Thursday, March 15th 2012 Tria Fermentation School hosted a Greek Spring Break class for its students. I led the class and had two guest speakers - Petros Markantonatos from Gentilini Wines & Apostolos Thymiopoulos from Thymiopoulos Vineyards.
The class was great fun - we were able to expose over two dozen attendees to Greek wines. Many had never tasted anything Greek before, while others were exposed to some of the lesser quality stuff that unfortunately permeates the market.
Our lineup was:
Gentilini Aspro 2010 - welcome wine
Gentilini Robola 2010
Hatzimichalis Lefkos 2010
Assyrtiko Argyros 2010
Spiropoulos Red Stag 2009
Porto Carras Limnio 2010
Thymiopoulos Young Vines 2010
Thymiopoulos Uranos 2008
Samos Vin Doux 2010
Tria prepared a small plate for each attendee with an assortment of cheese, olives, picked veggies, almonds, salami & THE most amazing piece of fudge for dessert.
At the last minute, Michael McCaulley decided we should spring a retsina on the group as a surprise. We used GAIA Ritinitis Retsina for this exercise. In order for them to get a better understanding for retsina, I had each person eat an olive and then take a sip of the wine. While several guests weren't fans, they could appreciate the wine for what it's worth.
In the beginning everyone was a bit quiet - I feel that they were listening and trying to get their feet under them as we explored Greece's wine regions and grapes. However, as the evening wore on, the group became more animated and began chatting amongst themselves. I always take that as a sign that the "lightbulbs" are going off in their minds. Additionally, several attendees were asking about pricing on the wines. once we gave them approximate retail prices, they could not believe that everything we tried was under $25 in Pennsylvania!
Educational events are always fun to be involved in. What always inspires me to keep doing them is to watch people's reactions as they get more comfortable with the regions, grapes & wines. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the crew at Tria for their constant support and for putting together great classes. If you are ever in Philadelphia and have the ability to take a class, I highly recommend you do so.
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