The tastes of France, California, Germany and New Zealand are coming to the Event Center Downtown in Opelika.
The Event Center Downtown, former home to a Coca-Cola bottling plant, is having a wine tasting event Friday, Jan. 25.
"It's an around the world kind of thing," said Lisa Ditchkoff, co-owner of Event Center Downtown.
The wine tasting will feature wines from all over the world brought in by wine distributor International Wines.
"We're going to have a cab, a merlot, a gamay, which is similar to a pinot noir, a chardonnay, a sauvignon blanc and a Riesling," Ditchkoff said. "None of these wines have ever been purchased here before. They're all brand new wines to us."
The different types of wine represent old world style and new world style of wines, according to YarbiCound, local representative for International Wines.
"We chose wines that would allow people to experience old-world styles versus new-world styles. ," Cound said. "There will be three new world and three old world selections."
The three old-style are the Reisling, the Chardonnay and the Gamay. The three new-style are the Sauvignon Blanc, the Merlot and the Cabernet.
"There are several differences between old-world and new-world styles, one main difference is that old-world styles typically have more of an earthy taste while new-world styles are a bit more fruit driven," Cound said.
The wine tasting will be in the recently renovated second floor of the 33,000 square-foot Event Center Downtown.
"It's a blend of charm and rustic and elegance," Ditchkoff said. "It's my favorite space in the building with the exposed brick throughout the main lounge area and hardwood floors."
Ditchkoff said the second floor space being used for the wine tasting used to be the syrup making room during the time when Coca-Cola used the building to produce soda.
"I think it's cool because we're just serving a different kind of syrup now in there," Ditchkoff said.
The bar on the second floor will be open during the wine tasting for those wanting to cleanse their palate between the tastings or instead of participating the tasting.
Local musician Patrick James Bruce is scheduled to perform during the tasting.
"He's going to be doing mostly jazz during the tasting," Ditchkoff said. "But, he also does blues and all of that."
Tickets for the event are $10 and are available the night of the event.
"It's a really good bargain," Ditchkoff said. "Getting people to come in and experiencing it is a good thing."
Cound said these types of wine tastings are good for people to come and try different wines without having to buy a whole bottle of wine without knowing if they like it.
Ditchkoff said this wine tasting will not be the only wine tasting at the center this year.
"We're going to start doing these sort of events consistently," Ditchkoff said. "I think the wine tastings are going to end up being once a month."
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