WSET Success

Over the last few months Adam and I have both been doing the WSET Advanced Course as evening classes in Bermondsey Street. A few weeks after taking the exam the results arrived. I was pleased to discover I'd got a distiction in all elements of the exam.

I knew the syllabus quite well so this was not too surprising; however, I was surprised about the blind tasting part. After the exam most of the rest of the people on the course had a consensus about which wine it was, and I had put down something else. I was worried that I might have made the schoolboy error of tailoring my tasting notes to what I thought the wine was, but apparently not. Annoyingly we never found out what the wine was though.

Far more surprisingly, Adam and I were both invited to the Scholarship exam. This is where they invite the best 30 results in the country down to London for a viva on the Advanced course syllabus.

This was long enough after the exam that all the short-term memory knowledge had gone, So... back to the revision. The scholarships available are pretty tasty, but almost without exception are only available for people who work in the wine trade. Hmmm! Nonetheless, I still had fun on the day.

We've since found out the results. Adam and I both won the Decanter Magazing Prize along with one other person. Since this prize and the Vintners Bursary are the only ones we qualify for as dirty non-wine-trade people I was quite happy with this.

Structure of the viva:
The 30 students being examined were split into three groups, one hour apart. We went into a room where there were 10 tables with examiners behind them. We were randomly sat at tables (which one we sat at was decided purely by the order in which we walked into the room). A bell rang, the examiner turned over two cards each with a question on them and were had to choose one to answer. The bell then rang again after which we had five minutes to talk about our chosen question. Five minutes is not very long at all, particularly for some of the questions upon which it would be possible to write entire books (eg Differences between the wines of the North and South Rhone!). After this, we moved to the next table and started it all again.

1. Wine & Food or Spirits
Annoyingly, the question I got on Spirits was about the production of Islay Whisky, something I hadn't really revised. So I was stuck with a question on the pairing of food with wine.

2. Rhone or Germany
Both questions were very doable here. In the end I went for the question on the Rhone Valley. Almost impossible to answer in time.

3. New World vs Old World
Both questions were along the lines of "describe the following styles of wine". I went for the Old World question (SW France and Bordeaux), but either question was very doable.

4. Burgundy/Alsace or Sparkling
The B/A question was about different grape varieties in the regions. I went instead for the question on the methods of production of sparkling wine. I had a lot to say about this, but was rather unstructured in my rush to get it all in.

5. Italy or Spain
I went for a question of describing three wines from Piedmonte. Threw in a cheeky Moscato d'Asti as one of them since they didn't specify still wines.

6. Vinification vs Viticulture
This one was difficult. Both questions were hard. One was on vineyard pests. The other was on the various alterations which are possible for a winemaker to make to a wine both pre and post fermentation. I went for the second question but I think that I didn't do too well here.

7. Vinters Interview
This was probably the most annoying part of the whole viva process. This was to determine who gets the Vinters Bursary. Since this was the only winery visit prize which was open to people not in the wine trade this was an important stand to perform well at.

However, when the people from the vintners trust discovered that I was not in the wine trade and wasn't interested in transferring to the wine trade there was a noticeable drop in their interest levels. This was cemented when they discovered that I work for a bank(!) One of them made a snooty comment about bankers bonuses. Ho hum. I don't quite understand the rather snobbish attitude of the wine trade to people who work in financial services - who do they think is buying all this overpriced bordeaux and keeping their industry going? :o)

8. Tasting
By this stage I knew I had no chance of a Vintners Bursary so was beginning to just relax and enjoy myself. With fortuitous timing this coincided with the wine tasting round...
A blind tasting of two wines. Five minutes is not really long enough to get through all the points in the WSET tasting schema so I had to rush. One of the wines was clearly a very good pinot noir and I would have definitely pegged it as a Burgundy. However, we were told that both were from the same region and there was no way that the other wine was a Beaujolais. It had quite an intense flavour, noticeable tannin, was well balanced and tasted pleasant. So I pegged them both as being from the Loire - one a PN, one a Cab Franc.

Oh dear, I later discovered that they were both from Burgundy and that it was indeed a Beaujolais. My prejudice against Beaujolais worked against me.

9. Eastern Europe vs Something else (I forget)
Let this be a warning to those who try to question spot in this viva. Eastern Europe was indeed examined. Since I had gone to the trouble of learning it quite well I went for that question. Rather surprisingly, I think this may well have been one of my highest-scoring rounds. I had to rush to fit in everything I wanted to say about the 5 regions asked about. Helpfully, one of the regions was Tokaji and another was Santorini.

10. Fortified wines vs Something else (Can't remember)
My question was about different styles of Sherry. I think I acquitted myself well here too.

Advice to anyone else who gets to the viva stage:

• Be in the wine trade. If you are not, consider taking up a Saturday job at your local Majestic/Oddbins/etc. This is probably the single biggest thing you can do to improve your chances of winning.


• Don't try to question spot. Even the most unlikely areas come up. Eastern Europe, Vinification and Viticulture. etc etc


• If you are a pretty girl, flirt outrageously with the people at the Vintners Interview stand. The interviewers are all old men who have ultimate discretion on whether to give you a grand to go on holiday in a wine region(!)

Pavelkavino

Pavelka, Slovakia
Tasting at Slovak House
11 Nov 2009


Quite a strange tasting - was expecting to be one of a small number of non-trade people at the tasting. However, in fact Adam and I were in a distinct minority in having been to at least one wine tasting before.

