Staff tasting

I went to a staff tasting with my Oddbins colleagues from two branches the other evening.

We started with a Loire white, the Chateau de Fesles which was all green apples. This was followed by two rieslings, one Australian and the other German. I preferred the Dragonstone and as the Oddbins tasting notes say it "punches way above its weight". The big surprise for me was the Sanctuary pinot noir. We all thought it was a cab sauv or maybe even a shiraz but we were all wrong. It's a great wine but much darker in colour than you would expect from a pinot and all dark fruits rather than strawberries or raspberries. It's on the expensive side at £15.99. The disappointment was the Jurancon which was a bit tasteless and would be completely overpowered by whatever dessert you had with it.

In all we tasted 8 wines, These staff tastings happen every 2 or 3 months and are a great way to get to know some of the wines the customers are buying.

It's spring so it's time to twitter

The Daily Telegraph today has an article saying "proof at last, cyberspace is the home of twitterers". It is describing Twitter which it says allows "social networking" between friends. Some people are also calling it the new YouTube. I know some people in the wine blogging community are giving it a go. Andrew over at Spittoon uses twitter. I'm not convinced of it however. I signed up to the service just to see how it was being used and found myself reading too many messages and suffering from information overload. However I can see the advantage of being limited to a max of 140 characters as it will ensure you are concise.

Rocks, soil and terroir

I understand the importance of soil and terroir to the successful growing of grapes but I've never really paid much attention to the relationship of rocks, geology and the landscape to soil as I've never understood it or taken the time to learn about it.

The latest podcast of the UK Wine Show has changed that. A Professor of Geology, Richard Selley, has written a book about it and his explanation of it to Chris Scott on the podcast is really simple and straightforward. Part 2 is next week and I'll certainly be tuning in to learn more.

Quizzes

Ever tried any of the quizzes about wine on the web? There are two I try out every so often.

The Berry Bros and Rudd one I find pretty challenging although you can set the level to easier or harder.

The other one is at Tom Cannavan's excellent site.

Please let me know of any others as I find them a useful way to test out my wine knowledge.

A busy week

I've completed my first of 7 weeks helping out at the IWC. It's been pretty busy receiving cases and pallets of wine from producers, retailers and agents from all over the world. It's been quite hard physically but there is a good bunch of people all of whom do their fair share so it's been fun.

We've started opening up some of the cases and sorting the wines and it's a great education even just reading the labels and seeing where the wines comes from. This will take a long time to do given the number of wines submitted and there is still lots more to come into the hall.

IWC

Today was my first day helping out at the International Wine Challenge. Around 13 of us cleared down 25 pallets each of around 40 boxes so that's maybe 5000 bottles of wine. We are expecting 4 more deliveries of that size and that's just the international submissions. The UK ones will be coming in whenever. All told there are 9000 wines submitted by 2000 organisations each of whom are supplying at least 4 samples so by the end of next week we'll have around 40,000 bottles.

The numbers are staggering!

Ken Forrester's hand picked chenin blanc

I've just had another bottle of the above for which I'd previously entered a tasting note on Bottletalk. It really is a very good wine at a very good price. The producer and his wines get a good review in the excellent book Wine behind the Label.

Red, purple, ruby, garnet etc etc.

If you ever have a problem like I do in describing in a word the colour of wine then check this out. I first saw it in the WSET library in London and thought it a great idea.

I sent for one - it came very quickly from Australia and cost me around a fiver - and instantly put it to good use assessing 2 merlots which I could see were different colours but couldn't find the words to describe the actual colours accurately.

Wine production exam

Around 35 of us sat the 100 multiple choice question exam this morning on wine production and I'll admit to finding it harder than I thought it would be. I've done quite a lot of reading and research but some of the questions just plain caught me out. Questions such as -

Which rootstock would you use in a nematode and phylloxera infested soil - 143A, Schwarzmann, 420A or 41B?

Which newly fermented wine has the highest level of anthocyanins - St Amour, Cornas, Bardolino Chiaretto or Orvieto?

I'm pretty confident I got 40 exactly right out of the 100 so, by the law of averages, I should at least have got the pass mark of 55% but I would really like to get a distinction which is over 75%. The results come out in 2 to 3 weeks so I'll just have to wait.

BTW, answers on the above gratefully received.

A treat after my exam

My wife came up to town after my exam as I had booked her a surprise lunch for her birthday. We went to Clarke's, a place she had always wanted to go to. She wasn't disappointed - really fresh food nicely presented and all very much in season. OK it was full of "ladies who lunch" given the location in Notting Hill/Kensington but that didn't matter to us.

The wine list features Californian wine. Unfortunately they only did 1 red and 1 white from the US by the glass but I wasn't sorry I tried them. A lovely buttery, tropical fruit '05 Chardonnay from Au Bon Climat and a plummy, soft, silky Merlot from Havens Vineyard. It was a '97 which puzzled me but it tasted as though it could still last another few years.

Although the focus obviously was to treat my wife it was a rather nice way to spend a couple of hours after the exam.

The 2007 harvest in South Africa

I've just been watching a series of videos of the 2007 harvest in South Africa. Each day brings a new 30 seconds worth of something topical either out in the vineyard or in the winery.

