Heights restaurant offers classes to learn about wines

Come explore the world of wine at Pierce's 1894 Restaurant in Elmira Heights.

C. Joseph Pierce II has been immersed in the wine business for decades. He has built an enviable collection of wines over the years for the restaurant's wine cellar. But that is not what his Wine and Wisdom events are all about. The classes, held each Wednesday evening at 7 p.m., are geared to getting participants to think "out of the box" when it comes to wine choices.

The first class, held last Wednesday, was a good example of how Joe is exposing wine lovers to new experiences. It was titled "Great Red Varietals that Await Your Discovery." As the evening unfolded we tasted eight different red wine varieties. What was really exciting is that none of the wines were traditional, popular varieties such as cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc or pinot noir. No, we tasted Sangiovese from California, Grenache from Australia and Tempranillo from Argentina, just to name a few.

Participants took turns describing how each wine tasted. Words such as "tart cherry," "bell pepper," "vanilla," and "raspberry" rolled off tongues as we sampled the various wines.

Joe says that he has created a "contemporary wine tasting around a fun environment." It is "most important to teach the language of wine," he says, adding, "Come to this class, it's all taught in English, (it's) easy to understand."

The casual atmosphere certainly made for an informative evening of relaxing entertainment. If you really fell in love with one or more of the wines during the event, it should be available the next time you go wine shopping. That is part of Joe's contemporary theme. These wines were not old, rare wines that he dusted off from the cellar. They were relatively young wines, costing $10 to $20 per bottle, currently available in the market.

After all of that "hard" work, everyone just had to stay a little bit longer and have a cup of coffee and sample something from the pastry cart. I opted for the Fort Knox Pie to accompany what remained of my personal wine favorites during the tasting. The cost for each of the upcoming events is $25 or $30, depending on how expensive the wine selection is each week.

The fee includes your choice of dessert and coffee as the evening winds down. Upcoming classes will alternate weekly between red and white wines.

Details for some of the classes are still being pulled together. There may even be an opportunity down the road to mix a wine tasting with a little cooking during the evening.

Next week's class should be a blast for fans of Finger Lakes wines. It is entitled "Finger Lakes Versus the World." For this class Joe is zeroing in on some of the white grape varietals that excel in the Finger Lakes. He will be pitting Finger Lakes chardonnay, Riesling, gewurztraminer and pinot gris wines against the same varietals grown in other parts of the world. It will be interesting to see how our Finger Lakes wines meet the challenge.

If you are interested in attending any of the upcoming Wine and Wisdom classes, please call Pierce's 1894 Restaurant at 607/734-2022 for reservations.

Jeff Richards' wine column appears each Thursday on the Twin Tiers Life Food Page. For comments or questions, he can be reached at 607/271-8279 or 800/836-8970, ext. 279, or e-mail: jrichards@stargazette.com.