A Tristate wine lover is on his way to an adventure of a lifetime. Jack Keegan, a familiar face to many local wine enthusiasts, will soon depart for Europe where he will teach a wine course for Miami University.

        Europe? Wine course? Miami University?

        Miami has offered a wine course in bucolic Oxford for several decades. After John Dome trained generations of students in the geography of wine, Mr. Keegan began offering his course on viticulture and enology in 1995. Today, 100 to 200 students take “the wine course” at Miami every semester.

        How does an American wine course get to Europe?

        Miami University actually has four campuses, including one near the heart of Europe in the small country of Luxembourg. The purpose of the Luxembourg campus is to expose American students to European culture through academics and living abroad. Mr. Keegan will augment students' understanding of European culture through presentation of the history, geography, viticulture and enology of the continent's wines.

        Luxembourg is a wonderful location for a wine course, as the country is only a few kilometers from Germany's Mosel River and within easy reach of France's Alsace, Champagne and Burgundy regions. Opportunities abound for class field trips.

        Moreover, because most students travel extensively during their stay in Europe, Mr. Keegan will have an exercise for his students to connect their travels with local culture using wine as the intermediary.

        In addition to providing a matchless experience for students, spending the academic year abroad presents a unique opportunity for Mr. Keegan to travel to many of Europe's wine regions. He plans to collect many photographs and experiences to add to his wine course in Oxford.

        Bon voyage to one of the Tristate's most affable and knowledgeable wine enthusiasts.
       

New designations

        Effective with the 2000 vintage, German producers may elect to label their fine drier wines “classic” and “selection” and avoid using potentially confusing terminology such as Spatlese Trocken, Auslese Trocken and Halbtrocken.

        The designation “classic” is reserved for wines that are high quality, typical of their grape variety, intensely flavored, and harmonisch trocken (harmoniously dry). Labels will indicate only region, producer and grape variety, as in “Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, (producer), Riesling, Classic”.

        The term “selection” is limited to wines of a single site where premium quality has been attained by reduced yield and hand-selection of ripened grapes. Labels will indicate region, producer, grape variety and vineyard site, e.g., “Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, producer, Riesling, Selection, Himmelreich.”.

        The bottom line is that wines designated “classic” and “selection” are nearly dry to dry and of high quality, with “selection” wines being generally drier, higher quality and from a more specific site.

        This new classification is optional for producers, but it has the potential to be applied to about half of German wines. Unfortunately, the 2000 vintage which debuts the classification appears to be a cut below recent vintages and consumers may incorrectly associate the new terminology with poorer wines.

        Contact John Vankat by mail: c/o Cincinnati Enquirer; phone: (800) 524-1005; fax: 768-8330.

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