Masterclass Seminar: The Sparkling Showdown - Authentic Champagne Meets Virginia’s Finest by Champagne Master Lieven DeGeyndt. Includes VIP/Early Saturday Grand Tasting
Details
Explore, Compare and Contrast Elite Champagne Made by Small Producers in Champagne, France with Premier Virginia Sparkling Wine Made by Virginia's Small Producers
NOTE: This ticket includes entry into the Walk-Around Grand Tasting: VIP/Early, which is just steps away from the seminar and begins right after the seminar concludes at 11am.
Masterclass Details
Most people never get to taste multiple champagnes next to Virginia sparkling wines. Fewer still get to do it with Virginia sparkling winemakers and Champagne Master in the room. This masterclass gives you both.
Lieven, a Champagne Master (CMC), spends a lot of time in Champagne including working the past three harvests there, leads the class alongside two of Virginia's most respected sparkling wine producers, Rachel Stinson Vrooman of Stinson Vineyards and Nathan Vrooman of Ankida Ridge. Together they'll pour 10 to 12 wines, from small Champagne growers and Virginia producers.
The wines share the same traditional method of being made and you'll taste where the two regions differ, where they overlap and discuss how they are evolving.
This is more than a tasting, it's a rare chance to learn directly from someone who has spent time in the vineyards of Champagne and from two acclaimed Virginia winemakers who are intimately familiar with crafting sparkling wine in Virginia.
Come explore champagne and Virginia sparkling wine like a true pro. Secure your spot now and experience champagne the way insiders (the Champenois) drink it: with context, curiosity, and maybe even a laugh.
With the VA winemakers there, and Lieven’s experience with Champagne producers, this is the kind of conversation that usually happens in a cellar. Seats are limited, so grab yours now!
With your ticket, you will:
● Taste 10 to 12 Champagnes and Virginia sparkling wines side by side
● Hear from a Champagne Master and two Virginia winemakers in one session
● Learn what sets each region apart, and what they share
● Put your own questions to the people who made the wines
You may arrive at 9:15am. NOTE: this seminar is held in our second location on the first floor, North side of Main Street Station adjacent to the new Shockoe Institute.
Your Presenters:
About Champagne Master: Lieven DeGeyndt
Lieven DeGeyndt is a champagne educator and one of the few voices in the U.S. who combines academic wine study with hands-on experience in Champagne itself. He is the founder of Sparkle-ist, a wine club dedicated exclusively to champagne and sparkling wine. He tastes hundreds of sparkling wines every year so people can discover bottles they’d never find on their own. He is a Champagne Master Level, CSM, Certified Specialist of Wine, and WSET Diploma candidate.
About Virgina Winemakers: Nathan Vrooman and Rachel Stinson Vrooman
Nathan and Rachel are the winemaking team at Stinson Vineyards, a family estate in White Hall, Virginia, in the Monticello AVA.
Rachel left a photo-editing career in New York in 2010 to replant Stinson’s historic Piedmont House vineyard with her father, Scott Stinson, an architect who built the winery into a former three-car garage. Nathan is a self-taught winemaker who left finance to lead production at his family’s Ankida Ridge Vineyards.
Together at Stinson, they make small-lot, garagiste wines in the French manner. Their new focus is sparkling wine. Drawing on the same French sensibility that has shaped Stinson from the start, they are turning estate fruit toward traditional-method bubbles: precise base wines, extended lees aging, and a lighter, more mineral expression of the Blue Ridge foothills.
Combined, Lieven, Nathan and Rachel offer attendees a rare combination of authority and accessibility on Champagne and Virginia Sparkling Wine.
Important Information
- Must be 21 and over to attend
- Seating is limited — early arrival is recommended
- Come ready to taste, learn, and explore
