Musee du Vin

Leslie - me - Alice

The loooong table with 30 of us students in the cave-like side room.

The table setting for each peron included 5 tasting glasses, a name tag, a folder with key vocabulary and other wine information and a pen.

Jess learning how to properly open a wine bottle.

This past Friday BU took us to the Musee du Vin so that we could learn about the history of wine and how to appreciate wine. The museum is located in the 16th, about a 7 minute walk from my house. It used to be an old abbey (for monks) and they produced their own wine there. It's located in caves because supposedly the minerals from the rocks aided the wine fermentation and it kept the wine cool and away from the sun that could damage the process.

We started with learning about the different types of scents - hazelnut, wood, leather, raspberry, prune, etc. - that are usefull when describing wine. We had to smell different pieces of paper and guess what the scent was on it. Then we learned how to tell the difference between an old red wine (usually more orange/brown and dry) and a newer red wine (more violet and fruity tasting). We also learned how to read the labels on wine bottles to know where they are from, what year they were made, by who, etc.

In France, as long as you buy a bottle of wine that has the bottom of it going into the bottle and a green seal on top, you're guaranteed to get a quality bottle of wine (even if it only costs 3 euros)! The color of the seal signals the quality and type of alcohol (green = good, blue = bad, as in not of good quality but still consumable). Other alcoholic beverages get different colors (yellow = congnac and whiskey). It's mainly for taxing and importation purposes but also helpful for the average consumer.