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Wine Education

WINE EDUCATION PROGRAMS AT MEADOWOOD

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Meadowood Napa Valley is the ideal site for a corporate retreat where the bonding happens around wine.

WINE & FOOD

Welcome Wine Reception
While at Meadowood, your guests will be at the very heart of winegrowing in Napa Valley. Begin your stay with a welcome wine reception hosted by Meadowood Director of Wine Education Gilles de Chambure, MS.
Gilles will toast your arrival with local sparkling wine, offer a brief, entertaining history of Napa Valley and the rise to prominence of the local wines then introduce the wines selected for guests to sample over the course of the reception and lunch or dinner. Following his opening remarks, Gilles will avail himself to guests who wish to ask questions about their favorite wines, wineries and vintners. Through this reception your guests will begin to feel the pulse of the local wine community and this will set the stage for a very rewarding and memorable visit.

Reception Time: One hour
Fee: Twenty-five dollars per person including sparkling wine

Insights into Napa Valley Wine
At the introduction of a lunch or dinner, our wine educator will speak to guests on a wine-related topic suited to their particular interests.
a. The history of wine in Napa Valley
b. An overview of the wine industry in California
c. The globalization of wine
d. What makes Napa Valley uniquely suited to grapegrowing
e. Wine Collection: how to select, store and know when to serve collectible wines

Setting: Wherever your guests are enjoying lunch or dinner.
Time: Fifteen to thirty minutes at the discretion of the host
Fee: Two hundred-fifty dollars

Mealtime Wine & Food Pairing (Lunch or Dinner)
Enjoy this exploration of wine and food dynamics with Gilles de Chambure as he guides you through a fabulous meal. Engage in a lively discussion with every course about how the wines selected to accompany each course enhance the flavor of the dish and how the flavors in the dish enhance the enjoyment of the wine.
Setting: A dining table or tables suited to the number of guests.

Luncheon Time: Sixty to ninety minutes
Fee: Five hundred dollars plus the cost of food and wine
Dinner Time: Two to two-and-a-half hours for dinner.
Fee: Seven hundred dollars plus the cost of food and wine

Napa Valley Wines & Local Cheeses, Breads & Charcuteries
This informal exploration of local flavors is designed for the food and wine lovers in your group who will prefer a casual experience with an opportunity to move about.

Setting: This event may be orchestrated as a stationed exploration where guests are invited to move from area to area or as a seminar with classroom seating with individual place settings. The cheeses, breads and charcuteries will be offered with five different Napa Valley wines including a sweet wine, two white wines and two red wines.

Time: One hour
Fee: Five hundred dollars plus the cost of food and wine

WINE TASTINGS

Understanding & Enjoying Wines
This program is designed for those looking to begin their exploration of wine. Our wine educator offers guests an introduction in:

a. Wine Tasting
b. Grape Varietals
c. Grapegrowing
d. Reading Wine Labels
e. Wine Storage and Service
f. Napa Valley Appellations.

Setting: This program is offered in a seated format and arranged according to the number of guests.
Time: One hour
Fee: Six hundred dollars plus the cost of wines

Exploring Napa Valley
This session begins with an overview of Napa Valley's history, geography, climate, winegrowing regions and is followed by a tasting of wines illustrating the diversity of Napa Valley wines, including a flight of varietals from different appellations.

Setting: This program is offered in a seated format and arranged according to the number of guests or in a walk-around format for those who prefer a more casual environment.
Time: Sixty to ninety minutes
Fee: Seven hundred dollars plus the cost of wine

Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
This is the ultimate tasting for guests with a passion for Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. This formal tasting will contrast classic producers, boutique wineries and rising stars and highlight different viticultural areas of Napa Valley.

Setting: This program is offered in a seated format and arranged according to the number of guests.

Time: One hour
Fee: Six hundred dollars plus the cost of wine

Wine Tasting & Wine Trivia Quiz
In this fun, relaxed program, guests are given clues about a selection of wines and asked to seek the answers from tasting tables located around a room or garden area. Simultaneously, trivia questions about Napa Valley wines and celebrated vintners are posed for guests to solve. When time is called, the results are collected and shared with the guests in good humor and prizes are awarded.