1. Gruner Veltliner Late Harvest 2008
Pale green, petillage. Neutral, mineralic nose. Grape, apple and apricot on the palate. Smooth, silky acid. The taste lasts quite a while but the overall impression from the midpalate onwards is of thinness. OK

2. Welschriesling Late Harvest 2008
Pale green. Semi-aromatic nose with lime and nuts. Intense fruit on the palate. Plenty of lime, cooked apple and herbal notes. Quite complex palate compared to the nose. Heavy on the palate. Mouthfilling and soft. Well balanced, long, but with a bitter finish. Good.

3. Chardonnay 2008
Lemon coloured. Neutral nose, with hints of apricot. No noticeable oak on the nose but more buttery and fuller bodied that would be expected from an unoaked chardonnay with this little alcohol. On the palate the wine gives much more - the apricot continues with mango and melon. The overall feeling on the palate is soft and round. Good, nice length. Much, much better than the following wine. Interestingly, the cheese which came with the tasting was very bland by itself but worked very well with this wine.

4. Pinot Blanc 2008
Pale. Neutral aroma profile. Some flowers, something mineralic. Quite low body and alcohol and not enough fruit to balance the high acid. Overall feeling is that the wine is quite sharp. In conclusion - too sharp and unbalanced. I don't like this one.

5. Riesling 2008
Very pale. I expect riesling to be an aromatic wine but this one is quite neutral and restrained on the nose. However, the palate shows intense fruit - citrus, rose and mineralic. High acid. Good length, well balanced. Pretty good.

6. Gewurtztraminer 2008
Very aromatic with the usual aroma profile of gewurtz. However, this is quite poor on the palate. The palate has very little going on and the overall feeling is astringency. The finish is bitter and the fruit flavour doesn't last. Not good.

7. Rose 2008
This is a rose blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Kekfrankos. The translator was quite confused/confusing here so not totally clear. However, I think that what she was trying to say was that this was made by the saignee method with only a small amount of time spent with the skins in contact with the juice. However, this might have been me misunderstanding the translator. The nose was semi-aromatic with cherry and strawberry notes. The palate was bitter, particularly on the finish. I generally don't like rose and this was no exception.

8. Paves White Barik 2006
As the name suggests (Barik = Barrique) this has a noticeable oak character. Medium gold, dry with a peach, butter, smoke and vanilla nose. The blend is basically everything (Welschriesling, Riesling, Muller-Thurgau, Gruner Veltliner, etc). Medium intensity fruit (apple, apricot) on the palate. Round, soft and comforting. Good length, well balanced. Very good, but weird.

9. St Laurent 2008
Medium ruby, translucent. Nose has chocolate and bitter cherry. Quite tannic without enough fruit to balance it. Quite high, sharp acid for a red wine. Feels like sandpaper in the mouth. This would be better with food, but still not great and going back to it after the Blaufrankish it tastes quite weedy.

10. Blaufrankisch 2008
Medium ruby. Cooked, black, brambly fruit on the nose. More like cherry on the palate. Very high, sour acid for a red wine. Medium tannin but overall feeling is fresh. Good structure, fruity finish with medium length. Pretty good.

11. Cabernet Sauvignon 2008
Apparently this is a common grape variety in the region. However, it is difficult to ripen the grapes properly so they have difficulty competing with this grape variety. It is mainly produced since deep red wines are seen as a sign of quality in the region.

There are black fruit and green pepper on the nose and the overall feeling is of very juicy fruit. This is pleasant but does not taste like a Cabernet Sauvignon and just gives the impression of being made from not quite ripe grapes.

12. Alibernet 2008
This is a cross which apparently appeared as recently as the 50s from the Ukraine. It is a cross between alicante bouschet and cabernet sauvignon. It appears to be a cross where a grape with the character of Cabernet Sauvignon is possible to ripen in a cool climate. The aroma profile is what would be expected from a Cabernet Sauvignon with plenty of juicy black fruit on the palate. Soft, round tannins (quite high). This is good, interesting and weird and would be a blind tasting special. So much better than the Cabernet we just tasted.

13. Neronet 2008
Deep colour (a particular characteristic of the grape). This is another weird crossing; however, this one doesn't work remotely as well as the Alibernet. This smells of black fruit but is rustic and brooding. The palate has medium-high intensity black fruit, high tannins which make the gums sting and high acid. The wine is unbalanced, too sour and a little bit bleh. I'm not a fan of this - it's trying too hard to look llike a red wine from a hotter region (deep colour, ripe fruit). In doing so, it highlights the insecurity of the region as not producing good enough red wines. However, there are some very good wines tonight and there is no need for rather poor grape to be grown.

14. Paves Red Barik
This is a blend of Cabernet Franc, Blaufrankisch and Neronet aged for 1-year in barrique. This is a medium purple colour with black fruit, vanilla (from oak), sweet spice, nuts and some development character. Decent complexity on the nose. The black fruit continues on the palate with some gamey flavours and some development showing. The tannins are quite elegant but high. This is well balanced and by far the best red tonight. A good wine, and not just by the standards of Slovak red wine!

