Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Describing a Wine

Some people just want to say "Yumm" or "Yuck" when describing a wine and leave things at that. Either you like it or you don't. Some people will go to the other extreme and use phrases like : "It captures the joy of the moment in an artisanal way without alienating those that typically veer away from the eccentric." which doesn't tell you much either.

I was even an evaluator at a Consumer Wine judging event where the ratings included: "I would take this home for dinner" and "I would recommend this to a friend". These actually were kind of helpful.

In Wine and Spirits Educational Trust, Society of Wine Educators and AWS Wine Judging Certification program, we use the more traditional / standard methods of describing a wine. Characteristics include Color, Aroma, Development, Acidity, Alcohol, Tannins, Flavors, Finish, etc. The categories are similar for each of the programs but not exactly the same. And within the categories there are levels of intensity. A color can be pale, or maybe deep. A wine may be light or full bodied. Sugar can range from Dry to Medium Sweet to Sweet to Luscious.

Many of these terms are somewhat objective and for me this has been one of the harder parts of describing a wine. Is an intensity a medium(-) a medium or a medium(+)? What constitutes a Deep or Opaque color ?

I was going through the study guide for Certified Wine Educator and I came across a set of practical guidelines that I like. Now maybe they teach you these as well in the WSET introductory programs but I jumped over those - so this has always been an issue and a question for for me.

Here are the Society of Wine Educator guidelines. ( Mostly their material with some editorializing by me. I left out some areas, and added some comments, errors and omissions are mine. Otherwise it is close. )

Clarity:
Brilliant : the color jumps out.
Clear : not brilliant, not hazy
Hazy : observable cloudiness

Intensity or Depth
pale : most whites are in this range. If a red, then darker than a rose but still light red.
medium : a well aged or botrytized white. If a red, you can read a newspaper through it when tilted.
deep : you can see the newspaper but can't read it.
opaque : you can't even see the newspaper.

Hue / Color (whites)
platinum : colorless
lemon green : light yellow with a touch of green ( think cool climate Sauvignon blanc )
lemon : pure bright lemon yellow
gold : deeper and darker. You may be wearing a gold ring. It is that color.
amber : almost cola colored with hints of gold.
brown : caramel to molasses. No gold in it.

Hue / Color (rose')
pink : not hot pink, but not quite red. The color of the traffic light you just went through in a hurry.
salmon : pink with a yellow hue. Salmon color is quite descriptive.
orange : some rose wines oxidize and give a light orange color. Grenache is known to do this.

Hue / Color (reds)
purple : a bright plum color.
ruby : deep rich red
garnet : red, but lighter and tending towards brown
tawny : light brown, light cola colored, brick colored
brown : brown is brown. Root beer color.

Other observations
gas, bubbles :
rim variation : should be a broad rim with enough variation to be significant.
many legs / few legs / no legs :

Condition
Clean / unclean : if calling a wine unclean, it must be part of style, and should be a noticeable fault.

Maturity
youthful / young : fruit aromas dominant
developing : some fruit but more tertiary flavors, oak tending to show more
fully developed : fruit is essentially gone. More oak, leather. 'Maturity' should not be confused with 'quality.'
past its prime : oxidation showing. Pruney.

Alcohol I use the "inhale" test. If I inhale with wine in my mouth and :
low : < 11% : don't notice any alcohol
medium (-) : 11-12% : can sense some alcohol
medium : 12-13% : strong alcohol - perhaps some burn.
medium (+) : 13-14% : I usually choke and can't catch my breath
high : > 14%

Acidity
low : not noticeable.
medium (-) : light tartness. Tingle on side of tongue
medium : definite saliva inducing tartness
medium (+) : tart. saliva producing. you are practically drooling
high : they say searing. I say don't confuse it with tannins, though that is easy to do.

Bitter They use the example of Gewurztraminer. To me: A sweet Muscat after taste is often very bitter.
none : they claim most wines don't show bitterness. ( to me unripe tannins are often bitter )
low : a tingle at back of throat
low to high : back of the throat sensation ruins the rest of the flavors.

