Tasting Notes:
Eyes: clear, med gold
Nose: oxidizzled
Mouth: oxidizzled
All in all: oxidizzled
Oxidized bottle 🙁 What a shame. I’m jealous that other wine friends got to try non-ruined bottles.
Producer: Les Plantiers du Haut-Brion
Designation: N/A
Region: France
Sub-Region: Pessac-Leognan, Bordeaux
Variety: Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc
ABV: ?
Vintage: 1998
Tasted: May 27, 2012
Price: $75
Tasting Notes:
Eyes: clear, deep gold
Nose: clean, med intensity, developing, honey, marmalade, vegetal, rubber, pineapple, dried apricot, spice, botrytis
Mouth: sweet, med bodied, med+ acidity, long length, med+ intensity
All in all: Very good quality; Drink now, but has potential for ageing.
Excuse the partially incomplete tasting notes. I feel like I’m noticing a pattern with this particular instructor on the 
first day of classes – opening with Champagne, and ending with a dessert wine. Perfect.
I find it hard to rate dessert wines. As evolutionary organisms, we are inclined to love sweet things because they contain carbohydrates. Although that last sentence can be easily given a nod, it can just as easily receive a furrowed brow when you try a sweet wine that is cloying, or having no acidity to balance it out, and you have an unclean sweetness not unlike the sensation of drinking maple syrup.… read more
Tasting Notes:
Eyes: clear, deep ruby (to slight purple)
Nose: clean, med+ intensity, developing, spice, dried black fruit, oak, raisins
Mouth: dry, med+ body, med+ acid, med tannins, med to med+ length, high alcohol, med+ intensity, dried black fruit
All in all: Very good quality; can drink now, but has potential for ageing.
I distinctly remember having the exact same wine for the Intermediate level of WSET and it’s so easy to see why a relatively new wine drinker (especially someone more akin to the more masculine and hearty grapes), would like something like this. This is an intense, big, and well-concentrated wine that made me fall in love with Zinfandel, much to the dismay of other wine enthusiasts who gave me a look whenever I told them Zinfandel was my favourite grape (at the time).… read more
So 2013 marks the beginning of my new academic path in oenology + viticulture, and confirms the termination of my previous path in Cognitive Systems. Out of the three main streams (oenology, viticulture, terroir) and one sub stream (wine business) I’ve created for myself in this degree, I’m taking two each in oenology and viticulture this next term. Although the idea of studying plant genomics in terms of wine grapes seems amazing (cue entrance of Jancis Robinson/Julia Harding/José Vouillamoz and Wine Grapes), I’ve trained the other half of my brain to play the opposition, here, because it’s so easy to get misled by the romance of an idea. Now all I have to do is get past these stupid exams this term.… read more
Tasting Notes:
Eyes: clear, pale lemon
Nose: clean, med+ to pronounced intensity, youthful, floral, green fruit, citrus, grassy, grapefruit, green bell peppers, vegetal, asparagus, dill
Mouth: dry (to off-dry?), high acidity, med length, med+ to pronounced intensity, med- alcohol, vegetal, green apple citrus, tangy
All in all: Good quality; drink now, not intended for ageing.
I don’t remember this entirely, but I think it’s quite interesting to note that that there was either some amount of residge on the palate from that riper New World style of Sauvignon Blanc, which might put off some, but I would argue that it’s quite interesting and adds complexity. Quite a decently complex wine with a punch of aromas. Pair that with some great balance and intensity, and you have a winner.… read more
Tasting Notes:
Eyes: clear, deep ruby
Nose: clean, med+ intensity, developing, darker fruit, peppery, oak, soy
Mouth: dry, med+ body, med+ acidity, med tannin, med+ to long length, med+ alcohol, med+ intensity, lush
All in all: Good to very good quality; drink now, but has potential for ageing.
It’s so tough. A wine like this has all the ingredients for a wine intended for 
ageing: a good amount of tannin, a good amount of acidity, and the beginnings of some youthful characteristics that can develop. The problem is that this wine, for the time being, is still quite amazingly boring. You can probably find the a similar blend from Southern France with the sacrifice of not having an age-worthy wine.
Much like the wine we compared this to, I mistook it for an Aussie Shiraz (eek…might have been what I’m guessing is an uncalibrated morning palate or the power of suggestion).… read more
Things change. People procrastinate. I am that complete snob in the fourth row of my algorithms class, reading about the granite soils of Beaujolais instead of listening to the professor show us how hash tables (hash functions? double hashing? hash keys? hash browns?) work. I’ve prepared the interview question but I’ve unsurprisingly never been asked: one of my biggest weaknesses is the fact that I’m interested in a vast amount of things such that I can often lose track, but at the same time, get really dedicated to an idea if I feel so inspired by it.
It was around a year and a half ago, where three of my best friends and I hung out after the riot-inducing Canucks playoff game.… read more
Tasting Notes:
Eyes: clear, med+ ruby
Nose: clean, med intensity, youthful, candied red fruit, prune
Mouth: dry, high acidity, med- body, med- tannin, med- length, med- intensity, med+ alcohol
All in all: Good quality; drink now, but not intended for ageing.
A blind tasting guess of an Aussie Shiraz might give you an indication of what 
this was like. Jammy, candied, and probably catered to the ever-so-slightly-sweet-impression-but-still-dry palate of the New World’s consumer palate. It seems, though, that I shaved some points of for a slight lack in balance and intensity. The length and complexity were also lacking, and this is definitely not what I would call a typical Merlot-dominated Bordeaux. It would break my heart to see people think that this was a classic example.… read more
Tasting Notes:
Eyes: clear, med- ruby
Nose: clean, med intensity, youthful, dried cherry, confectionary (turkish delight), cola, bubble gum
Mouth: dry, med- body, low acidity, med- length, med+ alcohol, low intensity, low tannin, slight tartness, dilute
All in all: Do not want.
Haha, after having come together for a small meeting at school (UBC 
Wine Tasting Club collaborated with le Club Français UBC), I did a bit of wine research and writing blog posts and what have you. You know, instead of doing homework. So, after, instead of going home from school like a good boy, I caved in on my own desires and stopped by a different branch of the private liquor store I work at. I ended up spending a ridiculous amount of time there, and left with 6 bottles even though I planned to maybe buy 1 or 2 at the most.… read more
Tasting Notes:
Eyes: clear, med lemon
Nose: clean, med intensity, petrol, riper fruit than Kabinett, peach, sulfur
Mouth: medium sweetness, med- body, med+ acid, med length, low alcohol, med intensity
All in all: Good quality; drink now, but has potential for ageing.
Such a shame, and it’s the same story as the Kabinett in the same family that we compared it to. Nose had a nice proportion of fruit but was also dominated by the matchstick-y quality.
Although I detected the body to be med- and almost med, it turns out that this wine is a weirdly light 7 percent when it comes to the ABV. Guess I need more practice, or it’s just harder to taste in the morning.
Producer: Schloss Lieser
Designation: Thomas Haag Lieser Niederberg Helden Auslese
Region: Germany
Sub-Region: Mosel
Variety: Riesling
ABV: 7%
Vintage: 2008
Tasted: May 26, 2012
Price: $61
