WE TAKE CARE OF THE TRADE! Do you make your living in a wine-pouring capacity--as a server, banquet manager, or within the wine distribution chain? If so, we have preferential pricing on all of our events & courses for YOU! Please contact us and state your professional affiliation for a promotional code you can use anytime.

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For Beginners ONLY SOLD OUT
Wednesday, July 9th (AWS Wine Room, Roswell)
Instructor: Michael Bryan

Sure you can drink it, but can you pair it? Can you speak it? Come to terms with it in a special tasting that helps you express yourself in the world of wines. Don't be left standing there holding the bottle--get more confidence and find more pleasure in every sip.

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Introduction to Wine, Level I (2 seats remain)
Monday, July 14th (AWS Wine Room, Roswell)
Instructors: Debbie Ruskin, Michael Bryan

Text book, tasting guide, riveting interactive lectures, and six to twelve wines to taste per class. This course takes the wine curious and creates wine enthusiasts! >>>> More Info

Wines & Cheeses
Tuesday, July 22nd (AWS Wine Room, Roswell)
Instructor: Michael Bryan

Artisanal cheeses are no less labors of love than their wine counterparts. Location of pastureland, seasonality of milks, and aging all weigh heavily on the final taste experience. Join us for 8 pairings of wine & cheese. >>>> More Info

Pessagno Winery Tasting with Winemaker Stephen Pessagno
Tuesday, July 15th (AWS Wine Room, Roswell)

Taste through seven (7) of Stephen's award-winning wines. >>>> More Info

For Beginners ONLY
Wednesday, July 30th (AWS Wine Room, Roswell)
Instructor: Michael Bryan

Sure you can drink it, but can you pair it? Can you speak it? Come to terms with it in a special tasting that helps you express yourself in the world of wines. Don't be left standing there holding the bottle--get more confidence and find more pleasure in every sip.

>>>> More Info

Ten Wines Under $10 NEW
Tuesday, August 12th (AWS Wine Room, Roswell)
Instructor: Jane Garvey

The economy-sensitive course. Discover 10 new wines that taste better than their retail prices would suggest! >>>> More Info

For Beginners ONLY (SPECIAL SATURDAY CLASS!)
Saturday, August 16th (AWS Wine Room, Roswell)
Instructor: Michael Bryan

Sure you can drink it, but can you pair it? Can you speak it? Come to terms with it in a special tasting that helps you express yourself in the world of wines. Don't be left standing there holding the bottle--get more confidence and find more pleasure in every sip.

>>>> More Info

• Atlanta Journal & Constitution (AJC) Seeking Those with Wine Cellars for Story
  If you have an impressive wine cellar (or know someone who does) let writer Helen Cauley know for a story she is doing on the subject. Please email Helen directly at hm_cauley@yahoo.com
• Get 10% off Tickets to Share Our Strength's GIVE ME FIVE event
  Georgia’s finest chefs and sommeliers come together to bring you an evening of pure culinary bliss celebrating our own Georgia-grown produce and wines. An amazing five-course dinner with each course featuring a locally grown ingredient will be prepared by five of Georgia’s best chefs with wine pairings from Persimmon Creek Vineyards and Arcadian Winery. Event proceeds benefit Share Our Strength, a national organization working to make sure no child in America grows up hungry. Visit www.givemefivedinner.org or call 770-436-5151. AWS SUBSCRIBERS SHOULD USE PROMOTION CODE "GIVEME10" FOR DISCOUNT.
• Research Connecting Red Wine Consumption to Lowering Breast Cancer
  ...is seen as supple, yet firm. Super-powered anti-oxidant resveratrol is at it again, solving the worlds woes and medical challenges. Previous studies have shown a reduction in risk of cancer, but this study names a particular type/area of the cancer. >> More
• Georgia's Persimmon Creek Vineyards Makes Wine Report's 2008 TOP TEN LIST
  The influential insider’s wine guide, Wine Report 2008 (DK Adult), by Tom Stevenson has recognized Georgia’s own Persimmon Creek Vineyards with a notable “top ten” placement. Persimmon Creek Vineyards stands out as the Georgia’s only vineyard and winery on the list of 10 “Fastest Improving Producers” in the book’s section entitled “Other U.S. States.” (Large winemaking regions such as California and the Pacific Northwest have their own sections.) The list is written by internationally celebrated wine expert Doug Frost, one of three individuals in the world to have achieved both Master of Wine and Master Sommelier status.
• Austria's Time in the Sun
  David Schildknecht, the internationally-known wine critic and connoisseur of Austria, and responsible for rating wines for Parker's "Wine Advocate", lauds the 2006 vintage. ""...I suspect that there
  will seldom, if ever, have been so many exciting Austrian red wines to report on as from that vintage." You can get a list of these review wines if you email Atlanta Wine School.
• Fulfilling Mondavi's Wish: "I Don't Want Anybody to Be Sad"
  Robert Mondavi's wish upon his death was for people to gather at his namesake winery in the Napa Valley and enjoy a big party. That came true Saturday as hundreds gathered for a celebration that was part New Orleans jazz festival, part classical concerto and part homey Italian sing-along. >> More
• California Fires are Serious Issues to Vineyards
  1,459 fires are burning in California, scorching more than 423,240 acres across the state. Smoke forcing many workers home, or the use of masks. Grapes exposed to heavy smoke can take on undesireable attributes. >> More
• You Gotta Love the French
  So after we (at AWS) just spent countless hours teaching industry people about the St Emilion Classification system, aka, Premier Grand Cru Classe'...the French just ruled it invalid. >> More
• NY Times Asimov Encourages Red Wines, Ice Buckets in Summer
  It's a confidence thing, frankly. Either you are secure enough to cool down your red wine (when you really want to) or you are worried about what others will think. Try it sometime--you'll like it. And you won't care after the 2nd bottle anyway. >> More
• Some Chap Running his Sports Car on Wine
  The Prince of Wales has reduced his motoring emissions by running his 38-year-old Aston Martin, a 21st birthday present from the Queen, on fuel made entirely from wine. >> More

Jane's Monthly Dozen: A Bloom on the Rose'
by Jane Garvey

Can you believe this heat? Time for a well-chilled rose', right?

