This ain't gonna be a walk in the park - WSET 3 - first class

After doing really well on my WSET level 2 last year, I thought that it would be a good idea for me to  complete my WSET 3. After all, I got an amazing 96% on my exam so I thought that It would be a fairly easy jump to get my next level.

Wrong.

Our instructor from Fine Vintage, Lynn, was clear. I am going to have to WORK to pass this course. Really hard. Don't get behind or that's it!

One good thing is that the part I was most worried about, the blind tasting, apparently isn't as hard as I thought. So, one silver lining....

Other than scaring the  crap out of us in the first five minutes, Lynn also went over a few things but did not get too in-depth as we just received our materials. Luckily, I borrowed my son-in-law's WSET 3 materials at the beginning of summer and I have at least a good background on what we are doing.

Topics covered included the art of tasting (appearance, nose, and palate). She also discussed the different wine faults that you can come across. The whole concept of food and wine pairing was also discussed, although this is pretty much the same as in level 2. Finally, she went over the new tasting grid for level 3.

Basically, it builds on the level 2 grid. There are the same categories with a few extra (e.g. mousse- for champagne, ageability,  three kinds of flavour characteristics) as well as a slew of new aroma and flavour descriptors.

I sat with another just-retired gentleman, Owen, and a bright, young woman, Verity. We got along really well and think alike - especially when we unanimously got the first two wines wrong!

I also knew two people, well, sort of. Kelly works at Blackwood Lane (I think my favourite Fraser Valley winery) and is taking the course. I see her almost every time I take a tour there. Beside her was April, a young woman who works at the same place my youngest does, Brewery Creek. Somehow she put two and two together and figured I was the dad!

Onto the wines:

All of the tastings are blind tastings. This evening all of the tastings were in pairs.

The first pair were two bubbly wines - a tank style and a traditional Champagne.

When you hear 'tank style' it means that all the wine is put into a giant tank and yeast is added to the tank after wine has been made to provide the fizz. Prosecco is a tank method wine and sometimes gets a bad rap - although I really like Prosecco. This wine wasn't really close to Prosecco - in fact, our group thought it was the Champagne!

The wine was a non-vintage Von Buhl sparkling Riesling from Pfalz, Germany ($36). It had some nice fruit aromas which were pronounced and very pleasing. It was a high acidity, off dry wine with medium flavour intensity and medium finish. Interestingly, the bubbles didn't persist on the palate - they escaped rather quickly - and so, this is called 'aggressive' in terms of the mousse! Ready to drink. Vivino gives it 3.8 stars.

The next wine was a non-vintage Pierre Peters Blanc de Blanc Grand Cru Champagne (made from Chardonnay - $104).  I felt it was rather light on the nose but this may have been my nose confusing lightness for complexity. It was fresh and a bit off dry with medium acidity and medium plus length. There were stone fruits and biscuit on the palate as well as delicate mousse. I still can't believe we got it so wrong - and i don't think I'd pay the $104 -  but this one was ready to drink now, I felt. Vivino gives it 4.1 stars which surprised me.

The next two wines were made from Chardonnay grape. I'm getting better at guessing the grape and I did that with these ones. 

The first was a 2015 Louis Jadot Macron-Villages Chardonnay from Burgundy ($34). It had a pleasant nose with apple, peach and pear with a medium plus intensity. On the palate, it seemed a bit off dry and was fruity with peach, apricot, and honey as well as some vanilla denoting oak. It was a good wine - balance was just OK and had a bit of a short finish and is ready to drink now. Vivino gives it 3.6 stars. 

The second was a classic Burgundy Chardonnay - s 2015 Jacques Prieur Clos de Mazeray Mersault ($135). The nose was less intense - a medium - but had some complex aromas including orange peel, apple, and peach. It was less fruity on the palate - there was lemon zest - but there were other rich tastes including mushroom and toasted nuts. At first, I thought this was not that flavourful and then I realized that the flavours were complex and subtle - an outstanding wine that could age for another 10 years! Vivino gave it 4.1 stars. 

Our next two wines were both whites which we had to compare. I guessed the Riesling and Owen guessed the Pinot Grigio, for what it's worth. 

The Pinot Grigio was a 2017 Tolloy Piniot Grigio from Italy ($26). It had quite the nose with aromas of honeysuckle (I think), peach and pear. On the palate, it had high acidity, included flavours of citrus like lemon and lemon peel, and had a medium finish. We rated it as good and ready to drink. I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of the Pinot Grigio style (I prefer Pinot Gris style with this grape) and this did not change my mind. This got 3.9 stars on Vivino.

