Drew Horton, an enology specialist with the University of Minnesota Grape Breeding and Enology Project, was our guide for UMRA’s July 20 wine-tasting workshop.

More than 50 UMRA members and guests enjoyed a delightful late afternoon together learning about wine and wine tasting and then tasting three excellent Minnesota wines on July 20. Our guide for this much-anticipated workshop was Drew Horton, an enology specialist with the University of Minnesota Grape Breeding and Enology Project.  

A former California winemaker, Horton works on developing grape varieties at the U and helping Minnesota wineries enhance their products. Fun fact: Horton was an extra in Sideways, the 2004 movie that, he told us, put Santa Barbara wine country “on the map.”

At the start of our virtual workshop, we reviewed some basics about wine and wine tasting:

• White wines are pressed before fermentation; only the juice is fermented.
• Red wines are pressed after fermentation; they are fermented with the skins, seeds, and pulp.
• Rosé wines are made with red wine grapes that are kept with the skins for only a short time.
• Orange wines are made with white wine grapes that are fermented with the skins, like red wines.
• Dry wines have no residual sugar after fermentation (i.e., the yeast has converted all the sugars to alcohol. Off-dry and sweet wines leave some of the sugar unfermented.

Enhancing the experience

You can enjoy wine by simply drinking it, but using some simple wine-tasting techniques can enhance the experience. 

• Begin by looking at the color, swirling the wine, smelling it, and then tasting it. Swish it around in your mouth and note the beginning and finish.
• Pro tip: After swallowing, breathe in through your mouth and out your nose. You’ll be rewarded with an enhanced experience of the wine’s taste and aroma.
• Pro tip: To develop a vocabulary for describing wine you can consult an aroma wheel, which shows both general ways to describe the wine (e.g., nutty, fruity) and specific ways (e.g., almond, apricot). 

After learning about the basics, we split into breakout rooms to taste three Minnesota wines, all made with Minnesota grape varieties, many of which were developed by the University:

• Petit Ami, a dry white wine from Carlos Creek Winery in Alexandria, made from a cold-hardy grape that is a cross between Muscat and Swenson Red
• Frontenac Gris, an off-dry orange wine from Parley Lake Winery in Waconia, made from Frontenac Gris grapes, one of three Frontenac varieties
• Minnesota Marquette from Chankaska Creek Winery in Kasota, a dry red made from Marquette grapes

When we had finished, we had two big takeaways from the day: (1) Virtual wine tastings work. We all bought the wines in advance from local stores and enjoyed discussing them. (2) Minnesota wines can be good! Amazingly, some Minnesota wines can compare with wines from anywhere.

He also offered a book recommendation if you would like to learn more about wines—Wine Folly: Magnum Edition, the Master Guide by Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack. It’s available from University of Minnesota Bookstores. You can purchase the book by contacting the Bookstores at 612-626-0559 or [email protected], or by ordering it online via the books/cooking section of the Bookstores’ website.

—Ron Matross, UMRA president-elect