The Week Ahead.

I am fortunate in many ways. I live 30 minutes from Napa Valley to the North and I live about 40 minutes from San Francisco to the West. (East is Gold Country, Lake Tahoe and Yosemite Valley - but they are 3 hours away. South is nothing). We get occasional earthquakes - had two yesterday just on the other side of the hills in Oakland - but on the whole this is wonderful place to live.

An added benefit is that with a Napa and San Francisco nearby there is usually some sort of Wine event going on. Next week will be untypical, however illustrative of some of the opportunities.

Let me start with Last week First. Susan and I volunteered to work at the Lodi Appellation at Treasure Island event. We are on the volunteer list for several wine organizations and we trade off 2-3 hours of work against the entry fee (often $50-$60) and then spend 2-3 hours tasting wine for free.

Lodi Appellation is in the California Central Valley however it gets cool delta breezes so that it can still make some pretty nice wines. Lodi is probably best known for big, jammy Old Vine Zinfandels, although they also do a great job with a number of other grapes as well. Treasure Island was a fun venue. It sits in San Francisco Bay with the City of Oakland off the eastern shore and San Francisco off the western one. You get a great view no matter which way you look. One additional benefit was that it was San Francisco Fleet Week during which the city honors the US Navy although we also get some ships from our Canadian Friends as well. Every Year there is an awesome airshow by the Blue Angels and others, this year the Canadian Snowbirds and some aircraft, I know not what, but the sound of its engines alone and the fact that I think it broke the sound barrier a couple of times was enough to keep me astounded. At times the jets would fly low level right over the island and that is just one of the pleasures of this event.

With last week out of the way, we look at next week.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I am tasting at Jacksons a liquor store a few towns over. Always a fun event. This week it will be an Italian distributor who is leading us through a tasting of 12 Italian wines. the wines range from a Moscato and a Fiano on the white side to a Montalcino and a Nebbiolo among the reds.

Tuesday: I am pouring wines for a tasting event of the Winemakers of Collio Italy at a Vespa scooter showroom in San Francisco. Collio is located in the North East corner of Italy on the border of Slovania, this area has become noted for its excellent aromatic dry white wines. Several winemakers are flying to the US to pour their wines and represent their wineries. I will pour the wines and tell the wine story of one of the wineries that didn't make the trip. So I am studying their web site and learning about the area in general. All part of being a wine student.

Wednesday morning: I am a taster at another Italian Wine event in SF. This one is the "Simply Italian" wine tasting. It is a walk around tasting of Italian Wine producers. I was invited as a member of the Society of Wine Educators, but also (maybe, I hope) that my name is getting on various lists as somebody who should at least get an invitation to these events. This may just be my fantasy, but I did get 2 different invitations.

Wednesday night: I am joining my AWS chapter in Napa for our monthly meeting which, this month, includes a tasting of ( you guessed it ) Italian Wines. I am trying to get them interested (actually totally awesomely committed) in having me teach them the French Wine Scholar next spring.

Thursday night: I volunteer for ZAP - The Zinfandel Advocates and Producers. They have a large (7000-10,000 attendees) Zinfandel only wine tasting each year in San Francisco at the end of January. I have worked at and tasted at several of these events. This year Susan and I are team leads for one of the volunteer groups, and this is one of the organizing meetings where we are checking out a new venue and planning out duties and team structures.

Friday: I meet with Master-of-Wine candidate Maureen Downey to go over a review of tasting notes as I continue to prepare for my WSET Diploma Unit-6 Fortified Wines exam the first week of November.

And, in between all of this I am still tasting my Ports, Madeiras, Sherries, VDNs and studying on everything you could want to know about fortified wines.

The life of a wine student.

john