Become A Wine Snob on the cheap with Groupon

Wine, glorious wine. Is there a nagging feeling inside your head that you should learn a little something about wine? For moments like being confronted with a voluminous wine list at a posh restaurant, and not being able to distinguish between Burgundy and Bordeaux? And what the heck is terroir, or tannins for that matter? Wouldn't you want to dazzle your business associates, friends, family and hot dates with your mastery of the lingo of vino?

I asked myself these questions over the summer, and concluded that some basic wine education wouldn't hurt. But where to find wine classes that are not intimidating and inexpensive? Salvation came in the form of Groupon, the daily deals site that keeps bombarding my inbox with all sorts of cut-rate offers. Among the offers presented were deeply discounted wine classes, usually 2 to 2 1/2 hours long, which promised to help newbies distinguish between Barolo and Barbaresco. Below is a brief roundup of the ones I took part in. 

Who: Drinking Outside the Box (site)
Where: W52nd St. (Midtown West) 
Price: $29 Groupon deal (up to $68 value)
Class Name: Introductory Wine and Cheese Pairing

Did you know there was a Systematic Approach to tasting wine? Neither did I, but apparently there is since a sizable portion of the class dwelt on that stuff. We learned how to tilt wine glasses to judge clarity, color and condition. When it came to actually tasting wine, judging characteristics like sweetness, acidity, tannins, body and length proved to be a challenging exercise as the wine rolled off my tongue and straight down my throat. 

To make matters worse, while others could detect such exotic aromas as blackcurrant, tar and wet leaves (!), my unsophisticated nose smelled only apricot. Oh well. The class was informative and the instructor eager to turn us newbies into Robert Parker. The cheese pairing part was only emphasized towards the end of the two hours though, but the thick handouts did provide pairing suggestions for common wine varietals. 


Who: Vino Versity (site)
Where: 1st Ave & 86th St. (Upper East Side) 
Price: $25 Groupon deal (up to $65 value)
Class Name: Vino! Rosso! Pronto! (Red Wines of Italy)

Fond memories of last year's 5-week Italian vacation made me want to master vini italiani, thus this class sounded perfect. The lecture focused on the intricacies of Italian grapes (Sangiovese, Barbera, Nebbiolo, etc.) to different growing regions, their respective statuses (DOCG vs. DOC vs. IGT), and even to deciphering a typical label on a Italian wine bottle. Interesting, if a tad nerdy, stuff that will prove handy, I'm sure.

If that whirlwind North to South tour of Italian viticulture made you dizzy, hopefully sampling eight (eight!) representative wines will ease your pain. For me, given my limited prior exposure (mostly to Chianti and Moscato d' Asti) it was nice to compare and contrast various grapes grown in different areas to discover what their characteristics were, and which ones pleased my palate. At the night's end, the most important lesson I learned was to consider wines from Sardinia, Sicily, Friuli and other regions instead of just sticking to familiar offerings from Tuscany.


Who: New York Vintners (site)
Where: Warren St. (Tribeca) 
Price: $29 Groupon deal (up to $75 value)
Class Name: Grapes of Spain

New York Vintners had the biggest class size, with fifteen participants in the "Grapes of Spain" course I attended. Perhaps Spanish wines are hot at the moment, but for me it was another vacation-driven decision - two months traveling all over Spain, drinking wine pretty much every meal, THAT was the catalyst that ignited my love of wine. And I was here to learn more about what I had been drinking.

The Systematic Approach to Wines made another appearance, and being a bit familiar with it this time around, I pretty much nailed the acidity and tannin levels of the outstanding Spanish wines we tasted. Still had a tough time smelling fruits, vegetables, or whatever else is in the wine though. Nevertheless, the instructor's knowledge and enthusiasm were exhilarating as he expounded on topics ranging from oak barrels to the perennial Old World vs. New World wine rivalry. I couldn't resist buying a couple of bottles from the wine shop out front, that's how much I loved them.


As you have seen, a lot of wine was tasted (no spitting here!), thus fun was definitely had. I gained a little knowledge along the way too, but there's a long ways to go on the road to wine snobbery.  Never have I so eagerly awaited Groupon spam, all in the name of education.

Arlington Club - Steaks on Us

 I'm not quite sure how suitable the name Arlington Club is for a steakhouse, but  the Upper East Side is seriously starved for a decent filet mignon joint. Eater.com names it one of Manhattan's 12 Hottest New Restaurants, so we decided to go on a field test for our pre-Thanksgiving dinner. An OpenTable reservation in hand, though for the not-so-prime time of 615pm, we marched into the Arlington Club's two-level space that looked straight out of the '50s (or what I imagine the '50s looked like) and were ushered upstairs to our table.


We got started on our Vina Sastre Crianza 2009 bottle of wine and marveled at the restaurant's luxurious  interiors, waiting expectantly for our food. (What can I say, we bought into the hot restaurant hype). The appetizers - ahi tuna tataki and crispy kobe beef struffle - were quite good but not exceptional. Portion sizes were more than expected though, about six pieces for each order. Oh, however I'd be remiss in not mentioning the complimentary cheese popovers that were placed on the table, and instantly devoured. Those were the bomb.

The fun part started when the steaks arrived. My medium-rare sirloin steak was anything but, and looked more like medium-well. Ditto for my friend's bone-in filet mignon. The manager apologized and said they were still working on "temperature and timing issues" and rightly offered to replace them, so we waited a little bit more and downed most of the wine. In fairness, another member of our party who ordered the branzino seemed to enjoy it tremendously, as did our fourth person whose steak was perfectly to his liking.

The replacement steaks were brought over, and alas suffered from the same maladies as the original ones. The manager's IPhone flash light was working overtime to gauge the pinkness of the meat, and we all agreed that these were still too well-done. He offered to remove them from our table's check, much to my delight. (It seemed churlish to ask him to throw in another bottle of the excellent Ribera del Duero we consumed). Both steak sauces I tried - jalapeno chimichurri and the house Arlington steak sauce - were excellent, with the former on the spicy side and the latter a tad sweet.

We lingered for just enough time to watch the group of three women at an adjacent table return their porterhouse steak for the same reason, and their waiter (who was our waiter also) express the same apologies. They seemed content when the new porterhouse steak came out, so probably no freebie for them. However, since the Arlington Club is offering a 20% discount anyway on all checks as part of their soft opening, everyone gets a reward for acting as guinea pigs.

Here's hoping they get their act together soon. I don't doubt it, given the pedigree of the restaurateurs behind this joint.