Tag: Pinot Noir

WSET Diploma

Like a supermodel: Abel’s Tempest 2012 Pinot Noir

Posted on by Josh

Abel's Tempest 2012 Pinot Noir[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 7: Australia]

The wine was kinda like a supermodel, we sort of agreed: pretty, but just a tad skinny. Not in an overtly negative way, of course, but just as part of its personality: the wine did have a good level of intensity and concentration, even though some complexity and length was left to the imagination.

For old world Pinot, I find that there can be that difficult balance between being elegant and being watery. There’s a bit of a parallel in warmer regions, where you don’t want to amp up the volume too much, since excessive ripeness can take over Pinot’s elegance. So it’s great that Pinot is being grown in the cooler pockets like the Yarra Valley and Tasmania, where we can find ballsier but balanced versions of Pinot Noir.… read more

WSET Diploma

First impression over the second: Charles Sparr 2011 Cuvée Tradition Pinot Noir

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Charles Sparr 2011 Cuvée Tradition Pinot Noir[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 5: Alsace]

We’ve started off with the red in our flight of eight Alsatian wines, because Alsatian Pinot Noir is arguably softer and more delicate than its steely whites. I don’t remember the last time I’ve even had an Alsatian Pinot Noir, but it makes total sense that the cool climate region chooses Pinot Noir out of all red grape varieties to specialize in. Alsace tends to produce lighter styles compared to Burgundy with noticeably paler colour and softer texture, but for me it’s been personally hard to generalize because you just don’t see it much in this market, ever. The grape puts a small dent in the total plantings of grapes in Alsace, at around 10 percent.… read more

WSET Diploma

Mud House, in the middle of our street: Mud House 2010 Pinot Noir

Posted on by Josh

Mud House 2009 Pinot Noir[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 4: Workshop]

The third wine in our flight of three was most certainly the ripest in its fruit and probably the most intense as well (though the instructor aptly reminded us that this isn’t necessarily an indicator of quality).

The fuller-bodied and ripe red fruit along with the fair amount of acidity shouted New Zealand to me, and the guess of Martinborough was something I sort of partially pulled from thin air. Apparently Martinborough Pinots tend to be the most Burgundian, tending towards spice and plummy fruit, while Marlborough is lighter and more cheery in its red fruit. Central Otago Pinot Noir expresses itself toward that darker end of the red fruit spectrum and usually has a bit of a green note which I’ve heard manifests itself in a sage-like aroma.… read more

WSET Diploma

Halloween candy: Mark West 2012 Pinot Noir

Posted on by Josh

Mark West 2012 Pinot Noir[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 4: Workshop]

The second wine in our flight of three was clearly the lowest quality, though perhaps premature conclusions were drawn just from smelling the three without having tasted them yet. It’s that sort of jammy strawberry and vanilla thing, but it’s not a complex strawberry compote sort of deal. Maybe kind of like those Campino candy things without the yogurt connotation (and maybe even worse than that), but maybe candy is on my mind because I haven’t had my fair share of Halloween treats this year. Hrmph. I suppose this comes close. I mean it’s an orange label.

The palate seals the deal with a lightly-bodied wine and almost no acid to balance out the sweetness, but I suppose the saccharine fruit superficially lengthens the flavours on the back palate.… read more

WSET Diploma

I need to drink more Burgundy: Domaine Pavelot 2010 “Les Vergelesses” Pernand-Vergelesses

Posted on by Josh

Domaine Pavelot 2010 "Les Vergelesses" Pernand-Vergelesses[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 4: Workshop]

Out of the three wines we tried in our flight of, this was definitely the most old world – that is, the most earthy and austere, with fruits in the red section of the spectrum but geared towards a bit of a pleasant sour unripeness, so much that if you had me smell (but not taste) this blind not knowing the other two wines in the flight, I may have guessed something like Sangiovese, which is sort of known for just that. Sangiovese has much more tannin and scratch, though, while this was quite soft.

I remember studying a bit of Pernand-Vergelesses mostly when committing Burgundy’s Côte d’Or to memory for the CMS Certified Sommelier exam, and my imprecise definition of the area is a mere blob of an appellation within the Savigny-lès-Beaune appellation in the Côte de Beaune. … read more

Tasting

Wine Bloggers Conference 2014 – Speed Tasting i.e. Tinder for Wines

Posted on by Josh

Speed tasting. It’s one of the unique events of the Wine Bloggers Conference that’s always explained to you if you’ve never heard of the WBC before, kind of like the warning nod of the hangover to the newly legal. It’s always described as “speed dating but with wine” – though in this case, it’s only a one-way road of looking at your date in disgust. So there’s a plus, and it’s sort of like a Tinder swipe-left-or-right sort of situation.

