Wine Tasting at the Library

While playing Book Bingo the other month, I noticed Menasha Library was having an introduction to wine regions and wine tasting. I was like sign me up. Janis and Danielle even agreed to go.

The program, Wine Regions of the World, was presented by Anthony Bilwin from Von Stiehl Winery. He is the general manager of the winery. He put together a wonderful presentation of the wine regions complete with a hand out. We also were able to sample 4 different wines.

There are two wine styles -- New World and Old World. They dictate how the wine is produced. Old World wine is literally just grapes and is pretty much the original wine producers of the world -- France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Portugal. New World Wine is from everywhere else and can include fruit -- essentially they are fruit forward wines. I am definitely a New World Wine drinker.

Anthony went over the different regions within each country. It was quite interesting and he could talk for hours. I did learn a wealth of information that I will not bore you with.

Anthony decided to have a taste a white and a red from the Old World and New World regions. We tasted a Riesling and a Cabernet Sauvignon. 

The first Riesling was from Loosen Bros and was Old World wine from Germany. It wasn't bad for a Riesling. Then we sampled Von Stiehl's Riesling and it was amazing. Since they get their white wine grapes from Washington, it had an apple flavor to it. I may have to pick up a bottle in August. 

The Cabs.. not a fan. The first Cabernet we tried was the Von Stiel Cabernet and Janis wish she had a picture of my face. It was very dry. I did not even finish it. Janis drank the rest of mine. The Old World Cab was from Ste Chateau Michelle and was at least drinkable. It was a still dry but at least tolerable.

It was an educationally fun evening at the library.  I like when they have programs like these where I can learn something and get some wine. Hopefully they do it again. There is plenty of wine categories to explore.