One of the things I love most about teaching about wine is the 'aha' moment that occurs when students suddenly realize something that had never occurred to them before. Several of those moments happened Wednesday night when I led an intent group of acolytes through a blind tasting.
I brought in 8 wines from all over the world, and provided the group with a tasting grid that included sample descriptors to help them find the appropriate words for what they were smelling and tasting.
I gave them a few hints to start:
All the wines were visibly red.
All the wines were between 2 and 5 years old.
And the most important clue of all: There were multiple instances of the same grape varietal.