Last night was the awards ceremony for those California Home Winemakers who won ribbons at the state fair wine judging competition. Well, actually not a lot of ceremony, the winners were asked to collect their ribbons ad-hoc during the event and the announcements and presentations were restricted to Best of Class and Best of Show winners.
At the same time about 20 "best of" and "double gold" winners were asked to pour their wines so that other winemakers and invitees could taste the wines.
I have never had so many good wines in one place at one time. I am not exaggerating. I am so impressed with the quality of wines that were poured.
Because I was a volunteer at the judging event, I was also invited to attend the awards ceremony, although it may have been open to the public. I am told that 300 people had RSVP'd for the event and by quick count I think there were over 150 there at any one time. i am told it was the largest crowd that they had ever had for this event.
Although i was an invitee and could bring a guest, I was also asked if I could volunteer and my wife Susan and I were happy to have the opportunity. These events are always fun, and in general, you tend to meet the nicest people who are also volunteers and give of their time and passion to make things like this happen.
Speaking of passion, I can't say enough for the home winemakers themselves who were there last night. Not only did they pay to enter their wines into the competition, but some of them traveled long distances to be at the awards ceremony and they also brought their prize winning wines to pour for the rest of us. In some cases there may not have been that much wine made in the first place. And here they were sharing it with the crowd.
So back to tasting ... Susan and I tended to limit our tasting to "Best of"s and Double Golds and there were a fair share of them there. Probably about 50 wines total. Since I still had a 1 hr drive to get home i went light on my tasting, whereas Susan was able to sample a lot more.
One of our favorites was a Blueberry / Merlot fruit wine. 50% blueberries, 50% merlot grapes, fermented together. The same producer also had 5 other double golds for other fruit wines including a "tomatillo sherry". (I kid you not. A fortified wine made from little green looking tomatoes).
One of the best of the night, in my opinion was an Italian blend called "Italian Stallion" made by Chris Hamm.
It was perfectly balanced, the tannins were soft, it had lots of character. Included LaGrein, Niellucio (Sangiovese), and some other grape that i forget. A perfect wine.
After the ceremony was over, Susan and I went over to the Savemart tent because they were giving tastings of the commercial winery winners. 3 free tastings per person, so Susan and I shared and got to taste 6 wines. Guenoc had a good Sauvignon blanc from, I think, Lake County that had some New Zealand characteristics (grapefruit, aromatic, clean). We tasted 5 other Gold and Best of medal winners from the commercial wineries. They were good.
But when all was said and done, I think the Home Winemakers still won the night. Congratulations to the men and women who made such great wines and thanks for sharing them.
The BUMMER of the whole evening: after tasting a really perfect home wine maker award winning wine, you realize that you can't buy it, and you will probably never see it again. The only hope if to maybe taste a new vintage next year.
Here is the list of home wine maker winners:
john
Friday, July 22, 2011
Various updates
I haven't started anything new in last couple of months, so I want to give some updates on some of the various programs I am in.
French Wine Scholar: I have read all, and high-lighted most, of the manual. It is daunting, there is a lot of information, but when you break it down into sections, each section doesn't seem that bad. Classic divide and conquer. I have also finished the online study modules. I think this is worth the cost. The modules don't differe a lot from the manual, but they do allow a different way of integrating the information. The review quizzes are good, and I hope the final test is at about the same level. If so it will be a fair test. I have not watched very many of the webinars that are offered with the study modules. They each take an hour or so, and I have just not found the time to watch them. They are probably VERY interesting. My access to this website is good for about 9 more months, and so perhaps I can watch them after I take the exam.
I have an in-person "review day" with the local FWS provider tomorrow. It was part of the package that I selected. ( book, online modules, review day, test ). I will let you know how that turns out when I return tomorrow evening.
WJCP The AWS Wine Judging Certification Program is still moving along. So far there have been several required readings, some of them older books, but we just got a new requirement to read "Wine Faults: Causes , Effects, Cures" by John Hudelson. Many of us also bought the Vinquiry fault kit for $100 ( ouch !!) with the appropriate chemicals to create 50ml of faulted wine. Since this is one of the key parts of the WJCP 1st year test, and also part of the Certified Wine Educator test, it seemed like a good thing to get. I got my kit last week and I will spend this afternoon preparing and smelling the wines to learn those characteristics. We have been told that the base wine for these faults will be Franzia Chardonnay - so i have 5 liter box in my fridge and have been tasting it to learn the base wine.
We still have a monthly phone conference to compare tasting notes on various wines and trying to standardize our impressions. Again, this is test prep, where we will be looking to correlate our impressions with 3 certified judges. (Sort of like how it takes 3 bishops to consecrate a new one).
WSET I still have not heard back on my Unit 6 test. These things usually take 7-10 weeks and it has only been 6 weeks so far, so I am not surprised. Since I think I failed, no big hurry in finding out. Just need to work on writing exercises and find out the next time I can take it.
On the other hand, I am moving forward on Unit 1 requirements. I have started research on the 2500 word course work assignment due this November. It is a paper on advances in viticulture and winemaking over the last 50 years. I have one strong topic and one weaker one and am pulling together the research for both of them to see if I have enough for a good paper. Part of the grade is simply on structure of writing a good paper with distinct sections and annotations as well as quality of research. Need to decide in early September and register to submit the paper. Also will attempt the in-person written paper exam also in November that completes the 2nd Unit 1 requirement. We won't know the topic for this until 1 month before the exam itself. We then have 1 month to study and the exam is without notes.
CWE "Certified Wine Educator". This exam is being given locally ( in Napa ) in September. I may not be ready to take it yet, but because the requirements are relatively vague ( read a lot of books, drink a lot of wine ) I am tempted to try it never-the-less. This was one of the reasons for attempting French Wine Scholar - I have now done extensive study on 1 major producer. I think I need to do more on Italy and Spain and then might have a good chance to pass the written test. There are several parts to this exam. As well as the written test, there is the wine faults test ( similar to WJCP ). There is the wine components test ( ditto WJCP ). There is a wine description test ( similar to WSET tasting notes ). And there is the written test which builds on the CSW exam which I have already passed. When I add in my "Location Specialist" exam for Champagne and the Douro, and my WSET Unit 6 studies for Fortified Wines, I think I have a chance. Even if I fail I will have a better idea of what the requirements are and level of study. Plus I may eliminate a couple of the units even if I fail the written exam. ( i.e. I can still pass the components and wine descriptions ).