Tannins (although generally described as astringent / drying. Unripe tannins are also bitter / harsh)
none : most white wines will fall in here
light : a dryness on the finish
medium (-) : some texture, powdery, drying
medium : grainy texture, drys the gums
medium (+) : sensation of texture and graininess all over mouth. ( I often notice some burn )
high : extremely drying. ( I would add harsh, painful )

Note: WSET also qualifies tannins by level of dryness and also by texture: eg 'silk', 'velvet', 'dusty', 'coarse'.
I included some of their terms above.

Sweetness
dry : no perceptible sugar
off Dry : just perceptible sweetness ( some chenin blanc, kabinett level riesling )
medium : noticeable residual sugar ( spatlese riesling, late harvest wines )
medium sweet : ( most Madeiras, Ports, Sweet Sherries )
sweet : Botrytized wines. Sweet Madeira, Pedro Jimenez.

Length ( they only define 'short" after that they say use your best judgment. So I added rest.
short : 1 to 3 seconds
medium : 5-10 seconds
long : 30 seconds or more.

Somebody totally new to wine tasting might wonder why we go all through this work.

There are a couple of reasons :

1) If you don't think about these characteristics - you often don't even notice them or enjoy them.
2) You can actually use this to describe a wine to somebody who understands the terms.
3) Many of these characteristics are "hints" towards what to expect from the wine.
4) Sommeliers combine several of these characteristics to deduce where and how a wine was made.

For example:
A "cloudy" wine may be unfiltered, or may have a yeast or bacteria bloom, leaving bad aromas.
A dark "white" wine may be well past its prime and nasty nasty nasty.
Bubbles in the wine ( assuming it is not meant to be sparkling ) can mean it is turning to vinegar.
A purple wine may be soft, low acidity, easy drinking A red red wine may be acid and require food with it.
A high acid wine is often made in a cooler climate. Riesling is a good example. Champagne is another.
A light colored red is often also a cool climate wine. Pinot noir is a good example.
A light color and high acid often go together. When they don't this tells you something.
( a hint towards the grape variety for example )

So what do you think ? Do you agree with these descriptors ?
Are there some that I missed, or examples that you think we need ?

Leave a comment, and I will include them into the post. Let's make this document useful.

john

Saturday, August 13, 2011

FWS Exam Today

OK, I took my French Wine Scholar exam today. I think I did really well. ( Hope I didn't just jinx myself with that comment ). The exam could have been much harder. One of the other students, Gordana commented that she felt that there must have been trick questions, because in general they seemed so easy.

Now, Gordana is really smart and it won't surprise me to hear she got 100% on the test, and I am even thinking that i got mid 90s on it.

I have been studying - average about 2-3 hours a day, I think, on this test since early June - so about 2 months' worth of work. 120-150 total hours which makes sense for a 250 page text book. I self-studied but did buy / attend a review class ( with lunch !) from San Francisco Wine School and there I met David Glancy, MS,CWE and Maureen Downey, DWS, CWE. David taught me a trick in that he made up mnemonics for everything, and I started doing it too and it really works, even if the mnemonic is a little nutty. For example, Must John Really Make Such Bad Noodles (M,J,R,M,S,B,N) tells me the the order that wine bottles grow in size from Magnum to Nebuchadnezzar. ( It was on the test today! - A Jeroboam is 4 bottles ).

Want to learn the 10 Beaujolais Cru villages ? (North to South) Saint Julia Childs Makes Fine Coffee Mornings, Regularly Before Breakfast. (St Amour, Julienas, Chenas, Moulon-a-vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Regnie, Cote-de-Brouilly, Brouilly).

Need to learn the major Middle-Loire AOCs ? West to East (more or less) : See A Beautiful Lion Sleeping Quietly Be-Cause she is Very Tired. Savennieres, Anjou, Bonnezeau, Coteaux de Layon, Saumur, Quarts de Chaume, (Chaume), Bourgueil, (St Nicolas de Bourgueil), Chinon, Vouvray, Touraine.

It seems ridiculous, but it really works. At least for me, your mileage may vary.

David's colleague Maureen is just a doll. I think she has been studying for her Master of Wine even before she was old enough to drink legally. She gave us an extra, informal, review session on a Sunday morning. And if nothing else, she convinced me that I would do good on the test and that they weren't going to ask the really hard questions on the test. (Name the 4 French AOCs that require oak aging ). This saved a lot of panic studying. Thanks, Maureen. If you ever google yourself, I hope you find this !!