In the essence of the Live Wine Blogging event, you have 50 minutes to taste through 10 wines. In each 5-minute session, the winery representative pours you wine and gives you a bit of a quick overview before moving on to the next table.… read more

Life · Tasting

2014 Vancouver International Wine Festival – Wine Tour de France Seminar

Posted on by Josh

This year’s wine fest kicked off with me doing the blind tasting challenge on the Wednesday – the rest of my day consisted of lunch with colleagues, errands involving heavy lifting, and then seeing the new Lego movie. I didn’t get as much sleep as I wanted, which is an obvious call for trouble: the next day started off with a France-themed tasting at 9:30AM; the big, busy, and irritating trade tasting at 2:30PM; and an exciting Bourgogne-themed tasting at 5PM. A day full of constant mouth stimuli.

Since this was one of the trade tastings (opposed to a consumer one), there were lots of familiar faces. But I shamelessly admit that any human interaction is personally difficult and gruelling before 11AM (or maybe I’m just a naturally horrible human being), and so I sat down on one of the seats, smiled at the 12 glasses in front of me, got my notebook ready, and did my best not to spill anything.… read more

Quaffing

The Two-Day Crush: 2012 Sacchetto Pinot Nero

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Note:

Eyes: clear, med- ruby, legs, (med viscosity)
Nose: clean, med+ intensity, youthful, red fruit, fruity, strawberries, raspberries, earth, mineral, spice, hint cola, jam, floral
Mouth: dry (almost off-dry), med- body, low acidity, med- coarse tannin, med+ flavour intensity, med alcohol, med- length, red fruit, strawberries, hint cherry, mineral, cola, brush of dark fruit, hint herbal, velvety
All in all: (Acceptable to) Good quality: the wine’s strength lies in its hedonistic and varietally correct intensity, though there is a lack in length, complexity, and structure. Drink now; not suitable for ageing.

2012 Sacchetto Pinot NeroFor a bottle surrounded by mostly rustic Italian wines of sour cherry earthiness – here, we have a wine that maybe seems more than a little out of place. … read more

WSET Diploma

2011 Ata Rangi “Crimson” Pinot Noir

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Note:

Eyes: clean, med- ruby, legs
Nose: clean, med+ intensity, youthful, red fruit, strawberries, cherries, raspberries, spice, cloves, nutmeg, mushroom, herbal, earthy
Mouth: dry, med body, med+ acid, low fine tannin, med+ alcohol, med length, med+ flavour intensity, red fruits, strawberry, cherry, mushroom, vegetal, baking spice
All in all: Good quality: the balance is generally showing well, especially with the high acidity, but the alcohol shows on the finish. There is also a concentrated amount of fruit and a moderate amount of Burgundy-like complexity.
Identity: Mid-priced (Tempranillo/Barbera/Sangiovese/Pinot Noir/Nebbiolo/Zinfandel) from California; 4 years old.
Is really: High-priced Pinot Noir from New Zealand; 2 years old.

2011 Ata Rangi "Crimson" Pinot Noir

[Tasted during WSET Diploma class – Section 1 – Week 8]

We were originally supposed to try an Old World Pinot but it ended up being graced by the likes of TCA.… read more

WSET Diploma

2011 Louis Latour Pinot Noir Bourgogne

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Note:

Eyes: clean, med- ruby, legs
Nose: clean, med- intensity, youthful, red fruits, cherry, earth
Mouth: dry, med- body, high acid, med- fine tannin, med alcohol, med+ length, med flavour intensity, cherries, strawberries, earth
All in all: Good quality: a well-balanced high acidity cleanses the comparatively simple aromas and slightly bitter finish, but good concentration is delivered despite the light body. Drink now: not suitable for ageing.

2011 Louis Latour Pinot Noir Bourgogne

[Tasted during WSET Diploma class – Section 1 – Week 7]

A wine selected by the instructor within our series of wines to illustrate the idea of pasteurization, and probably flash pasteurization in this case (confirmed as per the cute website), where the wine is heated up to a high temperature for a small amount of time to kill all the extras we don’t need, whether they be yeasts, bacteria, or some other organism I’ll need to know about for the exam.… read more