WSET Celebration Dinner - with a Brilliant Bordeaux!

My WSET 3 exam is done - and now it's time to celebrate!

It's been an exciting 15 weeks - I've learned so much about wine making, grape growing and wine regions, I've tasted a whole variety of exceptional wines and I've met and befriended some wonderful people.

I've also studied harder than I ever have before and I've written a test that is as tricky as they come.

On the weekend, I decided to get a really nice wine to celebrate as well as a tasty meal. Off I went to Everything Wine and I picked up a Bordeaux wine and then went to a reputable butcher to get a couple of New York steaks.

I realize that some people would have a bottle of Champagne to celebrate and others would have a Burgundy or a pricey Napa Cab, but I love Bordeaux blends.

Courtesy AllFranceInfo

The Left Bank is famous for its Cabernet Sauvignon driven blends which have grippy tannins and include some Merlot for smoothness and Cabernet Franc for fruitiness. The Right Bank wines are predominantly Merlot with some Cabernet Sauvignon and/or Cabernet Franc added in. In all of Bordeaux, there can be three other grapes added in by law - Petit Verdot, which is only added in during warmer years as it needs a lot of heat to ripen, Malbec, which is not used a lot, and Carmenere, which is rarely used anymore.

In between the Left and Right Banks is an area called Entre Deux Mers - literally, Between Two Seas (although it's actually between two rivers - oh, those French!). The particular wine that I bought was from this area which would make it Merlot driven and a lot cheaper than the Left or Right Banks.

The wine was a 2011 Chateau de Reignac Grand Vin Cuvée Special ($50 from Everything Wine). I thought that it was a pretty fair price for a seven year old wine from Bordeaux. I opened it and decanted it for about 40 minutes, leaving the small amount of sediment that I saw behind.

The aroma of this amazing wine was complex with wonderful black fruits like cassis and blackberry with black plum, tobacco, and vanilla as well as some savoury notes of leather. This wine was still developing. On the palate, it was not overly dry with balanced acidity, silky smooth tannins, tastes of leather again as well as the other flavours mentioned for aroma, full body, with a glorious long finish. It could age for a few more years but was definitely great to drink now. I rated this wine as Outstanding.

It was even better with the food pairing! A grilled steak with a simple rub and baked potatoes were the perfect complement for this wine as the acid and tannins of the wine did a great job of cutting through the fat and saltiness of the steak. The pre-dinner glass, though, was pretty damned good as well!

I'll be honest - I wasn't sure where in Bordeaux this wine was from and might have passed it up if I'd known it was in the Entre Deux Mers region. Now that I've tried it, though, that region is going to be on my radar for (relatively) reasonably priced Bordeaux wines.

Oh, and I got an email from Fine Vintage today - I only have to wait 12 weeks for my exam results! Twelve weeks!

I think I need a glass of wine....

WSET 3 Exam - The Day of Reckoning

Celebrating the end of the WSET 3 course and exam

I really do believe that it is all about the journey rather than the destination. But yesterday was a BIG destination.

It was the day of my WSET 3 Exam and I was appropriately stressed out. Our teacher, Lynn, had done an excellent job of making sure that we were taking this completely seriously. The tasting guru from our tasting group, Andrew, had taken his WSET 3 a couple weeks ago and said it was really difficult. I have spent the last three weeks studying pretty hard and lamenting the fact that I don't have an eidetic memory. I was s t r e s s e d!

I arrived in Vancouver super early - I did not want to be late and miss out. I had my final dinner at Pokerrito (which I have done most nights through both courses) and then went to the BCIT building to - well - study some more.

It's amazing to be thrust into this kind of exam stress after so many years. Yes, my WSET 2 did require me to study but I ended up with 96% and felt very confident going into it. This exam was different.

There is so much material, so many grape varietals, so many geographical and environmental and winemaking and vine growing things to know that there is no way that I could remember every bit of information. I was very worried that some of the parts that I didn't study that much (Southern France, Argentina) would have major questions but I had to focus somewhere.

I really think that I haven't studied this hard since I was in university - so... 35 years ago! Hell, most of the people in the photo above are much younger than that! I have written my fair share of tests as a teacher and it was rather humbling to be on the other side.

