The Elements of Wine: Tasting & Food Pairing Class

Understanding how wine works with food will make both taste better! You will taste an incredible flight of wines, and learn how different foods change your perceptions of the wines. By the end of this event, you will know what to look for in any wine, why certain wines work well with certain foods, and how to make any wine taste better by serving it correctly. Andy Fisher, President of Astor Wines/Astor Center, will show you the basics of wine tasting and food pairing in this hands-on, plain-language class designed to be deliciously fun.

We will draw on Andy’s 40 years of experience to help you understand the flight of exceptional wines, carefully chosen to illustrate the six most important taste features. Andy will also show you how different foods can change your perceptions of the wines and vice versa. You’ll leave armed with the principles of tasting and pairing wine with food, a clear sense of what to order the next time you are faced with a restaurant’s daunting wine list, and a store discount for that night on all of the wines we taste.

The Instructor

Andy Fisher has been President of the family business Astor Wines & Spirits for over 30 years. He and his father - a legendary icon in the industry - purchased Astor Center in 1983, and last year relocated Astor Wines & Spirits establishing a new standard for retail wine excellence. Now, with the opening of the new facilities of Astor Center - the Gallery, the Kitchen, and the Study - he is seeking to re-define the nature of wine understanding, by ensuring under one roof the vast complexity of wine offerings has facilities for their exploration and understanding.

The Venue

The Study is the ultimate venue for food and wine presentations and educational events. The room’s ultramodern Viking Professional demonstration kitchen is flanked by stadium seating for up to 36 attendees, and each seat offers a flush sink and lightbox to further heighten the wine (or spirit, or saké) tasting experience. Two mounted cameras trained over the demonstration area are hooked into three 50-inch plasma screens, offering optimal viewing conditions for detailed cooking techniques. And, since our audiovisual equipment is already in place, any demonstration held at the Study can be recorded without the need for an on-site television crew.

Based the design for the Rudd Center at The Culinary Institute of America’s Greystone campus in Napa Valley, the Study at Astor Center is truly an unparalleled environment for sensory discovery. Whether hosting a vertical tasting of the world’s finest Burgundies or showcasing the talents of the world’s most cutting-edge culinary genius, this unique facility combines visual impact with utility and professionalism.

Event Details

• Location: The Study at Astor Center; 399 Lafayette St. NY, NY 10003 (At East 4th Street)
• Time: 6:30 PM until 8:30 PM

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