Hands up! A wine class disaster ends up being sweet - WSET 3.3

My third  WSET 3 class was a bit of a disaster - at least at the beginning.

One of the things I look forward to is having a poké rice bowl before class at Pokerito. I left at 4:30, thinking I would get to BCIT in 45 minutes and, because there would be no line up that early, would have a good 30 to 40 minutes to enjoy my tasty dinner.

Unfortunately, it didn't work that way.

By the time I got to BCIT, it was after 5:30. I rushed to Pokerito and there was a line up of about six people. I finally got my bowl and then rushed back to BCIT and started gobbling down my meal. Then, Sarah, from last week, sat down across from me in the outer area and I couldn't be rude so I picked at my dinner while we chatted.

When I went into the room for the study session, things went pretty well until it was time to answer the study question. Unfortunately, I have already lost my name card so the instructor looked my way and called on 'Doug' to answer. I corrected her and then answered - problem is, the guy sitting across from me is actually named Doug and that's who she meant to call on!

Ugh!

This week's focus was on making wine - red, white, rosé and sweet. Although this is an area that I am familiar with, especially since I made wine in my basement for a few years, there are still many things such as winemaking options and the ways that specific varietals are treated that I really have to study. One thing that irked me - I took copious notes on the specific varietals and our instructor didn't go over it that much, although she alluded to the information during the tastings.

My notes that I made from the readings were pretty thorough and I used them to follow along during class. There's a lot of content, especially this past week, but I am hoping that the countries and regions, which are the focus for the next ten weeks or so, will be a bit easier to remember and give some context for what we have learned so far.

Onto this week's tastings....

The idea behind the tastings this week was to  try and figure out the choices made in the vineyard and by the winemaker. It was really difficult! Luckily, this isn't a focus on the tasting exam but it was good to try and be aware of the choices.

The first two wines were white wines.

Courtesy Cuvée Corner Blog

The 2015 Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc from Casablanca, Chile ($18) was a grassy almost clear wine. It had some citrus aromas and tastes such as grapefruit and lemon, was light bodied, and had high acidity. It was made without any oxygen (anaerobically) to preserve the fruitiness of the wine, has no oak, and was fermented at around 16 or 17°C. Ready to drink now, this wine was not terribly balanced, had a fairly short finish, had acceptable intensity, and was not a complex wine. This we rated as acceptable.

In contrast, the 2016 Mer Soleil Chardonnay from the Santa Lucia Highlands ($39) was much better. There were some interesting flavours and aromas including peach, nectarine, apricot, and vanilla. It was a wine that was fermented aerobically (with some oxygen). was oaked, had a bit of age on it, and was fermented at a higher temperature. It was a balanced wine with a long finish and great intensity but was not overly complex. This was rated as very good.

The next two wines were red wines.

The first was a Georges DuBoeuf Beaujolais made from Gamay ($16). I was a bit stumped on what this even was - some of my group thought pinot noir but I thought it was something else - but not merlot, cab sauv, or cab franc.  I remember drinking this for a while back before I really knew all that much about wine but near the end of my own wine making experience. It was a wine with black and red fruits as well as a candy or bubble gum taste. The main winemaking option was carbonic fermentation where the bunches of grape ferment in CO2 in a closed vat. This gives fruitiness, more colour and less tannins. Ready to drink, this wine was acceptable.

The second of this set was a 2011 Brovia Villero Barolo Nebbiolo ($124). I tasted a lot of red fruit on it which made me think it was a Pinot Noir but our instructor noted high tannins, mushrooms, violets, liquorice, and roses. This wine had gone through pre and probably post fermentation maceration (where the grape skins stay in the juice), cap management (where the grape must is punched down on a regular basis), oak, and light extraction of flavours. After Elena, our pourer, mentioned that it was an unexpected grape and gave the hint, "it's a wine that's old when it's young," I knew it was Nebbiolo! This wine was good to drink now but could spend lots more time in the cellar. This was an outstanding wine!

The next two wines were the same grape but treated (wildly) different. The grape was Zinfandel.

The first was a 2017 Gallo Family White Zinfandel ($9). This medium sweet Rosé was invented by Bob Trinchero in California and was the result of a mistake! I listened to this podcast recently on Grape Nation and actually enjoyed finding out the story behind this super sweet wine. That said, it is not my favourite wine. This acceptable wine is medium sweet with low alcohol, light body, candy red fruit and vanilla. In the winery. it was directly pressed with a short maceration and had the fermentation stopped so that not all of the sugar turned to alcohol, creating a sweet wine.