It's a different kind of test than I would ever give - as a teacher I have been moving towards projects and in class assessments where students can access the information they need but how they present it and process it is what gets assessed. That's because there is so much information out there that it is crazy to get students to memorize scads of information. Students of today need to know how to manage the giant repositories of data that are out there.

However, there are still lots of tests like the WSET where you are required to memorize a lot of facts. And memorize is what I tried to do.

Before the test, members of the class gathered together. We were all anxious about the coming test and sort of resigned ourselves to the fact that it might be extremely hard.

Then, it was time.

The first part was the blind tasting. I'm not sure what the wines were and I wanted to blog about this before I find out. The white wine started off smelling like peaches and stone fruit to me, then become citrus, and then came back to peaches. I always struggle with white wines and if I fail the blind tasting, it will be because of the white.

The red was more in my bailiwick. I could pick out the black fruits in it quite easily and I am confident I nailed most of the components - although it's hard to know if, for example, a wine has medium plus body or medium.

If  I do, in fact, fail the blind tasting, I would take it again.

After that, we had the written.

The first part was 50 multiple choice questions. I whipped through that pretty fast. There were maybe 5 or 6 questions that I wasn't sure on and had to make an educated (not wild) guess but, overall, I was really confident.

The second part was the written test - the most feared part of the evening. I do not intend to rewrite the test if I fail so I put all my effort into this difficult section.

For reasons of not wanting to piss off WSET, I will be very general about the four questions.

The first question was about a famous German wine. I think I did well on that although there were parts where I was reaching for an answer. There were labels to interpret, varietals to describe and winemaking processes to discuss and I certainly didn't get everything but I think I did pretty well.

The second question was about a wine area in the US. Most of the questions I found pretty easy except for one table that you had to fill out that related to its geography and environment.  Still, I did quite well, overall.

I thought I would do really well on the third when I found out it was an area in France. Unfortunately, some of the grapes that they focussed in were ones that I wasn't solid on so I did just OK on this section.

The final section dealt with sparkling and fortified wines. The syllabus on the course does say that they will be examined in the written questions so I am glad that I studied this area. I think this was my best section.

I answered every question to the best of my ability, even if I had to guess or make up what I hoped was the answer. I did not have a question where I couldn't write anything, much to my relief.

It was a pretty fair test, overall, and I think I passed - but three months from now, when I get the results, I will know.

Afterwards,  a bunch of us (the people in the photo) went to the St. Regis Hotel for a drink - a place I probably haven't been in for 35 years as well! We talked about keeping the tasting group going and doing one in January which I think is a brilliant idea.

Back at the pub, the server asked what I wanted. I thought of all the different wines we had tasted and learned about over the past 15 weeks. We had sipped and spat around the world with some wonderful, strange and new wines. I pondered my choices.

So what did I order?

A beer!

Final Thoughts Before the Big WSET3 Exam - Wines from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa - WSET 3.12, 13 and 14

Taking a Beaujolais Nouveau break between studying.

I've been so busy studying the last few weeks that I'm a bit behind. My exam is on Wednesday - two blind tastings, 50 multiple choice, and 4 essay questions.

And, no, I don't think I'm ready.

But we shall see, soon enough!

The last two weeks were a bit of a whirlwind of mock blind tastings, mock questions and looking at a variety of wines. Last week was Port, Sherry and Fortified Muscats while the week before was Sparkling. They were interesting and I did try some good wines but we tended to rush the actual tastings too much to allow for time to practice. I may cover some of those wines down the road but not right now.

This entry, I want to cover the last actual wine class - Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

But first... we tried a simple red for the blind tasting that night - a 2018 Georges Du Boeuf Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau ($20). I have to say that I really did enjoy this slurping wine made from Gamay. It was great to taste the bubble gum, cinnamon, and banana that is characteristic of carbonic fermentation - that's when the fermentation vessel is kept oxygen free and the grapes start to ferment from their insides. They split open and then the whole mess is pressed and continues to ferment until ready. Tannins? Nope! Structure? Nope! Super easy drinking? Yup!

