The Iron Chevsky Wine Blog

I've introduced San Francisco Wine School before . I've personally met the highly knowledgeable instructors and attended one of their educational and entertaining classroom sessions. Now that their first semester is coming to a close, they are already picking up steam and expanding to two locations. For those interested in understanding and enjoying more French wine from Bordeaux to Burgundy to Champagne, Loire, Rhone, Beaujolais, Alsace, and Languedoc-Roussillon - regions I often explore on the pages of this blog, this course is highly & deliciously recommended! Winter 2011 Class Schedule San Francisco (Tuesday & Thursday 6pm-8:30pm) Hotel Triton’s Creative Zone Tue 1/25 (Alsace) & Thu 1/27 (Burgundy) Tue 2/1 (Beaujolais) & Thu 2/3 (Bordeaux) Tue 2/8 (Loire) & Thu 2/10 (Champagne) Tue 2/15 (Rhone) Thu 2/24 (South of France) Sat 3/5 FWS Exam (Embassy Suites South SF 11am-12 noon) South San Francisco (Saturday 10am-4pm) Embassy Suites Sat 1/29 (Alsace ...

On Tuesday last week, I dropped in on the first (ever) session of the newly minted San Francisco Wine School. Their introductory course was France. I had previously announced the opening of the school on this blog (see here ), but wanted to check for myself what it'd be like, before I really stuck my neck out and put the Iron Chevsky seal of approval on these guys. On the second floor of a swanky'ish old Hotel Triton in the super-happening downtown area close to the Union Square, I walked into a cozy room with a small group of students, and two wine Jedi presiding. One of them - Maureen Downey, specializes in managing wine collections and wine auctions (her copious credentials can be seen here .) The other - David Glancy is a Master Sommelier and a long-time educator and department chair in the Professional Culinary Institute in Campbell, CA. Both were incredibly knowledgeable. The first class focused on Alsace, a region that is supposed to be the easiest to understand in Fra...

San Francisco Wine School is launching a French wine program in partnership with French Wine Society - an organization that I have been a member of for several years. They are known for high-quality French wine curriculum, and I try to attend every new event they bring to San Francisco. The French Wine School program starts on Tuesday, Nov 16, and includes 6 classes that painstakingly go through each major wine region of France. I took a similar class years ago when I was a staunch California wine fanatic and I didn't "get" French or Italian wine. The class opened my eyes and completely changed my appreciation of "old world" wine and France, in particular, and got me onto an amazing wine journey that I find myself on now. In my opinion, for anyone who is eager to grow from a casual wine drinker to a wine aficionado, or for those who still don't "get" French wine, this type of class is a must. Fall 2010 Class Schedule (Tuesday & Thursday 6pm-8...