15. Riesling "selection of dry berries" 2007
This wine is usually made as an icewine but 2007 was not cold enough so this one is basically a really sweet late harvest wine. Pale gold colour. Aromatic apple and floral nose (the floral character is particularly noticeable upon agitation of wine in the glass). Quite intense fruit (grape) on the palate with good minerality. Rich almond character comes through as the wine warms up. The main feeling on the palate is a crisp acidity. Refreshing and mouthwatering, despite almost 200g of sugar per litre of wine. Low alcohol (10%). This was great and by far the best of the night. Elegent, balanced and impressive.

Blind Tasting

Blind Tasting
Vivat Bacchus
9 Nov
Taught by Tim Wildman, MW

Despite the title of the event, this was not a blind tasting - instead it was a tasting of wines not served blind, where the speaker was trying to illustrate what you should be looking for when tasting these wines.

The first thing which really stood out tonight was a demonstration of just how important the nose is in wine tasting. Everyone was given a coriander leaf and instructed to hold their nose and then chew the coriander leaf. The only sensation here was the texture of the leaf on the tongue. Then we were told to let go of our noses. Whoosh! The strong flavour of the herb comes crashing in. A truly excellent demonstration and one which I'll totally be stealing if I ever have to teach a beginners wine class again.

The next part of the night which stood out was the introduction to a new way of structuring wine notes. This "The X" or "The Cross". I've made a picture of it below:

The basic idea is that this enables you to write notes in a non-linear fashion; flitting between categories. I'll try to write notes to myself in this manner for a while and see how it turns out. Sounds like an interesting idea though.

Finally, the conclusion section. As in WSET, the conclusions should be justifiable. BLIC - Balance, Length, Intensity and Complexity.

The Wines
1. Delta Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2008
Marlborough, NZ
Pale green. Pungent gooseberry, grass. Unoaked. Dry, light bodied and medium-low alcohol (12.5%). High acid. Sharp and tangy. On the palate there was plenty of gooseberry as well as green fruit, herbs and a weirdly tropical note on the palate. Good length, with an intense back palate.

Sauvignon Blanc is one of the easiest wines to identify in a blind tasting.

2. West Cape Howe Riesling 2007
Great Southern, Western Australia
Pale green. Aromatic apple, lime, cider and floral notes. Kerosene. No oak. Dry, high acid. Sharp and aggressive (so much so that it gives you a headache). Lime and other citrus fruit on the palate. Somewhat oily texture despite the high acid. Low alcohol and light body. Bitter finish (in a good way). Long.

I frequently find new world riesling a difficult one to identify since it tastes very different to German riesling. The very high acid and floral notes should be watched for.

3. Bouchard Finlayson "Mission Vale" Chardonnay 2008
Hemel en Aarde, Walker Bay, South Africa
Medium-light gold colour. A semi-aromatic wine giving notes of apricot, tropical fruit and cream. A rewarding smell. On the palate the flavour profile is more along the lines of mango, melon and spice. Dry, medium acid, medium alcohol (13.5%) and full bodied. Soft mouthfeel, smooth warm and round. A little tannin from the oak. Long, intense and balanced (apart from the oak on the nose, which should dissipate and integrate over time). Very good.

Oaky chardonnay is generally quite easy to spot.

4. Timo Mayer "Close Planted" Pinot Noir
Vintage not recorded. Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia
Transparent, pale ruby. Ripe red berries, cherry, cinnamon, vanilla and sweet ripe red fruit. Oak. Dry with medium-high acid. Quite light bodied. Low tannin, silky. Smoky on the palate. Astringent finish. Very long though.

Pinot gives off massive clues from the colour alone. Other possible contenders from the appearance are Gamay (bleugh!), Rioja, Grenache, Nebbiolo.

5. Abbaye St de Ferme 2003
Domaines de Raignac, Soussac, Bordeaux.
Merlot 70%, CS 20%, CF 10%
Medium-ruby colour. Vanilla, blackberries. Ripe fruit, maybe a little cooked. Some earthy notes upon swirling the wine. Something a little medicinal. Definite oak, prevalent on the palate too. The palate has more earthy notes and cigar box and less fruit. Probably not going to age much longer. The tannins are "pixellated", which is apparently a good blind tasting clue for Bordeaux. The overall texture is dry, rough and astringent. The character of the wine id definitely old world. The acid and tannin are not balanced and, whilst there is quite a lot of complexity at the moment the wine is not going to get better.

6. Luddite Shiraz 2005
Medium ruby colour. The nose is full of sweetness - chocolate, ripe black fruit. Also pepper (a classic blind tasting note for Shiraz) violets and Christmas Pudding. Definite oak. Dry, high acid and high but soft, silky, ripe tannin. Again, this is apparently a good hint for Shiraz. Full bodied. The flavour profile on the palate is dominated by ripe fruit, indicating that it has plenty of time to go. Long, well balanced but very extracted. This has aging potential - over time we would expect this to develop more complexity, something which is lacking at the moment. Still very pleasant at the moment though!

Canada Tasting

Canada Tasting
Vivat Bacchus
7 Nov 2009
Led by Sonia Khurana

Although Canada has been making wine for over 200 years, production of modern Canadian wine from vitis vinifera varieties only dates back to 1974 when the first vines were planted at what would become Inniskillin, which is now one of the most famous wineries in Canada. Prior to this Canadian wines were in a terrible state. Whilst prohibition in the US is well known, it was news to me that similar laws were introduced in Canada. The last of these laws was not repealed until 1927 although. having said this, there were plenty of individual exemptions from the rule. Inniskillin's winery licence, granted in 1975, was the first issued since 1929 and the first granted in the region since the repeal of prohibition.

