Last Thursday, Umbra students attended a wine tasting at a local Perugia enoteca. The professional sommelier, Silvia Bartolini, demonstrated how to use our sense of smell, taste, and sight to examine a wine’s quality and age. Students sampled three types of wine to judge for themselves whether they found hints of green apple and almond here or honey and blackberry there. Flaviano, the owner of the enoteca, also showed how to properly open a bottle of wine and asked for a volunteer to help. The student received a round of applause for her ability to open the bottle without turning the label away from her ‘customer’.
The true test came when students were asked to pair the wines with the different types of finger foods based on their complimentary nature. The night ended with a guessing game of which type of glass is for which type of wine. Now, the next time students share in the bottled traditions of Italy at a dinner party, they can show friends and family how to be knowledgeable wine connoisseurs.