Drinking Smart

Before you ring up an expensive bar tab drinking Grey Goose or Belvedere martinis, you may want to invest some dough in learning the basics of booze. Sean Ziegler's Lively Liquors course at Colorado Free University starts today with vodka, and Zeigler is pretty sure his students will be surprised by the blind-taste-test portion of the evening. "It's never the most expensive vodkas that come out on top," he says.

In fact — at least among his friends and the one class he's tried this in before — Colorado-made Altius vodka is a consistent favorite. It's also about 20 percent cheaper than top-shelf brands. Ziegler says Lively Liquors — which also includes classes on whiskey, tequila and cordials — teaches booze buyers how to see past the marketing on the bottle and understand the real difference between the rotgut and the fancy stuff.

Tonight's class is $37 for members, $42 for non-members, and runs from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the CFU classrooms at 1510 York Street; the four-class series is $110 to $125. For more schedules, registration and other information, go to www.freeu.com.
Fri., Sept. 7; Fri., Oct. 26, 2007