teams competed against each other for the glory and the prize — a bottle of wine.
The Captain’s job was to keep track of the team’s choices of what the wine they’d just tasted was, according to acidity, sweetness, aroma, what type of grape, "on the nose," "on the palate," what region/country it came from, color, price and finally the actual name.
Four teams, red, yellow, blue, and green sat around tables. To much laughter and exclamations of, "It’s so stressful to be the Captain,” a remark heard from Team Yellow’s Captain Nancy Davis-Kessler, the team members discussed the possibilities — which seemed endless — of what the wine in their glass might be in a parlor game fashion.
Getting together
Nancy came to the camp with her husband Stu from nearby Port Jervis, N.Y. Nancy and Jim are regulars at wine tastings, but they acknowledged the camp was unique because it actually taught how to appreciate and select different wines, instead of just tasting.
Jennifer and Jose Koolman came from East Rutherford, N.J. to the camp for their first year anniversary. Jose who usually drinks Guinness took part enthusiastically, sampling the different wines according to the instructions given on the take-home handout, and Jennifer who’s more of a wine drinker took active part.
The winning Team Red had two cousins with their wives from Vernon, N.J.
“We’re cousins, live only five miles from each other in Vernon, but due to a family feud back in the sixties, didn’t know about each other until a few months ago,” Peter Kraus explained.
They were connected through Facebook.
Peter was sitting with his wife Mary, Cousin John Kraus and his wife Kathy, and they enjoyed their get-together, nailing the last wine on the list winning by one point over Team Yellow.