Wine School: Windows on the World Wine School

http://www.windowswineschool.com/
845-255-1456

The wine course we personally recommend to anyone is the Windows on the World Wine School given by the enthusiastic wine expert Kevin Zraly. We went back in 2000, and to this day it remains a memorable experience.

The price of the course is now $995, and takes place at the Marriott Marquis Hotel (45th St. and Broadway). And just as we experienced, it is made up of eight two-hour classes. The first three are on white wine (French-American-German) then four classes on reds (Burgundy-Bordeaux-California-Spain/Italy) and on graduation class night the subject is Champagne & Port. Kevin’s unique instruction will alter your sensibilities about the noble grape. A lot like a favorite professor may have done when you were back in school.

To this day we still chant his mantra on how to identify wine: color, country, region, and grape. No matter where you are on the wine knowledge scale, this course is worth your attention. The wines for every class are poured before you arrive and on a typical class you have a lot of fun trying to identify a jug wine from the first growth. His knowledge about all sorts of wine varieties is amazing, and best of all Kevin Zraly is laugh-out-loud funny about the subject.

Since we are both graduates, we are still on the mailing list and have gone back years later to re-take the Burgundy and Bordeaux classes (at $100 per evening). They were that good. Kevin’s bestselling book, Windows on the World Complete Wine Course ($24.95) is very easy to read and it follows the course instruction. He recently published a new book titled, Kevin Zraly’s American Wine Guide 2008 ($12.95). Guaranteed this is one book that will be on our wish list to Santa.