When you are old enough to relive the fashions of your youth, you start to think that there is very little new under the sun. Plenty of wine shops host wine tastings and winemaker dinners. Few offer quality educational events that feature both wine and food.

Enter Domasoteca. Oh, it's a destination shopping experience to be sure. Located in Arlington, Va., it's a short walk from Georgetown's shopping district and the endless strip of eclectic restaurants on M Street. It lies directly across from Freedom Park and is but a five-minute walk from the Iwo Jima monument and Roosevelt Island.

Manager Christianna Sargent has turned a global wine shop into a one-stop source for exciting wine events that are as educational as they are fun in a location that has broad appeal for tourists and locals alike.

"We've hosted several chocolate-and-wine-pairing classes since opening in January," Sargent said, "We've tasted our customers on chocolate discs representing a range of cacao percentages -- from 34 percent to 99 percent -- and paired each disc with red wines displaying different flavors and textures. It is fascinating to see how the rich, ripe, fruit-driven reds of warmer growing regions tame the bitterness of intense dark chocolate. It is enlightening to see how the pepper and spice of some cool-climate reds fare with semi-sweet chocolate."

In this class, seven wines are tasted with seven chocolates, and every pairing tells a story.

"Red wines marry very well with chocolate," Sargent continues. "Tannins, which are present in the skins of the grape, actually pick up a dusty cocoa, bittersweet chocolate character as they ripen. These flavors end up in the wine. Chocolate and red wine pair so well together because the flavors echo."

In another chocolate-and-wine seminar, seven cabernet sauvignons from different New World wine regions are matched with seven single-origin chocolates from around the globe. It's a study in terroir, from cocoa bean to grape.

Recently, Domasoteca hosted a goat-cheese-and-wine-pairing seminar in honor of National Goat Cheese Month. A representative from Cowgirl Creamery was on hand to discuss the finer points of hand-crafted, organic, artisan goat cheeses in all their wild and wooly permutations. Each cheese was expertly paired with an equally wild and wooly wine.

THE MATCHUPS

Cypress Grove Humboldt Fog, Arcata, Calif.

Jezebel Pinot Noir, Oregon, $22

Garrotxa, Catalonia, Spain

Marc Tempe Pinot Blanc Zellenberg, Alsace, $26

Cypress Grove Midnight Moon, Holland

Familia Mayol Cuatro Primos, Argentina, $24

Leonora, Leon, Spain

Ascheri Arneis, Piedmont, $18

Tome de Bordeaux, France

Doisy Daene Blanc, Bordeaux, $34

Clisson, France

Pichot Vouvray Moelleux Le Peu de la Moriette, Loire, $24

Valdeon, Castille-Leon, Spain

Elio Perrone "Bigaro," Piedmont, $22

Logistically, the small group of attendees was divided in half. While one group tasted cheese and received the cheese lecture, the other group tasted the wines and received an education in wine. Then everyone took seats and were given individual cheese boards and a two-ounce pour of each of the wines and told the suggested cheese to consume with it.

"Many assume that all wines marry with all cheeses, but there is a world within wine and a world within cheese. There is tremendous diversity within a single category of wine and enormous diversity within a single category of cheese," Sargent explained. "This workshop hammered this point home."

The light and slightly spritzy Arneis paired perfectly with the ethereal and fluffy Leonora. The herb-crusted Tome de Bordeaux was fabulous with the old vine sauvignon blanc from second-growth Barsac, Doisy Daene. The stinky, rind-washed Clisson was tamed by the sweet and intensely aromatic Vouvray.

The richness of the nutty aged Gouda (Midnight Moon) was cut by the potent tannins in the Cuatro Primos. The earthy notes in the Jezebel Pinot Noir accented the earthy ash rind of the Humboldt Fog. The salty blue Valdeon was offset by the sweet and sparkling red "Bigaro" a unique brachetto/muscat blend. Each pairing was a sensory experience.

Although wine-and-food pairing events have been around for a long time, Domasoteca is proof positive that in an era of reinvention there still exists the new and novel.

For more information on upcoming events, go to www.domasoteca.com.

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