Vino Boot Camp, $15 a Bottle

Soft lighting reflected off classic long-stemmed wine glasses, complementing tall bottles of Merlot, plates piled with Jarlsberg and Brie, and the gray-tinted chalkboard—not what one would expect on a typical Wednesday night at Harvard Law School (HLS). But for the members of In Vino Veritas, it was business as usual.

“Okay, guys, we’re going to get started,” third-year law student Tom Brown, who led the wine-tasting that evening, says, clinking together two tall water bottles. Background chatter died out as the members, still students in the truest Harvard sense, folded hands in laps and faced forward, listening attentively to the introduction of the wines.

The group would taste six different wines that night—spanning such geographic expanses as the wine fields of Northern Italy’s Adige River Valley to the foothills of Cerro Aconcagua in Western Argentina—and all ringing up for at most $15 a bottle.



BOTTLES AND BOOT CAMP

In Vino Veritas was born five years ago, the brainchild of then-HLS-student Crystal Silva, according to Heather J. Ford, co-president of the organization.

The group—and interest in it—has grown significantly since then. Ford estimates that the group attracts around 150 students each year.

The board now requires an application process to cap membership at 75, ensuring that tastings retain a small and informal setting.

“It can be challenging to keep the attention of the group, particularly as the evening goes on and they’ve had a bit more wine,” Ford writes in an e-mail. “Larger groups are even harder.”

To participate, students have to submit a statement of interest at the start of each year.

“Each board member reads every single statement, and we try to build a membership with a varied background and varied levels of experience with wine,” Ford writes.

While second-year law student Bryce S. Klempner ’00 joined the club just this year, he is no stranger to the social benefits of wine. As a co-founder of an “underground port club” at Leverett House, joining Vino seemed like the logical next step. But Klempner says he has “little experience—more than none, but not much more.”

No background in wine tasting is necessary for Vino membership. “I had always really liked wine but knew little about it,” Co-President Jennifer L. Stachowiak writes in an e-mail, “I thought it would be a fun way to learn a lot [and] meet new people.”

Until this year, Law School policy required student gatherings where alcohol was served to have a bartender and bouncer if over 50 people attended, an added expense which the group’s budget cannot cover, according to Ford.

The group decided not to expand their membership when the Law School changed their policy to cover gatherings of over 100 students. “We felt it was important to the atmosphere of our events and to be fair to distributors to keep our membership capped,” Ford writes.

The group’s wine tastings are held eight to 10 times per year and are led by students or local wine producers and distributors. Wine is either brought by the invited speaker or purchased with membership dues, which are around $150 per year, Ford says.

The group also holds a “boot camp,” an intensive week-long set of tastings that culminates in a blind-tasting night. “It’s amazing how much you can learn in such a short time,” says third-year law student Ommeed S. Sathe. “It’s more serious than other events, and you remember a lot—for a few weeks at least.”

Aside from tastings and boot camp, the group also hosts holiday parties and dinners. Vino’s Law School website describes the latter event as “an opportunity for members to learn how to pair food with wine, as well as a time for enjoying the pleasure that fine food, wine, and conversation bring.”

LEARNING THE LINGO

The Crimson attended one such Vino event last month, an evening filled with Italian varietals, nose evaluation, and excessive swirling.

Arcane terminology peppered the night, as Brown and more experienced wine-tasters instructed their peers in the art of speaking wine.

Commenting on the first wine of the evening, Brown notes that he “doesn’t like goopy white wines.”

“Could you define that word, please?” a lost law student requests.

The group first moves down the list of white wines, as law students yell out comments while Brown directs the conversation. “It drinks easily but it doesn’t give you a whole lot to work with,” Brown says of the second selection, a Trebbiano Soave from the Veneto-Monteforte D’Alpone region in Italy.

The third white wine, a Gruner Veltliner from Austria, is one student’s favorite.

“Why do you say that?” Brown asks.

“Because you said so, Tom!” the student replies, to loud catcalls and accusations of “Suck-up!” from the remaining membership.

“I thought it was a little bit fruity and a little bit woody,” one law student chimes in, “But I couldn’t tell you which fruit, and I couldn’t tell you which wood.”

Selection four elicited the most spirited reactions.

It tastes a “bit like asparagus, trash, and other such appetizing things,” one student describes. “And this, folks,” Brown explains, “is a corked glass of wine.”

Wine number five, a 2003 red from Sicily, smells “like Christmas,” says Brown. An enticing mixture of “cloves, ginger, cakes, and cookies,” the wine has “more oomph in the nose than there is in the palate,” Brown elaborates.

The informal atmosphere of the gathering became more pronounced as the evening wore on.

“I know when I’m boozed up it’s hard to keep any sort of composure, but just give me five more minutes,” Brown pleads before moving on to the sixth and last selection, a Malbec from Argentina.

“It’s too sweet,” a student complains. “But it’s too peppery!” another counters.

“This one’s a full-blown fruit monster,” Brown concludes, “You want a big slab of beef on your plate with this wine.”

VERSED IN VINO

The group sipped the last of the Malbec to applause and—from at least one student—slight snores.

But for most, the effects of the wine were more apparent.

“People do get really loud and really drunk,” Amy K. Lehr says. But “I like wine, and I like my friends, and I like to combine them.” Asked what she thinks about inebriation on a Wednesday night, Lehr says it’s “very healthy—what every student needs!”

Membership in Vino has professional perks as well.

“I worked in a law firm this summer, and a lot of partners have an interest in wine,” Katherine L. Buchanan says. “It was nice to feel comfortable in a restaurant.”

The benefits of Vino membership need not be so subtle.

By the end of the night, only one of two Crimson reporters was left standing, a state which was more the rule than the exception.

Leave it to Harvard Law School to prove that Wednesday nights and wine are just as complementary as Cambridge and class.

—Paras D. Bhayani contributed to the reporting of this article.