6 oz Pour Class Italy ToDoTC.com To Do in the Twin Cities Restaurants

	6 oz Pour Class Italy Date: April 23, 2026 218 N Washington Ave Minneapolis, MN 55401 Phone: (612) 338-5393 www.6ozpour.com

6 oz Pour Class Italy

France has 250 varieties of grapes; Spain has 200 varieties, but Italy is the home of 500 Wine Grape Varieties. At this class Doug our wine instructor, dove into the history of Italy and their wines. Doug teaches a mostly monthly class on wines and culture at North Loop Wine & Spirits on Washington in North Loop Minneapolis. Doug is a friend, a friend that knows much more about wine than just the pairing and the taste. And Doug educates about fifty people once a month on wine.

If you think you know history and life and have not been to one of Doug’s classes, you really don’t. We are skipping Doug’s class on Whites, Mother’s Day weekend; we don’t do whites. Yes, we MOSTLY hate chardonnay. We have signed up for the class on Thursday, May 21 called the “Judgement in Paris” where for the first time ever, in the 70s, a California Wine beat out the French wines at a taste test. The story is told in the movie Bottle Shock, a great movie. And it put California Wines on the map.

So, let’s talk about the Italy wine class. Doug teaches the subject of wine from a dozen angles. First, he spoke of France one of the best designed countries in the world. France has Mountains on three sides to keep out invaders. They also have ocean deep ports on the North and south and river for commerce in several places. France can protect France and still have commerce. France has not changed much and ever so slowly in the last two millennium.

Italy on the other hand, other than the Alps of Northern Italy has no mountains to keep out invaders. Thus, Italy has been the battle ground for a dozen dynasties including Rome. On that note Sicily, not part of Italy just ask a Sicilian, has had 20+ countries ruling over them in the past two millennia, any idea why the locals watch over their island with a local group called the Mafia.

So unlike France or Spain, the other two great Wine Powers, Italy has had a LOT of influences.  Another thing about Italy two million years ago when France & Spain were formed land masses Italy was not identifiable. Italy was islands smashed together my continental drift. And what that means is Limestone, which great grapes thrive on, was pressed from the shores of islands throughout Italy.

Doug’s history lesson of Italy starts about 3000 BC during the bronze age. When Tin and Copper were heated to make the first weapons of war, manufacturing & commerce. To get the Tin and Copper together for bronze there was a trade route that started in Cornwall England, went to Spain, several places in the Med to Cyprus to Afghanistan. That went on for hundreds of years with trade ports all along the way. This created a great atmosphere for commerce across the entire route. And part of that commerce was wine and food.  

Then it happened! In about 1250 BC the Scandinavian countries had several years of crop failure. To get food the Viking type people sailed south to the Med to plunder and find food. The plundering absolutely changed society. Pottery and vessels used to transport wine show at huge change in design for the hundred or so years that the Med society was disturbed. Art went from elegant pieces which showed many trading cultures to crude designs that look like they came from an elementary school as once great towns and artisans were ravaged.

Slowly the Phoenicians, known for starting our alphabet, located in lower Turkey started again recreating trading cities across the Med. They also planted grapes and made wine across the med. It is the basis for many of grapes and wines we have today.

As trade return a people known as the Celts (Central Europe) as river people of Austria and along the Danube River returned trade to the river cities. The Celts became rich with trade and they founded some great river cities including Paris. They sold salt from their mines in addition to wine and other items. The Celts were a powerful people in central Europe well until the Roman Empire was formed. The Romans chased the monied Celts to the furthest to the Roman Empire, also the wine growing region of Europe. They chased them to Northern England where the Romans built Hadrian’s wall to stop the non-Roman warring people. The Celts then moved one island over to Ireland. But their establish trading routes on rivers were taken over by the Romans.  Thus, wine was marketed across Europe.

Napolean entered the Italian wine market in the early 1800s and created a wine standard similar to what they had in France and Italy then adjusted the system and had their own.

Over the centuries there has been many cultural influences in Italy. And that is shown by the 500 varieties of grapes grown and the different processing techniques. In the 70s before Bottle Shock, 50% of the wine drank in the US was Lambrusco. And Italy had 6,000 wineries doing so versus the US with 10,000. Lambrusco has five different varieties so it could be adapted for the new US wine market. As it is being readapted for the current U.S. Market. We tasted a great Lambrusco wine.

Doug finished by educating us on Aperitifs, the class that Vermouths are under. Aperitifs are inherently bitter which your body responds by opening up your digestive system because nature teaches our body bitter things in nature are normally poisonous and the body opens the digestive systems to pass the poison on through. As a good start for a large meal.

We tasted seven great wines all of which we have pictures of the front and back of the bottle.

Contact us Dennis@ToDoTC.com