In general
I study ~ 2 hours a day for at least 4 days a week. I do feel a little fractured in that I am focusing on different exams, but at the same time, there is some synergy between all the courses, and study for one can only help the others. For example about 17% of the CWE questions involve France - so my FWS studies get me part way to a pass on that exam. Another 20-25% of the questions are on Viticulture, Enology which I am comfortable with and also researching some for Unit 1 exam. Another 5-7% is on Sensory analysis which fits in with WJCP studies. So there are some good fits. I also read that it takes on average 2 tries to get the CWE certification, so I won't feel bad to fail parts of the exam the first time.
We'll see.
john
French Wine Scholar: I have read all, and high-lighted most, of the manual. It is daunting, there is a lot of information, but when you break it down into sections, each section doesn't seem that bad. Classic divide and conquer. I have also finished the online study modules. I think this is worth the cost. The modules don't differe a lot from the manual, but they do allow a different way of integrating the information. The review quizzes are good, and I hope the final test is at about the same level. If so it will be a fair test. I have not watched very many of the webinars that are offered with the study modules. They each take an hour or so, and I have just not found the time to watch them. They are probably VERY interesting. My access to this website is good for about 9 more months, and so perhaps I can watch them after I take the exam.
I have an in-person "review day" with the local FWS provider tomorrow. It was part of the package that I selected. ( book, online modules, review day, test ). I will let you know how that turns out when I return tomorrow evening.
WJCP The AWS Wine Judging Certification Program is still moving along. So far there have been several required readings, some of them older books, but we just got a new requirement to read "Wine Faults: Causes , Effects, Cures" by John Hudelson. Many of us also bought the Vinquiry fault kit for $100 ( ouch !!) with the appropriate chemicals to create 50ml of faulted wine. Since this is one of the key parts of the WJCP 1st year test, and also part of the Certified Wine Educator test, it seemed like a good thing to get. I got my kit last week and I will spend this afternoon preparing and smelling the wines to learn those characteristics. We have been told that the base wine for these faults will be Franzia Chardonnay - so i have 5 liter box in my fridge and have been tasting it to learn the base wine.
We still have a monthly phone conference to compare tasting notes on various wines and trying to standardize our impressions. Again, this is test prep, where we will be looking to correlate our impressions with 3 certified judges. (Sort of like how it takes 3 bishops to consecrate a new one).
WSET I still have not heard back on my Unit 6 test. These things usually take 7-10 weeks and it has only been 6 weeks so far, so I am not surprised. Since I think I failed, no big hurry in finding out. Just need to work on writing exercises and find out the next time I can take it.
On the other hand, I am moving forward on Unit 1 requirements. I have started research on the 2500 word course work assignment due this November. It is a paper on advances in viticulture and winemaking over the last 50 years. I have one strong topic and one weaker one and am pulling together the research for both of them to see if I have enough for a good paper. Part of the grade is simply on structure of writing a good paper with distinct sections and annotations as well as quality of research. Need to decide in early September and register to submit the paper. Also will attempt the in-person written paper exam also in November that completes the 2nd Unit 1 requirement. We won't know the topic for this until 1 month before the exam itself. We then have 1 month to study and the exam is without notes.
CWE "Certified Wine Educator". This exam is being given locally ( in Napa ) in September. I may not be ready to take it yet, but because the requirements are relatively vague ( read a lot of books, drink a lot of wine ) I am tempted to try it never-the-less. This was one of the reasons for attempting French Wine Scholar - I have now done extensive study on 1 major producer. I think I need to do more on Italy and Spain and then might have a good chance to pass the written test. There are several parts to this exam. As well as the written test, there is the wine faults test ( similar to WJCP ). There is the wine components test ( ditto WJCP ). There is a wine description test ( similar to WSET tasting notes ). And there is the written test which builds on the CSW exam which I have already passed. When I add in my "Location Specialist" exam for Champagne and the Douro, and my WSET Unit 6 studies for Fortified Wines, I think I have a chance. Even if I fail I will have a better idea of what the requirements are and level of study. Plus I may eliminate a couple of the units even if I fail the written exam. ( i.e. I can still pass the components and wine descriptions ).
In general
I study ~ 2 hours a day for at least 4 days a week. I do feel a little fractured in that I am focusing on different exams, but at the same time, there is some synergy between all the courses, and study for one can only help the others. For example about 17% of the CWE questions involve France - so my FWS studies get me part way to a pass on that exam. Another 20-25% of the questions are on Viticulture, Enology which I am comfortable with and also researching some for Unit 1 exam. Another 5-7% is on Sensory analysis which fits in with WJCP studies. So there are some good fits. I also read that it takes on average 2 tries to get the CWE certification, so I won't feel bad to fail parts of the exam the first time.
We'll see.
john
Saturday, July 2, 2011
French Wine Scholar
For the last several weeks I have been studying for French Wine Scholar Certification. I posted earlier when I had first started the course, and now that I am about 1/2 way through, I can add to my earlier comments.
There are several ways you can attempt this certification. You can buy the manual and self-study and take the test online. This is how I started it. (Cost about $250). You also have the option to purchase access to the on-line academy with its maps, on-line modules and practice quizzes. (Cost about $475 with manual and test fees). This is what i am currently doing and I recommend it - it is well worth the extra money. Finally you can take a formal course with weekly classes that cover all the material and have you taste the wines of the areas you are studying. Cost about $950. I have tasted the various wines before and am spending several thousands of $$ already on my wine education, ( I am retired and living off my savings ) so I try to select the least expensive format that will still prepare me to pass the test. I actually was able to work with the San Francisco Wine School - a French Wine Scholar provider in the SF bay Area, to combine the self study course with a 1 day in-person review course, the on-line study modules and the in-person test. I appreciate their flexibility in setting this up.