I'm finding them very enjoyable and educational too not having ever been involved in a harvest.

Wine Science by Jamie Goode

I've been reading Jamie Goode's excellent book entitled Wine Science. I'm using it to help me for my impending WSET Diploma exam on viticulture and winemaking.

Don't be put off by the book's title. If you are remotely interested in how wine is made then this book is a great way to understand certain topical subjects in an easily digestable, short chapter format. Covered are subjects such as terroir, global warming, naturalness in wines and corks/screwcaps.

I heard Jamie on the 30/50 podcast recently. It's well worth listening to.

Castel "committed to Oddbins future"

So says the headline in this week's Offlicence news trade paper.

With a growing number of Oddbins branches being rebranded as Nicolas, it's easy to see that Castel as the current owners of Oddbins could be about to ditch the brand. They paid a lot of money for it and, the story goes, would only get a fraction of what they paid for it if they were to sell it now. The article goes on to quote Oddbins saying that all this speculation is unsettling for staff. I know this is the case and along with a number of product availability issues recently it's not hard to imagine what Oddbins staff are thinking.

I've been working part time for Oddbins fitting it around my real job. I'm an interim manager which means I go in to Financial Services companies on a contract basis to run projects for them. As I've got more into the Diploma however I've been working full time since the start of 2007 although this is about to stop. The week after next I'm off to help out on the International Wine Challenge for 7 weeks. I'm really looking forward to it.

It's a beautiful day

...and I'm stuck inside studying for Wednesday's exam. In front of me I have the 110 page WSET study guide, the WSET specification, the Oxford Companion to Wine and Jamie Goode's book Wine Science. The guidance for this Unit is that you need to spend a minimum of 60 hours studying. So far I've spent just over 70 and feel I'm still weak on a number of topics such as pests in the vineyard and all the compounds in wine and their relative role and importance.

I'd like to be out in my veg plot turning it over in preparation for some early planting under cloches or even in the greenhouse sowing some more seeds. My tomatoes, peppers, basil, lettuce and rucola are all germinating but it's time to sow some other things.

It's as well I volunteered to do this Diploma and am enjoying it!

Borsa Vini

I attended Borsa Vini at Chelsea Football ground yesterday. This was around 60 producers from all across Italy showing their wines. As last week's event I found it hard to write useful tasting notes given the number of wines I tasted (around 30) with all the distractions around me. But part of the reason behind going to these events is to learn - about the differences between grape varieties many of which are quite subtle, about regions and also about new grape varieties. This time the new variety was Ruche, quite a florally aromatic variety.

I'm even more convinced that I like Verdicchio having tried a number of vintages and producers. I'm also still sure I'm not a great fan of Sangiovese (not that there was an overabundance of producers with this grape) as I don't really like cherries.

I saw a couple of MW's - Tim Atkin and Rosemary George, also tasting. And I think I have a mountain to climb in studying for the Diploma. It's nothing compared to what you have to do to become a Master of Wine.!

Less than 10 days to go

Less than 10 days to go to my first Diploma exam.

March 14th (my wife's birthday) is the day for my Unit 2 exam on viticulture and winemaking. It's a 1 hour multiple choice exam. I sat a mock exam a couple of weeks ago and got 62% when the pass mark is 55% so my pass was a little too close for comfort. I therefore have lots of revision I could be doing. It's just finding the time to do it given I have 39 hours work with Oddbins this week and I'm helping my daughter move into her new home over the weekend.

A nice Sunday lunch

With both the (adult) kids home today to see their Mum after her 3 week trip to India as a volunteer helping build a school, it was time to have a lovely Sunday lunch. We got a great rib of beef from the local butcher which was cooked to perfection by Janet. Two great bottles of a 2003 Cote du Rhone from Jean Luc Colombo went down a real treat with the beef, veg and roast potatoes done in duck fat a la Nigella Lawson.

The big mistake I made however was with the dessert wine. Janet had made some lovely sticky brownies and my choice of a Muscat de Saint Jean de Minervois was just plain wrong. Although pleasant it just wasn't strong enough to cope with the brownies. It didn't spoil the meal however.

The conversations ranged from our daughter's impending move into a new rented house, through Jonathan's new business venture to Janet's India trip. I love family Sundays like that.

The Secret Cellar

I notice in the latest Decanter magazine, the April one, the wine merchant review is of The Secret Cellar in Tunbridge Wells. I live in Tunbridge Wells and have got to know one of the staff there, James, who is also a Diploma student. They are all a good wine merchant should be - knowledgeable, friendly and, most important of course, they have a great range of wine. If you can't visit then have a look at their web site from where they get a lot of their sales.

I work locally for Oddbins and there is almost no overlap in any of the wines we both stock.

A gros manseng

Yet another new grape for me.

This is a blend of gros manseng and sauvignon and at £4.99 from Majestic, or £3.99 if you buy 2, is excellent value for money. It has real intensity of aroma and flavour and is a well made wine. The producer Alain Brumont is well known for his heavywieght Madiran but shows he can produce a dry, fruity and very drinkable wine.

I've put it up on my Bottletalk list of wines.