Wine Craft: Back to School with Wines From the Veneto

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Wine Craft: Back to School with Wines From the Veneto

Back to School Fever

It’s that time of year again! If you’re a parent, then you know that it’s time for the back-to-school blues (or cartwheels, depending on your point of view). While you recover from from summer vacation, you might need a few sips of something delicious and decidedly adult – why not learn a little something while you sooth your frayed nerves?

In my line of work, there is no syllabus or parent-assisted wake-up times and I sure as heck don’t get the summer off. It’s a lot like parenting, actually! Because there are so many things to learn about the wine world, if I take any time off (even a mini-vacation), I can begin to forget the information that I spent endless hours to properly retain. But just like being a parent, I chose to live this life, and I really do love it!

strong>How to Remember Wines

You may be wondering what all that has to do with going back to school. It can be hard remembering all the vocabulary and concepts I’m trying to drill in to my brain, so I like to come up with different and unique ways of relating wine information back to concepts from everyday life – in fact, that’s what the Mario Luna Somm wine courses are all about.

While you are preparing the family in going back to school, I have been working on ways I can remember wines from the Veneto, Italy. This area is in northern Italy near Lake Garda, which produces some of the most incredible wines in the world. To make sure I learn everything I need to know (and keep it all straight!) for my next Court of Master Sommelier exam, I decided to categorize the Veneto wines using back-to-school subjects like chemistry, social studies, geography, and so on. It’s wine, back-to-school style – except a lot more fun!

Here’s a cheat sheet to go along with the video (make sure you watch the film first – Movie Day always the best part of school anyway, right?!):

Chemistry Class: Bubbles!

Wine: Zardetto Zeta Prosecco 2013 $20: BUY ME

Social Studies: Lake Garda, Veneto

Wine: Bertani Velante Pinot Grigio 2014 $14: BUY ME

Biology: Staying Green

Wine: Pieropan Soave Classico 2014 $17: BUY ME

Recess: Have fun in the sun!

Wine: Masi Costasera Amarone Classico 2011 $59: BUY ME

Art: A Wine that can speak 1000 words

Wine: Tommasi Ripasso Valpolicella 2012 $24: BUY ME

Which one of these school subjects is your favorite? If you’re not sure, well, now you have some very delicious homework of your very own!

Cheers!

Mario

Mario Luna is a Certified Sommelier and owner of Mario Luna Somm, a company dedicated to “Developing the Sommelier in You” through online wine courses, blogs, and other user-friendly content. He lives in Las Vegas where, in addition to working on the famous Las Vegas Strip, he serves as a consultant for large-scale wine events, specialty shops, and all kinds of wine tastings. You can contact Mario at his website or check out his courses here.