Days are leading up to the wine fest. Not that it’s daunting or anything – if that’s how I’m making it seem – but I’m purposefully not training my palate for the Shiraz-fest to come in favour of gracing my mouth with more refreshing whites. I’m sort of mirroring the sunny weather we’ve been having in the form of alcohol, and I find that it also helps to have some inspiring wine when you feel anything but. Yesterday’s Martin Códax “Burgáns” 2010 Rías Baixas ($25) was just that – perhaps not as fresh as it should be at that age, but bringing an unintentional spotlight to its funky hint of brine, along with something that seemed a bit nutty and yeasty amongst its peachy fruit.… read more
WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 15: Germany
It’s been a weird past couple of weeks. I don’t know why I think it’s necessary for me to mention that I moved onto my first iPhone, but I’m going to: I’ve moved onto my first iPhone. And I instantly turned into the person I thought I would never be – the person constantly glued to their screen, swiping down on every app just to refresh what might be minuscule and insignificant updates that other people filter just so their lives look more entertaining than yours. I’m making it seem like I’m much older than I am, which seems to be a shitty inadvertent theme anyways?
Fancy dinner on some Sunday. It was great. I shall not talk about the accidental crunchy journey home because it’ll give you more fodder to poke at what might be my already hilarious life, but I’m still mentioning its existence because it makes me look mysterious even though what it should make me look like is gross.… read more
WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 14: Business of Wine
Woah! I’m feeling mighty uninspired. I think it might have to do with the clouds and rain, which are normally quite nice, but something’s blocking my brain and I feel like I have to obligatorily blame it on the weather. Maybe I need to watch a movie, or go on a mini vacation, or just hug someone for a really long time. It sure is an excuse to get juices flowing with actual alcoholic juice, but I’m going to not because my brain is telling me no. (Which means it’s going to be one can of beer or just a hint of scotch. And then maybe more scotch.)
Two weeks ago, I skipped class on southern Italy to attend an afternoon whisky seminar followed by a sobering nap.… read more
Josh tastes 173 BC wines
I tasted 173 BC wines in a row which was both fun and exciting but kind of slightly vexing, like if you took Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” and replaced that phrase with “Meritage” for the entire duration of the song, and then played the song 50 times in a row.
But yes – the whole ordeal was partial torture because there was a huge dominance in obvious homogeneity for heavier reds, and it becomes tough to evaluate wines when the only ones that stick out are the ones that are “different”. It’s easy to write something off as boring when it’s actually rather decent quality, so perhaps it’s safer to treat my tasting notes as a progressive story of me gently losing my mind rather than an actual set of viable records.… read more
WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 11: Central Italy
Sangio-crazy.
So on some last Tuesday of some sort, we were supposed to have practice (I love referring to practice blind tasting sessions as such because it sounds like I’m vaguely into sports) but it was cancelled because there’s a bit of a cold going around. The viruses have decided disregard me over the past few months so I’m lucky, and that’s saying something when you’re in retail because you’re basically touching everyone. I’ll get it at the worst time, I’m sure. That one birthday when I invited my friends over but was wrapped up in a blanket the whole time.
I hopped onto the 2015 Vancouver Wine Festival tickets slightly more ravenously than I did for Lady Gaga concert tickets last year, even though I’m not supremely stoked that Australia is the theme country.… read more
Dad blinds me on some wine
What does it mean when you’re at a coffee shop, sitting at the window, glancing at the outside world as a lively background to illustrated maps of Italy on your computer, when people walk by and do a double take as they see you? Either I’m particularly handsome today or I’m off my game either today or always. Or I’m radiantly ugly or whatever.
But yes. It’s been a productive day of studying northern and central Italy, mapping out the budding and ripening nuances of the numerous grapes, matching up soil types to regions, and learning about the wines. Dreadful. I love Italy, but it’s basically like untangling a really big bowl of spaghetti. It’s fun, sans the history-laden parts, which – yes – I know are super important, but I’m just tossing those parts aside until later when I really want to fall asleep or something.… read more
WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 10: Piemonte and Veneto
Back to reality. It seems like everyone around me is getting post-holiday ailments but I’m doing my best to survive. The holidays were fun but thankfully, they’re never really over-the-top for me (besides last year’s Soave incident). I swatted all New Year’s Eve plans out of my view in favour for cooking myself a meal, drinking a bottle of wine, and sleeping at around midnight: and you’d think that would end up totally bumming me out, but I had a satisfying sleep as the planet fully rotated into 2015, and I woke up at a decent hour to do some wine reading.
I’m riveting. I know. No hangover: that was a thing, though!
I’m not the biggest fan of New Year’s resolutions, mostly because I don’t plan that far ahead, and because I think it’s weird to make weird and shallow decisions at some quasi-arbitrary time of the year.… read more
Cantina Valpantena 2012 “Torre del Falasco” Valpolicella Ripasso
For some reason I’m never drawn to Valpolicella these days – or ever, really – but I hear its name pop up more than I’d expect. I can see it becoming a trendy wine in Vancouver (if not already), it being a middling restaurant-friendly red with a spiffy name and style versatility.
It’s been a while since I’ve had actively had one. More than two years ago. (Ew.)
Black cherry and cola are the main stars here, and there’s a subtle dried herby undergrowth on the nose. Sage, I think. I learned well about herbs that one time I bought a bunch of them to bake chicken, and there was that one golden moment where I’m sure I made the ghosts in the house laugh when I accidentally snorted dried marjoram.… read more
WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 9: Workshop #2
Okay, let’s be real here: it’s the holidays, and during the entirety of the WSET diploma, there was inevitably going to be at least one class that combined horribly with a hangover, and that day was today. I’m stubborn and quasi-meticulous: I’ve never missed a class nor have I ever not written about a wine we tried, but I just don’t have the willpower to give birth to separate posts this time around. Not that anyone’s really counting on me, anyways. Insert booing crowd here.
The last workshop we had consisted of one flight of three wines and some written practice. Today consisted of two flights of wine and no written practice (thank the gods), and we promised our instructor that we would practice on our own as if we were promising our parents to not have a house party while they were gone for a week.… read more
“Hot & Bothered” – Oh Land: Jean Foillard 2011 “Côte du Py” Morgon
[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 8: Burgundy]
There’s something really funky and weird about this wine, in an awesome way (though what isn’t funky and weird in Racine’s portfolio?). It’s strange for it to be introduced in class as our benchmark example of Beaujolais, with this eccentric combination of raspberry lambic beer, garden soil, a mouthful of red fruit, and a hint of spice and dirty socks. Not typical or traditional, in my opinion, but really cool, and I most certainly hope that something funky and sort of new age, for Beaujolais, strikes the fancy of more consumers. A pipe dream, perhaps, because I’ve heard this described as a wine that would get hipsters in New York hot and heavy.… read more