Setting: This program is offered in a casual, walk-around format.
Time: Sixty to ninety minutes
Fee: Six hundred dollars plus the cost of wine

Sensory Evaluation
Have you ever wondered how "blackberries" are found in Cabernet Sauvignon, how "bell pepper" aromas arise out of Sauvignon Blanc or how flavors of "butter" and "tropical fruit" are discerned in Chardonnay?

Explore the aromas and flavors of wine and develop your olfactive memory by training your senses of smell. Comparing different grape varieties to a visual and aromatic feast of fruits, herbs, spices and flowers develop a vocabulary to describe different wines. This tasting will include two white wines, two red wines and a dessert wine.

Setting: This program is offered in a casual, walk-around format.
Time: Sixty to ninety minutes
Fee: Seven hundred-fifty dollars plus the cost of the wines.

WINE EXCURSIONS

Winery Visits
Venture off the Meadowood estate and into Napa Valley for a half or full-day wine excursion. Start the morning with a vineyard tour followed by a private winery tour and tasting. At mid-day, break for a casual lunch or picnic. A second winery visit may be added in the afternoon.

This guided exploration includes an introduction to Napa Valley's climate, geography and viticulture. You'll also enjoy a discussion of local history and a current view of who's who in the world of wine.

Setting: Beautiful Napa Valley

Time: Half Day (10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.) Fee for 10 to 25 guests: Seven hundred-fifty dollars plus the cost of lunch, transportation and winery fees. Fee for 26 to 40 guests: one thousand two hundred dollars plus the cost of lunch and transportation and winery fees.

Time: Full Day (10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) Fee for 10 to 25 guests: Nine hundred-fifty dollars plus the cost of lunch, transportation and winery fees. Fee for 26 to 40 guests: one thousand eight hundred dollars plus the cost of lunch, transportation and winery fees.

Wine and Architecture/ History
This guided tour of Napa Valley highlights the architectural diversity to be found throughout the region. From the Valley's beautiful 19th Century gravity-flow wineries to contemporary works by noted international architects, you'll come to know renowned Napa Valley Vintners through their architectural visions.

Setting: Napa Valley's Architectural Gems

Time: Half Day (10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.) Fee for 10 to 25 guests: Seven hundred-fifty dollars plus the cost of lunch, transportation and winery fees. Fee for 26 to 40 guests: one thousand two hundred dollars plus the cost of lunch, transportation and winery fees.

Time: Full Day (10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) Fee for 10 to 25 guests: Nine hundred-fifty dollars plus the cost of lunch, transportation and winery fees. Fee for 26 to 40 guests: one thousand eight hundred dollars plus the cost of lunch, transportation and winery fees.

WINE & SPORTS

Gilles & Jerry: Wine and Croquet
At Meadowood, we play the grown-up version of the backyard game of croquet that has been played for decades on leisurely summer afternoons. Croquet is the perfect equalizer between players of widely differing physical skills. Everyone starts at the same level, so the consummate athlete has no competitive edge. In fact, croquet is a game of strategy, not unlike chess, which offers the thinking player the true advantage.

This event is a Meadowood tradition. Join Croquet Pro Jerry Stark and Gilles on our championship lawns for a sporting and wine tasting event not to be rivaled. The program begins with Gilles leading a blind tasting of sparkling wines on the Croquet Glen. Guests taste and choose favorites from among the labels presented. After the unveiling of bottles, guests take their preferred glasses of bubbly onto the croquet lawns for instruction in the game of Golf Croquet. A hearty match follows the instruction. This is a program that's always in style.

Setting: The Meadowood Croquet Lawns
Time: Three Hours
Fee: Six hundred-fifty dollars for the wine educator plus the cost of sparkling wine and croquet fees, including Meadwood's resident croquet professional, which average twenty-seven dollars per person.

