Growing up, I often said that my favorite places were libraries and airports because both were a point of departure to faraway and exotic places. Now I’m thinking I’m going to have to add wine stores to that list.

Yesterday, in my typical over-eager fashion, I arrived almost 25 minutes before my Wine 101 class at NYC Wine Class was scheduled to begin. To bide my time, I entered the nearby Landmark Wines and started perusing the bottles on the shelves. I wandered from Portuguese wines to South American wines to French wines, judging labels, and when intrigued, turning the bottles over to scan their backs, trying to glean more information about their contents. “As if these bottles were books!” I thought to myself. Except none of the wines were familiar, and I sadly realized that the authors and styles of this particular library were unknown to me.

Hence, Wine 101, a one-night introductory wine-tasting class designed to help students identify their preferred wines as well as impart an overview of the winemaking process. Founder of NYC Wine Class, Andrew Harwood teaches this two-and-a-half-hour class in a casual, yet intimate, “dining” space in Chelsea. Multiple tables of various sizes and a welcome glass of Prosecco awaited us as we entered, the strains of a smooth jazz band creating a festive atmosphere. My sister and I settled on a table conveniently situated right in front of the dry-erase board for easy and accurate note-taking.

A lovely young lady with a bright smile greeted us. Another gentleman was preparing the cheeses and the wine in the back room. And Andrew, who has worked in vineyards in Hungary, France, and California, rolled up his sleeves and cut right to the chase: To find a wine that appeals to you, you have to taste a lot of wines. But of course, the more you know about winemaking, the more efficient you can be at sampling. Speaking in rapid sentences, he began by explaining the major forces that shape a wine: the grape, the region, and the production. About 99% of wines are produced from the same species of grape, vitis vinifera, of which there are greater than 9000 identified types. A sauvignon blanc is one of these grape-types and is grown in various parts of the world for wine production. However, a sauvignon blanc from the Loire Valley will differ in taste from the same grape grown in Sonoma County, California, due to the differences in climate, rainfall, amount of sunshine, wind, etc.

Think of grapes and their resultant wine in terms of the “nurture versus nature” paradigm. The wines produced from the same grape will have the same “nature” or general qualities due to the identical genetic code of the grapes, but the personality and idiosyncrasies of the wines can wildly differ due to the “nurturing” of the grape. How is a grape nurtured?  By the warmth of and exposure time to the sun before harvest, the composition of the soil, the amount of rainfall--the list is endless.

In the Loire Valley, the cooler climate contributes to the shorter growing season. As a result, the grapes in the Loire Valley are harvested earlier than they are in Sonoma, California. However, the longer a grape is left on the vine prior to harvest, the more time nature has to turn the acid of the grape into sugar, which will affect the sweetness of the wine. (Think of a banana and its progression from green to brown and corresponding intensification of sweetness.) This sugar is eventually transformed, through fermentation, into alcohol, and the interplay between alcohol and acidity is what defines the style of wine.

More vine time in the sun generally results in a sweeter grape and corresponding wine with a higher alcoholic content (due to the high sugar content). Less vine time results in wines that are lighter, crisper, and more refreshing due to the higher acid and lower alcohol content.

The best way to get a sense of this dynamic range among wines made from the same grape or that are similar in nature is to compare and contrast, which is what we proceeded to do throughout the evening. We sampled five pairs of wines, either made from the same grape or related in their purpose (like food-friendly or more-bodied), and took notes on the provided worksheets.

The pacing of the evening was leisurely. Andrew would give a brief overview of the pair of wines from each category (Sauvignon Blanc, Aromatic, Food-Friendly Reds, More-Bodied, and Blind) and then left us to savor the two glasses with an absolutely scrumptious cheese plate from Murrays’ Cheese Shop and bread from Whole Foods. (Each wine pair had a recommended accompaniment cheese.) During these exploratory mini tasting sessions, Jenny and I and our two table mates Uli and Eric voiced our initial opinions and then compared our tasting notes after repeated swirling, sniffing, and slurping, a technique of sucking in air through the mouth to create air bubbles. (Think of the times as a kid you blew air through a straw into a cup of milk. Now imagine doing this same action in reverse, without a straw.) While slurping does intensify the flavors of each swallow, the vapors of the wine--in wasabi-like fashion--at times overwhelmed my nervous system, and I came very close to dribbling wine into my lap on more than one occasion.

Andrew came around during our exploratory sessions, answering various questions, and canvassing the tables for opinions on the wine. His knowledge and enthusiasm were apparent, as he fired off explanations that I scrambled to write down in my notebook. “Once you decide on what grape you like and what region you prefer, how can you decide which vintage year to purchase?” someone queried. Andrew responded with the following explanation: white wines are generally at their best two to three years from the label date; whereas red wines tend to peak around five to eight years after bottling. When wine gets older, it tends to develop bitter coffee/tea like flavors.

By the end of the evening I had tasted ten wines and five different cheeses. Thankfully, I was not drunk, though I did have a case of “palette fatigue” that not even additional slices of bread could alleviate.

My favorite wine and cheese combinations of the evening ...

White Wine (Sauvignon Blanc)

Henri Bourgeois, Sancerre, “La Porte du Caillou,” Loire Valley, France, 2008

Valencay - Pasteurized goat’s milk from central France, edible vegetable-ash rind, aged 3-4 weeks

This wine was spicy and bright with earthy grass overtones. I felt like I was tasting early summer on a farm. Nice long-ish finish. Very tasty vegetable-ash rind on the goat cheese.

Red Wine (Food-Friendly Reds)

Limerick Lane, Pinot Noir, “Collins Vineyard,” Russian River, California, 2007

La Sirena - Sheep’s Milk cheese, Torta del Casar

While many of the other students did not enjoy this Pinot Noir, I absolutely loved it. The delicate subtleness of the distinct fruity and smoky flavors, each one shyly vying for attention, enticed my mind to focus on different elements with each sniff and sip. Similar to experiencing the sky at twilight, the patterns and shades of color intensified, morphed, and varied, depending on where my taste buds and olfactory sensors chose to gaze. The sweetness of the wine tempered the bitter tang of the creamy sheep’s milk cheese, producing both a poignant and satisfying effect.

I left the class feeling so much more confident about wine for two reasons: 1) I had already increased my knowledge of wines by 10 bottles and 2) I now had a method of comparing and contrasting, from which I can form opinions about a specific quality of a wine, be it the grape, the region, or some other factor.  Pretty impressive results for a single one-night class experience.

Library, airport, wine store. The wine store has the potential to become my favorite out of the favorites. A lot less expensive than a flight and quicker than reading a book, one sip of wine could take me to France and the next to California.  Now the question is, where to next?