A student eating at Texas de Brazil restaurant near campus swirls her glass of wine, peering at it against the background of her white sleeve.

Tim Barr, sitting nearby in the same restaurant, knew this technique all too well. That’s because he teaches it.

“I was so thrilled,” he said. “This is something people really do use.”

Barr teaches FST 412: “Wine Appreciation” and FST 422: “Wine and Beer Appreciation” in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics. It’s a popular choice among upperclassmen. Students can register for the class Nov. 12, but they won’t be able to take the class with Barr, who is retiring on Dec. 10.

Both classes are general tastings, Barr said. The purpose of these tastings is to build students’ confidence and knowledge of the alcohol’s components.

Students sample six beverages each class and evaluate them based on a host of qualities, including appearance, smell — called bouquet for wine and aroma for beer — and, of course, taste.

Both classes have grown since Barr began teaching them, and he now teaches seven sections. He said there were some semesters when all seven sections were full within 15-20 minutes of the start of registration.

At this point, Barr added, he doesn’t even drink the samples he teaches.

“Nobody could drink this much,” he said, laughing.

Barr has been at SU for 20 years and has taught the wine class for 19 of them. He thought up the idea for the combined wine and beer class and has been teaching it for 17 years.

And while the class is a student favorite, Barr said some students struggle because they don’t realize all the information they have to know about the various drinks.

“I do know a lot more about wine than when I began,” senior acting major Brady Richards said about the class. “I feel like it’s made me a lot more knowledgeable about something that is generally an impressive think to be knowledgeable about.”

And Barr echoed that point, calling wine and beer a “social product” that people consider an important piece of knowledge.

Morgan Cavalcanto, a senior public relations major, said the class is a good way for students to expose themselves to a variety of alcohol options in a relatively inexpensive way.

Cavalcanto said students sample wines and beers based on region. Some weeks, they’ll try France, Germany, New Zealand, California or upstate New York.

Before coming to SU, Barr owned his own restaurant, The Glen Loch Mill, and before that, had worked for his family’s restaurant, The Brae Loch Inn in Cazenovia, New York as a dishwasher and a bar-back throughout his childhood.

“I have worked, and worked for my father, full-time since I was 8 years old,” Barr said.

He said one year, he made the high school football team, but his father said, “How are you going to do that?” in regards to balancing work and extracurricular activities.

Back then, he was washing dishes at the restaurant while his high school classmates were going out to games and dances. As it turned out, he said half-jokingly, the same people who were playing as he worked, ended up working for him.

He opened his own restaurant in Jamesville in the ‘70s and recently sold The Glen Loch Mill about three or four years ago.

This December, he’ll be moving on from SU, too. His retirement comes so he can spend more time with his wife, who has rheumatoid arthritis. She can’t stand the winters anymore, he said, and he doesn’t want to go through another semester away from her after being separated last winter while she lived in Florida.

But, he added, Falk College dean Diane Lyden Murphy has asked him to return next fall to teach the classes. He said he hasn’t made a decision on that yet.

In the meantime, both classes will continue. Barr said he doesn’t know of anyone who has been chosen to teach the courses, though.

“I would think they’d be foolish not to (continue the class),” he said.

Barr added that not only do students learn the more elegant and refined nuances of beers and wines, but he tries to teach them responsibility as well.

“It’s better to drink quality rather than quantity,” Barr said. “And I know sometimes I’m talking to a wall, but I do think it really gets through to some of them.”

Published on November 9, 2015 at 10:26 pm

Contact Danny: dmantoot@syr.edu