Wine and Golf / Hickory Golf
Return to the era of Bobby Jones by playing nine holes with authentic hickory shafted clubs and replica gutty golf balls, all of which were used from the late 1800s to the 1930s. In 1850, the Scottish found that hickory from the United States made the very best golf club shaft material; with its light, springy feel, it far surpassed the more flexible ash shafts. The gutty ball was introduced around 1850. Brought from the British West Indies, this ball, crafted from the sap of rubber trees, was immune to water damage and bounced like crazy. Come spend a morning or afternoon at play with Golf Pro Doug Pike and recreate a time when the attire was more formal, the people were very respectful and the imagination required to play well was astounding. During your game of Hickory Golf with Doug, Gilles will meet you at the fourth tee and the ninth green with tastes of Napa Valley wines from different appellations.

Setting: The Meadowood Fairways
Time: Two Hours
Fee: One hundred twenty-five dollars per person plus the cost of wine.

WINE & MUSIC

The arts come to life at Meadowood through the combined expertise of Director of Wine Education Gilles de Chambure, MS, and Maestro Richard Williams, Meadowood's Director of Cultural Affairs.

Guests of this program will journey back in time to an era in which one of the world's great composers created his musical masterpieces. Select a composer who will most stir the passion among your guests and allow Gilles and Richard to immerse them in the music and wines of the time. While most wine programs at Meadowood feature Napa Valley wines, this program explores the wines of several of the world's other great wine producing regions, including Italy, France, Spain, Austria and Germany.

"The Genius of Mozart: Wine and Music in the Courts of Europe"
Taste wines from Mozart's homeland of Austria, where the capital, Vienna, is the only European capital with its own vineyards. Explore the great Rieslings and Gruner Vetliners of the terraced vineyards of the beautiful Danube River as you listen to excerpts of music composed by this master. Mozart traveled extensively during his lifetime through Italy and France. Hear the anecdotes and stories of his travels and taste the wines popular with the Parisian aristocracy and the Tuscan nobility. Through this you will begin to understand the influence travel played on his music.

Time: Ninety Minutes
Fee: Nine hundred dollars including performance fees plus the cost of wine and food*

*if applicable to the program format you choose

"Adante! Vino, Cuccina & the Great Italian Composers"
Three of Italy's most beloved composers hailed from the country's most famous wine regions: Vivaldi, Venice, Verdi, Parma & Puccini, Tuscany.

Verdi incorporated wine into his operas as fans will know. In a party scene with copious amounts of wine flowing freely, the most famous drinking song of all time unfurls along with the merriment in La Traviatta. Taste the wines of the Veneto and Tuscany and enjoy the traditional foods of Parma (Parmigiano-Reggiano, prosciutto di Parma, aceto balsamico) and the wines of Piedmonte. As you enjoy these traditional flavors, you'll enjoy favorite arias that will make the meaning of La Dolce Vita ring true.

Whereas Vivaldi was a great baroque composer, Verdi and Puccini fell into the romantic period. This program will take guests through the centuries with the music these masters composed and the foods and wines that might have shaped their work.

Time: Ninety Minutes
Fee: Fee: Nine hundred dollars including performance fees plus the cost of wine
and food*

*if applicable to the program format you choose

"From Romanticism to Impressionism: Wine & Music in France"
Find out why Champagne is the wine of romance and celebration as you listen to French Romantic composers such as Bizet. Travel through the tumultuous times of the 19th and early 20th centuries when the landscape of viticulture was transformed by wars, revolution, transport, trade and technology forever altering the agricultural and social fabric of the French vigneron. Taste the wines of Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Rhone and listen to the evolution of impressionism in the music of Ravel and Debussy and hear how tragedy, dreams, hope and the nostalgia of things past are reflected in their innovative and creative work.

Time: Ninety Minutes
Fee: Nine hundred dollars including performance fees plus the cost of wine
and food*

*if applicable to the program format you choose

"Wine, Food & Music over Dinnertime at Meadowood"
Gilles and Richard will collaborate with Executive Chef Vincent Nattress to create a musical menu highlighting the music and wines of some of the great composers. Taste the wines of Mozart's Austria, Wagner's Germany, Italy's Verdi, and Ravel and Debussy's France paired with dishes connected to great musical personalities that have become culinary classics, such as Tournedos Rossini and Peche Melba.

Time: Three Hours
Fee: Nine hundred dollars plus the cost of food and wine
and food*

*if applicable to the program format you choose

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Meadowood · Napa Valley · Conferences · Wine Education