South Africa has some very hot climates but thanks to cooling currents from the ocean and higher altitudes, they also have a lot of wine production. One of the biggest grapes is Chenin Blanc which can be sweet or dry. The one we tried was a 2017 Cape of Good Hope Van Lill and Visser Chenin Blanc ($36). This youthful wine (and that was tricky - I thought it might age) had notes of grass, lemon, vanilla, toast an green apple. It was a dry wine with a long finish and high acid (characteristic of Chenin Blancs) and was rated as Very Good.

The other South African wine we had was their signature grape, Pinotage. Someone, a bunch of years ago, decide that, since it was too hot for Pinot Noir in South Africa, they should cross it with a hardier grape - say, Cinsault (also called Hermitage in South Africa).  They came up with what some call a franken-wine, Pinotage. It's got a bad rap - as many don't have the best taste - however, I have tasted a wonderful one in the Okanagan made my Stoneboat - but that's another story. The one we tried was a 2016 The Grinder Pinotage ($16). I would rather have another bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau, thanks. This did have a lot of aromas - cranberry, cherry, chocolate, coffee, gamey - and on the palate the coffee and blueberry tastes were rather intense. With high alcohol, it had medium acid, intensity, and body with a pretty short finish. I didn't mind it so much during my WSET 2 but now, it was just Acceptable.

A wine down under from a land down under.

Actually, Australia produces scads of wine and most of it is from the South East part. It's a hot country but there are lots of cool breezes to moderate the areas that grow wines that need moderating. Our first wine from Australia was a 2014 Mitchell Clare Valley Riesling. On the nose, it was, "WOW PETROL!" There was also rubber, pear, green apple and wet stone but I had a hard time getting past that petrol smell. On the palate, it was dry like most Australian Rieslings and had apple and spice - probably from lees stirring - as well as high acid, high alcohol, a medium finish, and a pronounced intensity of flavours. That petrol smell is a great indication that this is a developing wine tat could age a long time. It was rated as Very Good.

We had a Very Good Hunter Valley Semillon - which is an interesting wine. It is a rather neutral wine in its youth but develops amazing flavours of toast, nuts and honey. The one we had was a 2011 Tyrrell's Vat 1 ($68). I struggled with the notes on this - but there were notes of grapefruit, peach and brioche as well as some toast and honey. It had medium alcohol and medium plus intensity on the palate as well as high alcohol and a fairly strong finish. This wine could age for 10, 20, even 30 more years!

I do like a tasty Cab Sauv, as you may or may not have noticed from my blog. I love Bordeaux wines and I love Meritage blends from the Okanagan and I love big California Cab Sauvs. Well, add to that ones from Coonawara in Australia which may be hot but, man, they make great wine. We had a 2014 Yalumba "The Menzies" Coonawara Cab Sauv ($99). It was wonderful! On the nose was black currant, black plum, smoke, barnyard, black pepper, menthol and eucalyptus. On the palate, there was also spice and tobacco. This dry wine had strong tannins, high acid, high alcohol, almost full body, a medium plus finish and a pronounced intensity. It could definitely age for awhile and it was rated Outstanding - maybe a good splurge?

Australia has been famous for it's big, bold Shiraz wines - and so we tried a 2015 Glaetzer "The Bishop" Shiraz from the warm Barossa Valley ($51). This had some good aromas including blueberry, vanilla, pepper and black plum as well as an overall jammy taste. I don't mind a little jam but it does take it away from the "Outstanding" category. On the palate there was blueberry and charred wood as well as medium plus tannins and acidity. This wine was fine to age with its long  finish and strong intensity of flavours and was rated as Very Good. 

There are also more restrained Shiraz wines form Australia but we didn't try one  in class. 

Finally, we went to New Zealand. It's not a huge place but they make a heckuva lot of wine. On the cooler South Island is where Marlborough is - and that means, Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand's most famous grape. We tried a 2017 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc ($36).  This wine had lots of green fruit, asparagus, grapefruit, and lemon on the nose with similar tastes on the palate. It had high acid, medium body, medium alcohol, and a pronounced intensity of flavour as well as a longish finish. This was a youthful wine and, like most Sauvignon Blancs, didn't have any ageing potential but was still a Very Good wine. 