I couldn't agree more. Recently, we did a private event that was held outdoors, and this heat was just beginning to show its muscle. We had three bottles of rose'. Probably could have poured twice that number. That's what everybody wanted, as it went with the food, with the weather, and with the atmosphere. It was the San Alejandro Las Rocas Rosado 2007 (Quality Wine & Sirits), which retails for about $12. With ample fruit and a dry finish, it's just the ticket for summer dining.

So, when the weather gets cold again, do I put up my rose's?

Not on your life. If I'm eating fajitas, and there's a blizzard going on outside, why should I change my wine? That's when I'll reach for southern hemisphere rose's--from South Africa, South America, Australia and New Zealand--to go with fried chicken, Chinese and other Asian-influenced dishes, and the aforementioned fajitas. Korean barbecue and the Bodegas Melipal Rose' of Malbec (Unique World Wines, $12) doesn't have to wait for scorching weather to be enjoyed for what it is, namely a perfect food-and-wine pairing. From South Africa, the Wolftrap Rose' (Ultimate Distributors, $12, at Whole Foods only) is a full-bodied, spicy, lively example that would handle lamb.

And of course, California has jumped on the rose' bandwagon with tons of luscious examples. Attending the Hospice de Rhфne a few years ago, I was delighted at the luncheon, hosted by Bistro Laurent in Paso Robles, to find nothing but pink wines being poured to go with a pissaladiиre topped with caramelized onions and garlic, anchovies and black olives. Not exactly a wine-friendly dish, huh? Across the tables lay a rainbow of pinks of all sorts and stripes. The best with the dish, in my view, was the Jaffurs Matilija, a saignee mostly of Syrah with some Roussanne blended in. While the others I tasted were fine with the dish, this one stepped to the head of the class. (Jaffurs no longer is distributed in Georgia, and isn't made every year, but beginning this month, Georgians will be able to order wines over the Internet.) Check out the Vina Robles Roseum 2006 (Ultimate Distributors, $10). The current vintage is substantially lower in alcohol than the last one, and is excellent with Chinese barbecue. Another favorite (also Ultimate, $18) is the SoloRosa 2007. Neither of these last two is a saignee, but instead both are made directly from selected grapes as rose's.

So what's all the fuss about this pink stuff? Isn't it sweet? Isn't it just for the uninitiated? The unsophisticated? The sweet-quaffing palate?

Not so fast.

Europe produces excellent rose's. Rose' has always been the province of, well, Provence. Tavel is home to France's most well-known rose', but I wouldn't turn down a good Bandol rose' either, such as Domaine Tempier (Atlanta Wholesale Wine/NDC; $20). Some of my favorite French rose's come from Costieres de Nоmes (see Ch. Morgue du Gres or Domaine de la Petite Cassagne (National Distributing/ $12).

Europe's other wine producing countries also produce rose', typically in dry styles. Spain, Italy, Greece, Germany and Austria (see below)can all be counted on to produce rose' wines from their icon red wine grapes.
So rose' is the true wine enthusiast's now not-so-well-kept secret. Rose's are a winemaker favorite, and real wine lovers fancy them for their food flexibility, as you'll see from these pairings. Sometimes, wineries guard their rose's so jealously, they rarely get sold beyond the tasting room or even sometimes have been kept just for staff. But eventually the word gets out, and wine lovers demand access to them as well, and so the genre has grown and become more widely pursued.

Still another set of rose' enthusiasts wants to snare the genre in a box and keep it close to its home style. They abjure the bigger, more full-bodied, and more deeply colored versions that come out of other countries and other grapes, especially Syrah, Malbec and Grenache, which produce more deeply colored rose's. But these bigger rose's embrace a wide variety of foods, especially spicy fare.

Rose' can be made either by bleeding off the free-run juice--the French call this a saignee--cold fermenting it as if it were a white wine and bottling it all within a few days. This way, a winemaker can make his remaining red wine more intense.

Still others grow grapes just for the purpose of making rose', press them and allow brief skin contact before proceeding as if they were making a white wine. One also may simply pump a little red wine into the white wine, as is done to make brut rose' Champagne and Cremant (sparkling wine from other wine-producing regions in France). Or lighten up a deeply colored red wine with some white wine (see the Jaffurs below). Most are done in stainless steel, although some may be barrel-fermented and aged at least partly (e.g., Buoncristiani Rosato 2006, Napa Valley, Hemispheres, $20).

No matter how a rose' is made, it should be served cold but not overchilled. Open the bottle, and you'll soon see it bloom and develop in the glass. And speaking of glasses, if you become as fond of these wines as I am, acquire a few pink-stemmed Riedel glasses made especially for the purpose of savoring rose's. Otherwise, use a simple tulip-shaped white wine glass.

To get you started, here is a baker's dozen (13) that may open your eyes to a new wine experience. If you want to taste more, join me in a class on rose's at Harry's/Whole Foods in Roswell on July 17, at 7 p.m.