Back in Tokyo...
I was invited to a wine tasting class, hosted by Etsuko, who was my first wine teacher at Academie du Vin Tokyo and has always been my favorite wine teacher. We've now known each over 12 years. Recently, she hosts monthly private wine tasting events with the theme of "Italian grapes" at Enoteca Norio in Yotsuya 3-chome
Luckily, I happened to be back in Tokyo when this month's class took place, so I was so excited to participate in it. The theme of the night was "Nebbiolo of Piemonte". The class started with her lecture (in-depth information of different styles of the grape according to different sub-zones etc.) and was followed by the blind-tasting of 5 + 1 wines. We discussed these wines and each person did a presentation about which DOCG/ DOC he or her thought each wine was from. I loved listening to everybody's analysis. With luck, I nailed wine 3 was Gattinara, but I thought wine 2 was Roero (sandy soil) while the correct wine was wine 1. How fun!
The tasting was followed by a casual dinner. The homemade tagliatelle pasta with venison bolognese and shaved white truffles was superb. We were a thirsty group of 8 students plus Etsuko. We opened more wines and drank everything.
It was so much fun and I also learned so much tonight. I missed my wine groups in Tokyo so much.
