E-Mail This Article to a Friend Join the club Advice — from those who’ve been there, done that — on starting your own wine club BY RUTH TOBIAS

If wine clubs are the new book clubs, the Divas Uncorked are the new Oprahs. And it has nothing to do with being enormously successful African-American women — though they’re that too — but simply with the enthusiastic buzz they’ve generated as they spread the heartening (and ultimately subversive) message that wine, like literature, is accessible. As Divas founder Stephanie Browne puts it, amateur oenology is "not as hard as Wine Spectator makes it look." Access, in turn, breeds appreciation, depth of understanding — even expertise — and sheer enjoyment. And all you need are some friends, a little (really) disposable income, and a scrap of plain old initiative.

Sure, these days, the Divas are hosting conferences, commanding personal tours from Napa Valley vintners, and mentoring young divettes. But they "started simply," and their insights on the process are bound to inspire; as Browne points out, "you’d be surprised to find, just by bringing it up, how much other people dabble in wine and want to be fluent in the vocabulary." If you’re one of them, Browne (an IT exec at Blue Cross/Blue Shield) and fellow Divas Karen Holmes Ward (host and producer of WCVB’s CityLine) and Callie Crossley (an award-winning broadcast journalist) have the following words of wisdom for you.

Starting a wine club

Browne’s initial goal was primarily interpersonal, a pretext for gathering "a group of women that I had been working with in the community together." Since one of them "was pretty wine-savvy, I thought it would be a great idea if we all added that [kind of knowledge] to our repertoire of skills." (After all, she notes, "it’s a great networking tool for business; it opens another world and provides a whole other conversation piece in the same way that golf does for men.") So she invited six women over, asking them each to "bring one person that the rest of us didn’t know, so we could expand our circle of friends." Over that first assortment of hors d’oeuvres back in 1999, Browne shared her vision for the group and its monthly meetings: "In order to stay focused and not just devolve into a social club, the hostess would be responsible for choosing the wine and the food, researching the chosen wine, and creating a handout for all the members" that would enhance her presentation and reiterate key facts and features. Members "would pay dues monthly to offset the costs" of the gatherings (though it’s something of "a token," since, she admits, each hostess frequently goes over budget in her zeal to create a memorable experience).

"When we first started," recalls Ward, "we all had a general knowledge of wine — one of us knew more about Italian wine, one of us knew she liked Champagne, I knew I liked chardonnay — but we didn’t know specifically why we liked what we liked, what it was in the wines themselves that attracted us." So Browne suggested they start with American wines, since, due to standard labeling practices, "they’re much easier to learn, and they give you a good foundation for your five senses. It was almost like Wine for Dummies," she laughs.

The earliest key objectives, identification and classification, went hand in hand. Says Ward, "We had a tasting where we sampled various essences; what it did was kind of sensitize us to the different tastes. After that it was easier for us to identify, you know, a lemongrass-y taste or a chocolate-y taste." (The expensive way to do this is to purchase a wine-essence kit, which contains vials for sniffing and runs about $80; Angela Denstad of Martignetti Liquors offers a cheaper method, whereby you purchase jug wine, use it as a steeping liquid for various ingredients whose essences are found in wines — everything from citrus peel to peppercorns to blades of grass — and then, after straining, ask your guests to develop their noses by guessing the lingering aromas.) As they began to recognize and describe what they were smelling and tasting, Browne explains, "We tried to take wine lingo and turn it into everyday language." Eventually, these early sessions "evolved into full-fledged wine dinners that the members really cherish and learn from. The more we know, the more adventurous we are with decorating and gourmet cooking." Take Callie Crossley’s bold decision to host a dinner "in the pink," pairing rosés with spicy Tex-Mex cuisine served on pink-and-red table settings. Crossley’s next hostessing endeavor? "I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you." (Maybe that’s what Browne means when she says that now "we know enough to be dangerous.")

The collective learning curve

As the three women consider what they’ve learned about wine as individuals, the importance of context — of the convivial setting — to their education becomes clear. Says Browne, "It’s better to learn with a group because there’s the added value of peer pressure" in keeping up with the others. In her case, "they call me ‘The Nose’ — I can smell anything." Thus, if Browne picks up on, say, a hint of grapefruit in a viognier (a group favorite), the others will swirl and sniff and sip in an effort to understand how she arrived at her conclusion. For Crossley, the turning point was developing "a full understanding of the impact of food" on wine — of how a "wine is enhanced by the food and vice-versa," and how that in turn "can enhance the whole experience." Hence Crossley’s aforementioned choice of refreshing, fruity rosé as a soothing complement to spicy fare. Ward’s tastes, on the other hand, are inseparable from her politics. She’s been a fan of South African wines "since the lifting of apartheid"; after all, "we are actually supporting the post-apartheid economy" by enjoying the country’s signature pinotage. Ward recalls another wine dinner that focused on "the art of the wine label." "What I was trying to do was look at the connection between marketing and what’s actually in the bottle," she explains, especially since women have a tendency to "have a relationship with the image" that may or may not bear fruit. In short, everyone brings something different to the table, in every sense of the term.

Beyond the wine club

Indeed, all the Divas recognize that their hobby now has the makings of a mission. Says Crossley, "It’s opened up so many other doors that it’s hard not to go forward" in acknowledging "the response that we’ve gotten from other women" across the nation as they form groups of their own. For instance, says Ward, "We are adding to our Web site a downloadable PDF that will give tips on how to start your own wine club." Adds Browne, "While taking on the task of saying, ‘The wine industry really needs to understand what women are all about,’ we really just wanted to expose other women to what we’ve been able to enjoy, and to see that it’s really not hard to do."

The same goes for anyone, male or female. So now it’s your turn.

For more information on Divas Uncorked, visit www.divasuncorked.com. Ruth Tobias can be reached at ruthtobias@earthlink.net