From this unpromising start, Canadian wines have come on apace. However, production is still tiny by the standards of the rest of the world at less than 0.5% of the world's wine production.

The Wines
1. Mission Hill 2006 Reserve Chardonnay
19.95 CAD
Medium-intensity ripe banana on the nose with clear American oak influence. Full bodied on the palate with no noticeable oak tannin. Good acid. Has aging potential. Good length. I like this. A good start.

2. Stratus White 2006
From Niagara. 44.20 CAD.
This wine is an unholy alliance of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling, Gewurtztraminer, Semillon and Viognier. The viognier and gewurtz are noticeable on the nose. Full bodied, oily and mouthfilling. Massive intensity of flavour. Great length. Good acid. Fabulous but weird. Must have been made by an evil genius.

3.Flat Rock Cellars Riesling 2008
Another one from Niagara. 16.95 CAD
This is one of the best new world rieslings I've had. It has the petrol nose which I normally don't find on New World rieslings. A little residual sugar. Medium light body, high acid and strong mineralic notes. Lime on the palate. Well balanced.

4. Jackson Triggs Gewurtztraminer 2007
18.75 CAD
Rose petal, but no lychee on the nose. Rosewater on the palate. Mouthfilling, soft and silky. Good length.

5. Le Grand Clos Pinot Noir 2006
70 CAD
Very pale. Oak, jammy red fruit and savoury notes. Light bodied and acidic. Low tannin. On the palate the red fruit is the most noticeable element. Rather insubstantial for a £40 bottle of wine but not bad.

6. Sandhill Merlot 2006
Okanagan Valley, BC. 20 CAD
Leafy, herbaceous and with red fruit. An aroma that reminds me of grilled padron peppers. American Oak? Banana, ripe jammy fruit and vanilla. Smooth, round, medium-low tannin. Intense and concentrated palate. Very good, and a total bargain.

7. Henry of Pelham Reserve Baco Noir 2005
24.95 CAD. Baco Noir is a hybrid grape variety.
Strawberry and black pepper. Full bodied, medium high tannin. Jammy red fruit, acidic finish. Good length. Opens up nicely.

8. Hildebrand Trius Red
21.95 CAD. A Cab Franc, Cab Sauv, Merlot blend from Niagara
Deep purple. Brambly. Medium-high tannin. Quite intense black fruit on the palate. Good length, good acidity, well balanced. Very good.

9. Burrowing Owl Syrah 2005
48.95 CAD. Okanagan Valley, BC.
This wine smells like a New World wine but tastes like an Old World wine. Well structured. Concentrated flavour, violets and black fruit. Well balanced. Excellent.

10. Henry of Pelham 2007 Riesling Icewine
49.95 CAD.
Many people believe that Icewine is the only good wine which Canada makes, something which was definitely proved wrong tonight. However, we did finish with an icewine. Cooked apple and apricot. The aromas have come from passerillage, not noble rot. Unctuous, High Acid. Well balanced. Sweet but not cloying.

Tokaji Decanter Tasting

Decanter Tokaji Tasting
Vintners Hall
2 Nov 2009

This was an interesting tasting. There were 12 Tokaji producers here this evening, and probably more different Tokajis than I've seen before in my life. However, there are apparently 588 wineries in Tokaji, so there is still plenty for me to get my teeth into in the future.

As well as being an excellent opportunity to taste Tokaji from a wide range of producers, the tasting really brought home the wide range of styles made in the region.

Grapes
The main grape variety of Tokaji is Furmint, but two other grapes are frequently used as well: Harslevelu and Sarga Muskotaly (aka Muscat de Lunel, one of the many grapes in the Muscat family). There are also relatively trivial amounts of Koverszolo, Kabar and Goher planted.

Wine Styles
Dry
As you would expect really. Tokaji Aszu manages to be refreshing despite often diabetic coma-inducing levels of sugar because of the very high acidity. The dry tokaji is often too acidic.

Late Harvest
Again, no surprises here.

Szamorodni
These are wines made from bunches of grapes where bunches of grapes are pressed and fermented together. That is, the grapes which are particularly botrytized are not separated from the ones which have not been infected. The word means something along the lines of "the way it was grown".

Aged under flor
Many of the producers took umbrage at these being called sherry-like, but they are massively reminiscent of a fino sherry on the nose. The wines have to be dry otherwise the flor-like yeast will not form. They are weird and interesting.

Botrytized
These are the wines which Tokaji is rightly famous for - the Tojaki Aszu, Eszencia and Forditas, Maslas... the last two of which I'd never heard of before and (annoyingly) did not get to try this evening. These sweet wines are made in an interesting way. Grapes which are unaffected by botrytis are made into a base wine. Then, grapes which are incredibly botrytized are made into a paste and added to the wine. The wine is then racked off into casks where it undergoes a slow fermentation. Depending on the how strongly botrytized the wine is, this fermentation can take many years.

At first this appears to be a very odd thing to do. However, one of the stalls had a plate with some of the botrytis-affected grapes which we were allowed to taste. The grapes were so dried that they were almost raisined. The amount of juice which would result from pressing these grapes is absolutely negligible so this vinification method kind of makes sense.