The second Zinfandel was a 2014 Ridge East Bench Zinfandel from Dry Creek, Sonoma ($63). This definitely had some oak on it as there were tastes of raspberry, cloves, liquorice, blackberry and spice. This high alcohol wine was dry, had good acid, and medium tannins - it was intense, complex and had a long length. We rated this wine as very good.  

Our final two wines were sweet wines. People often think that sweet wines (like the above White Zin) are for beginning drinkers and, if you can't feel the enamel coming off your teeth, it isn't a dry enough wine. I have since discovered, however, that there are sweet wines that are complex and wonderful and are wines for connoisseurs!

The first one, which I guessed correctly, was an ice wine. It was a 2015 Arrowleaf Vidal Ice Wine ($56 for a half bottle). This had some complex flavours including peach, nectarine, honey, fig, raisin and vanilla. Its sweetness was kept in check by its high acidity.The winemaking process included no oak, pure flavour and some pear drop flavours which would indicate lower temperature fermentation. I'm not a huge fan of ice wine but this one was pretty darn good.

The final wine was a lusciously sweet recioto - a 2014 Ben Ryé Donnafugata Passito di Pantelleria from Italy ($54 for half a bottle). With Recioto wines, the grapes are picked, then laid out in the sun and they become raisins, concentrating their sugars. This is called Passito style. When it is fermented, the fermentation is stopped early (unlike Amarone, another Passito style) so it is very sweet - but also highly acidic. This wine, made from Muscat, is definitely oxidized in the winemaking process (the colour was actually amber) and had considerable oak. The flavours including orange peel zest, raisin, fig, and marmalade. It was very tasty! This is my first Recioto but will definitely not be my last! Bonus - it supposedly pairs really well with chocolate!

Sip with your Sweetheart - Wines for Valentines

We were fortunate enough to be visiting the Okanagan this weekend while the Sip with your Sweetheart event was on in West Kelowna. The concept was to visit some of the wineries, sip some wine, and accompany the tasting with a sweet treat. Apparently, this has been going on for a few years and is a great way to kick off the first opening of wineries after the New Year.

Eating sweet things while drinking wine is certainly no easy feat, but the wineries we went to did a great job of rising to the challenge.

Our first stop on the sunny Sunday was Off the Grid winery. We had been there a few years back for the Feast of Field event (which is also a lot of fun, although it costs money while today’s was free).  We actually arrived about 15 minutes early and had to sit in the car while we waited for the event to start! We waited until we saw the truck from Bliss Bakery pull in and  drop off treats for the tasting.

The fine gentleman from Bliss Bakery offering a sweet treat.

The friendly folks from the winery welcomed us as the first customers of the day and then presented us with some wine and a chocolate torte! It was a very tasty way to start off the event. Their wines are  only available direct from the winery.

The wine was a Rosé that had just come off the tank that weekend! It was a 2016 Rosé that has a nice taste and went well with the treat from Bliss. I'm not sure when it will become available for purchase but it would make a nice summer wine - and accompanies chocolate in an agreeable manner.

The winery only had 3 actual wines available for sale - all white. The winery has been closed for most of the winter and were now only opening for special events.

A super deal - and a nice wine - was the 2015 Off the Grid Gewürztraminer that we bought a case of for $99! It had a very floral nose but wasn't too sweet on the palate. It was just fine to slurp on its own but will really go well with chicken, fish, or pulled pork. If you can get to the winery next time it's open, I would highly recommend that you buy a case if it is still available. My only regret is that I didn't buy more!

We also bought a bottle of their 2016 Off the Grid Riesling which was very nice - a bit off dry and full of honey, apricot, and tropical flavours. At $30, it isn't the same amazing deal but was still worth picking up a bottle (which we did).

Next, we headed down the road to Ciao Bella Winery. As we rolled up to this one, it seemed that we were visiting someone's house! We parked, went around the back, and went into the wine shop - which is basically the basement. Outside the wine shop was a hand drawn sign with the wines and prices - drawn in felt pen by a young girl, the youngest of the Fiume family, owners of the winery. The older members of the family inside were very friendly and welcoming as we crammed into the tasting area.

There were three different wines to try, a Pinot Grigio, a Rosé, and a Pinot Noir. Unfortunately, they are only available direct from the winery, from a few stores in Kelowna, or at the Coal Harbour Liquor Store in Vancouver.

I'm not a great fan of Pinot Grigio - I like the Pinot Gris style better - but the 2016 Pinot Grigio ($19) was pretty good - crisp, with stone fruits and a fairly good finish. There were Lindt chocolates to accompany all of the wines and the white chocolate made a nice pairing with the Pinot Grigio.

