Masterclass Seminar - Side by Side: A Blind Masterclass of Virginia and French Icons

Enjoy a Rare Opportunity to Taste a BLIND Side-by-Side Comparison of Elite Virginia and French Wines of the Same or Similar Varietal Composition

This elite seminar will be led by Sommelier, wine writer, and wine retail store owner Erin Scala.

All bottles of wine tasted in this seminar will have achieved an average median rating of 92 to 96 points.

Virginia and France share a number of commonalties including their location on the same latitude and a significant number of the same grape varietals which grow well in both wine regions.  You'll taste, compare and contrast highly-regarded single varietal and Bordeaux blends (called ‘Meritage’ in Virginia) in an enlightening and fascinating perspective on iconic French wine as compared to the rapidly improving, elite Virginia wines.

Before learning which wines are French and Virginian, you will be asked to venture a guess as to the country of origin for each wine tasted as well as the score you would give for each as well.

With Your Ticket, You Will:

• Taste 8+ highly regarded iconic wines from vineyards in Virginia and France
• Learn what makes wines of the same varietal from these regions similar and different (think terroir)
• Enjoy this tasting blind!

Important Information

• You may arrive at 1:00pm to be checked in and seated
• Only 21 years or older are permitted to enter the event.
• Casual attire.
• All inclusive.

About Sommelier Erin Scala

For the better part of a decade, Erin worked in New York City at several Michelin star restaurants, notably JoJo, PUBLIC, and The Musket Room. In 2014, she returned to her home state of Virginia to run the wine programs at local downtown restaurants, Fleurie & Petit Pois. She was the sommelier at Common House social club in downtown Charlottesville, and since 2017, she's owned In Vino Veritas Fine Wines, a wine retail shop in Keswick, Virginia. Erin writes the thinking-drinking wine blog, produces audio essays for the I’ll Drink to That wine podcast, and consults about wine privately and commercially through her company, ThinkBev. Her articles about wine have been published in The Washington Post, Wine & Spirits, Wine & Country Living, and Knife & Fork magazine. For several years, she covered the Virginia wine scene in a column for her local paper, The C-Ville Weekly.  Named one of Wine Enthusiast's 40 Under 40 wine professionals to watch, her wine list at Fleurie won a Wine Spectator “Best of Award of Excellence” in 2016 and 2017. Erin received a James Beard Rhône Rangers Travel Study Grant to study Rhône varieties in California in 2016. She competed in the Sommelier Scavenger Hunt held by Wine & Spirits Magazine to find delicious Pinot Noirs in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA in 2017. In January 2018, the I'll Drink to That podcast was written up in the New York Times.   Certified as a Certified Sake Professional, and also with the WSET Diploma of Wines and Spirits, she believes that fermented beverages are a unique and dynamic communion with time and place, and that often the best beverages come from small vineyards, orchards, and breweries using products farmed by passionate families who believe in minimal intervention.