The Wake

Without a doubt, the University of Minnesota hosts a multitude of courses ranging from architecture to zoology. While some classes may have students drawing schematics or dissecting cadavers for the sake of education, a newly initiated wine tasting class has students drinking their lessons. But don’t be fooled – while the idea of tasting wines for a class may draw student’s interest, the activity merely reinforces class topics.

Vines and Wines: Introduction to Viticulture and Enology is an entry-level horticulture science class which allows students a chance to hone their wine tasting skills by evaluating regional and national wines. In addition to critiquing wines, the class also learns about the winemaking process as well as how to properly grow grapes.

“Most schools with these subjects will teach them in two different courses,” said Gary Gardner, the class’ instructor. “What we have done is combine both viticulture and enology into one class. No other school has done that before.”

Although the course is a 1000 level class with no requirements other than having to be 21, it is not as easy as it seems to be. Over the semester students are required to keep a journal recording their thoughts about wines, grapes and other class related topics. Of course there are also in-class quizzes as well as a cumulative midterm and final exam. Students also have to write an extensive research paper on a wine-growing region of the world and give a presentation describing the region to the class.

“The best aspects of the class are really learning everything that goes into making and consuming wine,” said Kristin Nelson, a senior year biology student. “Growing and cultivating grapes, and harvesting, to making and tasting the wine.”

While class lectures educate students on topics like fermentation, production, storage and all the chemistry involved in their processes, the real fun comes during lab where students get to taste a multitude of wines.

Each tasting, titled a “sensory session”, is an interesting spectacle to behold. Students are asked to leave the room as the instructors and a few volunteers fill wineglasses with an ounce of six different wines. Each student has their own six glasses as well as two additional glasses, one empty and one with water.

Once the glasses are filled, the students return to the room and begin their sensory session. The room remains totally silent, except for the sounds of students sniffing, swirling and tasting their wines.

“It is hard to concentrate on how things taste when you are being distracted,” Gardner said. “The silence is to help fully concentrate on what you’re experiencing.”

Throughout the session, students examine many different elements of the wines such as clarity, color, odor and taste, he said. All observations are then recorded within students’ journals.

“The differences in the wine vary with the types of wine you are trying,” Nelson said. “Different grapes have characteristic flavors and aromas, so you usually see if the wine is typical of its grape variety.”

Although the wines are open to tasting, very little of it is actually consumed. After a successful taste, most students spit out their wine into the empty glass offered to them. Students will then use water to cleanse their tasting pallet and reset their taste buds. In fact, the most liquid consumed in the class is water. However, at the end of the session there are an occasional one or two students who would rather drink their wines than dump them out.

Even though the class is in its first semester there are already plans being made to develop it. Gardner explained that he is looking forward to seeing how the students do in the class as well as how they critique it during evaluations. He also mentioned that they are considering a long-term option to develop the course so that it fulfills the biology and lab requirements for CLA students, he said. However, there would have to be some major investments and changes made to the course. In addition to adding a credit to the currently 3 credit course, they would have to add an additional lab session each week, he said.

“It’s a possibility but it will take a lot of time and investment,” he said. “It won’t be next year but it’s a long-term project.”

Nelson said many students had many different reasons for why they took the course. Some of the students are interested in horticulture and took the class to learn about grape growing, she said. Others were more interested in learning about wine itself and how to properly purchase and order wine at a restaurant.

Being an elective, Nelson had no reason to take the class other than her personal interest in wines. She explained that the class has helped her decipher wine labels and understand the differences in various kinds of wines. She said the class has influenced her to begin growing her own grapes and someday brew her own wine.

“I wanted to know more about wine production and the different varieties,” she said. “This class has definitely helped me accomplish that.”