whin.es weekly

First WWSET day! (Including mega-review)

The Wine and Spirit Educational Trust, or WSET is a internationally recognised qualification in, well, wines and spirits. It ranges from foundation ("Wine is made from grapes and come in 3 colours") right through to the Diploma. The Diploma is HARD, blind tastings and a written test to pass. In the blind tasting you have to pinpoint country and region, grape variety, quality and price points. Yeah, like I said, hard. Anyway, I'm on the Intermediate course (for now) which is basically level 2 of 4, which to be honest (and I'm not bragging) I'm pretty confident I'll fly through, I'm aiming for a distinction. The test is 50 multiple choice questions with a 85% score needed for a distinction or 46/50, I'll keep you posted on that.

Unfortunately the night before my first day of WSET was my staff Christmas party, combined with my leaving do. All you can eat Chinese and plenty of drinks, always a good night out, but let's just say, I felt worse for wares the next morning. Still, self induced, like every time before, carry on. I got up in plenty of time for the 45 minute drive to Southwold, but realised I'd left my car at the pub, argh! So, I quickly hopped on the bus, found my car, drove quickly and still arrived twenty minutes late, but guess what...I'd read the bloody info wrong and it started at 1.30pm not 1pm, so I was 10 mins early! A result, luck was on my side and I'm an idiot, but I still saw it as a result.

The actual course consists of six sessions, in each session we get to taste about 12 wines. The first session was just to get people who are not used to tasting and evaluating flavours and aromas into the swing of it. Therefore, we had a pretty mixed bag of wines to highlight differences in styles. The range in styles for this lesson was a one off, for the newbies (not like me, huh?), and much like I've done in the past with bartenders, but in a much more organised, and expensive way (Did I mention we tasted 12 wines?). Next week we're concentrating on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

The other cool thing we did, and most enjoyable to me (I was starving) was food matching. We had a plate of: apple, peanuts, cold beef, smoked salmon, chilli Doritos, mature cheddar cheese and a mini caramel slice. We had tasters of: fresh Italian Soave, spicy Alsace Gewurztraminer, oaky South African Chenin Blanc, light Beaujolais, smoky South African Pinotage and Sweet desert Muscat. Then we had twenty minutes to trial and error our way to a wine match for each food. (Answers on a postcard) Believe me, some mixes are horrid and some were delightful.

The principles behind food matching are all well and good and I'm sure a lot of you listen to the TV wine pundits and chefs (Olly, Oz, Gordon and Jamie) and wonder what they're going an about and whether it really matters. Well, have a swig of a smokey Pinotage and nibble on some salted peanuts. Then bite an apple and a sip a fresh Soave. Try it. I did. It makes a diffence. It was excellent to put theory into practice and I highly recommend it if you have the time (and the inclination).

The only awkward bit was the spitting (you all want to know about the spitting right?), four buckets between 12. We were told to spit otherwise we'd be trashed by the end (I certainly would have been), and given a quick demo on how to spit elegantly by our course leader. Eugh. They were nearly full and a bit too sloshy for my liking by the end. I even think I got splashed on when someone spat a bit to vigourously. Double eugh.

Mega review time. I'll keep them short, promise.

2008 Soave Borgoletto, Fasoli Gino, £8.50. Light and crisp, floral and zesty, dry with medium acidity. 14/20

2007 Gewurztraminer, Rolly Gassman, Alsace, £16.50. Pronounced nose of roses and spice, with a nice full body. 16/20

2004 Chenin Blanc, Tierhoek, S. Africa, £10.99. Smoky nose like a beach bonfire, subtle tropical fruits. 13/20

2009 Beaujolais Villages, Chiroubles, Desmures, £9.99. Fruity, but great character, balance and tannins for such a young wine. 16/20

2007 Rolands Reserve Pinotage, Seidelberg Estate, Paarl, S. Africa, £15.75. Really pronounced, almost stuffy aroma, smoky with black fruits. 15/20

2007 Domaine Perrin, Muscat Beaumes de Venise, £9.99 (half bottle). A sweet late harvest muscat, doesn't smell sweet, but tastes sweet with lively pineapple fruit. A bit thin. 13/20

2008 Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine, Cuvèe Prerstige, £7.75. Lots of aromas of pear, crazy dry, but creamy. Nice acidity. 14/20

2008 La Forcine Vouvray Demi-Sec, A. Bonhomme, £7.50. Nice fresh nose, a hint of sweetness (off dry), lemons and limes. 14/20

2008 Rosado Pirineos, Somantano, Spain, £7.99. Deep pink, few hints of fruit on the nose, a bit pithy and tired on the palate (because it is 2 years old...). 12/20

Blossom Hill (generic) Red, California, £4.49. Fruity and simple. Bit boring. 12/20

2008 Geyserville Zinfandel, Ridge Vineyards, Sonoma, California, £32.50. Save the best until last why don't you. Ridge make some of Californias top premium wines and are a total world away from the Blossom Hill. it's a blend of 72% zinfandel, 20% carignane, 6% petite sirah and 2% mataro, all from a single site, the Geyserville Vineyard. Smaller yields of hand harvested grapes, aging in American oak barrels and a commitment to quality mean this wine has a rich ruby red colour with lively black fruits and gental oak and spice on the nose. There is also excellent balance, nice tannins and a real complexity to this wine. Wowsers. 17/20