Back to School

....Wine School that is!

Last night Jeanne, Anna and I attended Tour de France: Les Vins de Francais...en Francais at the Boston Wine School.

This was my second time taking a class at the BWS, last year I took their entertaining and informative Que Syrah/Shiraz class. So I knew that this would be a good time and the fact that it was to be conducted entirely in French appealed to me as well since I am trying to become a more comfortable French speaker (and hey, a little wine to loosen the palate never hurt when it comes to speaking a language you are not native to, oui?).

The class was great fun and we had a blast. Granted, our French was not as good as we would have liked (mine in particular - though if Franglais was considered a real language I would count myself as bilingual!), but we understood most of what was going on and our teacher was very nice about letting people(i.e. ME) lapse into English to get across the point they were trying to make. And my table enjoyed some lovely aside conversation en francais - we even coined a new term for New Hampshire - "Hampshire Nouveaux". Chic, oui?

We tasted nine French wines from light whites to assertive reds paired with delicious plates of cheese, meats, bread, olives and cornichons. The tables were set up in a U shape to afford everyone a front row seat and we really got a good handle on French wine and talking about wine in French. My favorite course was definitely the last course - a pairing of a stellar dessert type wine with insanely delicious chocolate. I was psyched that the School is located right next to the Brookline Liquor Mart so I could pop in after class and get myself a bottle!

So if you live in the area and are looking for a night of good company, good wine and good instruction on enjoying wine, look no further than the Boston Wine School. A list of their Winter Semester classes is available on the website, so if you have been yearning to go back to school...why not make it wine school! I myself have my eye on a wine + chocolate pairing class they are offering in March.