Wine and Friends - A Spectacular Wine Tasting Evening - Part 1

Ah, wine tasting….

One of the best things about taking both my WSET 2 and WSET 3 was being able to methodically taste a number of wines in one evening. It’s not easy but it is something you can learn. And like most things that people learn, if you don’t practice, you get rusty. 

Last year, before moving up to Kelowna, I practised my wine tasting almost weekly with a friend. Now, although I still drink my fair share of wine, I don’t always drink my wine in a thoughtful enough manner. So I was very pleased when my old WSET wine tasting group decided to get together in Vancouver - with a few other wine aficionados. 

Our host, Andrew, and another guest, Justin, were by far the most accurate tasters - not a huge surprise as both have extensive wine education and are both competing for Best Somm of BC! There were other experts, including Stephanie, a Somm at a major Vancouver restaurant as well as my friends from WSET 3, Sarah and Verity. There was a Russian couple (the husband knew his wines extremely well, despite no formal courses), another female Somm from a Vancouver restaurant, Alicia, an artist who has a wine and art company (Unwined Events) with Sarah, and my friend, Stewart, who has a strong interest in wine. 

After some social time where I got to know some of the guests a bit better, we sat down to do some tasting. We did two flights of four wines and then a bonus wine at the end. 

The first four wines were poured and we began tasting. It was a bit more formal than our last tasting and my friend, Stewart, was a bit surprised. We silently swirled, sniffed, sipped, spat, scribbled and repeated as we made our notes on each wine. The WSET 3 focus was on describing the attributes of the wine but what everyone really wants to be able to do is to tell what the wine is, where it’s from and when it was made. Not easy!

The first wine was a white from Bordeaux, a 2011 Smith Haut Lafitte 'Les Hauts' from Pessac Leognan (a 2016 is available at the BCLB for $65 - I suspect that will be at the Wine Festival). There were aromas of citrus, lime, lemon, wet stone, oak and a minerally/funky aroma that we decided was lanolin. This wine was dry with medium acidity, medium body, a medium finish and was balanced. It was complex and had intense flavours. I thought this was a Sauvignon Blanc - and I was mostly right. Because it was a Bordeaux white, the general consensus was that it was a Sauv Blanc/Semillon blend. It is actually 90% Sauv Blanc, and 5% each Sauvignon Gris (which is basically a clone of Sauv Blanc) and  Semillon.  This is one of the best wines that the winery has produced, according to their site. I enjoyed it and thought is was Very Good. 

Next was another white. This was a wonderfully sweet wine, something that I didn't appreciate until a few years ago. It was a 1997 Moulin Touchais Chenin Blanc from Côteaux de Layon in the Loire Valley of France (Vivino $100). I believe, like most of the wines tasted, this was from a private liquor store - either Jak's or Marquis - but I can't get a price. Everything Wine lists a 1994 vintage at $51. This wine had aromas of honey, vanilla, fig, ginger, honeysuckle and mushroom. This botrytis affected wine had high acidity, full body, and a great long finish. Balanced, intense, and complex, I rated this wine as Outstanding. I did struggle with what this wine was, thinking it might be a Tokaji from Hungary.

Next was a red wine that I could not get - but was not alone in this. I thought it might be a Zinfandel or a Gamay or even some Swiss grape. It wasn't. It was a 2016 CaRo (Catena and Rothschild) Aruma Malbec from Argentina ($30 Everything Wine but out of stock). This wine that fooled us all had an overall musty character to it with blackberry, blueberry and cherry. There was a lot more red fruit on the palate. It had medium acidity, good balance, and medium complexity and finish. There were very soft tannins, however, which I felt made this wine a little dull. Overall, this was a Good wine.

The last wine of the first flight was a 2016 Artezin Zinfandel from Mendocino ($30 Everything Wine). There were aromas and tastes of cherry, raspberry, strawberry and blackberry as well as pepper, cinnamon spice and 5 spice. The tannins were medium plus with high alcohol, a strong finish, and was balanced. It wasn't overly complex but everything else about this wine was great. I would rate this Zin as Very Good. My guess on this was either a Gamay or a Zinfandel - although I thought it was from Lodi.

At this point we had a break - for cheese and crackers. The cheese I brought (sourced at Perseval and Young in Kelowna) was an Ossau-Iraty from France. This sheep's milk cheese is amazing and really complemented the wines. Ossau-Iraty is one of the oldest cheese producing locations in the world (at least 3000 years!).

Next time, the second flight and the bonus round!