Barbara Christensen
In June Quail Creek residents Gary Christensen and Steve Harris headed to Las Vegas to join 56 other enrollees from around the country for a 20-hour introductory sommelier course. The course is developed and conducted by the Court of Master Sommeliers and includes study in a 300-page textbook. There are only 286 Master Sommeliers in the world today.
This introductory course focuses on wine regions, climate effects, soil content, harvesting and growing techniques, fermentation methods, grape varieties, bottling differences, and marketing. It did include extensive wine tastings to learn how to evaluate the color, smell, and taste of the wines.
Having both passed the final exam, Gary and Steve are now certified level one sommeliers. They believe they were the oldest students in the room by perhaps 40 years!