Professor of Oenology

The ignorance among college students when it comes to oenology distresses Robert Jay Misch '25, New York advertising executive, and in a one-man campaign to remedy this he lectured at Yale in December, at Harvard in February, and is scheduled to appear at Princeton and the University of Virginia this spring.

Oenology may be defined as the knowledge and appreciation of good wines, and since a lab period of wine-tasting is an important part of the Misch lecture, which is accompanied by a traveling "wine cellar," the student audiences so far have been large and enthusiastic. Yale men braved a blizzard and Harvard men a sleet storm to be present.

In England, says Bob Misch, who is chairman of the New York Food and Wine Society, a knowledge of wines is commonplace at Oxford and Cambridge, where courses are given. "But the American, who hopes to learn by some mysterious osmosis, goes out to face the world of sommelier and wine merchant with no training and no knowledge. Yet, who are the wine-bibbers of the future, if not the scions of our major colleges? If the latter may be expected to interpret a menu or order a meal, why not a knowledge of their vinous counterparts?"

He is pleased with the serious interest and intelligent questions of his college audiences. A wine expert himself, he is against snobbish mumbo-jumbo and treats the subject as down-to-earth. His procedure is to speak about wines, answer questions, and then let the audience sip some vintages to see what they've learned. For this lab exercise at Yale he brought along a group of chateaux, regional French wines, and their American counterparts made from the same grape, the Cabernet Sauvignon. To balance, there were estate-bottled Burgundies, regional Burgundies, and American Pinot Noirs.

Misch is vice president of the New York advertising agency, Al Paul Lefton Company. He writes a food and wine column for ThePlaybill, has contributed many magazine articles, and is the author of a Foreign DiningDictionary (Doubleday 1958). His current foray into college lecturing is a labor of love. "I feel a sense of pride," he says, "in contributing some knowledge of wines, which may stand many a young person in good stead and give him much pleasure and joy - and yes, sobriety - in his years ahead."

Robert J. Misch '25 lecturing to a group of students at Yale.

Laboratory exercise at Harvard