First of all, I like this course. Every interaction with the text book, the online guides, the maps, the quizes, and especially my interactions with Julien and Celine Camus, the founders of the organization and with Lisa Airey, CWE the director of Education, has been at the highest level of expectation. This is a well designed and well run program.
As mentioned before the study guide is about 250 pages with considerable detail, and can seem overwhelming at first ( and even later when you study Burgundy's appellations in detail ), but if the practice quizzes are any guide to the final exam, then the level of comprehension expected, while detailed and holistic, is nevertheless fair.
The practice quizzes are, like everything else, done well and with enough diversity to keep them interesting and also provide additional learning. Some questions are map questions, and you are expected to click on the appropriate area of a map to identify particular regions or appellations. In the case of Burgundy you are expected to order the major communes from Northern-most to Southern-most according to their geography. And, as you are advised in the introduction to the course, you should know the details of those topics that are exceptional - such as the only 100% Aligote grape appellation in the Cotes Chalonnaise (Bouzeron).
And you are expected to know the difference between Givry and Gevrey (I missed that one : spelling counts!). Note: Givry is a village in Cote Challonaise and Gevrey is a village in the Cotes de Nuits with 9 grand cru vineyards in it. For franco-philic-oenophiles (sounds nasty) who have probably not only have memorized the 33 Grand Cru climats in Burgundy but also the 600+ Premier Crus, I am sure i sound ignorant and a wine newbie ( nolo-contendere, your honor ), but when you are learning all these new sounding names, it is easy enough to lose a few vowels in your place names. The French do it all the time.
Anyhow, enough whining. I also love the maps that are provided with this course. (I am a map person) they are very detailed and best of all they have the various appellations color coded. When you see the Grand Cru of the Cotes d'Or colored in red on a map, and especially for example the Corton Hill, you realize that although there are several Grand Cru appellations, they are literally located on a single hill. The area is actually quite small. You might not realize that ( I didn't ) without a good map and the hill high-lighted.
There are 10 modules in the course. As I mentioned in the earlier post, the layout is pretty standard, so you know what to expect as each module proceeds. Usually there are 2 parts to each module, each about 1 hour long. I think they are broken up mostly from a study aspect - that you need a break after an hour of studying. The download speed and on-line performance of the course is very good. I have had no complaints using only basic DSL.
I have found that I can complete each module in about 1-2 days. Usually i take notes on each section so the 1 hour session lasts a little longer. The on-line material is just about exactly the same as what is in the book. I take the notes just because I find that it helps my retention, despite the fact that I can read it in the book as well.
So each module consists of: 1-2 study units, maps, a quiz, and generally 1 or more 1 hr videos put together by an expert or inhabitant of the region explaining more about the area and its winemaking processes. These videos provide local color and also since they generally are native speakers, provide the listener with some more practice learning how to pronounce the names of French terms. For example, it took me several trys to understand that "el-zaz" was in fact Alsace because sometimes even the final 'z' was dropped, and what I was hearing was "elza". Now at least i understand that term. the people who present these videos are generally teachers as well, so the information content in them is quite good.
If one were to listen to all the content, study the maps and take the test, each of the modules might take around 3-4 hours to study. This is in addition to reading the book.
As I mentioned, from a test content, the book and the on-line pretty much mirror each other. The book however has additional appendix and side bar material that is not in the on-line course, and so far I have not found any of this material to be on the quizzes, so I assume it it not on the final test as well.
So this is where I am today, July 2nd. I started studying just after my June 6th WSET - Unit 6 test, I have read the book through once, I have 5 of the 10 modules complete, (Alsace, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Champagne) I will have a review course on July 23rd with SF Wine School, and I take the test on August 13th. The final exam is 100 questions of various formats, and passing grade is 75%.
I still have a lot of work to do.
john
There are several ways you can attempt this certification. You can buy the manual and self-study and take the test online. This is how I started it. (Cost about $250). You also have the option to purchase access to the on-line academy with its maps, on-line modules and practice quizzes. (Cost about $475 with manual and test fees). This is what i am currently doing and I recommend it - it is well worth the extra money. Finally you can take a formal course with weekly classes that cover all the material and have you taste the wines of the areas you are studying. Cost about $950. I have tasted the various wines before and am spending several thousands of $$ already on my wine education, ( I am retired and living off my savings ) so I try to select the least expensive format that will still prepare me to pass the test. I actually was able to work with the San Francisco Wine School - a French Wine Scholar provider in the SF bay Area, to combine the self study course with a 1 day in-person review course, the on-line study modules and the in-person test. I appreciate their flexibility in setting this up.
First of all, I like this course. Every interaction with the text book, the online guides, the maps, the quizes, and especially my interactions with Julien and Celine Camus, the founders of the organization and with Lisa Airey, CWE the director of Education, has been at the highest level of expectation. This is a well designed and well run program.
As mentioned before the study guide is about 250 pages with considerable detail, and can seem overwhelming at first ( and even later when you study Burgundy's appellations in detail ), but if the practice quizzes are any guide to the final exam, then the level of comprehension expected, while detailed and holistic, is nevertheless fair.
The practice quizzes are, like everything else, done well and with enough diversity to keep them interesting and also provide additional learning. Some questions are map questions, and you are expected to click on the appropriate area of a map to identify particular regions or appellations. In the case of Burgundy you are expected to order the major communes from Northern-most to Southern-most according to their geography. And, as you are advised in the introduction to the course, you should know the details of those topics that are exceptional - such as the only 100% Aligote grape appellation in the Cotes Chalonnaise (Bouzeron).
And you are expected to know the difference between Givry and Gevrey (I missed that one : spelling counts!). Note: Givry is a village in Cote Challonaise and Gevrey is a village in the Cotes de Nuits with 9 grand cru vineyards in it. For franco-philic-oenophiles (sounds nasty) who have probably not only have memorized the 33 Grand Cru climats in Burgundy but also the 600+ Premier Crus, I am sure i sound ignorant and a wine newbie ( nolo-contendere, your honor ), but when you are learning all these new sounding names, it is easy enough to lose a few vowels in your place names. The French do it all the time.
