Tag: France

WSET Advanced

2007 Faiveley “Paulée” Bourgogne

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, pale to med- garnet
Nose: clean, med+ intensity, developing, strawberry, spice, spice, savoury
Mouth: dry, light bodied, med+ acidity, low to med- tannin, med alcohol, med- to med length, spice, redcurrant
All in all: Very good quality; drink now.

We compared this basic Bourgogne to a Premier Cru Burgundy that was thirty dollars more. This is great value for a basic Pinot without breaking the bank. I’ve heard mixed reviews about this wine in particular, but you really get that true Burgundian character out of this for every single dollar. Sure – it lacks a bit of haunting secondary character you might expect from a red Burgundy, but that’s why it’s 20 dollars. I’m not entirely sure why, but my table had a hard time determining which of the two wines was which.… read more

WSET Advanced

1998 Les Plantiers du Haut-Brion Pessac-Leognan

Posted on by Josh

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


… read more

WSET Advanced

2000 Chateau Broustet Barsac Sauternes

Posted on by Josh

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

WSET Advanced

2008 Chateau Grand Mayne Saint-Émilion Grand Cru Classé

Posted on by Josh

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

WSET Advanced

2010 Chateau Roc de Segur Bordeaux Supérieur

Posted on by Josh

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

WSET Advanced

NV Breton Vouvray “La Dilettante” Crémant de Loire

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, pale lemon
Nose: clean, med+ intensity, developing, lots of mineral, reserved fruit, touch of yeast, bitter edge, green apple
Mouth: dry, med bodied, med+ acid, med length
All in all: Good to very good quality; drink now, but has potential for ageing.

[Retried in February 2014]

So basically everything that was tasted during the latter half of this day was rushed, which resulting in the shittiest, most rushed (and incomplete) tasting notes ever (so messy that I can’t even read them). All due to the fact that our exam was right after our sparklings, anyways. 

I’m slightly disappointed I didn’t write more about this wine! In theory it’s interesting:
1) Having the “Vouvray” sub-region designation, we know that it’s 100% Chenin Blanc, which is my favourite white grape (for now, anyways).… read more

Quaffing

2010 Alain Brumont Gros Manseng – Sauvignon Blanc

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, med lemon
Nose: clean, med+ intensity, youthful, mineral, pink grapefruit, citrus, nuances of stone fruit, slight grassiness
Mouth: dry, med+ acid, med bodied, med- length, med alcohol, med+ intensity, tart citrus explosion, mineral
All in all: Good quality; drink now.

Unpopular opinion, but I mostly hate Halloween. I mean, it’s nice to hang out with friends, eat candy, carve pumpkins, and eat pumpkin-flavoured things, but seeing drunk-ass half-dressed teenagers à la Mean Girls gets tiring, annoying, and mind-grating, and all I want to do on Halloween is lock myself in my room and do homework. Of course that all changes when you go on Facebook seeing everyone have fun but you, and you wish you weren’t such a bitter old man stuck in a college-boy’s body.… read more

Tasting

I NEED A BIGGER KNIFE. (UBC Wine Tasting Sesh #2)

Posted on by Josh

Long-ass day. Doesn’t seem so bad in retrospect, but I woke up early for a 9AM thing at UBC, took the 99 to the last stop for work, and then needed to travel all the way back to UBC to lead Part 2 of the sort-of-intro-to-wine themed tasting, all while wearing pants that weren’t jeans, one of those shirts you’d hate to spill wine on, and shoes that didn’t fit just enough to make my feet cry. The garb was fitting for all of the day’s events but for this day in particular, I would defs have lead a wine tasting wearing nothing but seven layers of random comfortable 7-foot-long linens, cinnamon-bun-Homer-Simpson style. I was that uncomfortable (ugh rain + sickness).… read more

Quaffing

nine bottles for six bodies

Posted on by Josh

Yeah – part of my job is that I get to taste a lot of wines. It’s really helping with stressful midterm season, and my co-workers and I decided to taste some stuff at one of our houses (Thanks! I’m sure we annoyed your neighbours oops). Unfortunately one of us was sick and couldn’t make it, which really sucks because we tasted some pretty cool things, but I guess more wine for us OH WELL.

Also, we all had these blind with the exception for the last one, which is always fun. I’m glad everyone waited for a co-worker and I to close and travel to the place – I’m sure everyone was itching to open the first bottle, which was delish.… read more

Tasting

wine 101 @ UBC

Posted on by Josh

So yeah! I led the first tasting of this school year at the UBC Wine Tasting Club. It was awesome and complete with me spilling wine while demonstrating swirling, me speaking horrendously quietly and fast while avoiding the tens and tens of eyes on me, and me silently freaking out and wondering if people were getting bored as I barked on and on about the noble grape varieties. Which is great, because that’s me being normal.

Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating.

What was also fantastic was that Holly brought her Le Nez du Vin set which was amazingly fun. People were trying to quiz each other with smells or just smelled the little vials in general. My favourite picture was the one with the goat-looking beast with weird fangs (“Musk”).… read more