Epicurean Classic
Wine Intensive: Theory & Practice for Service Professionals

September 13, 2007
Great Lakes Culinary Institute, Traverse City, MI

Cost: $175

Sponsors: Kobrand, Banfi, Foster's Wine Estates

Wine sales account for thirty percent of net revenue in the average high-end restaurant. Finding and training the right wine staff is crucial. For three years, the Epicurean Classic has featured many accredited wine experts and authors in their curriculum of classes offered to wine-loving attendees. Now, these Masters of Wine, Master Sommeliers, and other wine experts will direct their attention to a daylong curriculum of classes and discussions created to help sommeliers, restaurant wine personnel, and other trade professionals improve their skills and increase wine sales at both the wholesale and retail level. Attendees of all levels will find this Intensive instrumental to their day-to-day professional duties.

Top wine experts embrace wine as a way of life and pleasurable subject of study. This first annual Wine Intensive will offer attendees a relaxed, instructive, and stimulating environment to pursue their continuing education. Following the Intensive, the Epicurean Classic offers additional classes, tastings, and receptions featuring the wines of prestigious international suppliers and importers like Banfi, Pernod-Ricard, Moet-Hennessy, Winebow, E & J Gallo, Kobrand, Fosters, Dreyfus Ashby, Wilson Daniels, Vineyard Brands, Vin Divino, etc. Come see why this event is the talk of food, wine, and culinary book industry.

Course materials will include the following books:
The Sommeliers Guide to Wine – Brian Smith
Perfect Pairings: A Master Sommelier's Practical Advice for Partnering Wine with Food – Evan Goldstein
The All American Cheese & Wine Book – Laura Werlin

Faculty:
Bob Paulinski, Master of Wine, Chief Wine & Spirits Merchant, Sam's Club
Brian Smith, Professor of Wine Studies, Culinary Institute of America, author of The Sommeliers Guide to Wine, Exploring Wine: The Culinary Institute of America's Guide to Wines of the World
Evan Goldstein, Master Sommelier, Beam Wine Estates, author of Perfect Pairings: A Master Sommelier's Practical Advice for Partnering Wine with Food
Ron Edwards, Master Sommelier, Five Star Sommelier Services
Madeline Triffon, Master Sommelier, Matt Prentice Restaurant Group
Claudia Tyagi, Master Sommelier,
Laura Werlin, author of The All American Cheese & Wine Book, The New American Cheese


Wine Intensive

9:00 – 9:45 AM
Opening Comments / Keynote – Bob Paulinski

10:00 – 11:30 AM
Breakout Sessions

Mastering Tableside Skills – Brian Smith
Understanding contemporary use of glassware, decanters, corkscrews, and the needed presentation and pouring skills to serve wine with utmost expertise is absolutely vital to a sommelier. This session will include a forum on presenting, opening and serving wine at tables in light of the many different bottle closures that are now used by quality wine producers.

Maximizing Presentation and Profit – Claudia Tyagi
Getting more out of your wine program means 1) optimizing the way you work with suppliers, 2) improving the look and make-up of your list based on your restaurants clientele, and 3) building a stronger by-the-glass program. This session will include a clinic on the use of actual wine lists, highlighting what is good and bad about them, so that participants get a better feel for how to construct their own wine lists that will achieve the tasks of informing the customers and generate sales.

11:30 – 12:45
Lunch –
Luncheon Speaker: Laura Werlin - The Cheese Course
New artisan cheeses from the United States and around the world are one of the most exciting trends in the industry. They offer restaurants both a new source of income and further opportunity to increase wine sales. Fascinating and profitable is the world of cheese. The diner who would rather have cheese and another glass of wine is your best friend, so embrace him with great cheese! Sample eight cheeses and a couple different complementary wines as your luncheon dessert course.

1:00 – 2:30 PM
Breakout Sessions

The Art of Suggestive Selling: Wine Recommendations – Ron Edwards
In the end, it all comes down to confidently suggesting the right wine based on your ability to glean relevant information from your diner. Once you have the list built, your attitude tuned to the guest and your doors open it is time to sell!

Wine and Food Belong Together; But How? Pairing Primer – Evan Goldstein
Most of us know that food and wine are 'supposed to go together' but while the science behind flavorful pairings in food and wine can be daunting, identifying the specific flavors that are most prominent and important to a favorable wine pairing is a skill available to all sommeliers. This session focuses on digging deep into the 'what goes with what' and why.

2:45 – 3:45 PM
The Attitude of the Modern Sommelier: Classic Knowledge, Humble Spirit – Madeline Triffon
We are servants first, wine experts second. Making guests feel special through wine is what a sommelier is all about. Attitude is everything. All the knowledge and experience in the world is useless without it, and can actually alienate guests. Warmth, unpretentiousness, intuition, and humility are an effective sommelier's most important traits.

4:00 – 5:30 PM
Distributor Trade Tasting
An unprecedented opportunity to taste a unique selection of wines from many of Michigan's top wholesalers, all under one roof. Attendees can expect to find new wines to their market, post-offs, and compelling restaurant-friendly wines. In all, a great buying / ordering event.