Self education - where to next?

Hi Berserker crew -

As I’m sure it has with many of you, COVID-19 has accelerated my nasty little wine habit. I’m probably 2 years “in the game” here, and I recently registered for WSET level 2 add more structure to my education. I’m also looking for some suggestions about how to set up side-by-sides or verticals than can help me to better distinguish classic wines from one another or to understand vintage variation in a region. Some context:

  1. We drink a lot of white wine, and I’m much stronger in my ability to identify whites blind. Riesling, gruner, chenin and albarino are favorites, so we’ve been drinking more chardonnay and pinot grigio to do something different. Have also drank a decent amount of gewurtz and viognier.

  2. My weak spot is medium to full bodied reds. We drink a lot of lighter style natural wines, so I’ve not drank a ton of Sangiovese, napa cabs/blends/merlot, bordeaux, Aussie Shiraz, etc. I also feel like I have a tough time parsing out dryness from tannin and picking up on acid in bigger reds.

  3. If necessary, willing to spend $50-60/bottle if it will help me get an understanding of a classic wine style or grape character. Have been ordering from our favorite wine shops (Verve, Chambers St.) and direct from domestic producers, but open to suggestions if there are better shops.

  4. We have an online tasting group going, and I’d love to hear how some of you may be setting up blinds or themed tastings with your wine friend.

Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for your help!

Hello Sean,

Did you register for the WSET L2 simply to learn more or do you have a desire to continue your education to higher levels? Are you in the wine business/restaurants? I have done both CMS and WSET, currently in the Diploma program. There a re a lot of easy to find books out there that will help you on your journey.

You can find plenty of good examples in the price range you have mentioned to give you a better understanding of those varieties. Structure of red wines is important when it comes to identifying them blind. Setting up a tasting to highlight acid structure as well as tannin may include Chianti Classico, Barbera d’ Asti, Dolcetto d’Alba and a Produttori di Barbaresco Barbaresco or their Langhe Nebbiolo.

An interesting white flight that can be tricky may include a dry Riesling, Albarino, Gruner and Chablis. All higher acid whites, key aromatics will help you work through them.

Dryness is about sugar level. So think of Dry as a taste/flavor and tannin as a texture or feeling of the wine. Most wines are dry, not all wines are tannic.

Happy to add more info if you like.

Sounds to me like you’re doin it right! I’d add:

  1. Don’t worry about expensive bottles. They’re great but their appealing qualities may trick your blind calls. I think the $18-30 range is pretty decent for learning typicity in old world wines. New world is very dependent on how much of a fruit bomb they’re trying to make and I still get tripped up by them, darn them.

  2. Structure is everything. Your favorite fruit flavor can be found in many wines, but knowing how tannin behaves in your mouth for each red variety is a lot more helpful than looking for a telltale fruit scent. I keep boosting this book on forums but Beyond Flavor by Nick Jackson is a great place to start. It’s an easy reading reference book that if nothing else makes you think about structure differently than “medium plus tannin” or whathaveyou.

  3. blind is a fun sport of sorts, but train for the game by practicing on your weak spots. If you’re a baseball player working on your swing, you practice correcting your form, rather than hitting it out of the park and being like “ok, how did I swing that time?” I always got more out of putting two wines in front of me sighted and writing about their qualities and why one tastes like what it said it was than doing a flight of blinds.

Also, drink a lot of the things you don’t like until you appreciate what they’re all about. At the time I took my exams, I’d been congratulating myself on my white wine calls for a few months and had convinced myself I just liked white wine more, but that’s a stupid way to learn and a bad outlook in general. All varieties are special.

Hope this helps!

https://vintagevariation.com/tastingblog/2020/5/7/the-school-of-taste

Thank you all! Anders, I put in a big order of classic Italian reds am certainly looking forward to tasting through them.

Phil - do you get more out of putting two varieties next to each other, or really digging in on a certain area? For example, I have set up a couple of tastings, one that is four Chinons, and the other which is Saint Joseph, Crozes Hermitage, a sonoma syrah and a Cotes du Rhone. Maybe a stupid question because I’m guessing the answer is that it depends what you want to get out of it.

Depends on your goals and outlook of course, but if I was prepping for one of those tests again, I’d make passing the goal and forget about specializing in any of it until you don’t have to be keeping the aging requirements of cava or all the first-fifth growths in your head while trying to figure out the difference between 2 syrahs. Once you pass, go nuts.

For those examples - cab francs have such a giveaway green note to me, they’re the easiest red to intuitively (rather than deductively) call, so I’d just try one against other wines, say “ok, there’s that damn cab franc taste,” and then move on to something else, same as you would with the whites you can already call accurately. For the syrah example, I’d just do one of the two SJ/CH’s against the CdR and then spend another night with either SJ/CH against the Sonoma.

I studied solo and uh… didn’t spit, so it’s totally possible my 2 bottle logic was based on my daily alcohol intake at the time, lol. I think it works though.

Italian wines can be really tricky. to me, and I really like Italian wine, they all have a…“italianiness” too them that you don’t really find anywhere else (and I love). it helps them stand out from something like Bordeaux or Rioja, but it also makes it kind of tricky for me to blind between Sangiovese and (for example) Barbaresco at times.

there’s a thread in the wine talk forum about traditional vs modern producers in Barolo that I think is really helpful. Im pretty sure its a sticky at the top even. I mention it because in Italy- like in Bordeaux, there is a pretty big difference between modern styled wines and the traditionally made ones, at times.

two posts in a row here sorry, but I think you’re right, both can be valuable and it depends on how you learn. I have one friend who basically didn’t drink anything but Bordeaux for 6 months, then just about nothing but Nebbiolo for a year. she doesn’t know jack about burgundy but she’s bulletproof on Nebbiolo. I think if you want to learn the differences between different region styles, there’s nothing better than putting a few of them in glasses next to each other and smelling and tasting through the lineup though personally. I do much better with the comparisons than with just sheer volume. sometimes it’ll really make certain characteristics stand out if you can smell back and forth between a hermitage, a Sonoma Syrah, and a saint Joseph, using your example.