WTF! Wine Tasting Fiasco! WSET 3.5

This week's class marks the one third point in our course. I have been feeling pretty good about my tasting ability.

Until this week....

Our first wine region was the Loire valley. This is a big area that stretches from the ocean (maritime climate) to the centre of France (continental climate). The main grapes are pretty easy to remember. 3 blancs and a franc - Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Melon Blanc (or Muscadet) and Cabernet Franc. Some of the famous areas in the Loire include Chinon (Cab Franc), Muscadet and Vouvray Chenin Blanc).  There's also two really famous Sauvignon Blanc regions, Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé.  A great deal for Sauv Blanc is in Menetou-Salon which has great wine but not the same expensive price.

Our first wines were the three whites. Unfortunately, I had a really difficult time figuring out which was which. For example, I thought the Sauv Blanc was Chenin Blanc until I tasted what I thought was Sauv Blanc - and it was sweet! Threw me off completely!

Oh well, here's the wines:

Our first was a wine that had gooseberry, flint, stone, lemon and grass on the nose. It was definitely a youthful wine that also had apple and pear on the palate. It was a 2017 Domaine Delaporte Chavignol Blanc ($38). This wine had high acidity, medium alcohol, and medium (+) intensity of flavour. We rated this wine as Very Good and was a 'drink now' wine. I initially thought it was the Melon Blanc.

The second of the trio was a 2017 Domaine de la Pepiere  Muscadet Sevre et Maine ($26) which is the best of the Muscadets. This Melon Blanc had peach, apricot, melon (ha! melon for a Melon Blanc!), lemon peel and a bit of grassiness on the nose with some yogurt flavours from being on the lees on the palate. Despite the time on the lees, I felt that although this wine was balanced and complex, it did not have a particularly long finish and was not all that intense so was rated as merely Good. This wine is good to drink now and is not suitable for ageing.  Unhappily, I thought this was initially a Chenin Blanc.

The final wine of my three initial errors was a 2016 Maison Darragon Hautes des Ruettes Vouvray made from Chenin Blanc ($28). By the way, if it says Vouvray on the label, it has to be Chenin Blanc. I really enjoyed this one as it had pronounced intensity and something that I had a hard time defining, on the nose. The smell was wet wool which is textbook for a Chenin Blanc. There were also aromas and tastes of ripe apple, honeysuckle, honeydew, and honey. It was a balanced wine that was pretty intense, complex, and had a fairly long finish. I would put it between Very Good and Outstanding. When I first smelled this one, I thought it was a Sauvignon Blanc because of the funky smell, By the way, if you're ever in the Okanagan, Road 13 makes an amazing Chenin Blanc sparkler.

As you can see, the first three wines did not go well. I fared better, however, with the next two.

Moving East and South from the Loire valley, we ended up in Burgundy, home to the world's most expensive wines. In Burgundy, they make Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and that's about it. The north part does mainly Pinot Noir and the south part does mainly Chardonnay, although there are exceptions. Beaujolais is actually considered part of Burgundy but it's such a different kind of region, I have separated it out.

The first two wines were Chardonnay wines. Chardonnay is made from such famous places as Chablis, Mersault, Puligny-Montrachet and Chassage-Montrachet. I was able to figure out which was from Chablis and which was from the Cote de Beaunne - thank goodness something went right this week!

The first of these wines was a 2017 Jean-Paul and Benoit Droin Chablis ($58).  This had tastes of apple, grapefruit, lemon, butter and stone and was a high acid, bone dry wine. It was balanced, had complexity and was fairly intense but lacked a long finish so we gave it a Very Good rating (and a pat on the back for my first correct wine of the night). Drink this one now as it is not suitable for ageing!

The second wine was heaven! This one was a 2014 Chassagne- Montrachet ($131) and is a Monopole wine which means that this is one that the negociant produces from their own vineyards and is their flagship wine. There was a lot of different fruit going on here but the best was the secondary and tertiary characteristics such as vanilla, butter, roasted nuts, mushroom and popcorn. It had all the hallmarks of an Outstanding wine and was one that you could drink now but wold also really benefit from ageing.

Staying in Burgundy, we then looked at some Pinot Noir. There are many different houses that make first rate Pinot Noir including Gevrey-Chambertin, Nuits St. Georges, and the incredible but incredibly expensive, Pinot Noir. Domaine Romanee Conte which is a winery that demands some of highest prices for a bottle of wine anywhere.

Unfortunately, I was back to my old tricks again and mixed these up!

The first was a 2015 Joseph Faively Bourgogne Pinot Noir ($32). This had a fair bit going on including red plum, cranberry, cedar, smoke, and red cherries. On the palate, there was a pronounced intensity of flavours. It met some of the criteria for the assessment of quality and was rated Good.

The other Pinot Noir was a 2015 Domaine Daniel Rion et Fils Premier Cru from Nuits St. George ($100). This wine also had some great fruit on it including red plum, raspberry, cranberry, strawberry, and something vegetal - mushroom? - as well as strong tannins. This wine was less austere than the first one (which is maybe why we guessed wrong) and has some wonderful fruit flavours. Despite the age on it already, it would definitely benefit from ageing. It was rated Very Good - bordering on Outstanding.

I was on more solid ground for the last two wines. One was from the Loire - from Chinon - so a Cab Franc - and one was from Beaujolais - so a Gamay Noir. Beaujolais is one of those wines (like Pinot Noir) that's a great one to order if everyone at a restaurant orders something different. There's also Beaujolais Nouveau which is released this year on November 15th. It is a super light, bubble gummy wine (from carbonic maceration) and is supposed to be lots of fun - I've never had a Beaujolais Nouveau so I will definitely try it out next month. 

