Departments
|
Week of 19 March 1999 |
Vol. II, No. 27 |
Feature
Article
À votre l'chaim
Wine program at MET improves with age
By Hope Green
What are the four most planted grape varieties in the Alsace region of France? What is the difference between bottle- and wood-matured port? What libation marries best with morel-filled ravioli in asparagus cream?
All such matters of viticulture (grape growing), enology (the study of wine making), and gastronomy are explored at Metropolitan College's Elizabeth Bishop Wine Resource Center. With the introduction of two wine certificate courses this semester, the three-year-old facility, already popular with food and beverage enthusiasts for its wine-and-food pairing seminars, has expanded its appeal to professional sommeliers, restaurateurs, and liquor distributors.
"Most people who go into the trade enjoy wine but don't know anything about it," says Rebecca Alssid, director of special programs at MET. "In the trade you have to know things like what areas of the world the different wines come from, how they are priced, how the grapes are grown, and how to tell the good wine from the bad."
Elizabeth Bishop (no relation to the poet), who died in 1991, was a Boston-area food and wine expert and longtime assistant to Julia Child on the chef's PBS cooking programs and in her master classes at MET. Carrying on Bishop's legacy, her daughters Sarah Bishop and Ellen O'Brien both serve on the wine center's advisory board. O'Brien, a graphic designer, created the facility's logo, and Sarah (MET'98), a teaching assistant in the college's culinary arts program, is now taking the introductory wine class.
"We drank wine with every dinner when I was growing up," Sarah says. "My mother would give us a lecture on everything we drank. So I learned a lot about wine as a child, but I don't remember all of it and the vintages change so much from year to year. I do some catering, and it's important to know what wine to serve with what food."
The new courses, which grant first- and second-level certificates from the prestigious Wine & Spirit Education Trust in London, have each attracted about 60 students from the liquor industry as well as casual consumers. According to Alssid, BU is one of only two locations in the United States to offer the certificates. Next year, she hopes to add a diploma course and master of wine program. Only 15 Americans, including two of the Bishop Center's three instructors, have achieved the master's designation.
For the time being, however, there are plenty of students like Colleen and Nicholas Sampson, who seek only some working knowledge to help them purchase the right vintages for their Cocke 'n Kettle restaurant in Uxbridge, Mass. The couple are enrolled in the introductory certificate class taught by wine master Bill Nesto.
"Now I will actually have an understanding of what the label means so I'm not just wildly picking bottles off the shelves," says Colleen. "I have more than 30 people in my waitstaff and I'd like to be able to answer their questions. So when a customer wants to know what goes with fish, I'll be able to give a more educated opinion."
|
|
|
Bill Nesto, a master of wine and instructor at the Elizabeth Bishop Wine Center, checks the color of a merlot with s |
