Tasting classes offer more than just a social scene

Wine classes, indeed most liquid lessons, come in a tasting format that emphasizes the social aspect while sometimes skimming over education.

At the year-old Tria Fermentation School, the learning process is given its due. Taking the subject seriously, the school thoroughly covers other fruits of fermentation - beer and cheese - as well as wine.

Fermented grape juice and milk and malted grain are, after all, among the oldest processed foods on the planet, and Tria's owner, Jon Myerow, believes it is to everyone's advantage to better understand and appreciate both the product and the process.

Playing up the education angle, Myerow opened Tria Fermentation School at 16th and Walnut, just around the corner from his original Tria Cafe.

In class, vintners, brewmasters, cheesemakers, sommeliers, distributors, authors and critics take the lectern to share their knowledge in a state-of-the-art classroom designed for tutored tastings with a bank of custom refrigeration units, a multimedia sound system, and visual aids.

The classroom also serves as a training stage for Tria's cafe servers, who are constantly being updated on wine, beer, cheese and food menus that change daily.

The school is an extension of those cafes (now at 18th and Sansom and 12th and Spruce) where select wines, beers and cheeses (some exotic, even rare) are complemented by a light menu of snacks, salads and sandwiches. Wine is served in 5-ounce pours in oversize (16-ounce) crystal orbs for easy swirling and sniffing. Select beers come in crystal stemware.

For toe-wetting tastings in a less erudite setting, check out Tria's weekly "Sunday School" offerings at the cafes, where customers can sample one wine, beer and cheese at half price.

Here are some of the wine, beer, and other beverage-related programs offered in and around Philadelphia this fall.

Students must be at least 21 with valid identification to attend classes serving wine, beer or spirits.

Philadelphia

Home Sweet Homebrew, 2008 Sansom St. 215-569-9469 (www.homesweethomebrew.com). Beer-making demonstrations and tastings, Wednesdays, 5-7 p.m. Free. (HOPS club meetings on third Wednesday.)

Mount Airy Learning Tree, 6601 Greene St. 215-843-6333 (www.mtairylearn ingtree.org). At Unitarian Society of Germantown, 6511 Lincoln Dr.: Wines of Australia and New Zealand, Oct. 23, 6:30 p.m., $44. At Tea Country, 6722 Old York Rd., 7 p.m.: Introduction to Tea, Nov. 13, $20.