Tasting notes

I'm impressed at the increasing number of producers who have online tasting notes for their wines. I find them very helpful when I'm tasting wines at home. It's not quite the same obviously as being in a class and hearing others describe the wine but they are a useful comparison to what I'm getting from the wine.

Take the 2 chardonnays I tried the other day, one South African and the other Kiwi. With the Zonnebloem 2007 from Stellenbosch, I got vanilla from the oak and yet it's not mentioned in the producer's notes but I also got what they describe as citrus notes, pear and peach. The tasting note also said all the fruit for that vintage was sourced from vineyards in the Stellenbosch whereas the label describes itself as "Wine from the Western Cape".

The Montana 2007 from Gisborne I thought had lovely lime and lemon flavours with some tropical fruit. They mentioned peaches also but I couldn't get that.

What I've learned from the WSET Diploma studies is that there is a large element of subjectivity in tasting. Just because the producer says peach, and I don't detect it, doesn't mean I am wrong. It just means the palate of the winemaker is more attuned to nuances than mine which you would expect. Alternatively, and not that I'm being cynical, that the PR person has got carried away with the descriptors in a bid to talk up the wine!

The colour of rose wine

Pink, salmon or orange are the colours of roses according to the WSET Diploma's systematic approach to tasting with all the variations in between alongside. And then there's the intensities of the colours from pale through medium to deep and then opaque.

The picture well illustrates the challenge of getting the assessment right. I don't think I'm the only male who is not very good at assessing colour correctly and I know some of it is subjective but I thought I'd buy a range of roses from Majestic not only for tasting practice but also to hone my skills at assessing colour.

It's been a useful exercise assessing everything from the pale pink of the pinot noir through to the deep salmon of the syrah.

Unit 3 DAPS

I got feedback on my latest essay yesterday. I managed a 64% with the comment that if I had written a stronger conclusion then I woud have gained a merit. The subject was "How important is regionality to the Australian wine industry?"

I've been struggling with these essays since I started with them in April. Initially I wasn't getting the marks as I wasn't writing sufficient detail. Without facts how can the WSET mark you? This feedback moves on from there to the need to express a well argued opinion supported with facts. And all this in 30 minutes in your own handwriting.

I'm just so glad I'm doing these DAPS (Diploma Assessment Preparation Scheme) essays. Given the focus in units 2, 4, 5 and 6 on facts rather than opinion it's a bit of a change.

This well illustrates how challenging the Diploma is. You not only need to know your facts and be able to recall them in 3 stress packed hours for Unit 3, but you also need to be able to structure an argument around them as well for some, although not all, of the questions. I'm glad I'm learning this now rather than post my Unit 3 result.

I'm just about to submit my next essay which has as the subject "Explain why retail prices for New Zealand wines are high. Despite this, how has the New Zealand wine industry expanded its markets?"

Diploma Unit 1 essays

It's been such a long time since I submitted the third of my four Unit 1 essays I had forgotten all about it. What with all the Unit 3 studying I've been doing, helping at the IWC in April and the LISWF in May, getting an envelope from the WSET yesterday was a bit of a surprise. I passed the "Crisis in the French wine industry" essay with merit so I'm pretty pleased.

However I'm finding the 30 minute, up to 1,000 word practice essays for Unit 3 still a challenge however. I can't seem to get sufficient detail into them in the right time frame but, thinking positively, at least I'm getting this feedback now rather than finding out by failing Unit 3.

That's my worst nightmare right now - failing Unit 3 and having to resit.

Wines of South Africa

I'm really enjoying the South Africa bit of Unit 3 of my Diploma studies. It's a much more manageable country to study than somewhere like France where there are significant distinctions between the various regions in the south without taking into account the rest of the country.

There are several very useful web sites that help bring the WSET notes and the Oxford Companion to life. Given the need to take on board some statistics, the SA wine information systems site also helps with numbers. So South Africa has the fifteenth largest area under vine in the world but produces the eighth largest volume of wine? They export most to the UK where we take more white than red whilst Germany, their second largest export market, takes more red than white. It's amazing what you learn when you are studying.

I'm also very impressed with SA Wines online web site. I decided to order a case of wines so I could taste my way around the country. You can search by grape, producer and region and links exist to each producer's web site. The wines seem good value and the important producers are all represented.

Next study stop is North Africa which doesn't immediately spring to mind as a significant wine producing region, although I was in Morocco last year and was surprised how much local wine there was.