What a great way to introduce our new Wine Aroma Kits to the audience of well over 3,000 attendees made up of meeting and event managers from both the private and public sector, incentive promotion companies, sales, marketing, HR and communication managers, all looking for something new and exciting!

Our Wine Aroma kits were received extremely positively, gaining acclaim as the “novelty item of the show”! The buzz made the rounds quickly at the show and we had lots of people seeking out information about what we are all about!

The positive feedback we got fueled our conviction that this product is not only unique but also has mass appeal and a special allure all its own …

• It’s a great gift, a riveting board game, a perfect addition to any wine library, and a must have for the wine novice or connoisseur.
• It’s a perfect supplement for wine-focused retailers looking to add value to their existent clientele and to differentiate themselves from other establishments.
• They are a “must” in the field of wine education, for both teachers and students alike.

The “awakening” has begun … The “demystification” is yours to explore.

If you require further information, please send us an email at info@wineawakenings.com
Join our wine blog and begin your journey to enlightening your senses.

Ice wine is a late harvest wine produced from the juice of grapes that have been frozen on the vine and pressed while frozen. During pressing, the water is retained as ice crystals, so the resulting juice is highly concentrated in sugar and flavour compounds. It is valued for its rarity, sweetness, intensity of aroma and flavour, and — not least of all — its purity. Its origins are vague, but a date often cited as the first “genuine” ice wine harvest is 1794, in Germany. Over most of this period, Germany and Austria have been the main producers. However, emerging onto the scene in the late 1980s was a new kid on the block, who in a very short time has come to dominate the global ice wine scene in terms of both quantity and quality. Canada.

The hot summers and cold, dependable winters found in Canada’s main grape growing regions produce the requisite conditions for consistent and reliable production. While many European ice wine producers cannot be assured of sufficiently cold conditions at the correct time and for long enough to harvest the fruit, this is generally not a problem with Canada’s long, cold winters. It is in Ontario, and on the Niagara Peninsula in particular, that the majority (approx. 75%) of Ice wine is made. “Ice wine” delineates Canadian-produced product (the term is in fact trademarked by Canada’s regulatory oversight body — Vintners Quality Alliance Canada (VQA)) from Eiswein (Germany and Austria) and ice wine (a generic term encompassing both styles and those from other nations). How Ice wine is made and regulated in Canada and its characteristics make it one of the most sought-after wines on the planet.

How Ice Wine is Made

In Ontario, the end of December through to mid January is common and generally considered optimal for the final quality of the wine, although on a rare occasion harvest has been delayed until late March. Grapes must be picked and pressed at -8 degrees Celsius or colder. Temperatures at harvest and during pressing are the main determinants of the final sugar concentration of the juice.

The higher the sugar content in the grape, the lower the temperature must be in order to freeze out the water. Late Harvest, Select Late Harvest and Special Select Late Harvest wines are also produced, and are sweet wine styles that have a lower minimum Brix requirement than required for Ice wine. These may be produced from 2^nd and subsequent pressings of Ice wine grapes or from fruit harvested earlier in winter at warmer temperatures.

When the grapes are finally harvested, they are pressed without crushing. Under VQA regulations pressing must be a continuous process, and a low temperature needs to be maintained throughout the operation in order to obtain a juice with a minimum of 35° Brix. Fermentation typically takes a few weeks longer to complete than with table wines. “Complete” in the sense of achieving an alcohol concentration of approximately 10 % v/v, where there is still considerable residual sugar present (approx 200 g/L); imparting the sweetness the style is renowned for. Once the wines are stable, they are bottled — typically in 375 mL bottles — to preserve varietal intensity.

Acknowledgements

This is an abbreviated and edited version of an article that first appeared in the Proceedings of the Sixth International Cool Climate Symposium for Viticulture and Oenology, Christchurch, New Zealand, 5–10 February 2006, 84–99. ‘Degrees Brix (symbol °Bx) is an indirect measurement of the sugar concentration of grapes and juice.

– Professor Gary Pickering

About the Author

Gary Pickering is a Professor in Biological Sciences and Psychology, and a researcher at Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute in Niagara, Canada. He also holds a doctorate in Wine Science and is an active lecturer and researcher in wine flavour, sensory science and the development of novel wine products and processes. Gary is the recipient of a number of research awards, is passionate about wine and its education, and has worked on over 100 papers, book chapters, patents and conferences.
Contact: gary@picksen.com

Children educators have known this for a long time. In fact, Sesame Street, a pioneer of the modern educational television standard, combined both education and entertainment. As author Malcolm Gladwell has stated, “Sesame Street was built around a single, breakthrough insight: that if you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them”. Sesame Street was the first children’s show that structured each episode and made “small but critical adjustments to each segment to capture children’s attention long enough to teach them something.”

What followed was a myriad of children’s television shows in the 70’s built on what was termed as “edutainment”: a form of entertainment designed to educate as well as to amuse. Much later, the Discovery Channel also became known for its programs that follow the same methodology, such as Mythbusters and others developed primarily for an adult audience.

It can be argued, in fact, that “edutainment” has existed for millennia in the form of fables that promoted social change while entertaining us.

What we know of the pedagogy at play in “entertainment education” is the following:

1. Relevance: people are more likely to learn if they can see the usefulness of the knowledge or skill they are acquiring.
2. Incremental learning: people learn better when they can learn at their own pace.
3. Distributed Learning (“Fossard”): We all learn differently over different periods of time.

