This program will be held virtually. A link to the Zoom webinar will be sent after registration in the confirmation email. This workshop will only be available live. It will not be recorded. Must be 21 or older to take the workshop. Wednesday, December 30, 2020 6:30-8:00 PM Max Participants: 15 Instructor: J Stephen Casscles Esq. This course introduces you to the wonderful world of East Coast Wines made from cool climate grape varieties such as Seyval Blanc, Vidal, Baco Noir, Native-American labrusca varieties, and Minnesota hybrids. These grapes can be made into a variety of wine styles from: dry red and white table wines; approachable semi-dry reds and whites to dessert, sparkling, and fruit wines. This Class will introduce you to locally produced wines that you can pick yourself as we taste wines and go through the basics on how to evaluate, appreciate, and enjoy such wines. The instructor will try to de-mystify this "scary" world of wine and give the student the confidence on how to evaluate and appreciate various kinds of wine styles. Our tasting and talk will be a fun educational experience that shows how easy it is to evaluate wines, just as we safely and confidently evaluate beer, cider, sprits, and food. The way we will select wines is the instructor will give each participant ideas on how to select and purchase the wines that they like and will be used during our common wine tasting forum. Wine is NOT included with your registration. You will be provided an instruction sheet from the instructor in your confirmation email. This instruction guide will provide places for you to pick up wine for the course, including suggestions of types. You can sign up by yourself or in a pair. If you register with another person you will need to be on the same zoom account sitting together to limit the number of screens in the meeting room. An enthusiastic viticulturalist, J Stephen Casscles has a 12-acre farm in Athens, NY, called Cedar Cliff, where he cultivates over 110 different French-American hybrids, 19th Century heritage grape varieties from the Hudson Valley and Massachusetts, and own rooted chance hybrids that he evaluates, makes wine from, and lectures about. In addition, he lectures on wine, grape cultivation, 19th century American horticulture and landscape architecture at botanical gardens and historical societies throughout New York and New England. Mr. Casscles operates a small grape nursery that specializes in propagating rare French-American hybrids, 19th Century heritage grape varieties developed in the Hudson Valley, Boston’s North Shore, the rest of New England, and own rooted chance hybrids identified at his farm Cedar Cliff. He is an award-winning winemaker who currently works at Sabba Estate Vineyards, in Old Chatham, NY and formally of the Hudson-Chatham Winery in Ghent, NY (2007-2019) and his wines been covered by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Wine Enthusiast, New York Post, Hugh Johnson’s Annual Pocket Wine Book (2021), and The Albany Times-Union. As a regional historian, Stephen authored Grapes of the Hudson Valley and Other Cool Climate Regions of the United States and Canada, which details the history of the Hudson Valley fruit growing industry, how to make wine, establish and maintain a vineyard, and the growing characteristics of over 170 cool climate grape varieties. He is currently working on two new books, The Prince Family Nurseries of Flushing, NY (1720-1869) and The Life and Times of E. S. Rogers and the Heritage Grapes of New England. In addition to his full length works on grape varieties, grape cultivation, and 19th century horticulture, Stephen is a frequent contributor to academic and trade journals such as Arnoldia of the Arnold Arboretum of Boston, MA, Fruit Notes of U. Mass Amherst, Horticultural News of Rutgers University, Wine Journal of the American Wine Society, New York Fruit Quarterly of the NYS Horticultural Society, and the Hudson Valley Wine Magazine