Anyhow, enough whining. I also love the maps that are provided with this course. (I am a map person) they are very detailed and best of all they have the various appellations color coded. When you see the Grand Cru of the Cotes d'Or colored in red on a map, and especially for example the Corton Hill, you realize that although there are several Grand Cru appellations, they are literally located on a single hill. The area is actually quite small. You might not realize that ( I didn't ) without a good map and the hill high-lighted.
There are 10 modules in the course. As I mentioned in the earlier post, the layout is pretty standard, so you know what to expect as each module proceeds. Usually there are 2 parts to each module, each about 1 hour long. I think they are broken up mostly from a study aspect - that you need a break after an hour of studying. The download speed and on-line performance of the course is very good. I have had no complaints using only basic DSL.
I have found that I can complete each module in about 1-2 days. Usually i take notes on each section so the 1 hour session lasts a little longer. The on-line material is just about exactly the same as what is in the book. I take the notes just because I find that it helps my retention, despite the fact that I can read it in the book as well.
So each module consists of: 1-2 study units, maps, a quiz, and generally 1 or more 1 hr videos put together by an expert or inhabitant of the region explaining more about the area and its winemaking processes. These videos provide local color and also since they generally are native speakers, provide the listener with some more practice learning how to pronounce the names of French terms. For example, it took me several trys to understand that "el-zaz" was in fact Alsace because sometimes even the final 'z' was dropped, and what I was hearing was "elza". Now at least i understand that term. the people who present these videos are generally teachers as well, so the information content in them is quite good.
If one were to listen to all the content, study the maps and take the test, each of the modules might take around 3-4 hours to study. This is in addition to reading the book.
As I mentioned, from a test content, the book and the on-line pretty much mirror each other. The book however has additional appendix and side bar material that is not in the on-line course, and so far I have not found any of this material to be on the quizzes, so I assume it it not on the final test as well.
So this is where I am today, July 2nd. I started studying just after my June 6th WSET - Unit 6 test, I have read the book through once, I have 5 of the 10 modules complete, (Alsace, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Champagne) I will have a review course on July 23rd with SF Wine School, and I take the test on August 13th. The final exam is 100 questions of various formats, and passing grade is 75%.
I still have a lot of work to do.
john
Friday, June 24, 2011
Some interesting wines from Cal State Fair
I mentioned in an earlier post that I had volunteered at the California State Fair Home Winemakers Competition.
There were a lot of interesting wines entered in the competition. Since I am also a (1st year beginner) student of the AWS Wine Judge Certification Program, I wanted to post some of the wines we saw during the competition to introduce to my fellow students some of the wines they may encounter.
Here is only a partial list of the many entries: the Year, the Grape/Fruit, the Award, and the Score
2010 Pineapple Gold 94
2010 White Peach Gold 94
2010 Purple Tomatill Sherry Gold 94
2010 Cherry Gold 94
2010 Pineapple Silver 92
2010 Purple Tomatillo Silver 90
2010 Navel Orange Silver 90
2009 Red Heirloom Tomato Silver 89
2010 CabSauv, Berries Silver 89
2009 Yellow Heirloom Tomato Bronze 87
2010 Green Bell Pepper Bronze 87
2009 Lemon Gold 94
2010 Boysenberry Silver 89
2010 Ruby Red Grapefruit Bronze 85
2010 Petit Verdot Double Gold 99 Best of Show Red. Best of California
2010 LaFirein, Neiluccio, Primitivo Double Gold 98 Best of California,
(Neiluccio is a known variety, Primitivo is the same as Zinfandel, we think LaFirein may be Lagrein)
2010 Apple Double Gold 99
2008 Black Raspberry, Passion Fruit Double Gold 98 Best of Show Sweet,
2010 Red Raspberry Gold 94
2008 Golden Raspberry Gold 94
2010 Pinot Gris, Mango Gold 94
2010 Elephant Heart Plum Silver 93
2010 Watermelon Silver 93
2010 Strawberry Silver 91
2010 Peach Silver 89
2010 Blueberry Honorable Mention 81
2009 Honey Mead Honorable Mention 81
2010 Apple Port Double Gold 98
Plus some more common but perhaps less than broadly known ......
2010 Blackberry Port Silver 91
2009 Touriga Nacional Silver 90
2010 Apple Juice Fortified with Apple Brandy Silver 89
2010 Unfortified Pinot Noir & Brandy Bronze 86
2009 Aglianico Silver 90
2006 Corvina Silver 90
2007 Muscat Canelli Silver 90
2009 Marionberry Silver 90
2010 Viognier Silver 90
2010 Rousanne Silver 89
2010 Olallieberry Silver 88
2009 Tannat Gold 94
2008 Marzemeino Silver 91
2010 Piquepoul Blanc Silver 89
2010 Arneis Silver 90
I supported the panel of Judges that had the Arneis. One member knew that it was from Piedmont. For the rest of us it was a mostly unknown. We had one of the Chief judges come over to give us a short ampelography on the grape and offer his opinion on the quality and tipicity of the wine. There was a general impression that it was slightly flawed. (Maybe SO2). But i thought it a good example of what a judge can run into and the difficulty required to give it a fair grade when the 'ideal' example was an unknown.
john
There were a lot of interesting wines entered in the competition. Since I am also a (1st year beginner) student of the AWS Wine Judge Certification Program, I wanted to post some of the wines we saw during the competition to introduce to my fellow students some of the wines they may encounter.
