By Meghan Streit
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Do you know the right wine to accompany macaroni and cheese? Well, Jesse Ross and Mike Yang do. The three-time winners of the acclaimed wine-tasting contest at Chicago’s Geja’s Café are teaching an eight-week wine tasting and appreciation course at Monarch Landing.

Exploring the world of wine
Each class focuses on a different region or variety of wine. Of course, the best way to learn is by doing, so participants sample plenty of vino, and Ross and Yang provide supplemental information with magazine articles, reviews, and their own expertise accumulated over 40 years of tasting and collecting wine.

A recent class explored the wide array of chardonnays—from a simple fruity California wine to a supple, full-bodied variety that Yang says is perfect with cream sauces.

Yang and Ross pass on plenty of tips to the Monarch Landing residents and staff enrolled in their course, and they are happy to answer questions along the way. Although they are seasoned aficionados, the pair is down-to-earth about wine. Yang says you don’t have to break the bank to get a good bottle.

Good wine doesn’t have to be pricy
“A lot of times you have to talk to the person you are buying the wine from and tell them what you are looking for or read a review, so you get what you want,” Yang says.

Many of the wines sampled in class sell for about $10.

Resident Ann Johanan has never taken a wine-tasting class before, but says she is enjoying this opportunity to learn new things. At a recent class, she and a friend sampled a bottle they particularly liked and then were able to buy it at a wine shop with confidence.

“We love this class and we’d like to see ‘Wine Tasting 201,” Johanan says.