@sommeligay

The previous wine in this flight was a juicy and exuberant Loire Sauvignon Blanc. This second wine was the complete opposite, with super-restrained flavours hiding behind a shield of acid and maybe just a hint of texture. Everyone and I thought this was a Muscadet, which is a Loire wine made from the super-neutral Melon de Bourgogne grape. The grape is moulded into a textured and yeasty wine by processes involving storing the wine over fine lees (dead yeast cells), so all of it made sense, and almost everyone thought this was one of acceptable to good quality – lifeless but satisfactory.

So it turns out this was a 63-dollar wine from a well-reputed producer.… read more

WSET Diploma

Coteaux du who Sancerre what?: 2011 Henri Bourgeois “Terre de Fumée” Coteaux du Giennois

October 21, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 2: Loire Valley]

Second sesh of Unit 3 and we get Sauv Blanc in the first of our flight again, and despite how obvious the grape can seem, I always seem to slip it up. I thought it was some really weird Muscadet at first – which is inherently neutral – but then I went back to this one after smelling the second wine and I shamefully crossed out my first guess.

Coteaux du Giennois is down there with Quincy, Reuilly, and Menetou-Salon as the forgotten hard-to-pronounce children of the Central Vineyards in the Loire, overshadowed by the better-known and much more fashionable Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. Coteaux du Giennois is one of those extras you never think you’re gonna come across – so much that I didn’t bother taking notes on this area during my big Loire marathon last week – but hey: it turns out one or two of these wines exist in our market.… read more

Quaffing

Cream of Mushroom Wasabi: 2007 Domaine des Baumard Savennières Trie Speciale

October 21, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

Wasabi, out of all things, is the flavour benchmark that Master Sommelier Emily Wines gets out of Savennières. As if “earthy” and “mineral” weren’t strange enough to describe to people, we arrive at a wine that’s so weird – yet so classic – that it’s bound to split people in the middle like the burning tire and ash-scented South African Pinotage. Savennières is an appellation from the Loire Valley in France that produces dry, concentrated, and fundamentally non-fruity wines from Chenin Blanc, and Baumard makes exceptional and superlative examples described by Jancis Robinson as “a wine for intellectuals, not neophytes.” That’s the most shade I’ve ever seen anyone throw from within an encyclopedia.

It’s one of those wines that’s hard to put into words: so much, that it almost sounds disgusting on paper, but experiencing the wine – without sounding too ridiculous about it – really is sort of otherworldly.… read more

Life · WSET Diploma

WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 1

October 8, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

Dear Diary,

Like some sort of academic pregnancy, I will subject the next 9 months of my life to some form of patient growing of what is hopefully my knowledge of wine. And I will subsequently hope that, somewhere, my diploma will be birthed out of a printer in the UK by some person whose accent sounds equally as charming as it is foreign – yet familiar, like fusion cuisine or a fucked up awesome bottle of sparkling Jura.

I can feel it already – I won’t have time to write to you about people for whom my heart beats, and instead I’ll be on my knees begging the Gods to reveal to me why I can’t tell the difference between a Grecian Xinomavro and a Piedmontese Nebbiolo.… read more

WSET Diploma

I don’t even know why I guessed Hermitage: 2011 Emiliana “Coyam”

October 8, 2014November 17, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma Unit 3 – Week 1]

I don’t even know why I guessed Hermitage, because I’ve never had one, and there’s no way they’re going to display something that rare (in this market) and expensive on the first day. But sometimes it’s almost like designing (or maybe I’m just watching too much Project Runway in between my tasks which results in garbage fashion analogies), because given the circumstances, it’s important to make it look (or taste) expensive. Or something like that. Maybe ignore this paragraph.

The reveal of Chile seemed so obvious, afterwards, though before landing in the northern Rhône I did venture a Touriga Nacional-based blend from Portugal, if that gives you any more idea about how punchy yet spicy and earthy this was.… read more

WSET Diploma

Chiantioja: 2002 Lopez de Heredia “Vina Tondonia” Reserva

October 8, 2014November 17, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 1]

Yeah! Rioja stunner on the first day.