Here is only a partial list of the many entries: the Year, the Grape/Fruit, the Award, and the Score
2010 Pineapple Gold 94
2010 White Peach Gold 94
2010 Purple Tomatill Sherry Gold 94
2010 Cherry Gold 94
2010 Pineapple Silver 92
2010 Purple Tomatillo Silver 90
2010 Navel Orange Silver 90
2009 Red Heirloom Tomato Silver 89
2010 CabSauv, Berries Silver 89
2009 Yellow Heirloom Tomato Bronze 87
2010 Green Bell Pepper Bronze 87
2009 Lemon Gold 94
2010 Boysenberry Silver 89
2010 Ruby Red Grapefruit Bronze 85
2010 Petit Verdot Double Gold 99 Best of Show Red. Best of California
2010 LaFirein, Neiluccio, Primitivo Double Gold 98 Best of California,
(Neiluccio is a known variety, Primitivo is the same as Zinfandel, we think LaFirein may be Lagrein)
2010 Apple Double Gold 99
2008 Black Raspberry, Passion Fruit Double Gold 98 Best of Show Sweet,
2010 Red Raspberry Gold 94
2008 Golden Raspberry Gold 94
2010 Pinot Gris, Mango Gold 94
2010 Elephant Heart Plum Silver 93
2010 Watermelon Silver 93
2010 Strawberry Silver 91
2010 Peach Silver 89
2010 Blueberry Honorable Mention 81
2009 Honey Mead Honorable Mention 81
2010 Apple Port Double Gold 98
Plus some more common but perhaps less than broadly known ......
2010 Blackberry Port Silver 91
2009 Touriga Nacional Silver 90
2010 Apple Juice Fortified with Apple Brandy Silver 89
2010 Unfortified Pinot Noir & Brandy Bronze 86
2009 Aglianico Silver 90
2006 Corvina Silver 90
2007 Muscat Canelli Silver 90
2009 Marionberry Silver 90
2010 Viognier Silver 90
2010 Rousanne Silver 89
2010 Olallieberry Silver 88
2009 Tannat Gold 94
2008 Marzemeino Silver 91
2010 Piquepoul Blanc Silver 89
2010 Arneis Silver 90
I supported the panel of Judges that had the Arneis. One member knew that it was from Piedmont. For the rest of us it was a mostly unknown. We had one of the Chief judges come over to give us a short ampelography on the grape and offer his opinion on the quality and tipicity of the wine. There was a general impression that it was slightly flawed. (Maybe SO2). But i thought it a good example of what a judge can run into and the difficulty required to give it a fair grade when the 'ideal' example was an unknown.
john
Friday, June 17, 2011
A good week for free Wine !
My wine cellar ( ok, my kitchen closet ) was bare. I had been drinking fortified wines for the last couple of months and I had drunk all of them in preparation for my WSET -Unit 6 exam. I was out of wine.
Then this last week happened. Sunday, I volunteered for the California Home Winemakers Competition and in appreciation I got 6 unopened wines ( from the 2nd / backup bottles of each entry ), 6 wines that had been opened and poured, and for volunteering on Sunday as well, I got 3 additional unopened bottles.
So i drove home on Tuesday with 15 bottles of wine in my trunk, including: a Ruby Red Grapefruit wine, an apple wine, and other mostly red wines, generally zin, cabernet, and syrah.
After the competition we got to taste some of the winners. This was a real trip. I tasted lemon wines, golden raspberry wines, tomato wines ( actually quite good ), a totally awesome black raspberry wine, a bell pepper wine, among many others. I was looking specifically for the fruit wines because I was pretty sure I wouldn't run into them that often again at the Safeway store and I needed to be familiar with them for my experience for the AWS Wine Judge Certification program.
I admit that some of the wines that i brought home, I tasted once and poured out. Not that the wine was bad, just that it wasn't that interesting enough for me to invest my time in it beyond becoming familiar with the taste and characteristics. That is one of the pleasures of 'free' wine - you don't feel bad if it goes in the sink and down the drain.
------
Then yesterday I had a great time at a tasting of "Wines of Navarra". I had volunteered to help out with the people who were staging the event. The Oxbow Wine Merchant in Napa was the local sponsor and the "Wines of Spain" and especially the region of Navarra supplied the wines and the literature about them.
This was a fun event and as well as the public tasting, there was also an on-line virtual tasting and a simultaneous "tweet up" about the event where tasters were encouraged to let others know about the tasting and if there were any wines they liked.
We had over 125 people tasting 10 different wines and there were 2-4 pourers keeping busy all of the time. i was totally surprised that I could remember where a particular taster was in the order even if he/she was gone for several minutes before returning to taste the next wine. i suppose that people who do this more often get good at it. For me it was a surprise - but at same time it reminded me of 30 years ago when I was an air traffic controller and had to keep aircraft locations in my head.
It is a lot of fun to actually work with the public and be a pourer. I don't have the full skill set to actually keep up the patter and actually sell the wines as I am pouring them, plus we were much too busy to even try but maybe that will come in time. Note: We were not actually selling the wines, it was purely educational and we didn't actually have any wines available to sell, but when I talk about 'selling' I mean giving the taster the full story about the wine, a handle by which to remember it, something he/she can take home and then remember that wine later on.
After the event was over, the best part came. The pourers were offered the opportunity to take some of the wines home. In fact because it had been such a busy and popular event we were given several bottle to take home.
So now my wine closet is full again. Such is the life of a wine student.
john
Then this last week happened. Sunday, I volunteered for the California Home Winemakers Competition and in appreciation I got 6 unopened wines ( from the 2nd / backup bottles of each entry ), 6 wines that had been opened and poured, and for volunteering on Sunday as well, I got 3 additional unopened bottles.
So i drove home on Tuesday with 15 bottles of wine in my trunk, including: a Ruby Red Grapefruit wine, an apple wine, and other mostly red wines, generally zin, cabernet, and syrah.
After the competition we got to taste some of the winners. This was a real trip. I tasted lemon wines, golden raspberry wines, tomato wines ( actually quite good ), a totally awesome black raspberry wine, a bell pepper wine, among many others. I was looking specifically for the fruit wines because I was pretty sure I wouldn't run into them that often again at the Safeway store and I needed to be familiar with them for my experience for the AWS Wine Judge Certification program.
I admit that some of the wines that i brought home, I tasted once and poured out. Not that the wine was bad, just that it wasn't that interesting enough for me to invest my time in it beyond becoming familiar with the taste and characteristics. That is one of the pleasures of 'free' wine - you don't feel bad if it goes in the sink and down the drain.
