Wine club Archives - Dr. Liz Thach, MW

What Dessert Pairs Best with Sparkling Wine? Korbel & Bianchi’s Provide Some Answers

Erica Mandl of Korbel Champagne Cellars For the last tasting of the semester at the SSU WineSense Club, we focused on a holiday theme of sparkling wine and dessert. The beautiful Erica Mandl, head winemaker at Korbel Champagne Cellars, led the tasting by introducing five different Korbel bubblies. These were matched to delectable desserts from the new bakery in Rohnert Park, Bianchi’s. How Sweet is Your Sparkling Wine? Erica cautioned that it was important to understand the level of residual sugar in a sparkling wine, in order to determine the type of dessert with which to pair it. [...]

By Dr. Liz Thach, MW|2021-02-01T22:38:10-08:00December 16, 2012|

Balletto and DeLoach Wineries Celebrate the Pinot Noir Harvest with SSU Millennials

Forty-four Millennials showed up to Thursday evening’s SSU Wine Club tasting called “Pinot Party.” Not only did the students get to taste pinot noir wines from both Balletto and DeLoach wineries, but they were also treated to fresh Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris grapes from the vineyard. Favorite wines of the evening were the 2011 Balletto Russian River Valley Pinot Noir ($29), which has notes of dark cherry cola, violets, earth and rhubard, and the 2009 DeLoach Green Valley Pinot Noir ($45). According to the winemaker notes, this latter wine is very aromatic, with touches of raspberries, black cherries, rhubarb, [...]

By Dr. Liz Thach, MW|2021-02-01T22:39:18-08:00October 1, 2012|

Kenwood and Valley of the Moon Winemakers Entertain SSU Millennials with Varietal Showdown

Another sold out crowd showed up this past week at the SSU Wine Club meeting to listen to veteran winemakers, Patrick Henderson of Kenwood Wine Estates and Greg Winter of Valley of the Moon. In addition to honoring the “end of summer,” the tasting featured a fascinating “varietal show down” of how two wines made of the same grape varietal can taste completely different based on appellation and/or winemaking techniques. Valley of the Moon’s Greg Winter started with out with an unoaked chardonnay and then compared it to an oaked wine. He explained that consumers liked different styles, and so [...]

By Dr. Liz Thach, MW|2021-02-01T22:39:45-08:00September 19, 2012|

Why Millennials Don’t Read Emails

Last night we had our annual SSU Wine Club Board planning meeting at my house. This is usually a relaxed event where we identify the wineries we want to invite to campus next semester, and enjoy a BBQ dinner with many fun wines. This year’s planning dinner was equally enjoyable, but I was struck by our conversation about how we will promote our educational tasting seminars. “We will market the seminars via word of mouth and Facebook, of course,” said our new VP of Marketing. “Most college students never read emails.” As a college professor, I already knew this, but [...]

By Dr. Liz Thach, MW|2021-02-01T22:40:58-08:00May 29, 2012|