Excellent Expatriates: French Grapes on Italian Soil with Michael Franz Online

2 hours, $95

In general, when vintners outside of France plant French varieties in favor of grapes that are indigenous to their own country, what happens is an unfortunate acceleration of world wine homogenization.  In Italy, what happens is magic.  Among the seemingly magical results are the facts that the wines are almost always astonishingly delicious and—just as important—clearly Italian in style, regardless of the French origins of the grape varieties.  The most famous examples are “Super Tuscan” reds made from Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot since the 1970s.  However, Syrah and Cabernet Franc have also proved highly successful, and other French varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay have turned out stellar table wines and sparklers in Lombardy, Alto Adige, Friuli or the Veneto for more than a century.  The deliciousness of the best examples in this category is an empirical fact, as we’ll taste, and though you may not believe in magic, you’ll still experience the mysterious “Italian-ness” of the character of these wines.

Wine samples available for pickup by appointment on Friday, December 10 between 12pm – 5pm.

Additional Information

*If this event is sold out please email michael@franzwine.com to be added to the waitlist. Due to the popularity of Michael’s classes we will be unable to accept requests for cancellation/rescheduling within 5 days of the class date. Outside of the 5 day period, our normal cancellation/rescheduling policy applies.

*If you are registering for more than one person, please be sure to include the other participants’ email address(es) when registering if they will be viewing the class from a different location/device.

*Please make a note of the wine sample pickup date mentioned above, as it will not appear on your registration confirmation.

*We cannot accommodate requests for wine sample pickups in advance of the date/times mentioned above. 

Zoom invitations will be emailed the day of class.