Diploma unit 3 essay feedback

I've just got feedback from the WSET on my last essay submission. I got the sum total of 40 marks so I think that fits in the "could do a WHOLE lot better" category.

I did struggle to find much to write about on the subject of "what does blending other varieties with Chardonnay achieve?". Apart from getting no marks for writing about chardonnay in champagne (this is a unit on still wines only - doh!) I was advised to write more about the attributes that chardonnay brings to each of the blends I wrote about. I also covered 3 blends - colombard, chenin and semillon - and was advised to write about more blends. Despite covering the marketing and selling reasons for blending it, I should have written more about the route to market for these wines. My submission also lacked examples.

In short these essays are all about detail as is the exam and this requires an enormous ability to recall facts. Tomorrow I'm doing my next submission which is "how important is regional identity in the Australian wine industry". Given the feeling of failure I have having only got 40 marks, there is now no excuse for not putting sufficient detail in my submission on a subject which has been a whole lot easier to research than the last one.

Mont Tauch and Taste of London

Seeing an entry over at UKWinesOnline for the Taste Festival in Birmingham reminds me to write a quick piece about last Saturday.

I worked on the Mont Tauch stand at the Taste Festival in Regent’s Park London. Last time I was at the festival it was as a consumer and the weather was lovely. Saturday was a pretty average day and dressed in my Mont Tauch T shirt, I was feeling decidedly cool by 9:30pm when the festival closed. It was an interesting and enjoyable day with the stand manned by 3 of us representing Eviva who do Mont Tauch's PR and 1 from Thierry's who are their agents in the UK.

I was struck by how few people had heard of Fitou and even fewer of Mont Tauch considering their wines are readily available in Sainsburys, Somerfield and Waitrose. It was pleasing to hear so many people try the wine and be surprised that wine of such quality only costs £5.99. I would be amazed if sales of the entry level Fitou did NOT increase immediately. Even the Les Quatres Fitou at £8.99 went down a storm with people again saying it was good value for a Sunday lunch, roast beef kind of wine.

Although tiring it was a thoroughly enjoyable day and in the short breaks I did take, it was great to see so much good food in such a small area and to be able to sample much of it.

Sampling the wines of Lake Garda

Before my trip to Lake Garda I had done some digging around on the internet as I wanted to visit a couple of wineries whilst away. I was pleased to come across promotional material from the Lombardy and Veneto regions indicating they had well established wine trails to follow around their regions. However, as we found out, these were completely different from the kind of wine tourism you come across in Tuscany or California as very few accepted visitors. We did manage to find from the tourist office that a number of them did a “happy hour” on a Friday evening where for a small fee of 5 euros you could taste an extended range of wines along with bite size local food samples. However most of these took place at fairly industrial or retail looking premises rather than set in vineyards so we gave this a miss

We did spend a very enjoyable and instructive afternoon at Azienda Vitivinicola Redaedelli de Zinis where the staff were extremely friendly and instructive. As well as getting to taste their wines we were also given a tour of the cellars. It was a coincidence their Chiaretto won a bronze medal at the IWSC and that my one day of judging on the competition back in April was on Italian wines although none were from the Lombardy region.

We also visited the shop of Guerrieri Rizzardi where, right in the middle of Bardolino town, they have a vineyard. Although unable to visit the vineyard as it was closed that day, it was good to learn about their wines. I found their 2007 DOC Bardolino to be a bright almost vivid garnet with aromas of cherries and redcurrants with a pleasant acidity underlying the strawberry and redcurrant flavours. Soft tannins made this a very easy drinking and refreshing wine to drink. Made from the same grapes as a Valpolicella it was altogether a much lighter style which I was told is simply down to the type of soils although I'm sure the climate had something to do with it also. Their wines are being shown for the first time at next week's trade Definitive Italian tasting event in London.

I was also struck by how many of even the simplest of cafes had a complete range of local wines usually around 2.50 to 3 euros per glass. Now if only our pubs and wine bars could match those prices.............

WSET Diploma unit 1 essays

I've always thought it a little strange that I submit 3 of the 4 essays for Unit 1 sequentially with one every 6 months but then my timetable says the fourth and final one gets submitted after the Unit 3 exam, that is after a 6 month delay. Now though having realised the enormity of the amount of material that needs to be taken in for Unit 3 I can see the logic. Although I am free to submit the essay when I wish, I'll take the WSET's advice and wait until April 2009 to submit it. This means I won't be distracted between now and my Unit 3 exam in January 2009 by 30 hours of essay preparation.

