The Humble Tumbler

Taking a class at the Humble Tumbler is the perfect opportunity to learn a lot about wine in a fun and friendly environment, similar to that of a dinner party. Each class takes place above The Kodiak Club, on Brunswick Street in a fitting venue. The room is set with one large table, four wine glasses awaiting your tastings and platters of appropriate cheeses, bread, olives and/​or salami to match. However this all depends on the theme of your class (or course), with the Humble Tumbler now offering wine, craft beer, whisky and sake courses!
I was lucky enough to take part in the Adventures in Food and Wine course recently and I was super impressed! To be fair, I should point out that I won the spot through a Unilocal competition however I would genuinely recommend this course to anyone interested in learning about (and tasting some great) wine and the best ways to pair it with food. It was so well-​done that I’m looking at my diary trying to work out what other course I could try, the French wine masterclass is looking pretty tempting.
The four-​week course is $ 300 with classes typically going for 2.5 hours each week — in my eyes, this is great value for money. All the notes are packaged really sweetly in a little take-​home book for you to read through later (perhaps in a more sober state). If you’re after a Masterclass or «the gastronomic equivalent of a one-​night stand», you’re looking at $ 95 — I think this would make a lovely gift and yes, you can purchase as a gift voucher.
Clare is brilliant. She explains technical concepts that make sense to beginners but keeps it interesting with stories and anecdotes of her own experiences. This is not a pretentious or dry class, instead social conversations and your own opinions about how you find the wine are heavily encouraged. It’s a small group setting and after a few tastes of wine, there’s definitely no reason to feel shy about sharing your opinion (even if you’re more on the beginner side in the world of wine).You’ll learn far more in an evening at the Humble Tumbler than on one of those group bus wine tours, not to mention you’ll have an excellent time whilst learning.
All in all, a great experience I would highly recommend. Cheers!

Firstly, I must confess, I love my wine. So this was always going to be something I would love. Over the years, I have done more than my fair share of ‘masterclasses’ and other wine tastings and always felt that I didn’t learn much, or maybe I just didn’t ‘get it’. Maybe my palate was not refined and I should stick to the cheap stuff.
After one night with Clare, I knew that this was going to be different. We started with the basics of taste and how it related to wine. Then onto how grapes and winemaking. All the while, with wine in our hands and some great cheese to boot!
It is vaguely reassuring to hear that even as a wine maker, she freely admits that she is never quite sure how to describe a wine (we all had a giggle at one of her wine labels)
There is no pretence, there is no fakery or tricks to get you to buy wine you don’t like, or don’t want. in fact there is no wine on sale at all. So sign up and come along for some laughs and some nice (and not so nice) wine and you might just learn a thing or two.
Note: So far I have only done Clare’s Wine Tasting course, there will be others, namely the sake course! Updates to follow!