where jess ate

I don’t know about you, but when I think of a wine class, I think of a monotonous instructor and pretentious students. Taking an iYellow Wine Club class certainly proved me wrong.

iYellow Wine Club (@iyellowwineclub) is a Toronto-based social wine club “where you can taste wines from all over the world, learn about the wines you love and meet other wine lovers” according to their website.

The iYellow wine community has over 10,000 members and the best part is, joining is free! The social wine club organizes various events, tours and classes and as a member, you’d have access to everything they have to offer.

The class we attended was part of the iYellow Wine School which offers classes once a week, each of which has a different theme – “Fresh Fall Whites” and “How to Love Chardonnay”, to name a few. The one we attended was named “Romantic Red Blends.”

Classes are $45 per one hour class and includes a tasting of 6 different wines. The wine tasting is complemented with specially selected cheese pairings from the TOCA Cheese Cave.

The interactive classes are held at the Ritz Carlton in the financial district and are taught by the charming Taylor Thompson (@winetaylor), the wine director at Toronto’s Ritz Carlton. Taylor has such a great sense of humour and the other participants in the class (a mix of veterans and new-comers) were a pleasure to enjoy the class with – everyone was there to learn and have a great time. Nothing pretentious about it!

Here’s a look at the red blends we sampled during the class:

• Henry of Pelham Catherine Cuvee ($29.95)
• Union Red 2010 ($13.95)
• Open Cab 2 Merlot ($11.95)
• Lakeview East Dell Black Cab 2012 ($13.95)
• Chateau des Charmes Estate Bottled Cabernet 2010 ($15.95)
• Reif Estates Meritage 2010 ($30.15)

And here’s a look at the cheese pairings which complimented the wine:

• Ossau Iraty – Medium-firm sheep’s cheese from France
• Avonlea clothbound cow’s milk cheddar
• Comte – a firm cheese from France (it was nice to see this at the class since we fell in love with this cheese when we were in France recently)
• Picobello Grand Cru – a firm cow’s cheese from Holland (aged 12 months)

If this sounds like something that would interest you, there are still a few more classes left in the fall semester so it’s not too late to sign up – find out more here!

*This was a complimentary class. The opinions in the post are my own.*