I keep coming back and staring at this blog trying to come up with things to write and I draw a blank.

My goal it to make sure I get at least one post up a week until I can break into the habit of this ‘bloggin’ thang :P Apologies in advance if they are not wine related but that will remain to be my focus.

So today I need to come up with a topic on new world wines to present on to my class in a month…If you have any thoughts let me know ‘cause there are just way to many to choose from.

Alrighty look for a post later this weeks

Bottoms up

Matt 

Howdy wine enthusiasts!!!

So I have be a very bad blogger of late, I got disheartened and took a brief break. But fear not I am back with thoughts up the wazoo.

This blog will be pretty light, I’d imagine. My thoughts today revolve around tasting wine and determining what kind it is.

Our final exam for the first module is next Tuesday and the class has been practicing trying to determine grape varietals based on sight, smell and taste.

I have noticed significant improvement from 10 weeks ago but still believe that red wine is the devil!!!! (although it taste like heaven)

Go with your gut when tasting blind! Look for key indicators think back to wines you enjoyed in the past and go from there.

Everyone has different tells for different wines, for example when I am drinking a Sauvignon Blanc I am hit with grass, apple and crisp citrus. The palate for me mirrors the nose but with high acidity.

As I go through studying for my exam I will post on different tells or hints to determine what’s in your glass. Until then….

Bottoms up

I love wine, and I love food.

Working in the service industry I love watching people dine and learning how their experience influence their evening.

I have been worrying lately that maybe my nose and my palate are not conducive to being a sommelier. That I need to be more experienced before studying this field.

But I love it…..what’s one to do. I strive to be the best.

Perhaps this is a normal thought process

Bottoms up :)

While wheat baguette

Double cream Brie

Dill Havariti

Blueberry Cinnamon Goat Cheese

Jumbo Stuffed Olives &

Passion fruit/sparkling wine Jelly

LOVE

Sparkling, Sweet and Fortified Wines…

I can die happy now :D

Nothing ends a long day off better then bubbles, well maybe 4 different types of bubbles is a little better.

Class last night was great! It went a little long (4.5hours as opposed to 3) but when we are learning bout wine I not about to complain.

We really focused on sparkling wine and the different method used to get those joyous bubbles in to the bottle. Who knew there are 4 methods :

Traditional method, transfer method, charmat and Asti. I have like 8 pages of notes on these so I will spare you the super long read. :p

All and all class was fun :) I learnt a lot and got a lil buzz on which is never a bad thing.

Fire me some ideas on some wines to review.

Bottoms up!

What a night!!!!! So last night we started with our second of three instructors, he’s really cool a little laid back. My favorite thing he does is let us taste the wines during the lecture. So as he is talking about Chardonnay or riesling we are tasting them! It helped with connecting the classic descriptors with the wine.

So that was one of the cool parts about the night….i’ll save the other for last. So I got to class about 5 min late because I had to go print off my paper at work. I walk in and they have already started the mid-term (ps there’s a time limit) STRIKE 1

So I get to work on it I think I did well but a majority of the test was on last weeks lecture which the teacher wiped through. And it was of course the lesson I paid least attention too. Meh…what can ya do. I have to admit the test was much more indepth then I was thinking but it just makes me want to study harder.

Next up the presentations ( I may as well write STRIKE 2 now)… I went second and although I had all my facts I got so nervous that I took a well timed 10 presentation and power talked it down to 4 :S

What was STRIKE 3 you ask? Well I think I am the only person without a portable USB cord and I had to make one of the poor girls run next store to get a cord for the Internet. And the reason I gave the whole class as to not sound technologically stunned….”I dropped my stick in the toilet” oh the looks I got.

But the class went on and I eventually lost my bright shade of red and we got to try a 2004 Riesling. Regrettably it was slightly off and smelt and tasted like burnt rubber a bit. But is was still amazing!!!!