Is there a difference between learning casually and learning professionally? Of course there is, and the major difference is in the way the knowledge is applied or expected to be applied.

Leisure Education for Casual Learning

First, leisure education for casual learning resides mainly in games and board games and in the way we use them to learn while having fun. The most popular games for adults have been those that educate us about a hobby or a new desirable life skill. Witness the surging popularity of such board games as Music Notes Empire, a unique teaching aid, designed by a piano teacher with an international musical background, it helps people learn musical notation in a fun and interactive method. The ever-popular game of Life, introduced in 1960 and updated in 1992, is one of the most loved games and is played all over the world in twenty different languages. The game of Life is also used in schools to reinforce life lessons, and to practice math, economics and investing.

Another example is the popular board game that Time magazine called “the biggest phenomenon in game history”: Trivial Pursuit. First conceived in December 1979 by Canadian journalists and editors Scott Abbott and Chris Haney, the game’s popularity peaked in 1984 and the rights to the game were licensed shortly thereafter to Parker Brothers, now part of Hasbro. As of 2004, more than 88 million games had been sold in 26 countries and 17 languages, making it one of the most popular games ever invented.

A more current example of a proven education method turned “game board” is wine aroma kits. An increasingly popular version recently launched was reinvented to appeal to wine hobbyists and aspiring wine connoisseurs who wish to enhance their wine appreciation skills by learning to recognize and identify the most common aromas found in wine. The elegant kit is designed to be shared with friends and provides a fun learning premise to enhance not only our knowledge of wine but also of our most neglected sense: the sense of smell. Wine Awakenings, the Canadian company behind these exclusive products, also teamed up with a renowned North American business consultancy company to offer a truly unique product: a series of executive seminar-type events which cleverly and strategically combine business lessons with wine tasting lessons (and other fun and leisure activities) to educate, refresh and inspire its clients. This is a true example of leisure education for professional learning.

Leisure Education for Professional Learning

Leisure education for professional learning, in the way that it is intended here, means combining a leisure activity with a professional lesson, either business related or of a more technical nature. This is a very tricky task. It is not simply delivering a business lesson while being at a leisure (or fun) venue. Leisure must be the vehicle and the means for teaching, not just to provide the physical premise. A dry lesson in “principles of finance” is just as dry if the lecturer were standing in the middle of Disney World instead of the school auditorium.  For leisure and education to mingle and truly create the dynamic forces referred to here as “leisure education” the learning task (the education) must be incorporated and conveyed within the very same context and medium as the leisure activity it is being combined with.

Our inherent craving for such activity could be traced back deep within our psyche. According to Bill Bradley and other scholars on the topic of learning while playing, “… everyone loves to play, and since toys are typically the first thing a child comes in contact with, they are the tools we use to manifest our pleasure and stimulate our learning receptors.”

Think of your favourite hobby or past time. How difficult was it to learn? More importantly, how long did it take you to learn it?

And, how much fun was that … ?

Now hold that thought (and that smile)

In the business world, leisure education is quite simply learning a new skill while having that much fun.  If learning that new skill is done in parallel with a fun leisure activity, then our level of absorption and retention is exponentially increased (and we keep that smile throughout). The most complex topics are best absorbed and assimilated when they are communicated in relevant parallel with the most pleasant and sensory based learnings and personal discoveries.

Can we compare learning to adjust your golf putting technique to learning to adjust your business communication style, so as to yield better and more predictable results? In both cases, a question of discipline, self awareness and “cause and effect”.

Dare we compare learning how to perfectly sear and garnish that roast to give it a nice deep brown flavorful color to learning how to prepare and plan for that all important sales call? Both are a lesson on setting the premise for a planned and controlled outcome.

And finally, can the careful artful analysis of tasting a fine wine … detecting the subtle aromas and savouring the rich velvety texture of a deep ruby Amarone be experienced and learned in parallel with resolving a specific business challenge … let’s say to sharpen your skills at interviewing and choosing the right candidate for that key position. Both are an art and a science containing a very similar approach and methodology based on sensory awareness.

Leisure education and our desire for it are driving a different consumerism. In later editions, we will discuss how leisure education is being leveraged to drive a different consumer attitude that has retailer giants like Wal-Mart, PetSmart, Macy’s and Procter & Gamble taking note. Also, we will trace back what happened to the promised, yet still illusive Leisure society of a few decades ago, the increasingly dominant role of women in leisure education-driven buying, and the role and importance of education first in the emerging wine market in China.

– Amato De Civita

About the Author

Amato De Civita is a senior partner with Journey To Excellence, an industry-leading business consultancy firm based in Toronto, Canada.  After an illustrious career as a senior marketing executive of a multinational corporation, he has now developed the much sought-after expertise in the emerging field of leisure education and new consumerism.
Contact: adecivita@journeytoexcellence.ca

– Professor Gary Pickering

About the Author

Gary Pickering is a Professor in Biological Sciences and Psychology, and a researcher at Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute in Niagara, Canada. He also holds a doctorate in Wine Science and is an active lecturer and researcher in wine flavour, sensory science and the development of novel wine products and processes.  Gary is the recipient of a number of research awards, is passionate about wine and its education, and has worked on over 100 papers, book chapters, patents and conferences.
Contact: gary@picksen.com