The sweetness of the wine is classified in "puttonyos". This is the name of the baskets used in the region to collect grapes when harvesting. So a 6-puttonyos wine is one where 6 baskets of nobly rotten grape-paste is added to one barrel's worth of base wine. In present time, the number of puttonyos is calibrated to the usual measurement of grams of residual sugar per litre of wine. Speaking of sweetness, these wines can be incredibly sweet. I think the sweetest of the night was Pendits Tokaji Aszu Essencia 2003 which had over 330g of residual sugar per litre of wine. The wine did not feel cloying either as a result of the very high acid. However, at the end of the evening I had my first sugar rush since I was a child. A genuinely strange feeling.

The Wines
It's always hard to make sensible notes at one of these walk-around events since there's not enough time to get round everything as it is. So I'll just write about some of the highlights of the evening.

Beres
Beres Tokaji Furmint Locse (dry) 2007. High acid, ripe peach. Salty, almost manzanilla character. Good length.

The best szamorodni of the evening was the Beres Tokaji Szamorodni (dry) 2003. Ripe apricots and peach. Dry, acidic and refreshing. Intense flavour and great length.

Bodvin
The Tokaji Furmint Betsek (dry) 2007 was almost like a manzanilla sherry on the nose. More like ripe peach on the palate.

Chateau Dereszla
The Tokaji Imperium 2000 was excellent. Very high sugar at 250g/l but fresh. The feel on the palate is cleansing, despite the high sugar. Great length.

Sauska
Tokaji Aszu Essencia 2003
At 236g of sugar per litre one feels that this should come with an insulin shot. It was a little over the top and needs time but nonetheless was very impressive.

Pendits
Tokaji Aszu Essencia 2003
If the previous wine was sweet then this was in a completely different league at 330g/l! So unctuous that you can see the surface shimmering. The wine was spicy, with great length and enough acid to balance out all the sugar though. Having said that, it was around this point in the evening that I started to get my first "sugar high" since I was a child.

Royal Tokaji
Mezees Maly 6 Puttonyos Tokaji Aszu 1999
This is from a very well regarded single vineyard in Tokaji. The wine was the most complex of the evening and intense flavours on the palate. Very acidic, crisp and refreshing.

Samuel Tinon
Tokaji Szamorodni (dry) 2003
This one has been aged under flor and smells a little like a fino sherry. Some nutty notes. Good length. Very interesting.

Northern Rhone

Wines of the Northern Rhone
19 Oct 2009
Wine and Dine Society

This was another tasting with a great wine list organised by the wine and dine society.

1. Condrieu 1995 Domaine Guigal
Very strong apricot nose. Also floral and nutty aromas. Full bodied, this is a food wine. Med-low acid, good length and plenty of complexity and minerality on the palate. Not showing its age. Very good.

2. Crozes Hermitage 1982, Domaine Thalabert, Paul Jaboulet Aine
Very leathery and gamey. Very ripe red berries, surprisingly fruity for its age. Med body, high acid, med-high tannin. Fruity palate, chocolate finish. Very good, particularly since this was not a great year.

3. Crozes Hermitage 1983, Paul Jaboulet
Ripe fruit, some leathery notes. Roasted and sweet spice nose. Med body, high acid and med-high tannin. Fruity palate but with rustic tones also. Long but finish has grippy tannins. The wine will probably lose fruit before it loses the tannin. Very good now though.

4. 1983 Hermitage Domaine Pascal
Quite deep colour for the age. Black fruit, leather, cinnamon and something floral. Green pepper. All in all a pretty complex nose. Full bodied, especially considering the age. Good balance between tannin and acid. Long and complex palate. Excellent.

5. 1986 Cote Rotie, Les Jumelles, Domaine Paul Jaboulet
Slightly sweet smell. Ripe fruit but less complexity on the nose than the previous wine. Smoky, herbal nose. Medium body, too acidic - not enough fruit to balance it. Past its best. Good, but would have been better previously.

6. 1988 Cote Rotie, La Garde, Cuvee Reserve, Domaine A Devrieux Thaize
Sweet nose, cinnamon, leather, meat, herbs and red berries. Full bodied with ripe fruit on the palate. Tastes a lot younger than it smells. High acid, med-high tannin. This is a food wine but is also awesome on its own. It still tastes young. This is fabulous!

7. 1988 Hermitage La Chapelle, Domaine Paul Jaboulet
Very deep colour, looks as though it should be a 1998 rather than an 88. Licquorice on the nose. Also smells of champagne cellar. Grapey. Full bodied, high alcohol. Reminiscent of a young port. This is different to the other wines. I think that it still needs time(!) to come round. It may well turn out to be the highest quality wine here, but the previous wine is more enjoyable now.

8. Condrieux Doux, Domaine Georges Vernay
This is a very unusual wine - sweet condrieu. Pale gold colour. Nose is a little like a liqueur muscat. These are late-picked grapes with no noticeable botrytis character. It must just have been really hot that year with a long summer. The yeast dies at a lower alcohol level since natural viognier yeasts are weaker. This left approximately 3 degrees of potential alcohol as residual sugar. This is not sweet enough for a dessert. Unique, interesting and good!

Old World vs New World Tasting

This was the September tasting for Bacchus Vintage, organised by Graham Tanner.

Sadly, I appear to have lost my notes. I remember the wine of the night was an Argentinian Malbec. I'll see if anyone else has any notes for that evening and will upload them if they do.

