Novice consumers learn to love wine by starting with sweet wine styles

After more than two decades of teaching Wine & Spirit Education Trust certification courses and academic wine classes, a new assignment at San Jose State University has provided the impetus for a sea change in my approach to educating wine-curious consumers.

My first in-person session with 45 young adults—many of whom are taking my wine-appreciation class as an elective in their final semester prior to graduation—has upended my plans for what the rest of their semester is going to look like. These students are not wine lovers yet, and if I pursued the curriculum that I had planned for them, it’s likely they never would be.

Fortunately, I laid the groundwork for the class carefully, which has given me the opportunity to adapt. Based on the weekly assignments they’ve responded to, I have insights into their preferences, including which aromas and flavors they prefer based on their limited experience with wine. But the direction I’m now taking these students didn’t stem from those insights.

It was only after a food-and-wine pairing exercise that included several high-quality dry wines across a range of varieties and styles—Champagne, Sauvignon Blanc, Barolo, and a particularly delicious sweet Vietti Moscato d’Asti—that I saw the light.

These students are still learning what wine is and what it can be. They reminded me of my earliest experiences with fine wine and how it was that I came to love it. It began with an intriguing whiff of petrol from a glass of Riesling and the sheer delight I felt in discerning the tension between acid and sweetness in the form of residual sugar that is the hallmark of the German Prädikat system.

The significance of that early experience was rapidly overshadowed by what I’ll call “the rush to dry.” From the moment I embarked upon my formal wine education onward, the emphasis has overwhelmingly been placed on dry wines. Iconic sweet wine styles like Sauternes, Tokaji, and Trockenbeerenauslese entered the picture early on, but it was only after a few years of study that I gained any exposure to the moelleux wines of Vouvray, Austrian Rust, or Hungarian Spätburgunder Ausbruch.

What I have in store for my students is to begin their wine-appreciation journey by showing them wines with varying levels of residual sugar as a bridge to dry versions made from the same grape varieties. They’ll still be learning about, say, dry styles made from the Bordeaux varieties and indigenous reds, but those will be wines they can explore further as they continue to broaden their preferences through experimentation and travel.

For now, I can’t wait to introduce them to Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Chenin Blanc, Grenache, Muscat, Malvasia, Lambrusco, Spätburgunder, and dozens of other glorious grapes produced in a range of styles.