Registration deadline: Sep. 9^th

Italy is home to more indigenous grape varieties than any other country on earth — over 500 documented, each one a living artifact of a specific place, culture, and cuisine. In this class, we travel north to south through the Italian peninsula, tasting six native red grapes that have shaped the identity of their home regions for centuries. We open in Piedmont with Nebbiolo — the great and brooding king of Italian wine — then move south through Barbera, Montepulciano, and Primitivo before arriving in Sicily with Nero d'Avola and the volcanic Nerello Mascalese, grown high on the smoking slopes of Mt. Etna. Along the way, students learn to navigate Italy's notoriously complex DOC/DOCG labeling system, understand the role of food and terroir in Italian winemaking philosophy, and discover why Italian reds remain among the world's most compelling — and most misunderstood — wines.

Nicholas Kubiak is a Certified Specialist of Wine and Spirits and a veteran of our local wine industry.