The new essay subjects have just been released. Having covered Establishing a Vineyard, The Co-operative Movement and The Crisis in the French wine industry so far I can pick from the following:

1. Creating a new brand of Gin or Vodka
2. Glittering Prizes or Fool’s Gold? – How useful are wine competitions?
3. Rosé: its performance and prospects in different countries
4. Selecting a vineyard management regime


I haven't a clue which I'll pick. The others were selected out of a combination of personal interest, a desire to stretch myself by writing about something I knew very little about and ease of gathering material for inclusion. Not one of these new topics jumps out at me saying “pick me”. I'll just have to mull things over for a while before taking a stab in the dark although number 1 is almost definitely a no-no.

The wines of Lake Garda

I've just spent a glorious week on Lake Garda in Northern Italy. I can now see why everyone who has visited any of the lakes has enthused about them. The mountains and lakeside villages are simply stunning and traveling around the lake by ferry is simply a wonderful way to travel. Turn up at a lakeside village for a typically wonderful unhurried lunch with a few glasses of wine, then hop on a ferry to go somewhere else for a bit of sightseeing with no worries about drinking and driving.

I tasted a number of grapes and wines I had never heard of – Groppello, Bianco di Custoza and San Martino del Battaglia to name but a few. And I also tried for the first time a Franciacorta which I was supposed to have studied for my Diploma unit 4 sparkling exam but never got around to. My verdict on the wines? Groppello DOC and Bardolino DOCG wines were light and fruity and perfect for summer drinking, the Lugana DOC also, with a number of these very well made. I'll do another post shortly on two producers I visited, Redaelli de Zinis and Guerrieri Rizzardi.

My trip confirmed how complicated Italian wine is with over 400 (or is it 1000?) grape varieties and a range of styles, DOCs and IGTs. We were based in Desenzano on the SW corner of Lake Garda which is in Lombardy region but just over the border from the Veneto region. However, try asking in Desenzano for a Bardolino (from Veneto) or when traveling through the Veneto region for a Groppello (from Lombardy) and we were met with a smile and offer only of local wine, that is wine from the region we were in. There is a huge amount of loyalty to the local wines with those from other adjacent regions almost seen as being foreign.

I took a number of wine related pictures which you can see by following this link.

Lake Garda wines

I'm off to Lake Garda in Italy shortly for a holiday, and I'm naturally looking forward to eating and drinking the local produce.

We will be at the southern tip in a place called Desenzano del Garda, right where 3 regions meet – Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino. I'm hoping therefore to be exposed to Bardolinos, Soaves, Valpolicellas and Luganas and a number of other DOCs and IGTs I have never heard of. Coincidentally I have had two of the local wines recently.

At lunch with a good friend we had Waitroses's 2007 Villa Flora from the Lugana DOC, a very refreshing and fruity wine made from trebbiano. At dinner on Saturday evening in Bertorelli's in central London we had a bottle (or two) of Bolla's 2006 chiaretto from the Bardolino DOC from corvina, rondinella and molinara. Again it was a refreshing wine perfect for the warm evening we were experiencing.

I can just picture me and Janet sitting by the side of Lake Garda savouring a glass (or two) of chiaretto before walking off to find a restaurant and enjoying the local cuisine.

Semillon

I've never been a huge fan of Semillon. The few single varietals I have tried, including some from the Hunter Valley which is supposed to be the ideal place to grow and make good Semillon, have left me a bit cool about the grape. Unfortunately, all I've smelled is wet wool which is not very appealing. It's also a constituent of one of my least favourite styles of wine, white Bordeaux.

But all that changed yesterday.

I've had a bottle of Fairview Oom Pagel Semillon 2004 from South Africa in the wine rack for a while. I haven't tried it because I was told it was really good and I didn't want to be disappointed, a silly reason not to open the bottle. So after a hard week and in a relaxed mood with an impending holiday in Italy I opened it.

My views have changed.

It not only looked good in the glass, a lovely medium intensity gold, it had wonderfully complex aromas of citrus, pear and peach. In the mouth it was citrus, vanilla, peaches and pears with a lovely weight to it, balanced with an acidity that will ensure this wine could keep for a few years yet. The back label says it tastes of beeswax and I certainly see what they mean. Maybe that's what I'm describing with the fruit and weight I experienced.

If only all Semillons were like this. I note this vintage got 4.5 stars in John Platter's guide and that "Oom" means "Uncle". Given all the recent blog chatter about ratings I would give this an 18.5 out of 20 in my system.