Mumm Champagne, Reims

On the weekend we went into Reims itself. The area where we were staying was not the most beautiful area of town and our opinion of the city was probably not helped by the chaos which was being caused by the building of a new tram system. Also, our car was crashed into by a (presumably drunk) driver from Marseille who then drove off. Luckily, our car was parked outside a cafe where some (also drunk) bored locals rushed outside and wrote down his licence place number. When we arrived a few hours later they were over the moon at their detective work. We then had to go to the police station and fill out forms in triplicate before we were able to go do any Champagne visits.

Luckily, we had a much less punishing schedule of visits in Reims, with only Mumm organised. So this basically just stopped us exploring as much of the town as we would otherwise have done.

The atmosphere at Mumm was very different than at the small producers we had been visiting all week. Here you are definitely on the corporate visit conveyor belt. It's a smooth, well-oiled tourist machine. However, the tour is very well done and the cellars are huge and impressive.


The tour covers the whole champagne method and would be an excellent way for someone who was not sure of all the details to start their Champagne holiday. And if you did this before the small producers then it wouldn't feel so impersonal.


The Wines

1. Mumm de Cramant
Herbaceous, grassy nose. Refined and elegant. Light bodied, soft and fine mousse. Well balanced. Good acid, subtle. Long apple flavoured finish. One of the best blanc de blancs of the holiday (although we were in the PN area).

2. Grand Cru Brut
Quite full bodied. Truffles and mushrooms. Biscuit and lemon. Good length. However, at the very end the finish is a little metallic. This would be very good were it not for that.

3. Mumm Rose
Odd. This had an unpleasant yoghurt sourness to it. The fruit felt fake, almost like sweets. I didn't like this one very much at all.

Price Point
Two out of these three wines were good, one of them very good. However, they were all massively overpriced. It was good to finish our visits on this one because it reminded us how much cheaper the wines from the small producers can be. It's a shame they're not easier to find in the UK.

Champagne Louis de Sacy

Coming from Ployez-Jacquemart to here had me worried that I'd rate the wines less highly than they deserved because I would be comparing them to the excellent wine I'd just had. However, they stood up well.

The Wines

1. Cuvee Nue NV
60%PN, 35% Chardonnay, 5% PM
Zero dosage. Pale colour. Smells very lemony and biscuity. Crisp, acidic but lacks body and the taste dies very quickly once swallowed. This was another true-to-type zero dosage wine. OK, but would be better with non-zero dosage.

2. Brut NV
67%PN, 30% Chardonnay, 3% PM
Smells of dough, lemon and cheese. Good body and length. Intense lemon on palate. Well balanced. Good.

3. Brut Grand Cru
60% PN, 35% Chardonnay, 5% PM
Aged for 3 years on lees. Almost a caramel sweetness on the nose. Smooth and soft. A little unbalanced on the finish. Good, but not great.

4. Brut Grand Cru Rose Saignee
90% PN, 10% PM
Crisp, acidic and a little savoury on the finish. Red fruit and peaches and apricots. Good length and well balanced. Very good. The two saignee method roses we had on this trip were excellent.

5. Grand Soir Vintage 2001 Grand Cru
30 EUR
60% PN, 35% Chardonnay, 5% PM
Interesting bottle shape - almost fluted. Mushrooms, nuts, toast, truffles and earthy notes. Weighty and full bodied. Creamy, rich and smooth. Crisp lemon palate. Quite mineralic. Refreshing and very good.

Champagne Louis de Sacy

Coming from Ployez-Jacquemart to here had me worried that I'd rate the wines less highly than they deserved because I would be comparing them to the excellent wine I'd just had. However, they stood up well.

The Wines
1. Cuvee Nue NV
60%PN, 35% Chardonnay, 5% PM
Zero dosage. Pale colour. Smells very lemony and biscuity. Crisp, acidic but lacks body and the taste dies very quickly once swallowed. This was another true-to-type zero dosage wine. OK, but would be better with non-zero dosage.

2. Brut NV
67%PN, 30% Chardonnay, 3% PM
Smells of dough, lemon and cheese. Good body and length. Intense lemon on palate. Well balanced. Good.

3. Brut Grand Cru
60% PN, 35% Chardonnay, 5% PM
Aged for 3 years on lees. Almost a caramel sweetness on the nose. Smooth and soft. A little unbalanced on the finish. Good, but not great.

4. Brut Grand Cru Rose Saignee
90% PN, 10% PM
Crisp, acidic and a little savoury on the finish. Red fruit and peaches and apricots. Good length and well balanced. Very good. The two saignee method roses we had on this trip were excellent.

5. Grand Soir Vintage 2001 Grand Cru
30 EUR
60% PN, 35% Chardonnay, 5% PM
Interesting bottle shape - almost fluted. Mushrooms, nuts, toast, truffles and earthy notes. Weighty and full bodied. Creamy, rich and smooth. Crisp lemon palate. Quite mineralic. Refreshing and very good.

Champagne Ployez-Jacquemart

This was definitely the visit of the holiday. We ended up staying at their guest house on the Thursday night and then coming for a tasting on Friday afternoon. So on Thursday night we did not know what a gold-mine of champagne we were sleeping on top of.

For future reference, the "mini-bar" at the guest house is simply a fridge full of the Ployez-Jacquemart champagnes all sold at cellar-door prices. Tragically, this minibar went untroubled by our group on the Thursday night.

