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
Tag: Life
Goodbye Cognitive Systems; Hello Oenology + Viticulture
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
Playing with Lego for University Credits
A really cool aspect of my major is that we get to build Lego robots in a third-year core lab course. So, essentially, our project is to code and actually have fun doing it, and while (ugh) I understand other normal courses are slightly more “practical” in the sense that, for example, we’re expected to implement a boring word-sorting algorithm for a programming project, this course wins hard in comparison. Word-sorting algorithms: I love you, but you aren’t made of colourful blocks that bring me back to my 6-year-old joys and wonderments. Okay – that was a blatant lie: the same friend that bought me my first serious bottle of wine also bought me my first lego set for my 18th birthday.… read more
I NEED A BIGGER KNIFE. (UBC Wine Tasting Sesh #2)
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
nine bottles for six bodies
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
wine 101 @ UBC
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
omg
Okay so clearly I haven’t updated in like, ever. Typing up tasting notes for all those wines proved to be a challenge and I eventually got sucked up at work and on personal programming projects. Who knows if I’ll ever get to those blog posts, but that’s okay. Because here’s a post.
I got my WSET advanced results back. I don’t normally brag, but I got a pass with distinction! #awyiss. Yeah. Exciting. And annoying for you. I’m sorry.
Also, I’m helping to lead a wine tasting at UBC this Friday. We’re going over the basics. Hurrah!
I thought I had lots to say but I don’t. So here’s a picture of a wine we might have on Friday.
WSET Advanced Course and Wines
My goodness – the six-day WSET Advanced classes really are intense – but not because it’s six days, but because I have to wake up at 7:30AM for two sets of three days in a row, when my current lazy summer schedule calls for me waking up past ten. I really don’t mind the long wine tasting sessions, except for the fact that the coffee buzz starts to wear off after lunch and all your energy goes into digesting, and you happen to find yourself at the literal almost-snore stage of drifting off during the time your wine instructor is in the middle of showing a video on German Riesling. To make matters worse, the lights are off during these videos, and then I realize it’s 12th grade history class all over again but with alcohol.… read more
Birthday 2012!
My regular birthday occurs at such an inconvenient time, so I decided on sone pseudo-arbitrary future date on which to PAR-TAY. In terms of wine, though – my friends are all across the board. Some don’t drink wine (ouch), some do, some prefer beer, some don’t drink at all – you know. I tried to select a bunch of wines that would be crowd pleasers, but not in that sort of overly sleazy way.
I ended up only being able to review the 2011 Chateau Cailleteau Bergeron Sauvignon Blanc and 2011 Wild Goose Autumn Gold beforehand, since I didn’t want to open the three sparkling wines (Cava, Moscato, Brachetto) that I did have until we wanted to drink them. We didn’t get to open any reds I had except for this generic and jammy Argentinian Malbec a friend bought.… read more