Taking the Advanced Course at the WSET

by Rob Bralow, Wine Post Editor

For my birthday, Leah gave me a course at the Wine and Spirits Education Trust. After looking at the courses, it seemed best for me to take the advanced class, as the Intermediate class looked like the Viticulture and Vinification course I already took at the American Sommelier Association. Eventually I think this will lead to my enrollment in the Diploma course at the WSET, but they will not admit me to that course until after I have taken their Advanced class, so here I am.

Tuesday was the first class, and the most immediate difference between the ASA and the WSET was the approach to tasting wine. The WSET takes an extremely analytic approach to every aspect of wine tasting, whereas the ASA was slightly less structured. However, I also need to keep in mind that the ASA course I took might have been at a lower level than this WSET course.

For every wine put in front of us, we are expected to analyze and determine the following characteristics:
Appearance - Clarity, Intensity, Color, Other Observations
Nose - Condition, Intensity, Development, Aroma
Palate - Sweetness, Acidity, Tannin Level, Alcohol Level, Body, Mousse (bubbles), Flavor Intensity, Flavour Characteristics, Length

Note that the flavor and the aroma come at the END of each analytic phase. After we are done analyzing the wine we are required to draw conclusions: Quality, Price, Readiness for Drinking. No where are we asked if we like or dislike the wine. I understand why, but I also think this might be a flaw. I feel I am capable of tasting a wine, determining that the wine is good, and also understanding that I do not like it.

The class itself was very interesting to me as well. The people are heavily skewed towards wine industry professionals, mostly thanks to 12 representatives from a beer, wine, and spirits distributing company. The rest of the class is made up of wine enthusiasts and industry wannabes, with a healthy peppering of finance or former finance professionals.

This journey is going to be a good one. I will keep you informed here from time to time about how the class is going.

Have you taken any wine classes? Are you interested in taking more professional wine classes (that is, classes hosted by a professional rather than Joe coming over with 12 bottles and opening them all)? What do you think about these classes?

Monday Rant - RE: That Customer

If you do not read Frankly My Dear, you should. Christy Frank is the owner of a retail store called Frankly Wines and has some great insights into the wine industry.

Christy has a series going about being "That Customer" and I think it is worthwhile for everyone to read, for no other reason than how amusing it is to think about watching "That Customer" interact with everyone else.

People, this is a serious illness. You have no idea how not funny it is when you have to deal with "That Customer." It's like trying to remove that last bit of food that won't come out between your teeth. It's like having an itch on the bottom of your foot while you are sitting in a business meeting.

The most recent edition of "The Customer" centers around people at wine tastings. I go to wine tastings on a regular basis. I just went to one at City Winery yesterday, as a blogger instead of a pourer. And probably the most annoying people at tastings are the ones that like to clink their glass on the bottom of the bottle lip while you are pouring them wine.

People, I know you don't want a lot of wine. It's a TASTING. Give me the benefit of the doubt that I am not a booth babe there to look pretty and attract you over with the intention of having you look at my boobs while you taste the wine I am pouring. No, I am a slightly Jewish, 6'4", perfectly weighted at 200 lbs (mmm... 200+), gentleman with a healthy amount of hair, facial or otherwise.

Sorry ladies, I'm taken.

So, when you feel like tapping your glass against the bottom of the bottle, I can only assume that you think I am a moron and have no idea when you want me to stop pouring the $100 wine in my hand. It pisses me off and I think from now on I am going to tell those importers, distributors, retailers, and extremely important media (yes, I'll include bloggers in there) how extremely insulting and rude I find it that you cannot verbally tell me that you do not want any more wine in your glass.

Tasting 1400 bottles of wine

That’s how many bottles I will be surrounded by this week. No, I did not buy them (as if I have that much money). These are the wines that we have collected for a comprehensive review of Chile by Josh Raynolds, wine critic for the International Wine Cellar.

This is going to be one hell of a tasting. The first day is going to be spent simply taking inventory of the wines that are here, and putting them in order for Josh to taste. Each wine taster is different, and each has their own particular style of tasting wines. For instance, Jay Miller, critic for Robert Parker’s The Wine Adocate, likes to taste each individual wine for a single winery before moving on to the next winery. Josh likes to taste by varietal order and then by price, which means we will be starting with sparkling wines on Tuesday, through all the whites and onto the reds.

It’s the “by price” that always gets me. In order to organize a tasting where the critic tastes by price, we put a number on each bottle of wine. After the numbers are on the bottles, we put them in number order. Knowing which sticker goes onto each bottle requires a lot of research on each wine long before the bottles show up. We have a VERY long spreadsheet, which lists each wine, their brand name, their vintage, their varietal composition, the appellation each wine comes from, and the price of each wine. If you want to learn appellations and brand names, there is no better way than by putting this list together.

Some people have asked me how long do I think this tasting will take. We have scheduled four days of tasting. I mean full days, starting at about 7:00 AM and finishing between 5:00 – 6:00 PM. Josh usually averages about 180 wines a day, Jay did closer to 200. We prepare Carrs Crackers, water, and regular breaks for the tasters, allowing them to go at their own pace.

Can these tasters really taste anything after the 137th wine? Well, the last time we held this review for a critic I tasted with them. As an amateur taster, I was still able to able to distinguish defining characteristics in different wines through my 80th wine. After about that I had to re-energize my taste buds by walking away for a while, eating something, drinking some water. For a professional, such as these critics, I really have no reservations about putting as many wines in front of them as they wish. Each critic takes the same focus of attention for each wine, be it the first one or the 151st one.

There is another thing I like about these tastings. Besides allowing me to continue my wine education by having the opportunity to taste more wines, there is a lot of wine left over. Since it is only one person tasting, there are only a few ounces missing from each wine. That leaves a lot of wine remaining that needs to find a happy home.

Superbowl party anyone?

Tasting 170 Wineries? A drop in the bucket…

How many wines do you think you can taste in four hours? And I don’t simply mean, stick it in your mouth and push it down your gullet. I am talking about stop for a moment and savor the wine, talk to the winemaker, perhaps get the reaction of your friends that are with you. Think you can do 170?

At this year’s New York Wine Expo there will be that many wine producers, probably with more than one wine to show, making it a superhuman feat to taste them all. That and I still have not met the person able to imbibe that much alcohol without needing a rush visit to the ER to get the BAC checked.

There will be wine at the NYWE from the Old World (the countries of Kings and Queens), the New World (the countries that were ruled by the countries of Kings and Queens), and of course New York, Oregon and California (which seems to be a country of its own…).

The NYWE will be happening on February 27th, 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm and February
28th, 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm. So if you are more of an afternoon “taster” head there on Saturday, but if you are looking for a kick-start to your evening, try the Friday night special. There will be hundreds of wines to taste, knowledgeable people to talk to and dancing (well, not technically. But lets be honest, its New York and the only criteria to get in is if you buy a ticket… there will be dancing).

(You will never believe how many photos on the internet are labeled "Drunk Dancing")

Tickets are $85 ($75 if you order early). To order go to http://www.wine-expos.com/Wine/NY/.

My personal best is still 100 wines. I’ll be there, will you? Let me know!





As a personal aside:



Its a big weekend...



GO EAGLES!!!!