Ployez-Jacquemart are Negociants, buying in at least some of their grapes. However, the production is quite small at around 130k bottles per year. Most of the base wine undergoes MALO with exception of the Special Cuvee (Cuvee Liesse d'Harbonville). This special cuvee is aged in oak barrels which have been used 3 times before in Burgundy. The base wine spends 3-months in barrel and then the champagne is aged for 10-years in the cellar. Not undergoing MALO produces champagnes which require more age before drinking well. Dosage is low too at around 3-5 g of sugar per litre of wine.

Since the special cuvee ages for a long time before release, the wines are riddled a few years prior to release and the wines are stored sur-pointe. This minimizes the contact between the dead yeast and the wine allowing the wine to age without the yeast autolysis flavour overwhelming the other flavours in the wine.


Visit
This was a great visit. They have quite extensive cellars and gave a very informative and interesting tour. A combination of the quality of the wine (see below) and the excellent tour mean that I'd definitely recommend this place to anyone.


The Wine
1. Selection Rose
Delicate pink colour. No bitterness (a common complaint of mine about rose). Fine mousse with intense red fruit. Good length with a savoury finish. The red wine spent a year in oak before assemblage. Well balanced. This is the best rose so far. Very good.

2. 2000 Vintage
No oak. Very refined but still expressive and exuberant. Lemon, creamy truffle nose. Something almost cheesy. Full bodied on the palate. Intense lemon curd and biscuit flavour. Great length. Best wine so far.

3. Cuvee Liesse d'Harbonville 1998
The 2000 vintage rapidly lost the crown of best wine so far to this, the very next wine tasted. This was a truly impressive Champagne. This has such intensity of flavour and length that after just one sip it is possible to clearly taste it for a long time afterwards.

The aromas start off being quite earthy and become more lemony with time in the glass. Full bodied and very intense flavour on the palate. Great balance. The oak influence is subtle and well integrated. This would be an excellent champagne to pair with food. It's so powerful that it is what I imagine a great white burgundy would taste like were it a sparkling wine. The base wine did not undergo MALO but the wine still tastes quite creamy.

I really, really liked this one. Fantastic.

Champagne Arnould

Rather entertainingly, their website says:
"The whole family await you at the farm to share a moment of conviviality"
which is not how we found it at all. The meeting we got was decidedly frosty. However, once they realised that we were taking things seriously and not just a bunch of drunk tourists then they were much more friendly.


1. Extra Brut
100% PN, zero dosage.
This confirmed my existing prejudice about zero dosage champagnes. This was OK, but it just lacked a little body. The Brut Tradition (number 3) was so much better to my taste.

Very tart and dry. The overall impression is that the wine is missing something - particularly on the finish.

2. Carte d'Or
50% PN, 50% Chardonnay from old vines
Very pale. Dry, but not zero dosage. Crisp lemon acid. Some peach, some biscuit and plenty of lime on the finish. Sort of reminiscent of a key lime pie. Good.

3.Brut Tradition NV
100% PN
Strong biscuity aroma. Smooth, fine mousse. Silky mouthfeel. Quite full bodied. Well balanced. Would work well with food. This one is very good.

Champagne Marguet

This is a producer based in Ambonnay. We got slightly lost on the way there having taken a wrong turn (twice!) on our way through Bouzy. I'm glad that we finally made it there though since the wines were very good.

The Wines
1. Cuvee Tradition Blanc de Noirs
15 EUR. Premier Cru grapes
Pale coloured with med-low intensity lemon and biscuit aromas. Strawberry on the palate. Dry, crisp and well balanced. Long and very good. Excellent for the price. An aperitif champers.

2. Cuvee Reserve Grand Cru
Medium-high intensity aromas of biscuits, bread, apple and saffron. Complex and intense palate (one of my tasting notes is apple crumble). Soft, well balanced and silky mouthfeel. Very intense fruit character all the way to the finish. This is good stuff.

3. Cuvee Vintage Rose 2003
Grand Cru grapes again. 60% PN and 40% Chardonnay. The 60% PN includes the fact that 17% of the blend is red wine.
Strawberry pink colour. Spicy nose. Explodes into foam in the mouth. Medium bodied with good length. Good.

4. Ratafia
Fragrent, floral and red fruit nose. Not too sweet and a good balance between acidity and sweetness.


5. Maxine Marguet 2000 (from Magnum)
We bought a magnum of this and drank it one evening later in the holiday. This was excellent. Complex flavour profile of lemon, ginger, lime and peaches. Smooth and complex. Very high quality.

Champagne Cattier

Another good producer in Chiny-les-Roses.

1. Cattier Brut
Pale colour, powerful nose, light bodied and with a refreshing grapey character. Excellent as an aperitif.

2. Blanc de Blanc Brut
Refined and smooth with a silky mouthfeel. Lemon and apricot flavour. Good length, well balanced all the way to the finish. Elegant. True to the style of a blanc de blanc.

3. Cattier Brut 2002
1/3 each of PN, PM and Chardonnay
Very punchy nose with intense aroma of apricot and grape. On the palate more lemony with crisp acid. Great length. Excellent.

Champagne Gardet

One area where it's possible to get confused is that the NV wines are labelled George Gardet (the son of the founder) whereas the vintage wines are labelled Charles Gardet (the founder). They are both from the same estate.

As a place to visit this one was great. Large, multi-storey cellars. Quite mechanised (lots of machines/gyropalettes) and we even got to see the bottling line in action. Annoyingly we just missed a round of disgorgement, which I've still never seen.

