Demystifying Wine With The Wine Goddess

Susan, Sharon, Diana (Owner), Susan, Karen

I have the cure for wine anxiety! Sign up for a class with Diana Hamann, proprietress of the year-old Wine Goddess shop in Evanston and you’ll be ordering with confidence in no time.

Diana, a.k.a. “The Goddess,” taught wine classes at the Chopping Block in Chicago for 9 years and decided to go solo in late 2012. I signed up this past December with three of my favorite oenophiles - Karen Burr, Sharon Hartshorne and Susan Nipper - to learn about pairing food and wine and learned so much. The class is called “Food & Wine Pairing Demystified,”and during our 90-minute session we tasted several wines with several nibbles representing salty, sour, bitter and sweet.

“We guarantee the light bulbs will go on, the clouds will part and you’ll leave with a solid food and wine pairing foundation,” says Diana. But she offers many others classes from “Wine 101” and “Wines of France” to Conquering the Restaurant Wine List” and even a “Belly Dancing and Wine Tasting” session!

I’m definitely planning to sign up for that. What else would we do to lift our spirits during this Arctic Chicago winter? The class needs five people to make it a go, so if anyone wants to join me, give me a holler at 847-816-1296 and we’ll get those hips and sips going!

Susan and Karen

Susan and Sharon