------
Then yesterday I had a great time at a tasting of "Wines of Navarra". I had volunteered to help out with the people who were staging the event. The Oxbow Wine Merchant in Napa was the local sponsor and the "Wines of Spain" and especially the region of Navarra supplied the wines and the literature about them.
This was a fun event and as well as the public tasting, there was also an on-line virtual tasting and a simultaneous "tweet up" about the event where tasters were encouraged to let others know about the tasting and if there were any wines they liked.
We had over 125 people tasting 10 different wines and there were 2-4 pourers keeping busy all of the time. i was totally surprised that I could remember where a particular taster was in the order even if he/she was gone for several minutes before returning to taste the next wine. i suppose that people who do this more often get good at it. For me it was a surprise - but at same time it reminded me of 30 years ago when I was an air traffic controller and had to keep aircraft locations in my head.
It is a lot of fun to actually work with the public and be a pourer. I don't have the full skill set to actually keep up the patter and actually sell the wines as I am pouring them, plus we were much too busy to even try but maybe that will come in time. Note: We were not actually selling the wines, it was purely educational and we didn't actually have any wines available to sell, but when I talk about 'selling' I mean giving the taster the full story about the wine, a handle by which to remember it, something he/she can take home and then remember that wine later on.
After the event was over, the best part came. The pourers were offered the opportunity to take some of the wines home. In fact because it had been such a busy and popular event we were given several bottle to take home.
So now my wine closet is full again. Such is the life of a wine student.
john
California State Fair Home Winemaker's Competition
I had a great time this last week. I was a volunteer for the California State Fair Home Winemaking Competition. This event and its sister event - the Commercial Winemaking Competition - are one of the largest in the country, the amount of work that goes into setting it up is incredible. I want to write a little on what happens behind the scenes.
Before I even got involved, the Competition rules had been set up, the applications made available to the home winemakers and the sample wines had been coming in over the previous month. Each wine was received, recorded by type, grape, and residual sugar. They were stored in a Woodbridge Winery so California's normal summer heat wouldn't spoil them, and the data about each wine was entered into the competition database. Each wine got a 4 digit number.
Once the deadline for receiving the wines had passed, the wines were grouped by type and then turned into tasting flights - i.e. groups of similar wines that would be tasted together. Here is where the residual sugar came into effect. The flights tried to taste from dry to sweet. A lot of work was done to create flights that would work and give each wine a fair chance.
Each bottle ( actually a set of two, in case one was corked, or additional pours were needed if the wine made it to the finals) got its numbered label, additionally, one of the two bottles got an additional numbered label on a ring over the neck of the bottle. The wines were in numeric order by the order they were received. This order was different from the order they would be tasted, since they could be received in any order and needed to be recorded when they were received, while the tasting order would be by type and flight.
Both bottles of an entry were then boxed together. 6 entries to a case. Each box was then numbered so the wines could be put back into sorted order.
This was all done even before I came into the picture. I started on the Sunday before the event which was going to be on Tuesday. Here was the process.
The Judging was held on the following Tuesday. The judges' tables were also lettered "A" to "Q". Each judge has been asked which wines he was most comfortable judging. The judging panels were grouped by interest, this had also been done in advance.
The Volunteers arrived early on Tuesday and were broken into teams. Each team had a specific role and also specific locations where they were allowed to go and locations from which they were barred. This was to prevent cross contamination of information about the wine from the cellar to the judges.
Here were the teams:
Even further behind the scenes, the people running the event had to provide food, water, breaks and lunches, for the about 100 volunteers and the about 60 judges.
I am really, really impressed with the people who could pull all of this off. The logistics are incredible. And despite the effort involved, the people who make this work are all really supportive of each other and everybody works together to make this a great event.
I was really honored to work with them and hope / plan to do it again.
john
Before I even got involved, the Competition rules had been set up, the applications made available to the home winemakers and the sample wines had been coming in over the previous month. Each wine was received, recorded by type, grape, and residual sugar. They were stored in a Woodbridge Winery so California's normal summer heat wouldn't spoil them, and the data about each wine was entered into the competition database. Each wine got a 4 digit number.
Once the deadline for receiving the wines had passed, the wines were grouped by type and then turned into tasting flights - i.e. groups of similar wines that would be tasted together. Here is where the residual sugar came into effect. The flights tried to taste from dry to sweet. A lot of work was done to create flights that would work and give each wine a fair chance.
Each bottle ( actually a set of two, in case one was corked, or additional pours were needed if the wine made it to the finals) got its numbered label, additionally, one of the two bottles got an additional numbered label on a ring over the neck of the bottle. The wines were in numeric order by the order they were received. This order was different from the order they would be tasted, since they could be received in any order and needed to be recorded when they were received, while the tasting order would be by type and flight.
Both bottles of an entry were then boxed together. 6 entries to a case. Each box was then numbered so the wines could be put back into sorted order.
This was all done even before I came into the picture. I started on the Sunday before the event which was going to be on Tuesday. Here was the process.
- We set up both rooms, the "cellar" room and the "judging" room. Tables and chairs were arranged.
- In the cellar room, boxes of wines were taken to the appropriate table and the wines were laid out in sorted (reception) order.
- Once all the wines were lined up, picking sheets were printed. These sheets had 1 to 15 wines on them and each sheet constituted what would be a tasting flight that would be given to the judges.
- Wines were picked - 1 bottle from each entry, and were put into empty boxes and then moved to their position on the "flights" table. For example Table "P" had 5 flights of about 10 wines in each flight. Each flight was then numbered : P-1, P-2, P-3, etc. Again each wine in the flight had already been ordered by sweetness.
- By the end of Sunday, 1 bottle of every entry had been picked and boxed and on the appropriate table for the pourers to create their flights.
- Each of the pourers' tables - labeled from "A" to "Q" corresponded to one of the judges panels. Each table had 5 flights of wines and each flight had been cross checked at least 2 times for correctness.