So concludes another class

Bottoms up

Sommelier Class # 3

Welcome to class everyone - Lets start out this week by seeeing if you have any qusetions for your mid-term next week……Mid-term??? WTF

So next week I have my 1000 word paper, 10 minute presentation and a mid-term :( Why is this week going by so fast???? Oh well what can ya do :P

We had the first set of the presentations this week, I am so glad I didn’t go first cause my presentation would have had way too much information. I have my self stubbed on what exactely to present but at least now I have a general idea of where I should be going with it.

Class was a lot of fun this week. We talked about the different types of oak and the oaking process. Unfortunately as with each week so far we talk to much and tend to go to long. So the instructor had to rush through Wine faults! But at least we got the general idea of what they are and how they commonly present.

The big thing I took from this weeks class was how to detect the difference between French and American Oak.  French oak is very subtle on the palate and nose, whereas American oak is almost in your face - there is no way to not tell its there.

So some food for thought the next time you are sniffing your glass of wine :P Look forwards to tonights wine review :D

Bottoms up :)

Back at it!!!! Going to kick off a year of reviews with some Chianti!!!!

2009 Castigliono Chianti

The wine is very clear with a light ruby rim and a medium dark kinda garnet center. The tears are slow and the wine has an almost murky or dull surface to the wine. It smells like bright red fruits a little bit of ethanol (which I am guess gives it the hot taste :P). And there is this mineral/earthy taste which I am going to guess is clay, although its been ages since I’ve smelled (or tasted) clay hahaha.

The wine was really light on the palate, it has strong ripe red berry fruits which almost taste like strawberries? There are no tannins at all, it is just completely smooth. Very easy drinking!! There is almost the same sort of blueberry stem/pit bitterness on it, or maybe asparagus.

I am really on the fence about this wine, its great but I can’t place the flavours or smells I am getting from it.

Give it a whirl, perfect drinking wine!!! And the price point is very affordable :D

Try it and let me know what you think.

Bottoms Up!

So I leave work at the restaurant, brave the wind and snow to get to the liquor store to pick up a bottle of carmenere to write about tonight. The snow was like tiny daggers on my face by the time i get there and I am pretty sure one eye was frozen shut.

All I want to do is get the wine and get home for a hot shower and relax. So I grab the first bottle I see rush to the cash (they joke about my hair) and get my frozen buns home….only to find that 1) I look like the above!!! And 2) I grabbed a bottle of chianti by accident.

Bloody hell lol (at least it tastes good :p)

Howdy Kiddies,

So I was going to blog on Tuesday after class but this flu has drained the life out of me. So I thought I would put it up today before I do my weekly wine review (i know its been forever since I put one up…don’t hate me).

At class this week we were learning how to properly taste wine! Take note just pouring it into the glass and sluggin it back, is not the proper way to taste wine…oh how I have been wrong :P

We went through the professional methods of only doing 2-3 ounces is an ISO glass, what visual faults you can see from a wine and what the color can tell you. For example as a white wine ages the color tends to darken and become more golden and reds tends to get this brick color along the rim of the glass (which you can see by angling your glass at about 30 degrees).

When it comes to smelling a long slow sniff is preferred to a couple of short rapid ones, and it is alway important to take time to think about what you are smelling. My nose was so off on Tuesday night with being sick, I can remember smelling some very interesting notes (steamed spinach has to be my favorite).

We tried 8 different wines through out the night. We had an amazing valpolicella and Nebbiolo I have the names at home I will post them tonight. Such nice drinking wines!!!! We tried a Carmenere (the grape for my project)….oh how awful it was!! I am dreading my tasting tonight, but I am sure I’ll find some way to survive.

Aside from the wine we tasted a lot of altered water, ones which had been modified to be sour, bitter and sweet and a combination of all 3 as well. It was fun for me because my wine teacher Ms. Amy Savoury (LOVE) did this same lesson with us at NSCC so it was cool to watch how others took it in. I did learn something new though! Did you know that CO2 is most noticeable on the tip of your tongue? Take some sparkling water and just hold it in your mouth, I was shocked that I never noticed that before.

This class was a nice refresher for me, I am still feeling a tad out of my element but everyone is great and the instructors are very helpful. Tonight I will try and do a proper tasting of Carmenere (pray for my taste buds).

Bottoms Up :)