In the first few wafts of the wine, you get this intoxicating and familiar savoury soy characteristic which sort of masks the dried red fruit and makes it seem more brooding than it is. That soy quality is a common benchmark in aged Rioja, for sure, but there’s something about this that yelled Sangiovese to me. Both Chianti Classico and Rioja Reserva see oak, though the former sees a minimum of 7 months while the latter sees a minimum of 12 months. Oak is still something I struggle with, and I’m sure there’s a wood joke in there somewhere that I’m not going to bother venturing because it seems suspiciously easy.… read more

WSET Diploma

And we’ll never be royals: 2012 Maison des Bulliats Régnié

October 8, 2014November 17, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 1]

It only strikes me now how overlapped the Venn diagram between Gamay and Barbera can be – both tend towards high acid and spicy red fruit, though both also grow differently and can be vinified differently in different subregions. Purer red fruit, for example, in Barbera d’Asti, and a bit spicier and darker in Barbera d’Alba, sort of like how you can get estery Gamay from Beaujolais Nouveau over to the earthier and grittier cru Beaujolais like this one. And suddenly my Sansa Stark = Cru Beaujolais and Arya Stark = Barbera d’Alba analogy sort of makes more sense.

This wasn’t as complex as a Sansa Stark though. Spicy red fruits, yes, and a nice glowing acidity, but mostly fresh, and just fresh – and sometimes it’s hard to be a fresh red.… read more

WSET Diploma

Thinking ’bout Gew: 2012 Domaine Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer

October 8, 2014November 17, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 1]

It’s often hard to forget grapes like Gewurztraminer. I adore how Oz Clarke describes the grape as wanting to “please everybody”, such that it dolls itself up: it’s voluptuous, perfumed, and heady. At times, it reminds me of either the quirky and suave fellow or the aunt who seems to only appear at those family gatherings and you know she’s just there because you can smell the perfume from miles away. That’s the classic Alsatian expression, of course, and there exist some leaner examples which are delicious but are almost disappointing when all you want are, according to Oz Clarke, “clouds of Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium, Calvin Klein’s Obsession and Giorgio of Beverley Hills to billow out before you, announcing the arrival of the one grape no one can resist.”… read more

WSET Diploma

“This bitch is definitely going to order a Pumpkin Spice Latte”: 2013 Bellingham “The Bernard Series” Vieilles Vignes Chenin Blanc

October 7, 2014November 17, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 1]

I’ve had this wine in class before. And then I had it in a restaurant forgetting that I had it in class before. And then I had it in class again – and I thought the wine was fantastic all three times. Besides the change from “Old Vines” to “Vieilles Vignes”, I’m stoked that my tasting notes were generally in the same camp. The first time around we were given 5 white wines to match with 5 different grape varieties so Chenin Blanc was basically a given, but this time around it was a little tougher.

I mean, you smell heavy oak and baked apple on the nose with that identical echo on the palate, and you immediately think new world oaked Chardonnay.… read more

WSET Diploma

Untuned Violin: 2011 Château Grand Renom Bordeaux Blanc

October 7, 2014November 17, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 1]

Inaugural WSET Diploma Unit 3 wine! In other words, it’s the wine that begins the descent into the most tortuous unit of the whole shindig. The first sip has sealed the deal and I feel like I’ve sold my soul to the devil. What have I done?!

Sauvignon Blanc is such a gettable grape that it almost freaks me out that it didn’t come to me on the first sniff. Simple minerals and citrus, I thought, so this must be a run-of-the-mill white bread Pinot Grigio from Italy. Luckily the two other white wines in the flight were distinct – from the baked apple and oaky glass of the second, to the soft floral lychee of the third – so when I came back to the first wine the typical greenness was a little more evident.… read more