About Us
Brooklyn Fermented is a roving academy of food and wine professionals dedicated to the informed, unfussy appreciation of well-crafted, regionally-expressive wine, cheese, and beer. We offer a dynamic program of classes at multiple venues across the borough and beyond.
Each class features a selection of cheese ‘flavor-matched’ to corresponding wine or beer, explores the origins, organic composition, flavor profiles and pairing affinities of each duo’s constituent parts, and assesses as a group the merits of the evening’s proposed matches.
Beyond promoting the cultural advancement and unbridled enjoyment of the world’s fermented treasures, our ultimate goal is to foster well-being through heightened awareness of the senses.
About the Founder
Brooklyn Fermented founder Adrian Murcia has been engaged in the study and teaching of fermented deliciousness for well over a dozen years, donning a wide variety of professional hats along the way: fromager, sommelier, writer, filmmaker, educator, and consultant.
Adrian has written about wine and cheese for Saveur, Wine & Spirits, and Epicurious; taught beer, wine, and cheese classes at the Brooklyn Museum, Murray’s Cheese, Macy’s DeGustibus, NYC Wine Company and Philadelphia’s Tria Fermentation School; and led professional wine seminars at City Winery, the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, and the Society of Wine Educators’ Annual Conference.
As an educational and trade consultant to Rioja’s U.S. marketing campaign from 2006-2009 he was the author of the popular wine blog, Blame it on Rioja, and co-creator of “Rioja: Tradition and Innovation at the Frontiers of Flavor,” an award-winning educational documentary DVD/webcast co-produced by the Culinary Institute of America.
Adrian’s career in food and wine began in the 1990s, when he traded in graduate studies in 20th-century Spanish history at New York University for training of a different sort at two celebrated Manhattan restaurants: first under the cheese tutelage of Maitre-Fromager Max McCalman at Picholine; and, two years later, as a protege of Master Sommelier Roger Dagorn at Tribeca’s venerable Chanterelle restaurant, where he was fromager and assistant sommelier for seven years.
He is a Wine Academy of Spain-Certified Spanish Wine Educator and holds a Level II (Certified Sommelier) Certificate from the Court of Master Sommeliers.
Matching sherry and cheese at Chanterelle: Adrian Murcia (left) conferring with Master Sommelier Roger Dagorn in 2005. Photo credit: Lucy Bekheet.