Greg Bigelow has been drinking wine for years in the Pacific Northwest, and now he’s sharing his knowledge with people in Vicksburg.

Bigelow, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Chief Technology Officer, spends about a week each month in Vicksburg where he’s offered classes on different wines from Washington State, where he was born, and Oregon, where he now lives.

Bigelow’s classes have been offered at Martin’s at Midtown, where he made a connection with the owners after searching for a different kind of drink.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in Vicksburg over the years, and I was trying to find a place that actually had real beer as opposed to Bud and Bud Light, so I ended up at Martin’s,” he said. “I’d go there once in a while and talk to Lisa (Martin), and they mentioned they had a wine club.”

The Martins’ son lived in Oregon at the time, and Bigelow suggested they talk about Oregon wines in their wine club.

“I accidentally offered to do a thing on Oregon wines,” he said. “That was last year.”

Since, Bigelow has done presentations on Oregon and Washington wines featuring slideshows and four to five samplings of native wines that are available for purchase in Vicksburg.

“Wine is a lot of geography and weather,” he said. “In the class the first thing we discuss is geography of the state and the weather of the state, and why that is unique to wine. Why can you grow these kinds of wines there?”

Bigelow also gives a little bit of background on the wines.

“It’s a pretty simple thing,” he said. “They’re a couple of hours, and they kind of get people familiar.”

The classes are aimed at any level wine drinker.

“They’re very good for a novice because it’s just the basics, and there’s nothing uppity about it,” he said. “Most anyone can give it a try.”

The classes always have a mixture of red and white wines to appeal to anyone’s taste.

“I typically do some whites and some reds because there are a lot of people who are red snobs and a lot of people who are white wine snobs,” he said. “We usually mix it up.”

 

Pinky up or pinky down?

Drinking wine has a stigma of being a snooty hobby, but Bigelow said anyone can enjoy a glass.

“There are a lot of uppity things related to tasting,” he said. “Probably the most important thing is, does it taste good to you?”

People often take a glass and immediately begin swirling, smelling and watching the legs, but why?

“Swirling releases a lot of the aromas,” Bigelow said. “So when you swirl it, right after you swirl it, you smell it so you can get an idea of what’s going on.”

Bigelow said a lot of people like to look at the color.

“They also like to look at the lines made on the glass,” he said. “Those are called the legs where you can see the alcohol content.”

Still, the most important thing is to find the wine that best suits the individual, Bigelow said.

“Don’t listen to other people,” he said. “If you find a wine you like, drink it. A lot of times, people will say, ‘Oh God, you only spent $9 for that wine?’ Well, if you like it, drink it.”

 

Finding the right bottle

“If you’re at a nice restaurant, a lot of times, if they’re not upselling you, get the advice of the people who work there,” he said. “A lot of times they have very wine-smart people who know how to pair foods.”

Bigelow said pairing wines with food is something people spend a lot of time talking about.

“Sometimes a wine tastes good, but if you’re eating a nice rich steak or something real rich like lasagna, sometimes a white wine doesn’t cut it,” he said.

At the same time, Bigelow reminds people not to be uppity.

“If you think red wine tastes good with fish, then drink red wine with fish,” he said. “And don’t let people tell you what to do.”

Bigelow suggests reading about wine or taking a more first-hand approach to figuring out what works best.

“Head to the liquor store and grab some cheaper wines and figure out what styles you like,” he said. “If you feel like it, work your way up the shelf.”

Though there are many varieties, Bigelow said more expensive doesn’t always mean better when it comes to wine.

“You can start at your toes and get to where you’re reaching up,” he said. “The ones on the bottom are like $8, and the ones at the top are $100. Somewhere in there should be something you like.”

 

‘Grapes are picky’

Mississippi is known for a lot of things, but producing wine isn’t one of them.

“Grapes are picky,” Bigelow said. “A lot of the red wines, need to be stressed, and they need temperature differences, and they don’t like to be hot.”

The heat is fine, but there has to be cold nights following the hot days, Bigelow said, a la temperature variance.

“While Mississippi can grow lots of things because of the good soil, it’s mainly the climate that just doesn’t do it,” Bigelow said. “Back home I’ve been out and it’s been 100, but at night it drops to 50. Here when it’s 100, it gets down to 99.”

Bigelow said the Muscadine grape does do particularly well in Mississippi.

“People like that,” he said. “Down in Natchez, they do quite a bit of it.”

For wine drinkers who like a merlot, a dry wine, the Muscadine, which makes a sweet wine, won’t cut it, Bigelow said.

“While fruit wines are very good, they’re just not as popular and varied as grape wines,” he said. “You can make wine out of a lot of fruit down here, but they are not going to be as popular and varied as grape wine.”

 

More than just a drink

“You’re taking an item — and it’s kind of strange if you think about — you’re taking a grape, a very common thing and there’s a lot of styles of them, and for some reason you can have this wild variety of stuff that tastes completely different,” he said. “White wine, red wine, merlot wine, they all just come from different grapes.”

People have a lot of fun with wine, Bigelow said.

“One, you can kind of experiment with one,” he said. “You can play around and figure out the wines you like.”

That includes finding different wineries, which Bigelow added was a fun perk.

“Wine is a very social thing,” he said. “People like to sit around and drink wine together.”