Wine and olive oil tasting at Secolari

This past weekend we spent a delightful time at Secolari, a specialty shop in Columbia, Maryland that features ”The gift of artisan oils, vinegars & other enrichments.” Secolari specializes in extra virgin olive oils from California.

We met with a small group of people interested in learning about wine and olive oil tastings. Our presentation for this informative and fun experience included the art of tasting wines and olive oils. Together our group learned about the tasting techniques for wine and olive oil since there are many similarities between the two liquids.

We then tasted two white and two red wines. The wines were Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon. The four olive oils which the owners of Secolari kindly provided from their shop were: Mission, Sevillano, Koroneiki and a Sicilian Blend of olive varieties including Ogliarola, Barese, Biancolila, Barise, Cerasuola, and Nocellara. All of these olive oils were grown and pressed into olive oil in California. We used traditional blue glasses for the first olive oil tasting so as not to be influenced by the color.

Every participant received a special tasting form for olive oil and for wine that they filled out to help with describing the wines and the olive oils. Lots of questions were asked and answered and everyone enjoyed the tastings. One of the interesting comments was regarding whether or not to suggest a wine had a certain aroma or taste. Would that suggestion unconsciously nudge the taster to notice that aroma or taste? Almost immediately when a taste was mentioned someone said, “Oh, I taste that now.”

The evening ended with a special dessert of vanilla ice cream topped with a bit of olive oil and several granules of colorful Merlot sea salt (also available at Secolari.)

Future plans are to offer a series of small group wine related informative sessions at Secolari shop at The Mall in Columbia. To keep updated when these classes will be offered watch the Wine Trail Traveler website or signup for the Secolari newsletter at http://www.secolarievoo.com.

We all had a good time and hope that you will join us at some of our future events.

Cheers! Kathy & Terry