Class location:  Flatiron Wines (18th & Broadway)

Friday, May 19, 7pm-8:45pm

A combination of whites, rosés, and elegant reds.  This is the best of summer -- bottles bristling with acid and energy, wines both delicate and bold, but all designed to deliver pleasure.  

White wine is often viewed as a beginner's beverage, training wheels perhaps.  But nothing could be further from the truth, as white wines can mean serious business.  True, some are boring, plain, and uneventful.  We won't taste those, instead opting for examples from Ischia off the coast of Naples, Pigato from Liguria, perhaps a Grüner Veltliner from Austria.

Same goes for rosé.  By now, it's hip to drink pink, but looking cool aside, these wines merit your time, attention, and dollars for the way they deliver freshness alongside a blast of sea spray and hints of ripe red fruits.  Likewise for the reds, we'll taste wines that serve up fruits and flowers, but in a package suitable for the summer heat.  If you've never tasted Rossese di Dolceacqua, Etna Rosso, or grand cru Gamay, you're life may never be the same.

The dramatics now over (no matter how genuine), I do promise this class features wines which bring pleasure, wines that allow us to easily appreciate a sense of place, of origin, wines with inimitable flavors and textures that can only be produced in their home niche. 

The cheeses will not disappoint as we sample some of the world's most distinctive wheels of fromage (and charcuterie) to discover if successful pairings exist, or if each is better on its own. I hope you'll join us, and thank you for your consideration.