Wines from Greece

I've been in Greece for a week's holiday. We went to Kefalonia (or Cephalonia or Kefallinia) and I know I should have known all about Greek wines as its a topic in Unit 3 of the Diploma but the grapes, regions, climates, soils etc just don't seem to have registered with me. I find this a problem with the wines of any country whose geography I don't know or whose wines I wouldn't normally buy or seek out. When I've been to a country or region then its so much easier to recall the details. So I'm OK with Sonoma, Tuscany, China, Trentino and Fruili to name a few.

The robola is the main grape of the island. It mainly grows on the slopes of Mounts Rodi and Enos at anything up to 700 metres. The climate is distinctly Mediterranean (although the island is in the Aegean) with summer temperatures reaching 40 degrees with little or no rain. These temperatures are somewhat moderated by the elevation the vines are grown at.

The labels on the bottles are distinctly tricky to read with only the few of the robolas destined for the European market being in English. We visited the main co-op on the island and spent a short time speaking to one of the co-op members who was English and had settled on the island 15 years ago.

What kind of wine does the robola grape produce? Just the kind of refreshing wine you would enjoy drinking next to the harbour in Fiscardo in the very north of the island whilst enjoying some seafood - lemony, flinty and with some decent acid.

As it's been cold and wet since we got home I think I'll save the one bottle I brought home for another day.....

Diploma tasting group - assessment of quality

There have been two themes to the last few tasting group meetings.

The first has been all about assessing quality and how important it is to justify why you think a particular sample is, for example, a good quality mid market wine.

Although using BLIC - Balance, Length, Intensity and Complexity - is a great mnemonic it's not good enough just to repeat what's been written in the tasting note. For example if the wine has a long finish it's not enough just to repeat that. You have to justify it. Is it the fruit that lasts a long time with the acidity fading away? Do the acidity, tannins and fruit linger? Is the long finish actually the heat of alcohol with the fruit fading away?

The second theme has been around partially specified wines.

On Monday we had 3 whites from Italy and on Thursday it was 3 reds from Italy. In this part of the exam there are 4 marks for working out what the region is and 6 for providing the evidence to support the conclusion about region. Thursday’s region was Sicily and the grapes were a shiraz, nero d’avola and an aglianico. On Monday all the whites were from Piedmont.

The shiraz, according to our tutor, should have been a given as Italy is known for producing cheap bulk shiraz and this was only an acceptable quality entry level wine, almost a little bit harsh. The nero d’avola was of very good quality and the aglianico was probably the hardest one to work out what it is. It is also one that I don’t necessarily associate with Sicily.

So as far as working out where the wines came from (not that any of us got it right) we needed to provide the evidence for that. A couple of pointers were that Sicily is one region where the 3 grapes would be grown. Two of the wines had a warm fruit appeal to them which suggests the warmer south than the cooler north. Additionally given the quality levels with the shiraz being an entry level wine, Sicily is a region that produces wines at all price points. However with Monday's assessment none of the wines were entry level which pointed towards a region know for its quality wines which in this case was Piedmont. On Monday there were other pointers that suggested the north rather than the south such as less fruit and more acidity.

This is a tough type of question with 4 marks just for the region. You are either right and get 4 marks or wrong and get 0 marks. At least with the arguments you give to support your conclusion, its still possible to get some marks out of the total possible 6.

This question emphasises to me that you don't only need to know your wines but also your regions and their styles, grapes and other characteristics.

Yet more to remember in the pressure of an exam.

Unit 3 exam - 2 months to go

My Unit 3 exam is two month’s today (or is it two month’s tomorrow?).

I’ve realised what a poor time of year it is to have an exam coming right after the holidays. Both my kids will be at our home with their partners and I’m sure we’ll drink lots of good wine but that isn’t going to leave me much time for last minute studying.

Over the weekend I drew up an aggressive plan – otherwise known as cramming – to do around 14 hours per week between now and then. I think it’s achievable.

I can do an hour per day during my work travels and if I finally take for one of the first times in my life a lunch break I can manage a bit more each day. That leaves quite a lot to do each weekend but my wife is very supportive and as long as it still leaves me time to see friends/family/watch the movies/wash the car/dig my veg plot/have a life then I don’t anticipate a problem.

I was reading up on Argentina on the train coming into work today. Seeing references separately to Tupungato and Trivento made me realise how much those Diploma students who work regularly in the business gain.

I used to work part time for Oddbins so am familiar with the Tupungato as we used to stock a Masi from there. We also used to stock Trivento wines, owned by Concha y Toro. Just being around these products increases your knowledge, the corollary being if you are not around them the learning curve is so much steeper.