Also from Marlborough, we tried a 2017 Villa Maria Pinot Gris ($22) which was OK. I also struggled with this one a bit but there were notes of peach, apricot, lemon, honey and floral aromas. This was an off dry wine and had high acidity, medium alcohol, as well as medium intensity and finish. Not suitable for ageing, this wine was rated as just Good. 

Finally, we had a wine, also from the South Island, but away from the effects of the ocean. From Central Otago we had a 2016 Matua Pinot Noir ($42 - pretty label award). This was a pretty standard Pinot Noir with red cherry, cranberry, and strawberry notes. It was mostly medium although it had a longish finish. Overall this was just a Good wine - and definitely not worth the price. 

Well, that's it for my WSET 3 classes. All that's left is the test. I have been studying hard and have these things to say on the three parts. 

The blind wine tasting: This all depends on my palate - some classes I have been bang on and some I have been right off. I need to focus on the aromas and tastes rather than trying to jump to conclusions and try to figure out the varietal. 

Multiple choice: I think this will be my strongest part. I have gone over the book many times as well as flashcards from me, my son-in-law Dan, and online cards. I have a very good general knowledge of wines of the world. 

Essay questions: This is my big worry. Even doing the few practice ones online, I find that I can't always think of everything that a question asks - and sometimes I draw a blank. I spent time today doing comparative analysis of the same grapes from different countries so I am hoping that will help me study for the last few days. 

I keep remembering what my classmate, Sarah, said during our tasting group and, again during last week's class - at the end of the day, we have learned so much about wine, tasted some fantastic wine, and met some wonderful people. 

But, damn it, I really want to pass!

Wish me luck...

Come Together ... Right Now. ... Over Wine...

Red wines from our tasting nigh

I'm actually a bit behind in my WSET blog but I had such an enjoyable time this week, I thought I'd blog about a recent evening.

I was invited to a wine tasting evening with some of the people from my WSET class. Here's what comes to mind:

As the big test date looms nearer (less than two weeks), I have become more and more focussed on memorizing facts, practising questions, making charts and maps, and recording myself talking about important information and then playing it back.

Thursday night was a big break from that - and a reality check. Wine is not just about learning and memorizing information - it is about the social aspects of getting together with people, having a few drinks, talking, laughing and enjoying each others' company. Yes, we tasted and talked about the wines and commiserated about our mutual trepidations of the upcoming test but we also talked about each others' work and lives and history - the wine was a part of the evening but it was not the only part of the evening.

To paraphrase one member of the wine group, at the end of the day, we have learned so much about wine, have been exposed to so many wines, have a much improved palette and nose, and have made friends with a bunch of new people.  I want to do well on the test, but I've already had a rewarding experience, regardless of the result.

A great group of wine-experts-in-training.

There were four others in the group; Sarah, who sits beside me during my WSET class and is originally from London, Greg and Marilyn, also in my class, who are part of the family that owns Deep Roots Winery in Naramata, and Andrew, a very knowledgable wine-o-phile who was able to procure our wines for the evening. I really enjoyed spending the evening with these people and also enjoyed sipping and discussing the wines.

The first wine was a bit of a treat. It was a 1994 (yes, I said, 1994!) Moulin Touchais Coteaux du Layon Chenin Blanc from the Loire Valley ($57 on Vivino). This was a highly acidic, intensely sweet wine with tastes of honey, candied apricot, orange zest, almonds, and some earthiness like mushrooms, probably from botrytis. This Chenin also had the distinctive aroma of lanolin or wet wool. It was an amazing wine to start with but, because I was driving, I ended up dumping some of it in my spit cup (ugh!). Definitely an Outstanding wine. I really have grown to enjoy sweeter wines like this because they are balanced with the strong acidity - as opposed to stick sweet wines I had when I was younger like Baby Duck or Calona White.

