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Fox School of Wine announces Recess at the Rock

Rockwell Room will host weekly tastings

Wine and games are on the schedule for the Fox School of Wine and O.P. Rockwell's Recess at the Rock tastings.
Photo by Kirsten Fox

While the Fox School of Wine continues to host its weekly wine series classes every Saturday at Deer Valley’s Silver Baron Lodge, the school has set aside Friday nights for Recess at the Rock.

The weekly wine-tasting event starts at 6 p.m. at the Rockwell Room at O.P. Rockwell, 268 Main St., and will be presented by Kirsten Fox, the school’s headmistress and executive sommelier, and her wine professors.

Participants, who must be aged 21 and older, will have the chance to taste five wines priced under $30 during these sessions.



The idea for Recess at the Rock occurred when Xania V. Woodman, general manager of O.P. Rockwell, read about the Weekend Wine Series a few weeks ago.

“The article reminded me of my wine class at Cornell University, and I missed interacting with wine,” Woodman said. “I got jealous and I thought the Rockwell Listening Room would be perfect for this kind of event.”



Woodman called Fox, and within 20 minutes, they had put together a plan.

Although the Recess at the Rock curriculum resembles Fox School of Wine’s Saturday wine tastings, all the wines and lectures are different, according to Fox.

“We have the descriptions of the classes on our website, and people can choose which one or ones they would like to attend,” she said.

January’s schedule is as follows:

• Jan. 15: Cabernet Night

• Jan 22: Wines to Zoom With

• Jan. 29: Movie Wines

Anna and Nancy Rotatori enjoy learning about wine during a recent Recess at the Rock socially distanced tasting event at the Rockwell Room. Recess at the Rock is a weekly event that runs every Friday from 6-7 p.m.
Courtesy of Kirsten Fox

“It is really exciting to partner with a Main Street location that has such a diverse market to expose more people to a non-intimidating version of understanding more about wine,” Fox said.

Recess at the Rock starts at 6 p.m., but doors open at 5:30 p.m.

“We have snow-day recess games for people to play while they wait for classes to start,” she said. “So we encourage people to get there early to play Hangman, Go Fish and Connect Four.”

In addition, attendees will be able to purchase food from Park City Desserts and Coffee to nibble on during the class, and they will also get a discount on admission to the live music show that follows the wine tasting if they choose to stay.

“We’ve stacked the events on Friday to extend the experience,” Woodman said.

Recess at the Rock kicks the new year off for O.P. Rockwell, which had to cancel last summer’s concerts due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Doors remained closed in December while crews installed a new air-cleaning system that uses ionizing technology to clean the air, Woodman said.

“The HVAC system has been installed upstairs in the Listening Room and another is being installed in the basement,” she said.

Other COVID-19 safety measures, including masks, will be required for everyone in the building, Woodman said.

Kirsten Fox, executive sommelier and headmistress of the Fox School of Wine, leads a Recess at the Rock wine tasting event at the Rockwell Room.
Photo by Chloe Johnson

“You will still be able to take the masks off for the sips and bites, but we ask you to put the mask back on when you interact with our staff, the educator and Kirsten’s staff for everybody’s sake,” she said. “We also have limited capacity so people will feel safe, and I don’t space 6 feet between the tables. I do 6 feet between chairs.”

In addition, Woodman makes sure there is hand sanitizer on every table.

“This will help us continue this type of event in the long run,” she said.

Fox, who also put her wine school on ice during the summer due to the changing rules of coronavirus protocols, is ready to start up another wine-education event that also aims to keep participants safe.

“It’s so fun to be involved in a new effort as we take a deep breath and adjust our masks and get used to life during COVID-19,” she said.

Woodman believes the partnership between O.P. Rockwell and the Fox School of Wine is a “tremendous opportunity.”

“People love Kirsten’s classes, and we are able to work with an established and trustworthy brand and face that people know and see around town,” she said. “I did study wine while I was in college, and that was one of the high points of my education. So I know I will probably be running around and washing glasses during the Recess at the Rock classes, but I’ll be listening.”

Fox, likewise, is looking forward to the partnership with O.P. Rockwell.

“We’re really lucky that Xania approached us, because we will be exposed to more people in Utah who know about the Rockwell Room,” she said. “This is exciting for us.”

Recess at the Rock

When: 6-7 p.m. Fridays

Where: The Rockwell Listening Room at O.P. Rockwell, 268 Main St.

Web: foxschoolofwine.com and oprockwell.com


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