The Beaujolais that we did have was a 2016 Close de Roilette from Fleurie ($30), one of the ten crus of Beaujolais. It had flavours of stewed fruit, black cherry, bubble gum, and a bit of pepper. There was medium tannins, alcohol, and intensity with maybe a bit higher than medium acidity, It was very good but should be consumed now.

Courtesy BK Wine Photography

Fun fact - most vines in Beaujolais are trained in the gobelet style where the spurs are pushed up and tied together - sort of like braiding your hair and tying the braids together on the top of your head. 

The final wine was a 2016 Bernard Baudry Les Granges Chinon from the Loire valley ($27). It had flavours and aromas of black currant, red plum, eucalyptus, and smoke. This wine was high in acid and in tannins and had some cedar on it as well that meant it could age. It wasn't all that balanced and the length was OK so the question would be, would you bother ageing it as it was only a Good wine? 

Good question.

And so, my evening ended with me mis-identifying 5 of the 9 wines and missing out on a variety of aromas - or just getting them wrong. I will definitely have to refine my palate over the next few weeks. 

Will Taste Feverishly.

Riesling Evening with some Blanc Plonk - WSET Class 5 - Part 1

It was a lovely day on Tuesday.

I was able to combine two of my favourite things - riding my scooter and drinking wine!

It was a nice, sunny day and I hopped on my scooter and headed out to my WSET class in Vancouver. I even got there about a half an hour early and I was able to try a new restaurant, Pokérrito. This restaurant serves Hawaiian poké - sort of a Hawaiian version of sushi - on rice, salad or in a burrito. 

I really enjoyed poké when I was in Maui and was very excited to see it arrive here in recent weeks. When I entered the restaurant - sort of a take out place with a couple of tables - I was a bit concerned about the 12 people in front of me but the line went fast. I ended up gobbling half of the rice and accompanying wonderful ingredients before class started. 

This was class number 5 - time is definitely going far too rapidly! 

We started off with Riesling a wine that can range from bone dry all the way to sugar-sweet. The best ice wine in BC, as a matter of fact, is made from Riesling. Riesling is also one of the few white grapes that lends itself to ageing. 

Most Riesling comes from Germany. There's Mosel that has the lightest and most delicate, somewhat sweet, Rieslings grown on steep slopes in places like Piesport and Bernkastel. Then there's Rheingau which is a smaller region that makes drier wines where all the grapes only grow on the north side of the river to catch the sun. Next up is Pfalz which has off dry, medium body wines in places like Forst and Deidesheim. Finally there's Rheinhessen which is the largest area which is flat and produces the cheaper Rieslings. 

The Germans have Qualitatswein which is the first level of their better wines and then they have Pradikatswein which is their higher quality wine. I have to learn this, so you might as well, too! Within the Pradikatswein category, there are grape quality levels going from almost dry to very sweet. They are kabinett, spätlese, auslese, beerenauslese, trockenbeerenauslese, and eiswien.

In Alsace,  the French label the wines with the grape varietal but also have the better wines from Villages and then from Grand Cru. They are usually dry or sweet wines. Other areas include Austria, New Zealand, and Australia where Riesling smells like a lime popsicle - and petrol!

Our first three wines were all Riesling and we had to blind taste them. 

The first wine we tried was from Alsace and sort of replaced our wine that had cork taint during the first night. It was clear, pale, lemon, with a pronounced nose, lots of stone fruit and apple, a dry wine with high acidity, medium body and a medium minus finish. It was rated Good. It was made by Trimbach and dost $36. 

The second was a Kabintett level German wine that was medium lemon, with medium intensity on the nose and had some stone fruit (nectarine, peach, apricot) as well as petrol and lychee. It was an off dry wine with high acidity and a medium finish It was a 2014 Weingut Max Ferd Richter from Mosel  that was rated Good and cost $40 and had a whopping 9% alcohol. 

The last Riesling was Auslese - so it was pretty sweet!  It was pale lemon, medium intensity on the nose, lots of stone fruit (apricot, peach, pear) as well as a hint of lime. It was medium in sweetness, had high acidity, medium body and a medium finish. This wine was a giant seven and a half percent alcohol and was a 2011 Joh. Jos. Prüm Bernkasteler Badstube Auslese that was rated Good and cost $85.

After the Rieslings, we looked at some different white grapes that are all grown in France. 

First was Chenin Blanc which is the grape grown in Vouvray. It is famous for its 'wet wool' or funky smell and is also South Africa's most planted grape. 

The wine we tried was pale lemon with medium intensity on the nose, a lot of stone fruit, off dry in taste with high acidity and a medium body. It had a bit of a funky taste (apparently - I couldn't sense it, though) and a medium finish. It was a 2015 Vouvray made by Baron Bernard (couldn't find a web site), was rated Very Good, and cost $28.

The next grape was Melon Blanc, grown in Muscadet. It is a neutral grapeshot is not aromatic and lends itself to sur lie - absorbing dead yeast cells - for 6 months to a year.

This Clos de Briords old vines Muscadet was pale lemon, with a medium minus nose, and had apple, peach, floral aromas, and tastes of lemon, peachy and apricot. It's smokiness was complimented by light body and a medium plus finish. This wine was rated at Very Good and cost $30. 

The last was Viognier which is a big sugar, full bodied wine with low acid and none of the spiciness of, say, a Gerwurztraminer. 

 

The Viognier we tried was medium lemon, had pronounced floral, apple and stone fruit aromas, some additional apple and toasty flavours on the palate, and had medium acidity, full body, and a medium plus finish.  This was a Condrieu made by E. Guigal which was rated at Very Good and cost $82. 

Those were the whites that we tried that night - next come the reds!