Oh Sauternes...you little Minx

So I recently received the results of my wine course exam and I passed with distinction! I love my certificate and plan on hanging it up in my kitchen. I worked really hard on the course and study my ass off, so I'm really pleased. 

Our final wine tasting class was on sparkling wines and dessert wines, which was my absolute favorite. I was looking forward to this class because I knew very little about the subject. I've always enjoyed drinking bubbly wine, but I never consciously thought about what I was drinking or taking note of a producer that I really liked. We tasted Spanish Cava, Italian Asti, Australian Brut-Cuvee and Champagne. I struggled a bit with the tasting and found this even more challenging than still wine. The non-vintage Laurent-Perrier Brut and Codorniu Brut Cava had really interesting flavors like biscuit and buttery bread from the malolactic fermentation, but my favorite was the sweet Asti Martini Spumante. Classy brawd, I know. Interesting things I learned about sparkling wine:

• sparkling wine produced in France outside of the Champagne region is called "Mousseux" or "Crémant"

• sparkling wine can be made from any grape, red or white
  
• England is beginning to produce some interesting sparkling wines

Ever since trying that delicious Hungarian dessert wine from our first class, I've been hooked on sweet wines. We tried a 2006 Chateau Laville Sauternes, which I much preferred to the 2011 Domaine des Bernardines Muscat Beaumes de Venise. I know what your thinking, doesn't dessert wine have a lot of sugar? Well I've done some nutritional research and I think if I'm out at a restaurant and craving something sweet for dessert, a sweet wine is a better alternative to traditional dessert. A standard glass of sweet white wine has about 165 calories and 14 grams of sugar. Compare that to a slice of cheese cake, which can have up to 450 calories and 40 grams of carbohydrates. It's a no brainer and good dessert wine is just as decadent and rich. All you need is a small glass and if you pair it with a good cheese plate, the fat and protein from the cheese will lower the GI affect of the wine. 

Hub and I were recently gifted two amazing wines, one sweet and one sparkling, that I would highly recommend. The first is the 1994 Tarlant Champagne Saga, which tasted of peaches and the label was hand written on the bottle. How cool is that? The other was a Chateau d'Yquem Lur Saluces Sauternes. Wow.

 

Helpful reads for this blog:

Andrew Barrow's piece on dessert wines in The Guardian
Wine Spectator weighs in on wine for diabetics

Wine Class: Understanding the Label

My second day at WSET reminded me of evening classes at Parsons where I would find it hard to concentrate after a long day of work and no sugar. My mind immediately perked up once we reached the tasting portion of the class.

Wines I loved:

The 2009 Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel had a lovely and potent smell. There were prunes, vanilla and spices on the nose and it was just like I like my reds - big and bold. It had full body, was dry and more spice on the tongue.

Out of the whites, I liked the 2008 Vouvray Le Mont Demi-Sec. I used to think that Vouvray was a grape (sad), but it's a well known area in the Loire Valley. The grape is actually Chenin Blanc and this wine had a lovely honey scent with hints of tropical fruit. I couldn't smell the tropics, but teacher pointed out lychee and melon. It had a shallow sweetness to it and a long finish. One way to measure a good wine is how long the taste lingers in your mouth after you swallowed. In class we ask ourselves did this wine have a long finish or a short finish?

What I learned in class:

• A cheap wine that has an oaky flavor has not been aged in oak barrels, but possibly infused with oak essence. Not to be confused with natural oak chips soaking in the wine.

• Old world wines (think France) label their wines according to winery, the region and sometimes the vineyard. It’s rare that the grape is ever mentioned because, the producer/winery will give you an indication of the quality and consistency of the wine (reputation) and the region (say Beaujolais) will give a hint as to the style, flavour, and grape. Alas for us amateurs this can be a tricky one if you don’t know about what kind of grapes grow in that region or even recognize that it’s a world renown vineyard like La Tache.

So the other night this lucky bird got to try La Tache 2000, a bottle that retails in the four figures.  My friend informed me that La Tache is a Grand Cru vineyard (aka the best) of Burgundy and the wine is made from Pinot Noir. It is controlled by a single winery (aka monopole) called Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and my impression is that if it says monopole on the label, prepare yourself for a good’un. It had a lovely smell to it, somewhat strong yet delicate and I managed to pick up red fruits and vanilla. The taste was silky smooth, easily drunk on it's own and the lovely flavour lingered on for what felt like ages.  

Wine Tasting 201

This week I started my first wine course at the Wine and Spirit Education Trust. My interests in wine began with my first restaurant job at the now deceased Biltmore Room. The guys behind the bar had such enthusiasm for wine and creating unique cocktails, it was infectious. Since then I feel like my knowledge has been slowly developing, but I haven't made any real efforts to learn more until now.

I really wanted to develop my palate and be able to anticipate what a bottle should taste like based on the label, so I signed up for the Level 2 Award in Wines and Spirits.  My first day did not disappoint and our teacher Michelle Cherutti-Kowel was fun with a relaxed teaching style, which was nice.

Some great wines I discovered in our tasting was a 2010 Pio Cesare Barolo. The first time I tried Barolo was when I was studying abroad in Florence and it blew my mind away. I love big, powerful tasting reds and although this young Barolo is good, apparently in 3-5 years it will be great. For only £36.99, I think it's worth buying now and saving it for a special occasion in a few years time.

I know very little about white wines except that I always enjoy a sweet one and this Cave de Turckheim Gewurtztraminer is deliciously sweet. It's not too sweet like a dessert wine, but it's very fragrant and flowery. I have a shit palate and nose, but I could smell the flowers. This one is £16.99 and would be crowd pleaser at a party.

And my absolute favorite of the night was this Royal Tokaji 5 Puttonyos Aszu Blue Label. This was beautiful...full body and very sweet, like dessert. My teacher rated it very good-outstanding and Hub and I have agreed to invest at only £18.99 a bottle. I also think this would make a great gift.

And a few interesting things that I learned on the day:

• Most wines we see strive to be acceptable, if not better, and that includes a Sainsbury Pinot Grigio for £4.99
• Although I always read about chocolate notes in certain wines, chocolate is a tricky food to pair with wine because it is both sweet and bitter
• I love Thai food and really aromatic foods like Thai need really aromatic wines

Have you taken any classes at the WSET? I'm really curious about their evening tastings and plan on trying them after my course ends. I have 7 more classes to go and will keep you updated as I go along.