The Official Wine Thread

[gomestar]

oh yeah, not knocking on the deductive tasting method or anything. Earlier in my wine education career, I focused a lot on notes and descriptors, but it wasn't until tasting more that I really understood a region or a vineyard, etc.

 

[patrickBOOTH]



Piob what about yields, percentages, alcohol content? I know general stuff but not specific numbers
Damn going to need to study tonight. Totally underestimated this class
I'm having a glass of petillant from avigno vi d'agulla from the penedes and this is a damn good sparkling. Going to seek this one out

If I knew you were taking this I totally would have signed up as well. That would have been fun.

 

[patrickBOOTH]



oh yeah, not knocking on the deductive tasting method or anything. Earlier in my wine education career, I focused a lot on notes and descriptors, but it wasn't until tasting more that I really understood a region or a vineyard, etc.

And you do this with Italy? I am a pretty structured mechanical learner. I need to understand a region and get a feel for what it is I am tasting. I find France to be pretty easy as far as this goes. Every time I venture into Italy I get confused and terrified.

 

[gomestar]

i do that because of Italy. knowing 9 obscure grapes didn't do a whole lot to help me understand a DOC. Tasting a whole lot from that DOC did.

 

[Cary Grant]



over the years, I have learned that there is really no substitute for tasting more and more wines.

I have a wine distributor friend for whom this is a primary requirement for his sales staff. He doesn't care if they're a somm etc if they don't have deep experience trying wines and knowing from experience.

 

[indesertum]

Pboop I shoulda told you earlier. I got off the wait list not too long ago.

There was some douchebag that kept guessing obscure grapes from Italy.

Italy scares the crap out of me too.

TIL I still have no idea what picpoul cinsault aligote or even Pinot meunière taste like on their own much less add and that I know very little about the new world except the us. Couldn't even guess the syrah although I could probably count with one had the number of times I've had it.

What I appreciate the most is the blind deductive tastings with three well experienced knowledgeable master sommeliers. The class analyzes first and then offers a guess and then we get to see what the wine actually was
and more often than not we guess right. We did only taste wines faithful in typicity tho some of which were the first I've ever had like a chinon. The sommeliers then guide you through what typical wines are like and shoot down suggested wines (eg it couldn't have been a Riesling cuz the stone fruits really aren't there, there's too much vegetable notes etc). They also reinforce tricky beginner concepts like high acidity hiding behind high sugar, sweet vs fruity, intensity of color, viscosity (honestly this one is IMO misleading and maybe semiretarded and possibly useless. It's not like looking at legs does something different or better than tasting).

The knowledge portion of the class is whatever. You could pick that stuff up reading a book. The guided tasting is irreplaceable.

 

[CBrown85]

I've been taking a lot of books out from the library about wine pairing, tasting and stuff. Come from a family where Yellow Tail is the pinnacle of fancy.

It's obvious that drinking the stuff is the best way to learn, but can anyone direct me to some great books on the subject for a beginner? I'd really just like to learn the vocabulary at this stage, don't want to look like a wiener when I walk into a class.

 

[indesertum]

I've read idiots guide and the wine bible. Ive been meaning to pick up Sotheby's cuz the other two ESP the wine bible is really outdated.

 

[Raoul Duke]



I've been taking a lot of books out from the library about wine pairing, tasting and stuff. Come from a family where Yellow Tail is the pinnacle of fancy.
It's obvious that drinking the stuff is the best way to learn, but can anyone direct me to some great books on the subject for a beginner? I'd really just like to learn the vocabulary at this stage, don't want to look like a wiener when I walk into a class.

My best advice is to find a tasting group. It will be intimidating at first, but you'll learn way more from tasting and conversing with knowledgeable people than you will from books.

 

[gomestar]

the idiots guide is quite good.

 

[Piobaire]

Netflix has plenty of DVDs on topic that can give you all the basic and into intermediate vocab and some knowledge base.

 

[indesertum]

Everybody passed. Exam was pretty straightforward. Some tricky ones but other wise doable.

 

[indesertum]

Woah. Which DVDs?

 

[Piobaire]

Congrats! Wear that pin proudly.

Just do a search for "wine" and they'll pop up. There's a couple of great ones on Italy, a two or three disk series from Jancis...lots of stuff.

 

[drizzt3117]

Plebeian wines tonight, perhaps some fireworks this weekend tho!