For the month of May, we are taking you on a different sort of journey to deliver a stress-free, infallible guide to pairing wine with food. We'll see how to create that synergy between wine and food that provides the ultimate enjoyment. In this two hour seminar, we'll learn simple, easy to remember guidelines that make it easy to match great dishes with the perfect wine. 

1. Basic Principles of Food and Wine Pairing: Learn the basic guidelines by tasting four wine types with various 'tiny bites' of food. You will sip, taste, sip again, and learn that the flavor in your mouth changes when you add another flavor.

 2. Tasting Sauces with Wines: Building on the basic principles, we don't tell you what's right and what's wrong when it comes to sauces.  We simply give you the food and the wine to decide what works and doesn't work for you. Discover the varieties of flavor that six specific sauces can bring to a meal.

We'll be meeting this month at Cookshop, a special venue in SE Portland that'll  provide ample elbow room for our little dishes and glasses.

Hoke Harden will be your guide and sommelier. He is a Certified Specialist of Wine, attended the  FWS Master Program for Vins de Provence and the Maison de Rosé, is a US Ambassador for Pineau des Charentes, and a BNIC Certified Cognac Educator.

We will be tasting:

•  Patient Cottatt, Le Grand Caillou Sauvignon Blanc, Loire Valley
•  Chevalier de la Crée, Montagny Premier Cru,  Knight's Templar Cuvée
•  Les Peyrouses Côtes-du-Rhône, Alain Voge
• Hecht Bannier Rosé, Coteau d'Aix-en-Provence
• Simmonet-Febre Crémant de Bourgogne, Brut (pt. 2 only)

The Alliance Wine Club meets monthly,
usually on the third Sunday of the month.
(And for the occasional bonus event.)