Wines & History of Mediterranean Wines Class
Date: March 5, 2026
218 Washington Ave N, Mpls, Mn 55401
www.6ozpour.com
|
Wines & History of Mediterranean Wines ClassDate: March 5, 2026218 Washington Ave N, Mpls, Mn 55401www.6ozpour.com |
|
|---|
Wines & History of Mediterranean Wines
From 6 Oz Pour and Doug
We are evolving as more regular wine drinkers do to Italian Wines. Part of that evolution is continually getting better educated on wines. In case you are unfamiliar there are 5,000 grape varieties that create and unbelievable number of wines.
We taste wine every Friday Night at Northloop Wine & Spirits on Washington on Friday night at 6:30 after needing to drink after the news. Northloop is the wine educational Mecca for wines in the Twin Cities. We learn a lot every week at the free tasting. But beyond that we learn about great new area restaurants.
Even further we meet some pretty incredible people in the area wine industry. One of our favorites is Doug Hultgren. Doug teaches a monthly wine class with the theme name 6 oz pour. The standard wine pour. Doug knows wine AND history the history they just touched on in history class. Doug teaches a monthly class on Wine in our society. Classes are about $30 each and include about 7 wines, the limit for a good tasting, a bit of food and a LOT of wisdom about wine and other things.
Last night E&I went to a class on the wines of the Mediterranean. This hit a cord with us as last May we spent two weeks on an NCL cruise on the Med. After being educated, we want to go back… LOL! Our daily escapades can be read on ToDoTC.com.
Doug’s presentation doesn’t just touch on who’s currently doing what in the region. His history knowledge takes educates us about Pangea and how continents formed and are changing, through the Bronze & Iron age to why the Mafia was formed in Sicily.
Hint: you have 20 different countries as overlords in your area over the last 4,000 years you may want a local communication network. Is Doug’s knowledge of History perfect? Maybe not but I’d put an hour or so of his class against and History PhD in the metro, and he picks great wines.
So we begin the wines Doug chose last night were mostly good (we don’t do Sherry, E calls it Sewing Machine oil) Shown are the Retail – Last nights cost
3. Chateau Musar, Hochar Red, Bekaa Valley Lebanon $46.99-$37.59
4. Cantine Colosi Nero d’Avola Terre Sicilane, Italy $18.99 - $15.19. This was incredible and $15, we bought two bottles, we NEVER buy two.
5. Syrocco Syrah Zenata, Morocco-$32.99 - $26.39
6. Clos du Mont-Olivet Cotes du Rhone Vieilles Vignes, France $25.99 - $20.79
7. Bodega Manuel Aragon Fino Granero Palomino Jerez-Xeres-Sherry Spain
$28.99 - $23.19
So on with the show. The class started promptly at 7PM with about 30 people in attendance. Doug had four glasses for each of us and a bit of food to nibble on set-up for each one signed up for the class. We meet in the basement of Northloop Wine & Spirits the oldest continually occupied business building in Mpls.
The basement is perfect temperature four wine a bit cool for the rest of us. Wear a jacket or blazer like us and you are fine. Or E with her heated vest is perfect.
Don’t worry if your knowledge of wine is at the level of the dark wine is red the clear is white. Doug and the class welcome’s all. But be aware after the class you could get addicted and realize how little you know about life and what makes it fascinating.
Doug started the class started by talking about Santorini. It’s the island by Greece where all the buildings are painted white (for insect control) with Blue roofs. E and I went there last year on an NCL Cruise our daily escapades can be found on ToDoTC.com
Santorini was once an island until it’s volcano blew up 5000 years ago making it kinda of a half moon shaped island. Santorini is kind of where trading wine for sale started. There are older vineyards in the world but mostly for local consumption.
Our first wine was from there.
Near Santorini is the country (state) island of Cyprus where our second wine was from. Cyprus has been in the news for 5,000 years. Cyprus was ground zero for the bronze age when men started making spears and weapons of war. It is also an area for the Med’s Minoan culture where they annually sacrificed six young men & six young women. And ended up killing the kings son because he came into his home port with black sail not the white agreed up. Those were turbulent times.
Then in 1200s BCe crops failed in northern Europe. So, a hungry people called the Sea People came to the Med to plunder and the entire Med culture, towns and civilization was burned to the ground by them. It took several hundred years to rebuild and recreate societies.
Near Cyprus by Santorini was the Phoenicans who created our alphabet they were from an area of Lebanon (our third wine) and spread grape growing across the Med all the way to present day Spain. They also founded Carthage in Northern Africa.
In about 1100 BCe the Phoenicans started to rebuild society.
The Phoenicians also created the color Royal Purple a dye used by Kings & Queens ever since. It took 10,000 snails to dye a sleeve of one garment Royal Purple. Ut was one of the earliest historical display of wealth.
Around 700 BCe the Iron Age took hold. It started in Persia (nowdays Iran/Iraq) with a Kingdom of Xerxes. Their society went as far as Sicily. The Persians were one of the first of twenty controlling entities to control Sicily. If Sicily could be controlled. With new offshore leaders it seemed like every hundred years, the locals in Sicily formed locals societies to help them that can be traced to the now known society called the Mafia.
That brought us to Alexander the Great 323 BC and Rome that fell in the 400 AD. Two thousand years ago, yet we still seem remnants of those societies and wines. Need proof we can still drink the wines and olive oils they produced in that era in sunken Phonecian ship wrecks in the med.
So then Doug turned the class to the climate of the Med. He spoke of the Med winds: Scirocco out of North Africa, Poniente out of the Pond, Mistral from the UK, Tramontana out of the Scandinavia, Bora from Finland and Meltemi from Turkey. That’s a lot of wind/weather.
We looked at the Santorini Vineyards how because of the winds and weather they grow their grapes in a basket form. They also keep the vines on the original root stock.
It was a great educational night of wines and history.
More information about Doug and his classes go to: https://www.6ozpour.com/
You’ll be glad he did we are signup for all the posted monthly classes.
Contact us Dennis@ToDoTC.com