The Riesling was a 2015 Fritz Haag Spatels Riesling from Mosel, Germany ($52).  The nose was pronounced - oh my! There was a strong petrol smell as well as nectarine. On the palate, it was actually medium sweet with peach, apricot, honey, and high acidity. This wine was balanced, intense, complex and had a long finish - outstanding! It has definite ageing potential. Vivion gives this one 4.1 stars.

The last two wines were a rosé and a red. We did some cool stuff including sucking a lemon, eating a chili cracker, or having goat cheese to see the effect on the taste of the wine. Very cool!

The first was one of my favourite Rosés, Joie Farms - a 2017 made form Pinot Noir and Gamay - from the Okanagan ($26). It was not as pronounced on the nose (I only got cherries), but there were lots of flavours on the palate including grapefruit, cherries, and strawberries. This was definitely a dry wine with low tannins (like most Rosa´s). I rated it very good - could have been a bit more balanced - and Vivino gave it 3.7 stars. 

The final wine of the evening was a 2014 Stack House Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa ($92). This dark wine - purple, in fact - had lots of aromas including primary (from fermentation - plum, black cherry), secondary (from the winemaker - cedar), and tertiary (from ageing - mushroom and earth). This was repeated with the palate with the addition of bell pepper, cocoa, and wood. There were high tannins and high acidity and full body. This was considered very good by the group and earned a rating of 4 on Vivino. Disappointingly, the price in BC (must be at a private store) is $92 but the average price on Vivino is $44. Sigh.

Well, onto my homework. What homework, you may ask? Read chapters 1 to 7, do a tasting note using the grid, and then do the homework assignment we received in our email yesterday. Here's the intro to one of the questions...

For each of the below scenarios, discuss which vineyard management techniques should be considered to achieve quality grapes for wine production and two examples of wine regions that fall into the climate category.

Sigh.

This definitely ain't gonna be a walk in the park!

The Next Wine Challenge.....

Now that I'm retired from teaching, it's time to tackle some new challenges.

Last year, I took my WSET Level 2. The WSET (Wine and Spirit Education Trust) is an international organization that offers international certification in wine education. The WSET Level 1 looked pretty easy (I borrowed my son-in-law's materials for WSET 1) so I started at WSET 2. I really, really enjoyed the course - not just the knowledge piece (which I actually remember since I use it all the time) but especially the wine tasting part where we tried between 8 and 10 wines each class and learned to understand the different colours, aromas and tastes. It was 9 weeks well spent learning about wine.

In September, I am going onto the next level, WSET 3!

The WSET 3 program includes more in-depth learning about grapes, wine production and wine regions and a lot more tasting. It is a fifteen week course which culminates in a test (both multiple choice and written answer) as well as two blind tastings. A challenge indeed!

As before, this course is offered by Fine Vintage. I was impressed with the WSET 2 course - the instructor was excellent (and also named Dave), the material was presented in a clear and easy-to-learn manner, and there were many different wines (8 - 10 each class) for the class to taste. I felt very prepared for the test and I also had a great introduction to systemic wine tasting.

The WSET 3 course promises more of the same. I have heard good things about the instructor and have perused their sample wine list - it's going to be fun trying all of those wines! Below is a sample log of wines that might be tasted - these are all French wines.

So, why am I doing my WSET 3? Well, there's a few reasons.

First, I have really enjoyed learning about wines and becoming a bit of a go-to person on wine. On a fairly regular basis, I have had colleagues ask me about wine pairings for a certain food or if a wine is a good deal or what wine I would recommend for a special birthday or celebration. I really enjoy helping people with this and would like to be a better expert.

Second, I have enjoyed drinking all of these different wines that I did not know about or did not know enough about. It is so satisfying for me to understand the differences and nuances of wines and I want to become better at doing so.

Third, the WSET 2 gave me an introduction to wine tasting - specifically blind wine tasting. This is a really interesting area and I want to get better at being able to identify the different characteristics of different wines.

Finally, I have a new job (so much for retirement)! I work part-time doing wine tours for Swallowtail Tours and I am guiding clients around wineries in the Fraser Valley of Vancouver. It's a wonderful job - I work only the days that I want to (right now it's about 4 a month) and I get to do three things that I love - drive, chat to people, and sample the occasional wine. I have a good knowledge of wines for this job but would like to know even more - it's always good to be well prepared when a knowledgable guest peppers me with questions!