- In the Cellar - there was still one bottle for every entry, and the celler had been checked to make sure that at least 1 bottle from every entry had made it into a flight.
The Judging was held on the following Tuesday. The judges' tables were also lettered "A" to "Q". Each judge has been asked which wines he was most comfortable judging. The judging panels were grouped by interest, this had also been done in advance.
The Volunteers arrived early on Tuesday and were broken into teams. Each team had a specific role and also specific locations where they were allowed to go and locations from which they were barred. This was to prevent cross contamination of information about the wine from the cellar to the judges.
Here were the teams:
- The Cellar crew. Responsible for replacing corked bottles, pulling wines for finals tasting, and also putting wines together for distributing to the volunteers when the competition was over.
- Pourers. They poured each flight, put the glasses on the trays by which they would be delivered to the judges.
- The Stewards. They were not allowed in the pouring area. They could only received the numbered glasses and trays and transport them to the judging room. There they would place the wines in order in front of the judges.
- Communications: One communications table in each room managed the order of events. They knew when new flights should be served, which bottles needed repours, and kept everything running in general
- Data crew printed labels, entered scores into the computers, checked the work of the judges and the clerks. They enabled the transition between the 3 phases of the competition.
- Clerks supported the judges, tallied the judges scores, and made sure all the scores were correct and complete (hopefully) before handing them off to the data crew.
- Table assistants. They watched each table to see who needed water, or cracker refills. Who needed "bug juice" to clear their palates. They also moved into clear empty glasses and dump buckets between flights.
- Administration and team leads. Managed the resources and people and kept everything moving.
Even further behind the scenes, the people running the event had to provide food, water, breaks and lunches, for the about 100 volunteers and the about 60 judges.
I am really, really impressed with the people who could pull all of this off. The logistics are incredible. And despite the effort involved, the people who make this work are all really supportive of each other and everybody works together to make this a great event.
I was really honored to work with them and hope / plan to do it again.
john
Unit 6 exam - I could cry.
June 6th was my WSET Unit 6 exam for Fortified Wines. It didn't go well.
I have been studying and tasting fortified wines for about 3 months. I made some great study notes excerpted from the Oxford Companion to Wine. I had separate lists of dates and events by type of wine ( Sherry, Port, Madeira ). I had summaries of key facts and dates by major producer. I had tasted ( and really enjoyed !) about 20 different wines. I thought i was ready for the exam.
I woke up early that Monday morning. About 5 AM with thoughts of the exam on my mind. A final review, I figured, a final refresh and I would be ready to go. So I studied for the next 2 hours, had my breakfast, and got ready for my 1.5 hour drive to where the test was being held. I arrived about 1 hour early.
But I was feeling a little tired. I started to drink a can of soda that I had brought, however, it wasn't the normal diet coke that I might drink but was the full-on sugared variety. No No No, my mind screamed. Don't drink sugar when you are tired, you will crash later on when the test is in full force. So I went to get some coffee.
Now normally I am a decaf drinker. I like the flavor and believe that coffee in general can be beneficial but I know I can't handle the caffeine. But I needed the boost, so i ordered a half-caf latte.
Now maybe the drink was half-caf and maybe it wasn't but i got wired. I could feel my body racing, "I can manage this" I thought as I walked into the test. And at first I was OK.
We had 3 wines to describe. The first was clear - a fino sherry, that one I could almost tell just from looking, and of course the particular aromas gave it away. The 2nd was a golden color and not especially bright or clear. I wasn't sure about that one. The 3rd was a light-gold and again from appearance only it looked like a Muscat and I figured I would be in pretty good shape.
I did my best to describe the wines. The Fino and the Muscat VDN were easy. I described the 2nd wine OK, I think, but didn't connect that it was a white port and lost 2 points on that one when i picked the wrong country and region.
This took around 35 minutes. This left only 25 minutes to write the 3 essay questions / paragraphs that remained. ( The whole test has to be done in 60 minutes and you have to describe 3 wines and then write 3 paragraphs on whatever fortified wine topic that is part of the syllabus ). In the weeks prior to the test I had been timing myself on my wine descriptions and I was taking the generally allowed 10 minutes per wine. I had only gone over this limit a little but every minute counts.
I was good on the topics, I was comfortable with all 3 and had even psyched out one that would be on the test - either that or got really lucky - but I had done extra study on the Madeira Wine Company and here was that question on the test. But 25 minutes is not a lot of time, and I started to panic a little. This was bad. My adrenaline picked up, and started interacting with the caffeine that already had my body wired. I was getting hyper. Next my hand started shaking. After about the first paragraph, the shaking was getting bad, and my hand started cramping up. I had hand cramps happen before a couple years ago when I was taking a writing course - but I was able to work through the cramping. But this time the shaking and the cramping together debilitated me.
The 2nd paragraph was messy. I had several times when I would try to write a word and my hand shook so badly that the letters would not form. I stopped. I took a drink of water ( having to hold the bottle with both hands to stop the shaking ). I tried again and like a first or 2nd grade school child I had to print out each letter. I lost considerable time.
By the time i was on the 3rd question, I had only 6-7 minutes left and i could hardly write. My writing is never that good even at its best, but now letters were hardly readable by even me. It was sad. I could cry. If the examiners throw out my paper as unreadable I will totally understand, and I am getting myself prepared for the retake.
This is a much bigger issue, however. Even if I don't get an adrenaline-and-caffeine-cocktail induced shakes, i know that my hand could very well cramp up after about 30 minutes of writing. I remember that I read a couple of weeks ago, a blog from another WSET student. He had written that in order to prepare for his tests, he had spent a lot of time practicing writing. When i first read that i thought of sentence structure, paragraph layout, the usual "tell them what you are going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you told them" structure for a good essay. Now I am considering that in a different light.
Other than my writing class, during which most of the time I ( like now ) did my work on a type writer, I only had to do 1 final paper hand-written, because it was a timed test and no computers were allowed. I have been using computers, electronic e-mail, MS Word, or Open Office for probably the past 20 years. Other than grocery lists, I write very little by hand. And this factor is just one of several that helped me to fail the test. ( At least i think I failed. I don't have a lot of hope ).