The wines we really liked, though, pictured above with their wonderfully distinctive Vespa labels, were the Rosé and the Pinot Noir.

The 2015 Pinot Rosé ($20) was made with Pinot Noir grapes and had a fragrant nose. Lots of red fruits like raspberries, strawberries and cherries were both on the nose and on the palate. It had an off dry flavour so would be great with turkey or something spicy.

The 2015 Pinot Nero ($25) was a very flavourful Pinot Noir which, of course, also had the same red fruits on the nose. The taste leaned more to the richer cherry flavours and was a great pairing with the Lindt dark chocolate candy! It would also pair well with a lot of different food (as a good Pinot Noir is known to do) and is wonderful on its own. 

By the way, in the photo above, there is a wooden Pinocchio beside some wine. When we were in Italy with our small children in 2000, we went to Collodi (where the author of Pinocchio came from - and, apparently, took his last name) and visited Pinocchio Park (sort of like a small scale Pinocchio Disneyland) with the kids. At the end of our visit, each of them purchased a wooden Pinocchio - and they were exactly like the one in the wine shop1 Our eldest still has her doll in perfect condition!

After visiting two relatively small, boutique wineries, we went to the big boy of the Okanagan, Mission Hill. This winery sometimes gets a bad rap due to its sheer size and output of wine, but if it weren't for Mission Hill and its visionary owner, Anthony Von Mandl, we'd all still be drinking Calona White, Lonesome Charlie and Moody Blue. Mission Hill is dedicated to making high quality wines that have helped make all Okanagan wines both desirable and recognizable. 

We were greeted at Mission Hill by two of their finest sommeliers, Dan and Bram. Dan explained the five different stations where we could taste a different Mission Hill wine while enjoying a sweet treat. 

First up was their 2015 Limited Edition Viognier ($18 - 10% off during special event). I really enjoy a good Viognier and this did not disappoint. It was very crisp and with apricot and peach flavours. It was paired with a square of milk chocolate which held up well to the wine. 

Next was an amazing pairing - the 2016 Reserve Pinot Noir ($26) with preserved cherries. Mission Hill makes a wonderful Pinot Noir that hits all of the right red fruit notes with the right amount of tannins and just a hint of earthiness. The preserved cherries were made by Mission Hill and were fabulous on their own - but paired with the wine, gastronomical heaven!

Third was the 2015 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon ($27). This was matched with 80% Dark Chocolate and was another magical pairing! This wine had some nice black fruits including plums, black cherry and black berries on both the nose and the palate. You could definitely age this wine for a few years but was very good to drink now as well.

I somehow misplaced my notes on wine #4 but the last one was another humdinger of a pairing, the 2014 Reserve Riesling Icewine ($25 for a half bottle). There were tropical fruits like banana and citrus fruits on the palate and it paired well with the sweet treat - a piece of locally made fudge. I had the peanut butter chocolate fudge - only a sweet ice wine would have the stuff to match this treat! 

Our last winery for this wonderful event was Rollingdale. Compared to the extravagant experience that is Mission Hill, Rollingdale is out of the way and the wineshop is a quonset hut. From the sublime to the ridiculous?

The setting may be humble but their wines are every bit as good as a finer looking winery. Their wines are available from the winery and some are also available at Save On, various independent liquor stores, and many restaurants.

The treat at this winery was a Purdy's chocolate - my favourite chocolate in the world! We tried the chocolate with their 2016 Fort Port ($20 for 200 ml - made from Marechal Foch) which was very nice - my wife does not usually like Port but the combination of Port and Purdy's please her greatly - and I had to agree! Not quite as nutty as some of the Ports I have enjoyed, it still has a very rich, fruit flavour that is good to drink. In fact, we shared a small bottle later that evening while playing Settlers of Catan.

The 2016 Organic Pinot Gris ($26) was crisp, clean and fruity. It had tastes of apricot and pear and was a fine example of a Pinot Gris.

The 2014 Paint the Town Red ($20) is a mix of Cab Franc, Merlot and Marechal Foch. It was good but lacked the strong character that I have grown to enjoy with Rollingdale's wines. It wasn't terrible, but it just didn't stand out and I wasn't excited about it. Interestingly, my wife enjoyed it quite a lot so - who knows? - maybe this is the wine for you!

Finally we had a taste of the 2014 8 Barrels Merlot ($46). I bought this one at Save On a few months ago and it is currently sitting in our cellar so it was nice to try this one out. It had some great tannins and had that character that I felt was missing with the previous wine. There were some great black fruits such as black currants, black cherries, and plums with some earthiness and leather and a hint of vanilla. This is the type of really stand out Merlot that I enjoy drinking - unlike some other Merlots which can be quite bland. 

