Good Grape Wine Company

February 28 2006

Finishing School for Wine Snobs

As a kid I grew up in a house where Stroh’s was always on hand, there was some scotch in the liquor cabinet and my Mom had the occasional Bartles & Jaymes on hand.

That is to say, I grew up completely naive that wine was anything other then the Cold Duck in my Grandma’s fridge next to the Mountain Dew’s.

When I graduated from college, having been in a Midwestern middle-class kind of sensory deprivation I decided that I needed to figure out two things if I wanted my ambition to meet a kind reality—learn how to golf and learn about wine.

My golf game stinks, and still stinks some 10 years later.

But, wine, on the other hand, that was something I could get better at.  If only they had some classes in school to help set you on the right path ... correct the error of my parents way ...

CIO Magazine has an article on just such a place. 

Knowing which wine to order at a corporate dinner is one skill that canhelp a CIO distinguish himself as a businessperson and save him fromsocial embarrassment. "When you’re asked to smell the cork, you need tobe able to do that without looking like a geek," says Jeff Connery, awine lover and CIO of two Canadian banks: Envision Financial inLangley, British Columbia, and First Calgary Savings in Calgary. NotesConnery, "CIOs are not just computer people anymore. They are dealingwith boards, other executives and clients. Knowing about wine roundsout one’s business character."

But, before I go anything further, let me note that I did a Google search to see if anybody else was running a story based on this press release and found none.  If you are a P.R. professional are you chagrined that the only magazine that picks up your release is the email newsletter for CIO magazine?  Yeah, I would be.

And, if you’re of Executive timber and on the Board of a Bank and you cannot small talk your way out of a wine conversation with another blowhard, may God be with you.

I digress, the University of California, Irvine has just announced new continuing education course credits for the busy executive that wants to use wine as a business tool.  Classes include:

Wine Basics 101
You have the Wine List, Now What?
Interactive Blind Wine Tasting:  Team Building
Entertaining your Multi-cultural client:  Wine as a Business Tool
CEO/Executive Round table
Developing Your Home Wine Cellar

This was really funny to me, and reeks of Prof’s that have been holed up doing too much research to try and publish an article to put on their C.V. for that year on the way to tenure after which they can be really mean to a freshman that actually thought his education was going to happen in the classroom.

Before I get too cynical, check out the site and see if their other course offerings are of interest, what with BOTH connoisseurship AND yoga being offered ...

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