The Wines
1. Brut Tradition NV
Light, refreshing, toasty, biscuit and lemon. Soft mouthfeel. Good.

2. Selected Reserve NV
A bargain at 18.50EUR. This is their "English style" wine which is a blend of older vintages (2000 and 2001) and all made from reserve wine which has been sitting in oak. Very soft in the mouth. Silky, well balanced and with great length. This has a lot of depth and intensity of flavour. Ridiculously good for the price. They clearly have the English preference down to a T since our group was all over this.

3. Brut Special
Quite sharp on the palate. Neither one style nor another. I preferred the Selected Reserve.

4. Cuvee Charles Gardet 2000
23.50 EUR
Light, classy nose. Quite young tasting but some mushroom character coming through on the nose. Medium body, medium-high acid. Well balanced and with a good crisp finish. Excellent.

5. Rose Charles Gardet
25EUR
Salmon coloured and almost like a still pinot noir on the nose. Intense palate with plenty of red fruit but also some citrus (maybe more orange than lemon). Good length, very high quality.

This is a rose made by the saignee method rather than by blending red and white base wine together before secondary fermentation. Champagne is the only quality wine in Europe which is allowed to produce a rose by blending red and white wine. There is a good reason why most regions prohibit this - it is a short-cut and does not produce as good quality wine. I find it really quite surprising that Champagne of all regions (which makes wine which takes many years to produce and is often done in a very labour-intensive way) allows such a process. This Charles Gardet Rose is excellent and I wish more rose champagne was like this.

Champagne Mailly

Slightly underwhelming visit this one. Perhaps it was just shown up by the comparison with Vilmart which we had just visited. Considering that this is a famous cooperative from one of the more renowned grand cru villages in Champagne this was more than a little disappointing.

However, having said that, there was nothing wrong with the wines, all of which were competant if not exactly exciting and the final two were both good.

Tasting
1. Brut Reserve NV
75% PN, 25% Chardonnay
Lemon, biscuits and cream. Good acid, well balanced. Good length.

2. L'Air Vintage 2005
75% PN, 25% Chardonnay
Vanilla and citron tart on the nose. Soft and creamy with red fruits on the palate. Fine mousse, high acid. Finish is a little bitter. Otherwise good.

3. Blanc de Noirs
100% PN
Deeper colour, red fruit character, high acid. A little simple.

4. Le Feu Vintage 2000
75%PN, 25% Chardonnay
This was probably my favourite of the tasting. Vanilla, biscuits, cream and yeast autolysis. Also something like pear. Smooth and silky mouthfeel. Great length and classy finish. Well balanced, high acid. Still very fresh but starting to develop some secondary character. Very good.

5. Les Eschansons 1999
75%PN, 25% Chardonnay
This wine was also very good, but for me Le Feu pipped it to the post slightly. Quite a lot of red fruit and also some pear character again. Silky mouthfeel, good length and pleasant finish. Well balanced and would age well, but for the price would rather have the Coeur de Cuvee from Vilmart.

Champagne Vilmart

This was the first of our winery visits on our recent Champagne road-trip - and what a way to start. This was one of the few places we visited where the person showing us round was the winemaker himself.

The grapes are pressed in a vertical cylinder press which they use 4 times on each load, pressing with light pressure each time. The juice then ferments in oak barrels for 10-months. The oak is not new oak, but has been used for one vintage in Chassagne-Montrachet or Meursault.

Riddling is performed by hand and the wines are released with plenty of age. The current release of the vintage is 1999.

The Wines
1. Cuvee Grande Reserve NV
30% Chardonnay, 70 PN
This is a blend of wine made from grapes of the 2005 and 2006 vintages. The base wine saw oak, but large, neutral oak casks. The wine had a fine mousse and a creamy taste (but none of the wines undergo MALO). Light body, with high acid. very lemony on the palate and great length. Very nice NV and a good start to the holiday.

2. Cuvee Grand Cellier
70% Chardonnay, 30% PN
This is made only from free run juice and is a blend of wines from 2004, 2005 and 2006. Slightly deeper colour than the previous wine. Fuller bodied with very high acid. Fine mousse. On the palate there are stone fruits such as peach as well as the lemon and an almost cheesy note on the nose.

3. Grand Cellier d'Or 2003
80% Chardonnay, 20% PN
Toasty, vanilla and biscuit on the nose. More body and weight on the palate. Honey, apricot and lemon notes. Smooth and silky mouthfeel. Good length and excellent balance. I like this.

4. Coeur du Cuvee 2001
80% Chardonnay, 20%PN
Very complex flavours - almost like a stew. Something noticeably herbal with deep aromas on top of a lemon and apricot base. Full bodied. Yeast autolysis, toast and vanilla all noticeable elements to the wine. Crisp acid, well balanced, great length. This is a very special wine and would stand up well to food. We didn't know it at the time but this was the 2nd best wine of the entire holiday!

5. Coeur du Cuvee 2000
Much more of a mushroomy nose than the 2001. Lots of complexity, but this one is aging much quicker which presumably implies that the 2001 will be better. The 2000 is excellent now, but upon going back to the 2001 it is clearly much fresher.

6. Ratafia
This is made from 100% Pinot Noir grape juice which is then fortified without fermentation. Very sweet, nice-tasting grape liqueur. Ripe, red fruit aroma. Very acidic. Would benefit from sweet food or creamy cheese.