Das ist gut, ya? German, Austrian, Hungarian and Greek wines - and Mock Test Results! WSET 3.7

This week's class basically marked the half-way point of the course. I might not be too bad off...

The class started with Lynn returning our marked Mock wine tasting and exam. We had four questions on the exam and I nailed three of them. The fourth was pure guess work (Bandol is in what region and produces what kind of wine?) and I only got the region (Provence).  The wine tasting was OK - I was off a bit on some things like sweetness and alcohol as well as my overall assessment but I was mostly pleased with my first stab at a marked blind tasting.

We started off the class looking at German wines. There is some good Pinot Noir (Spätburgunder) and a few other grapes but the king - or the kaiser - is Riesling. There are several levels but the best for dry is Qualitatsweine which has a GG (for Grosses Gewachs - basically Grand Cru) on the label. For wines that have some residual  sugar, there is the Pradikatsweine system which ranges from Kabinett (fully ripe) to Spatlese (late harvest) to Auslese (select harvest) to Beerenauslese (select harvest of berries) to Trockenbeerenauslese (select harvest of dried berries. The last two are really sweet due to both late harvest and noble rot, and don't come along all that often.

The main areas that we have to know are the Mosel (light Riesling), Nahe (between Mosel and the others in terms of the body of the Riesling), Rheingau (medium to full body Riesling - best sweet wines), Rheinhessen (good wines but also crappier Rieslings like I used to drink in high school like Blue Nun), and Pfalz (a lot like Alsace).

I used to dislike sweet wines but the sweet Rieslings are amazing. We tried two.

The first was a 2016 Robert Weil Kabinett Riesling ($47) from the Rheingau region. This wine was almost clear and had aromas of apple, pear, honeysuckle, wet stone and an overall minerality. On the palate it was elegant, light and delicate - and had an almost cheesiness to the flavour, according to one of my table mates. It was a medium dry wine with high acidity and a medium plus finish. This wine was rated as Very Good and had ageing potential (as do most Rieslings).

The second was also form Rheingau and was a 2007 August Kessler Spatlese Riesling ($92). As with a lot of aged Rieslings, the petrol smell almost knocked me off my seat. There was a lot of complexity including peach, apricot, honey, and, again, minerality. The sweet wine had long length and was an intense wine so I gave it an Outstanding rating. Great to drink now (11 years in) but also has super potential to age.

We then looked at Austria. Although Riesling is important here, Gruner Veltliner and Welschriesling (not related to Riesling) are also important whites. The reds that are popular are Zweigelt (purple flesh as well as skins so makes really deep colour wines), Blaufrankisch (really great wines) and St. Laurent (similar to Pinot Noir).

Austria has a similar classification system to Germany, especially with their Pradikat system. All of the wine regions are in the east part of the country as the west is full of the Alps.

We tried a red and a white from Austria.

The white was a 2016 Gruner Veltliner from Domaine Wachau ($36). This wine was a Smaragd wine which mean it had higher alcohol. I smelled and tasted nectarine, apple, peach, pepper, and it had an overall steely flavour. It was a Good wine in my opinion. It had some complexity and intensity but the length and body were just OK.

 

The red from Austria was 2014 Moric Blaufrankisch Reserve ($59) from Burgenland.  I've never had a Blaufrankisch before but I will certainly have one again! It had intense aromas of black currant, black cherry, fig, and clove. On the palate was also black plum, tobacco and cedar. This wine had high acid, medium alcohol, high tannins and a long finish. Ready for ageing and Outstanding!

Greece has been making wine for a long time. A really long time. Of the 200 varieties, we looked at three - two reds - Xinomavro (from Macedonia) and Agiorgtko (north of the Peloponnese) - and a white - Assyrtiko (from Santorini Island). We had the opportunity to try all three!

The first was a 2015 Boutari Agiorgtko ($28). It had some interesting aromas including red fruit, raisin, and sweet spices. Overall, it was a dry wine with high acid, medium tannins and medium body. Although balanced and fairly complex, it was not that intense and didn't have a long finish. Drink now - rated Good.

The second was the white - a 2015 Alpha Estate Assyrtiko ($38). This was a bit better wine with lots of stone fruits as well as lemon and wet stones. It did have a bit of a short finish but had nice ageing potential. It was rated as Very Good.

The final Greek wine was a 2013 Averoff Xinomavro ($39). This one really did taste like Nebbiolo - I could definitely smell roses on the nose, as well as red fruit like cranberry and strawberry. Like Nebbiolo, this wine could age - in fact, probably should as the tannins were gigantic in this wine! Also Very Good. 

The area of Hungary that we looked at was that Tokaj region. Although they make some dry wines, the area is most famous for its wonderful sweet wines. When we were in Las Vegas earlier this year, I had a Tokaji with Foie Gras and I thought that I'd died and gone to heaven!

We tried just one Tokaji - a 2009 Chateau Derezsla ($56) made from Furmint and Harslevlu grapes. It had a 5 Puttonyos sweetness rating which is quite sweet. It is an amazing wine with peach, apricot, cloves, lychee and honey on the nose and passion fruit, marmalade, honey and pineapple on the palate. This wine is Outstanding. You could tell by the fact that, instead of the usual spitting of wines, everyone in the class seemed to be slowly sipping and savouring this fantastic wine!

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!

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!