Other than a re-take of Unit 6, I still have several more circumstances where i will have to hand-write answers and paragraph for an hour or more. Specifically, Unit 1 - coming up in November will require a full 1 hour hand-written essay I can't have the same circumstances befall me again.
So. I now have 3 additional tasks that i have to fit into my schedule.
1) I have to practice writing. I have to retrain those muscles and get them fit once more.
2) I have to speed up the amount of time it takes me to taste and evaluate a wine. 10 minutes is much too slow, even though 3 wines in 30 minutes or 6 wines in an hour is thegenerally allowed time on WSET tests.
5-7 minutes or less should be the amount of time I take. I just need to react a little more, contemplate a little less, and have the required terms just flow from my pen.
3) I have to find a comfortable pen, one that fits me well enough that I am less likely to cramp up. I have big hands and I think a fatter pen might help.
I am never going to drink coffee, any coffee, before a test again. My adrenaline will be enough.
john
I have been studying and tasting fortified wines for about 3 months. I made some great study notes excerpted from the Oxford Companion to Wine. I had separate lists of dates and events by type of wine ( Sherry, Port, Madeira ). I had summaries of key facts and dates by major producer. I had tasted ( and really enjoyed !) about 20 different wines. I thought i was ready for the exam.
I woke up early that Monday morning. About 5 AM with thoughts of the exam on my mind. A final review, I figured, a final refresh and I would be ready to go. So I studied for the next 2 hours, had my breakfast, and got ready for my 1.5 hour drive to where the test was being held. I arrived about 1 hour early.
But I was feeling a little tired. I started to drink a can of soda that I had brought, however, it wasn't the normal diet coke that I might drink but was the full-on sugared variety. No No No, my mind screamed. Don't drink sugar when you are tired, you will crash later on when the test is in full force. So I went to get some coffee.
Now normally I am a decaf drinker. I like the flavor and believe that coffee in general can be beneficial but I know I can't handle the caffeine. But I needed the boost, so i ordered a half-caf latte.
Now maybe the drink was half-caf and maybe it wasn't but i got wired. I could feel my body racing, "I can manage this" I thought as I walked into the test. And at first I was OK.
We had 3 wines to describe. The first was clear - a fino sherry, that one I could almost tell just from looking, and of course the particular aromas gave it away. The 2nd was a golden color and not especially bright or clear. I wasn't sure about that one. The 3rd was a light-gold and again from appearance only it looked like a Muscat and I figured I would be in pretty good shape.
I did my best to describe the wines. The Fino and the Muscat VDN were easy. I described the 2nd wine OK, I think, but didn't connect that it was a white port and lost 2 points on that one when i picked the wrong country and region.
This took around 35 minutes. This left only 25 minutes to write the 3 essay questions / paragraphs that remained. ( The whole test has to be done in 60 minutes and you have to describe 3 wines and then write 3 paragraphs on whatever fortified wine topic that is part of the syllabus ). In the weeks prior to the test I had been timing myself on my wine descriptions and I was taking the generally allowed 10 minutes per wine. I had only gone over this limit a little but every minute counts.
I was good on the topics, I was comfortable with all 3 and had even psyched out one that would be on the test - either that or got really lucky - but I had done extra study on the Madeira Wine Company and here was that question on the test. But 25 minutes is not a lot of time, and I started to panic a little. This was bad. My adrenaline picked up, and started interacting with the caffeine that already had my body wired. I was getting hyper. Next my hand started shaking. After about the first paragraph, the shaking was getting bad, and my hand started cramping up. I had hand cramps happen before a couple years ago when I was taking a writing course - but I was able to work through the cramping. But this time the shaking and the cramping together debilitated me.
The 2nd paragraph was messy. I had several times when I would try to write a word and my hand shook so badly that the letters would not form. I stopped. I took a drink of water ( having to hold the bottle with both hands to stop the shaking ). I tried again and like a first or 2nd grade school child I had to print out each letter. I lost considerable time.
By the time i was on the 3rd question, I had only 6-7 minutes left and i could hardly write. My writing is never that good even at its best, but now letters were hardly readable by even me. It was sad. I could cry. If the examiners throw out my paper as unreadable I will totally understand, and I am getting myself prepared for the retake.
This is a much bigger issue, however. Even if I don't get an adrenaline-and-caffeine-cocktail induced shakes, i know that my hand could very well cramp up after about 30 minutes of writing. I remember that I read a couple of weeks ago, a blog from another WSET student. He had written that in order to prepare for his tests, he had spent a lot of time practicing writing. When i first read that i thought of sentence structure, paragraph layout, the usual "tell them what you are going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you told them" structure for a good essay. Now I am considering that in a different light.
Other than my writing class, during which most of the time I ( like now ) did my work on a type writer, I only had to do 1 final paper hand-written, because it was a timed test and no computers were allowed. I have been using computers, electronic e-mail, MS Word, or Open Office for probably the past 20 years. Other than grocery lists, I write very little by hand. And this factor is just one of several that helped me to fail the test. ( At least i think I failed. I don't have a lot of hope ).
Other than a re-take of Unit 6, I still have several more circumstances where i will have to hand-write answers and paragraph for an hour or more. Specifically, Unit 1 - coming up in November will require a full 1 hour hand-written essay I can't have the same circumstances befall me again.
So. I now have 3 additional tasks that i have to fit into my schedule.
1) I have to practice writing. I have to retrain those muscles and get them fit once more.
2) I have to speed up the amount of time it takes me to taste and evaluate a wine. 10 minutes is much too slow, even though 3 wines in 30 minutes or 6 wines in an hour is thegenerally allowed time on WSET tests.
5-7 minutes or less should be the amount of time I take. I just need to react a little more, contemplate a little less, and have the required terms just flow from my pen.
3) I have to find a comfortable pen, one that fits me well enough that I am less likely to cramp up. I have big hands and I think a fatter pen might help.
I am never going to drink coffee, any coffee, before a test again. My adrenaline will be enough.
john
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