This is my long overdue posting on my wonderful experience at City Winery. Going into the SOHO building I was already impressed. I love seeing a space utilizing things that represent them but can no longer be used. Looking at their cork tables, and empty wine bottles over the beautiful bar was amazing. The best was yet to come.
Entering the back area you see where they make the wine in their huge stainless steel barrels. The mastermind behind the wine making comes and reminds us of all the important aspects of making wine. We review the aspects of white wine making and red wine making back to back (with some sparkling wine facts as well). We then proceed to taste the still fermenting white wine; a Riesling. We learn that it looks cloudy, it smells bad, and how they control the temperature.
After the white wine we go back to review the red wine making process. We learn the difference in time, how to separate the branches, leaves, and more from the red grape vines. The most impressive part was when we tasted the Cabernet Sauvignon grape. The little grapes that we always talk about in lectures and see pictures were live in our face. We tasted it and saw how tiny they actually were. After that we tasted some more in process red wine. We learned very similar things in terms of cloudiness and smell. The new aspect we saw was the way they mix the wine. Specifically in City Winery we see them stand on a log or piece of wood and stir from the top. They warn us that this is never done alone since accidents happen. To avoid them they must always stir in pairs.
The final step was going to the wine cellar and tasting the final product. We were all served Cabernet Sauvignon. It was fruity, bold, and delicious. We also saw their inventory in barrels. They were dated, and had years aged. I was, however, blown away that the wine is on tap. I have never heard of that but I thought it was amazing. I think its really cost effective and I’m sure brings in a lot of revenue. This is a good selling point for them, in addition to making their wine in the restaurant.
The things we saw learned, and tasted have made an impression on me. This aspect for the industry (making wine) has been a intangible experience. I can now scratch that off my list. I will of course try to make it California to the wine capital of USA eventually. But being from NYC it always seemed something we couldn’t do. Thankfully to the newly acquired grant our class was able to experience first hand the wine process.