The first wine was a bit of a teaser and we just enjoyed it without doing a serious tasting. Our second wine was the first real taste. I sort of sat back and watched what others did during the first two tastings but spoke up more after that. I actually guessed (in my head, of course) that this wine was a Torrontes but never said anything - so much for showing off. This was a 2015 El Porvenir Laroum Torrontes from Cafayate which is in the Salta region of Chile ($30). This had aromas and tastes of citrus fruits like grapefruit and lemon as well as peach and apple. It also had non-fruit aromas of fresh grass and honeysuckle. This youthful wine was medium in intensity, acid, alcohol, body and length and was rated as a Good wine which was ready to drink but not suitable for ageing. And, to be fair, Andrew did help us narrow down the wine varietal before I made my amazing guess (that I kept to myself).

Next was another wine that I guessed correctly after Andrew's coaching, again, in my head (what a chicken!).  This was a 2017 Granbazan Albarino Etiqueta Ambar from Rias Baixas, Spain ($40). I really got pineapple on this wine as well as stone fruits like peach and apricot. Unfortunately, I got a bit of vanilla on this which means I was fooled as this wine did not have any oak on it. When I taste a white wine, I am always trying to taste if there is vanilla or toast on it which is a product of oak ageing - and I seem to find it far too often! There was a floral aroma as well of orange blossom that some of the other tasters got but that I missed. I struggle with floral aromas and I probably should find some of these flowers in the next 10 days before my test! This light bodied wine had medium plus acidity, medium plus intensity, medium alcohol and a medium plus finish. Seafood would be a wonderful accompaniment to this wine and, although it is not suitable for ageing, it is ready to drink and is Very Good.

Every now and then, there is a wine that is so recognizable that I can place it immediately. The bubble gum, banana, and red liquorice aromas are unmistakably a Beaujolais Nouveau - in this case a fresh 2018 Louis Max ($20). This is a low tannin, medium minus body wine that's not strong in intensity and does not have a long finish but it is FUN to drink! I really like this style of wine, even though it is not exactly loved by some wine experts. It is easy to slurp back and is friendly enough to go with food that is really casual. Andrew completed his WSET test earlier this week and a Beaujolais Nouveau was the red wine for the blind tasting. I would be so happy if that were the case for our test! This wine is definitely ready to drink and should not be aged. It was a Good wine.

The next wine was a tasty one - a 2015 Klinker Brick Old Vines Zinfandel from Lodi, California ($40). I actually guessed this one too, but, wonder of wonders, I actually said something!  This had aromas of black currant, blackberry, blueberry, pepper, tobacco, cedar and jam. I thought there were some tertiary aromas of mushroom but that didn't seem to be the consensus of the group. I looked on Vivino later and some people did think there was some tertiary aromas like leather so I really am not sure if this was developing or not. This full bodied, high alcohol wine had a medium plus intensity of flavours and a medium plus finish and deserved a Very Good rating. Could you age it? I thought you could but who knows?

The last 'official' tasting wine was a 2014 Chateau de Jau Jaujau Cote de Roussillon red wine blend from the Languedoc Roussillon region of France ($48). We didn't know this was a blend which showed up in our differing notes. Some of us tasted black fruits and some red fruits and some both. On the nose, I found red plum, blueberry, and blackberry as well as black currant leaf, and cedar. This wine had medium plus body, a medium plus finish, and a medium intensity of flavours. A Very Good wine, it was a blend of Syrah, Grenach and Mourvedre. It was suitable for ageing - but was a bit pricey.

Greg and Marilyn brought a wonderful wine for our final, informal tasting. It was a 2014 Deep Roots Naramata Syrah (I think Greg said it was around $40 when released but there's none left now!).  I was asked, earlier in the evening, what my favourite wine was - I really do like Bordeaux so I went with that initially - but, having this wine, I was reminded that Syrah is another one of my favourite wines - especially Syrah done right - which this was. There were aromas and tastes of blackberry, blueberry, and black plum as well as smoke, tobacco, and a bit of leather. There was also some pepper on the nose. This wine was lovely - full bodied, strong intensity of flavours, and a wonderful long finish. I would rate this Syrah as Outsanding and could probably age for a few more years.

As we sat around and chatted and sipped from the remnants of wine, I reflected on how enjoyable an evening I had. We made some progress on our tasting and we discussed some of the more frightening aspects of our looming test but, by far, the most important thing was a group of people coming together over a common interest and having a great time doing it.

Cheers!