White – Page 9 – @sommeligay

Dad blinds me on some wine

January 11, 2015November 16, 2015 by Josh

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

January 7, 2015November 16, 2015 by Josh

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

Life · WSET Diploma

WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 9: Workshop #2

December 20, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

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

WSET Diploma

Overcast diamonds: Domaine Latour-Giraud 2011 “Genevrières” Meursault

December 15, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 8: Burgundy]

The first time I’ve had a Premier Cru Burgundy was in WSET Intermediate class years ago – it was the Latour-Giraud 2008 Meursault-Perrières. Looking at my notebook, I don’t seem to have much to say about it. I mean, good for you if you’re bedazzled by young and amazing white Burgundy at age 19, but I guess I needed more convincing.

The second time I’ve ever had a Premier Cru Burgundy was in WSET Advanced class, where it looks like I was really unimpressed. Just earlier this year I realized how amazing it was that I tried a Meursault and I back-pedalled hard, but retrying this helps me understand my past self.… read more

WSET Diploma

Black Swan: Joseph Burrier 2012 “Sur La Roche” Pouilly-Fuissé

December 13, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 8: Burgundy]

If Chablis is the personification of pristine and pure Chardonnay that tastes of river stones and crisp fruit, with a balance of concentration and finesse that needs time to blossom, then Pouilly-Fuissé, at the other end of Burgundy, is a ballsier expression of quality white Burgundy.

More obvious fruit, here, with crushed pears and applesauce rather than freshly sliced green fruit, along with a vivacious touch of something Bed Bath & Beyond-esque, like a soapy lemon-lime candy. It’s the Black Swan to the White Swan we tried earlier in the flight. It’s just more willing to do MDMA on Sunday night but still have its shit together to do ballet the next morning.… read more

WSET Diploma

White Swan: Domaine Christian Moreau 2012 Valmur Chablis Grand Cru

December 12, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 8: Burgundy]

Chablis, to me, is the pinnacle of perfection: not so much in a sense that it’s a wine that’s perfect and orgasmic, but more the fact that it strives to be something so pristine, crisp, calm, and complex, not unlike a snowflake.

The White Swan i.e. Nina Sayers comes to mind, where perfection is bitingly found but the wine is almost too young and needs lots of time to develop. Crisp notes of mineral, green apple, pear, a hint of oak (purportedly), cream, and something reminiscent to Loire Chenin that’s very wool and mushroom-like are found on the nose, and the palate reverberates the flavours with more intensity.

There’s a beautiful juxtaposition of young richness and brisk acid; a concentration of flavours that have lots of finesse.… read more

WSET Diploma

Staff paper: Louis Latour 2012 Bourgogne Chardonnay

December 11, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 8: Burgundy]

We kick off our Burgundy sesh with two basic, well, Burgundies, in order to prime our mouths and ideas as to what Burgundy is and what the basic examples taste like compared to more premium examples.

Neutral, but irritatingly so. We kept samples of this wine when we tasted other whites, and it seemed like this wine had just a bit more of a sulphited character (matchsticks et al) in comparison – though perhaps it was just the lack of concentration on the nose that made it more evident.

I’m bad at picking up oak, but apparently there were bits of it on the nose, along with mineral, vague hints of green fruit, green apple, pear, and citrus.… read more

WSET Diploma

Because you know I’m all about that bass: Fraser Gallop 2011 Chardonnay

December 7, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 7: Australia]

It’s so easy to typecast Australian white wines as nothing but pillowy Chardonnays – and it’s a fair statement if you compared Australia to, say, Burgundy. But Australia is a huge place, spanning the same area as a good chunk of Europe’s grape-growing regions, and it makes sense that there are lots and lots of exceptions to the rule.

This Chardonnay from Western Australia had higher acid than I expected (though it was probably selected to show the potential of Australia for such things), and it also had this toasted nut character I find in Australian Chards, which seem to be clouded by buttery creamed corn in a lot of Californian versions.… read more

WSET Diploma

A freshly opened can of tennis balls: Pewsey Vale 2006 “The Contours” Riesling

December 7, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 7: Australia]

Anyone who knows the austere and rubbery Australian Rieslings à la Somm‘s “freshly opened can of tennis balls” knows that this is an example of a wine that splits people in the middle so much that I become afraid of suggesting it to customers (and friends) without what’s essentially a verbal pre-installation Terms and Conditions page that they’ll pretend to read.

I’ve literally heard stories of people who return bottles of Clare or Eden Valley Riesling (one of the bottles which was this exact one) because they believe them to be flawed or “off”. I once held a meeting with some UBC Wine Club executives and chose a bottle of the Watervale Clare Valley Riesling, amongst others, as a wine that we could enjoy while we held our big annual retreat, subsequently followed by me making everyone watch Somm.… read more

WSET Diploma

“Scenic World” – Beirut: Tahbilk 2011 Marsanne

December 7, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 7: Australia]

I’ve had this wine several times in the past, and I’m stoked that I had it in a blind setting to confirm my thoughts! I had this wine for the first time a couple of years ago (though a different vintage, I’m sure) when I was just getting into wine, hardly knowing that Marsanne was a grape and that Australia grew it. Upon smelling it, at the time, I was reminded of some sort of rubbery and mineral-driven Australian Riesling with a similar limey edge, but with lower acidity.

There’s a hint of that honeyed element that I find some descriptions exaggerate, in terms of Marsanne, but I’ve been able to pick it up the more and more I try this wine, and now blind. … read more