'Wine coach': No need to fear the wrath of grapes

If you can't pronounce it, order it. These are words to live by, according to Laurie Forster, known throughout Maryland as the Wine Coach.

As a software sales executive, Forster first uncorked her passion for wine and people while wining and dining clients at fine restaurants.

She eventually left her corporate position to become a certified life coach and sommelier.

In 2004, she began teaching groups about grape varieties and wine-producing regions while bringing people together for an insightful, unpretentious and often spirited evening.

Question: What's one advantage of screw-cap wines?

Answer: Screw caps aren't as charming as corks but I'd rather have great-tasting wine every time and give up some charm. Too many wines get "corked" - infected with trichloroanisole, or TCA. If your wine smells like a musty basement or wet cardboard, it's corked. One of the reasons [restaurants and wine bars] give you the taste is to check that. Two expensive wines I picked out for a blind tasting I do every year at home with friends were corked. It's not that I couldn't take them back to the wine store - which you should and I did. But that moment was lost.

Q: Are there other trends we should know about?

A: Economically friendly packaging. It looks like a sippy box or soy milk containers. The idea is you can fit in one truckload what would take 12 truckloads for bottles.

Q: What's the difference between European wine drinkers and the U.S. counterparts?

A: Most people in the U.S. are looking to buy an everyday drinking wine, regardless of income, around $20. A lot of the wineries are trying to get into that sweet spot at $15. Anything over $7 is considered premium. In Europe, you can find great stuff from $3 to $4. [Europeans] don't typically buy over that. European wineries save all of the expensive wines for Asia and the U.S. because we're the ones plunking down the cash, willing to spend more.

Q: What wines would you suggest we try?

A: For sparking wine, the Prosecco from Veneto, Italy. It's sparkling like champagne, but softer and fruitier. Every time I use it at a party, everyone, even die-hard beer drinkers, love it. One of my favorite white wines is the Gruner Veltliner. It's indigenous to Austria. It has a nice medium body to it with a really great citrus fruit but also a white pepper aspect. It's really food-friendly too, especially for difficult items to pair with wine like artichokes. For the red Barbara, I like Piedmont wines from the region in the Northwest. Their fruit, acidity and tannin are very well-balanced, much like a Chianti. It's a great all-purpose red.

Click here for more information about Forster.

jnovak@baltimoreexaminer.com 

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