Not that panicking was out of the question, however. I was tense going into the test. Passing grade is a 75%. There are 100 questions. So it wasn't until I got past question #75 - with only a couple of questions that I wasn't sure of, before I started breathing easier. When i figured out that the questions after #85 weren't getting any harder, then I was practically cheering. I was going to do pretty good.

There were a couple of almost trick questions, but the text book had pointed out that we should not mistake Beaumes-de-Venise ( who makes red wine ) with Muscat Beaumes-de-Venise which makes a really good tasting fortified vin du natural out of the white Muscat grape. That one was on the test.

One question that I did have some trouble with, but corrected, is also a common mistake, and I almost fell for it. It regarded Gevrey-Chambertin Grand Cru AOC. ( you wine geeks already know where I am going with this ). Gevrey-Chambertin is a village in the Cotes de Nuits - Burgundy that makes some of the best Pinot Noirs. It has 9 Grand Cru vineyards in the village. And that is the problem. In Burgundy it is the Vineyard that is the AOC not the Village - at least for the Grand Crus. So Chambertin is a Grand Cru AOC. Gevrey-Chambertin is a village, and Gevrey Chambertin Grand Cru AOC is just a big mistake. And they almost had me, because they through in some name I never heard of in another answer and I went for that at first, until I thought things out. A rookie mistake. A lucky catch.

As I mentioned before, I like the French Wine Scholar program, the text has some errors but in general is very good. The on-line study aid pretty much mirrors the book, and could probably be bypassed, but I bought it in combination with the review session, the exam fees, and a free lunch, so I thought it a good deal. Plus the quizzes for each of the on-line modules are invaluable. We talked about this during the review session and decided that the quizzes on the on-line review are actually harder than the final exam. David mentioned that he did the review quizzes over and over until he got a perfect score on each of them, then he took the exam. I thought that a good idea, so I included it in my study program, and i think it works.

Like most of the tests I have taken for wine certification, this was a fair test. You can do well on it with a reasonable amount of study. It seems over-whelming at first because there is a LOT of detail. Once you realize that you don't have to know the various maximum Hectoliters / Hectare for each AOC or the specific production numbers, then the level of detail becomes tolerable. Once you break it into manageable bites it is a lot easier to digest.

Finally once you have reviewed it 3-4 times, you start to realize just what it is that matters, and what would be a fair question on a test. Then your 30 pages of notes gets whittled down to a page per region, and you begin to realize that this isn't going to be a hard test. Plus after the 2nd or 3rd review, the terms aren't new and unfamiliar any more, you begin talking like a Frenchman. ( PS - This is another thing the online course is good for. Lisa Aires, the narrator, uses French pronunciation on the various terms and you begin to say them correctly and you don't keep trying to turn them into English ) Believe it or not, once the terms become familiar ( I almost spelled that 'becaume' because it sounded French ) - once the words are familiar the facts then start to stand out and they lock in better.

So ... the test is over, we get results in about 2 weeks. I can decompress and get a few days respite, and probably need to do some chores around the house.

What next ? Too many choices. I wish there was an Italian Wine Scholar type program. ( If you know of one please leave a comment. ).

But now I have to decide .... I need to either research and write a 2500 word paper on advances in winemaking (Part 1 - due in November) for my Unit 1 WSET exam or I can study Italy and the rest of the world in order to sit for the Certified Wine Educator exam in September. I also still need to prepare for Wine Judge Certification - Year 1 test in November. Plus there is the in-person written exam (Part 2) on a currently unknown topic for WSET which will likely require 2-3 weeks of research in October (when they tell us what the general area of the topic will be) if I want to take it in November. I don't know if I can do it all.

But today I passed my test. And tonight we are going to celebrate with pizza and Champagne. BTW, in case nobody ever mentioned it, Champagne goes with just about everything, except for maybe wedding cake, which is kind of ironic when you think about when we normally drink it. I do also need to add the disclaimer here, that since I am a Certified Location Specialist regarding Champagne and Porto, that this is indeed real Champagne from Champagne France (Only from Champagne and nowhere else!) and not just sparkling wine. Although Sparkling wine probably also goes pretty good with pizza, too.

john