Two of my favourite wines from Rollingdale are the Left Bank and the Right Bank wines made in the Bordeaux style. Last year's are sold out but the gentleman I talked to told me that there would definitely be a Left Bank (made from Cab Franc) coming out in the Spring. When I asked why only the Left Bank, he responded that, since some of the larger wineries are going organic (which is a good thing), smaller wineries, like Rolingdale, are finding it more difficult to source organic grapes for their wine (which is a bad thing). 

This was a great event that I would whole heartedly recommend. My only complaint is that I could have spent part of Saturday visiting some of the other wineries that were hosting sips and treats! I'm already looking forward to sipping with my sweetheart in 2019!

Sweet Barrel-O-Wine! WSET class #7 - Part 2

Hmm - it seems that Class #7 has a Neil Diamond focus; first it was Cracklin' Rose (well, Cracklin' Champagne ) and then Sweet Barrel-O-Wine (rhymes with Sweet Caroline?).

The second half of the class looked at sweet wines - not my favourite, but important, all the same.

First, the lesson. There are a few ways that you can make wines sweet.

Interrupting the fermentation is the first one we looked at. This can be done by removing the yeast, fortifying the wine (like adding sulphur dioxide or alcohol) which is what they do to Port and to fortified muscats like Muscat de Beams de Venise.

The second way to sweeten wine is to add a sweet component to the blend. One way is to add unfermented grape juice (süssreserve), like in a German liebfraumilch, but the juice has to be made of the same type of grape as the wine. The second way is to add sweet wine. One famous one to add is called PX with stands for Pedro Ximenez which is a super sweet, almost honey-like wine that is used for sweet Sherry.

The last way to sweeten wine is to concentrate the sugars in the grapes. This is done by using dry grapes, either on the vine, like late harvest wines (e.g. spätlese) or letting the grapes dry on racks, etc., until they are like raisins which concentrates the flavours in wines such as Recioto (made form Corvina grape) or PX - the sweetest wine of the world. Another way to do this is by using noble rot  where grapes are in a damp area and develop a specific type of mould. The mould attack the grape and causes it to shrivel. This has to be done with grapes that are highly acidic and thinned skin.  The final way to concentrate sugars is freezing the grapes to make Ice Wine!

Our first wine was from Pantelleria which is an island that is south of Sicily. This wine (I believe it was a Recioto) was deep amber in colour and had medium plus intensity with aromas of raisin, fig, prune and a bit of floral. On the palate, it was nutty, raisin, vanilla, sultanas, and a jammy hint. It was sweet (almost lucsious) had medium plus acidity, full body, and a medium plus finish. This wine was rated as Very Good and was a Passito di Pantelleria made by Donna Fugato ($40 for 375 ml).

The second was a Noble Rot wine. It was from Vouvray (which is in the Loire region) and was made with Chenin Blanc.The colour was medium gold and it had a medium plus intensity on the nose, with aromas of raisin, earth, and lots of stone fruit. On the palate, there was jam, plum, fig, fresh fruit and, again, an earthiness. It was a sweet wine with high acidity, medium plus body and a medium plus finish. This 2005 wine from Nectar Moncontour was also rated as Very Good and cost $72 for 500 ml.

Next up was a Tokaji wine - our instructor's favourite wine! It was medium gold in colour and had medium intensity on the nose with aromas of marmalade, peach, apricot and tropical fruits like mango. On the palate, it had flavours of tech, pineapple and apricot jam with an earth flavour. It was a sweet wine with high acidity, medium body and a long finish. Tokaji wines are rated on sweetness by puttanyos which range from 3 to 6 - this one had 5 puttonyos. This 2009 Tokaji from Chateau Dereszla had 11.5% alcohol,  cost $50, and pairs well with veal and chicken.

The final wine was soooo sweet. If you like sweet wines, this is the one. It was medium gold in colour, and had a medium plus intensity on the nose with aromas of raisin, lychee and pineapple. It was a lusciously sweet wine (the level above sweet is officially called 'luscious') and had tastes of pineapple, raisin and apricot. There was high acidity, full body, and a long finish with 7.5% alcohol. This was a Mission Hill Reseve Riesling Icewine from 2014. It pairs well with cheese and costs $56 for 375 ml.

I definitely learned a lot about both sparkling and sweet wines during this class of my WSET. I was able to pinpoint the tastes that makes sparkling Champagne so desirable and I have an understanding of how sweet wines can really vary.

Our next class deals with Port and Sherry - two wines that I am not all that familiar with. Time for some more learning!