Start Your Wine-ing at Trattoria Neapolis’ Five-Part Italian Wine Tasting Series

When we think of the holidays, our thoughts turn to wine. Wine for toasting, wines for gifting, wine for dining, wine to take our minds off shopping malls and PlayStations, wine with breakfast, you get the idea.

But it’s not just popping open a cork. Just because you watched “Sideways,” don’t consider yourself a sommelier quite yet, mon ami. Put the work in. Pasadena’s Trattoria Neapolis has developed a five-part wine tasting series with Wine Director Diego Meraviglia, Fifth Place winner at the World Wide Sommelier competition. After successfully moving through earlier rounds of the competition in North America and then Europe, Diego advanced to the finals in London. There he placed 5th in the world. That’s the whole planet, so he knows of what he speaks, and drinks.

Diego will lead the five-part wine tasting series, so customers can learn from the expertise of this wine professional and educator. Each class will feature the tasting of five wines from a particular region. There will also be small bites from the kitchen to accompany each dish. Diego will discuss the region, its history, its geography and other factors affecting the wine, the grapes, and of course the wines themselves. Each tasting will last between one and two hours.

You’ll be warm, happy, and very merry. Bring someone dear to drive you home, and brag to your friends at your big holiday party about this “Oaky little vintage I picked up in Naples, by way of Pasadena.” Everybody wins.

The Trattoria Neapolis Italian Restaurant & Bar Wine Tasting Series. Begins Tuesday, December 10, 2013 at 6:30 p.m., 336 South Lake Avenue, Pasadena. For more information call (626) 792-3000 or visit them online at www.trattorianeapolis.com.