The WSET 3 course doesn't start until September so I have the summer to taste wines, think about wines, peruse my second hand copy of The Oxford Companion to Wine, and read the book that goes with WSET 3 (that my son-in-law kindly lent to me). I'm pretty sure that WSET 3 will be the end of my formal education wine road - but you never know!

I'm really looking forward to this!

Cheers!

"I have a dead thing in the middle of my face" or WSET Class 1, Part 1

Last night, I embarked on my wine journey in earnest.

The WSET level 2 course offered by Fine Vintage was held last night in Vancouver. Thinking I had plenty of time, I left home and arrived around 6:15 for the 6:30 class. Damn, I thought, I hate being the first one there. To my surprise, the classroom was packed with only a two seats left! Not your typical school crowd....

I sat down at my table and met my fellow wine aficionados for the evening. Across from me was a woman from White Rock who had just sold one business and I think was getting ready to start another one involving wine. Beside me was a guy that grew as part of the family that owns Desert Hills Winery in the Okanagan and wanted to improve his knowledge of wine. Finally, at the end of the table, was a woman who works at Capilano Golf Course - I think in the restaurant. Everyone was quite friendly at the beginning of the evening but our table was pretty quiet through most of the night - I think that people take this course very seriously and it's probably good that I'm not chatting to someone while the teacher is teaching, so to speak, as I do tend to get distracted.

Speaking of our teacher, his name is Dave Munro and he is did a great job the first night, keeping us interested, using lots of humour, and showing an expert understanding of wine.

Right off, we tasted two fizzy wines. I had come to the course with the intention of spitting out the wine that I tasted but that didn't last past the first glass. I did manage to spit or dump half of most of the wines so I felt fine by the end of the evening.  Interestingly, the wine tastings were all blind. It's a really good way to train the palate and not bias yourself to a particular type of wine, but it's also really difficult!

The first wine in our fancy ISO tasting glasses was a nice bubbly champagne. It had lots of baked apple, even apple crisp and also the smell of toast caused by having the dead yeast cells (lees) being in contact with the wine. This is called autolysis and I think this info will be on the exam.....  It was not too sweet and had a high acidity and was a dry wine. Dave rated it as a very good wine - which is not hard to believe as it is a Grand Cru - the highest rating, I believe, for Champagne.

It was revealed as a Charlemagne Grand Cru Champagne that was a blanc de blanc - all Chardonnay grapes - made in 2010. The price? $96.00.

The comparison wine had an amazing almost perfume nose. There were tropical fruits, melon and even lychee in the nose. It was a sweet wine which, I found out, usually means high acidity to balance the sweetness. This was also a very good wine and Dave noted that it would make a very good breakfast wine!

This was a La Serra Moscato D'Asti from Italy made in 2015. It was only 5% so you could drink it all day! It was also just $32 a bottle.

After covering some more information about tasting, we tried that next two wines.

And this is when I realized that I had a dead thing in the middle of my face.

I thought I was doing pretty well with the tastings of the first two wines, when the third wine was passed around, I couldn't smell a damned thing! The little tasting glasses makes it difficult to jam your nose in the glass but, try as I did, I couldn't smell anything.

Of course, the know-it-alls from the course sagely nodded and pronounced "cork taint" which was so frustrating to me because I had always wanted to find out what it smelled like. And, thanks to my dead thing, it didn't't smell.

Happily, when instructed to drink (and spit) this spoiled wine, it truly tasted hideous! Few things have ever tasted this bad!

This was an Alsace Riesling made by Gustave Lorentz, and it costs $38 for a hopefully unspoiled batch!

The final wine before the break was another Riesling. This was a clear wine that was German so it was rated as a "spatlese" that was medium sweet with high acidity, and a medium finish. The pronounced nose included green apple, apricot and petrol (!). Stone fruits like peach and apricot were also noticeable in the tasting notes.

This was a German Riesling from a Mosel producer called St. Urbans that was 11% and cost $82.

I was interested by the range of people and also the knowledge of wine. One woman said that she only knew the difference between red and white wine while others knew so much, especially about the wine tasting, that I felt as dead as my nose.....

Next time, I will look at the reds we tasted and a special kind of wine that I have never tried before!