Tag Archives: WSET

Cheers!

ImageIt came in the big envelope, which almost always means good news. I passed my WSET Foundation exam! Scoring a 97, HubbyDoug wondered aloud, “What happened to the other 3 percent?!” Quite the joker, he is. To celebrate, he decided to play sommelier and chose a ’10 Sean Minor Pinot Noir. Lovely! As we sipped, I thought about how long it had been since I had to commit facts and details to memory; it had been a while. As it turned out, I didn’t need to worry. 

My brain isn’t quite as mushy as I thought.

Cheers!

 

Corked

I’m not one to make a fuss but this was bad. That said, the beautiful thing about wine is that myriad styles can produce different scents and flavours ranging from floral to fruity to earthy and leathery. These are elements that may be pleasing, or not, depending on one’s own personal taste. For instance, I might like my reds to taste a little like mushrooms and wet leaves and molasses; you might enjoy one more jammy with a toasty-chocolatey vibe. And that’s okay. That’s what we love.

In the WSET course, we learned about what scents can be expected from good wines but also how to determine if there are faults ~ primarily whether a wine is corked. Cork taint in wine happens when naturally occurring fungus in the cork comes into contact with chlorides in bleach and other components used in winery sterilization. This creates the chemical compound TCA  (2,4,6 – trichloranisole) and it can affect not only the bottle but the entire winery. It’s a main reason why most wineries no longer use chlorine based products for sanitation. What does it taste like? Imagine chewing on a piece of wet, moldy cardboard. And while it poses no health threat if you drink corked wine, I can’t imagine why you’d want to. Blech.

So I did something I never do in a restaurant. I sent it back. It took a bit of deliberation because I used to think it was really officious of someone to send back a bottle; I mean who do they think they are?? And I think if you do it politely (as we did), it makes it easier for everyone. When you buy premium wine by the bottle, you should get what you’re paying for. It also helps make the restaurant aware of any problems with the wine they stock.

So the next time you’re dining out and find what’s in your glass is smelling like soggy cardboard, don’t be afraid. Send it back. You’re  paying a lot for that vintage ~ it really should be good to the last drop.

Cheers!

©TheWineStudent, 2013

Mother’s Day Mimosa Magic!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother’s Day!

It was the warm scent of cinnamon buns that got my feet on the floor. And when I got to the kitchen, I found another surprise of fresh coffee, my favorite flower (the Gerbera) and a champagne flute filled with a Mimosa. As I sipped and enjoyed, I thought a lot about my mother, whom I miss every day, and hope has found a good Mimosa and Martini in heaven. I also thought about being a mother. I remembered how nervous I was at the beginning and how, when my girl first arrived, I looked at her with the split-second, terrified thought of ‘now what?!’ But together with HubbyDoug, I managed to make it through those first awkward days and settle into raising a really good kid.

Part of the sleight-of-hand you perform as a mom is being able to juggle things that come up in your child’s life. You adjust your schedule accordingly, and effortlessly leave them all puzzling how you did it. Tomorrow night is my last class of the WSET wine course. And tomorrow night, my girl is receiving an academic award from her high school. There’s no question as to where I’ll be. As much as I’d love to sample some of the food and wine pairings, it’s okay to cut class. I wouldn’t miss seeing my girl receive something she’s worked so hard for all year.

To all of you Moms who work your magic all year long,  Happy Mother’s Day!

Cheers!

©TheWineStudent, 2013

Wine 101 ~ Autumn Harvest

Grapes on the vine ~ ready to be picked

Grapes on the vine ~ ready to be picked

September, to me, always means two things: back to school (whether I’m going or not) and the grape harvest. This year, I am planning to go back to school for the WSET Foundation Course through the American Wine School here in Cleveland. For four weeks, I’ll learn the basics about how to taste, serve, buy and store wine, and get a little introduction to food and wine pairing. It’ll be great knowledge for my trip to California Wine Country in November. More about that in future posts.

So, I’m back to the study hall and today’s subject: harvest and white wine production.

The harvest itself can be done in two ways:

Machine harvest is by far the quickest and most efficient but it is very costly. It can also be a little heavy on the grapes, and depending on the variety, can damage or minimize the flavor. You have to have the correct vineyard setup (your vines must be straight), and it doesn’t lend well to grading. This is a task that can’t be done afterwards; you have to go through the vineyard before the machines ever start up.

Manual harvest allows you to grade or sort as you go, and allows for the removal of low quality and damaged fruit. This, in turn, can maximize potential quality and flavor of the product.

Harvest ~ JustinSullivan/Getty Images

Harvest ~ Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Once the grapes are harvested, sorted and graded, they go to the ‘crusher’ for stem removal. If stems are left on in the pressing, the wine can become bitter, thereby reducing the quality of the wine. Who wants bitter wine?

Main steps for white wine:

First, it’s a must that I talk about must. Sorry. I know that’s a bad groaner, but I had to.  Must is ~ the juice, seeds, pulp and skins from the grape. All of it (except stems) is thrown into the press.

Juice is extracted from the must and then sent to the fermentation vessel (barrel, tank or concrete lined).

Yeast is added next to convert grape sugars into alcohol. When all the sugars are finally converted, the yeast dies and fermentation stops.

Voila! We have white wine.

The whole process for white wine takes from between 5 ~ 15 days. Smaller batches allow for more finely tuned wine making. A large batch might give you a bigger yield but the result will be a less finely nuanced wine. Sometimes great things can come in smaller packages.

Any winemaker would say that there is so much more that goes into the process than that, and I agree. You have to take into account the weather, how the growing seasons were up to harvest time, canopy management, terroir, among other things. All have  great influence on what ends up in the bottle and eventually in your glass. I’ll get to those elements in greater depth as we go along, but this is a general overview of the basics.

Next study hall, I’ll write more about the influence that yeast in particular has on making or breaking a wine.

Cheers!