So much to know about wine, so little time. The sheer amount of information
available about wine can be confounding. And if you’re like me, you just
want to find out what you like and why you like it. Also if you’re like
me, you don’t have a lot of time to sit around swirling cab franc on your
tongue and pondering its black currant essence. (We don’t, right?)
Well, for the motivated wine enthusiast there is a way to learn
a lot and learn it fast. In the spirit of today’s can’t-wait, get-it-done-yesterday
society, there’s wine boot camp. Like the personalized, grueling,
crash-course fitness regimes before it, the wine boot camp is designed to
provide an immersive environment for the learning about and appreciation
of wine. And decidedly more enticing, there’s no sweat and sore muscles
involved.
There are a handful of good wine camps around, but the camps hosted
by Affairs of the Vine (www.winebootcamp.com) are well run, thorough,
and a lot of fun. Welcoming rookies and experts alike, the series
of boot camps offers firsthand experience of the intricacies of
putting wine in a bottle and the subtleties of sipping it from a glass.
“Enlistees” are offered a chance to work in the vineyard and the cellar
under with the knowing instruction of winemakers and viticulturists just
over the shoulder. Boot camps also include workshops and tastings that quickly
bring expertise up to speed.
Campers come away with what boot camp director
and chief wine evangelist, Barbara Drady describes as “an undergraduate
degree – something that gives you the tools the ask the right
questions. [Boot campers] feel empowered. They are able to identify
a lot of the language that is used in wine culture. When people talk about
cherry and cinnamon and peppers most people just shake their heads. But
we give them a course that electrifying. It’s not done with essence. We
bring out the actual fruits and spices and let them taste blind without
telling them the varietal so that does not influence them. When it’s all
said and done, they are able to speak the language because they get it.
We give them a real overview of the process.”
Held in various California
wine regions, Boot Camps attract people from across the globe
– a recent camper came from Norway. Drady says she’s seen enlistees
as old as 84 (there’s a minimum age of 21). The camps are daylong intensives,
lasting 12 hours and, depending on the vineyard, can involve “marching”
though the vines or riding “cavalry” through them on horseback.
Educational
and most of all fun, attending a boot camp is an ideal way to
discover your passion for wine or rekindle it anew. “It’s a recognition
and understanding of what goes into the process,” says Drady. “The
best part is that you get to learn from viticultrualists and head winemakers
themselves – the ones who are truly passionate about what they
do and they can best convey that passion to our enlistees.”
Camps begin in
summer, and this year will be held in Santa Cruz Mountains, Napa
Valley, Santa Barbara County, and Sonoma County. My advice? Enlist early.
It’s time to report for duty.
Happy
Campers
