Battling Another Mock Exam... Red Wines

 

I have been trying to spend as much time on theory lately as I can.  I have heard a number of MWs that have said "I didn't pass tasting until I really buckled down on theory".  That is a counterintuitive statement until you realize just how many points on the tasting exam are for the taking based on winemaking and market position.  For example, a P3 wine that often shows up on the exam is the extremely high quality Vin de Constance from South Africa.  It's a luscious sweet muscat with an unusual intensity and precision.  It's hard to identify blind at first because how often do you drink expensive sweet South African wine?  I like to order it all the ballgame.  "Gimme two Bud Lights and a Vin de Constance!"  However, after you've tasted it once or twice it is memorable.  So you'd figure if you get it on the tasting exam, that's a home run, right?

This is where the theory kicks in.  If there are 20 points available in the good old "Discuss relevant winemaking" question, you can't just write out "They pick some grapes really late, but not too late I guess and then make wine however the hell they do that."  You've got to be able to discuss harvest strategy, sorting, fermentation vessel and temperature, aging, blending, potential corrections, SO2 targets and the timing of all of them.  This time last year my answers tended to veer into "I don't fucking know but here's a bad guess".  My goal is to get to "I am very confident of A/B/C and it is reasonable to conclude D/E/F based on the evidence in the glass".  At this point I can tell you more about sherry production than anyone living in a bullshit village within striking distance of Seville, but the challenge is that I need to be able to do that with EVERYTHING.   

With that in mind, I had not taken a mock exam in a good while.  I have been consistently drilling on Blind Wine Wednesday, but that is not the same as a mock exam.  Blind Wine Wednesday can often have "Tommy Wines", wines which were brought by a confused/well intentioned wine rep that would offer up blinds like ten year old Walla Walla petit verdot, Puglia chardonnay, and off brand Uruguay cabernet franc.  While these can be tactfully called "interesting", it's a waste of time for my purpose.  I say this knowing that the group does not convene as a Greg Miller Support System, but I'm always hoping that we limit the Michigan Sylvaner. 

The mock exam is also important to judge your timing.  It's one thing to sit around a table scratching out the key points on a wine while three other guys debate the merits of some TV show you've never watched, but it's a whole other deal to pull up the focused effort of tasting/writing the answers correctly for 135 minutes in exam conditions.  A few of the other boys from the Blind Wine Wednesday group took the mock with me, and while you can give them kudos for the spirit of willingly sitting a 12 wine blind exam, I'll bet none of them wrote a good note for market position or key winemaking steps for the nutty brown sweet wine in glass #10.  I know I wouldn't have...

I wanted to put together as realistic an exam as I could.  I had Yoann put together 9 red wines and ship them to me.  It's a good system as he can try to match up wines from the retailer that have appeared on past exams.  For some wines that have a wide variance in style like Chianti Classico, this is important as I need to know "What does the Institute think Chianti should taste like" versus "What did the random last six Chianti I happened to wander into taste like?".  I then had Melissa pour three P3 wines (fortified/sweet/sparkling/rose) from a random collection that I had in house spiced up with six potential bottles from Hardy's collection.  I buy those P3 wines when I see an interesting one and toss them in a couple of boxes.  Frankly, I don't know what's down there anymore.  If you want to go on a jag with some southern french vin du naturals or obscure sherry styles, swing on by and go to my basement.  Help yourself.  

OK...  Let's go to the exam.  I'll lay it out for you as I saw it with the clock ticking and my bassets whining to get into the room.  

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Question #1:  Wines 1-3 are each from a single grape variety.  Each wine is from a different continent.  

For each wine:

a) Identify the grape variety (3X5 marks)

b) Identify the country and region as closely as possible (3X10 marks)

c)  Comment on the style and commercial appeal (3X10 marks)         

So, these are three pale ruby wines of differing levels of color.  Wine 1 is a ripe cherry, almost jammy nose.  Medium acid with moderate tannins, medium minus?  The fruit is a bright cherry leaning into strawberry candy.  It's easy to drink.  Soft.  Wine 2 is the most pale of the three.  Acid is scorching and the tannins rip your gums off.  Alcohol is about 14%.  This HAS to be nebbiolo.  Excellent quality.  If I was feeling ballsy I'd put it was Produttori, because this is way too familiar to me.    Wine 3 is tricky.  The nose is red fruit but has an earthy component.  High alcohol.  14.5%.  The acid feels lifted but not nearly as high as wine 2.  There are some grip on the tannins but not nearly like wine 2.  They don't have the softness of wine 1.  This wine is more brawny and ripe.  Hot climate.

I did those three wines in about five minutes.  I know wine #2 is nebbiolo, either Barbaresco or Barolo.  With the maximum tannin and acid, plus that pale color, it can't be anything else.  That wine has finesse AND power.  That means I don't have Europe available for wines 1/3 as it is only one wine per continent as per the question.

Wine 1 is really soft and fruity.  It's New World for sure, and has a technical quality to it.  It reminds me of one of those Sierra del Grados grenaches, which puts those new style of early harvest Aussie grenache in play for consideration.  That strawberry on the palate has me pretty well sold and it feels so restrained compared to the other wines.  That creates a bit of a situation for wine #3.  If Europe and Australia are off the table, what is it?

Wine 3 has an earthy, funky almost baked quality to it that is pointing me to a hot climate.  I wait to go back to this because I'm not sure where to put it.  I loop back to this after I finish the red wines and decide on Xinomavro from Greece.  This is problematic for a couple of reasons.  1.  I forgot the question told me that they were all from DIFFERENT continents, and the one thing I knew for sure was wine #2 was nebbiolo from Italy.  This is a common pitfall that I face where I lose track of the question in the rush to complete all the answers in the allotted time.  An answer that was given by one of the others taking the exam was pinotage, which I think is a great call.  Cherry based ripe rich fruit pointing to hot climate, medium grained tannins with medium grip, a funky earth quality on the back end... South African pinotage is a solid conclusion.  Of course, both Xinomavro and pinotage are BOTH wrong.

W1 Flowers Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast 2022

W2 Produttori del Barbaresco, Barbaresco Nebbiolo, Piedmont IT 2020

W3 D'Arenberg The Custodian Grenache, McLaren Vale Australia 

I have no explanation on how I missed a Sonoma pinot noir.  I don't think I've missed one of those blind in a year.  Doing so completely fucked me on this mock.  It's a great example of how your brain locks in on one little thing, in this case the large number of delicate grenache from trendy Spain I've had recently, and then closes off not only other possibilities but the OBVIOUS answer.  Light skin grape with finesse and silky tannins?  OF COURSE it's pinot noir.  Jesus.  Missing the pinot noir in the "a)" portion of the question only costs you 5 marks, but the problem is you have started to snowball.  Now you lost another 10 marks on the "identify country and region" calling that Australia, which of course causes you to lose those same 15 marks on wine 3.  One moment of lost concentration, and I'm out 30 marks.  Bam.  

Now let's consider that there are ten marks per wine for style and commercial appeal.  I've lost another ten marks on wine #1 because I have written a confident note discussing how to sell this $15 Aussie easy drinking grenache instead of a $55 luxury domestic pinot noir.  Again, the snowball has come down the hill and absolutely decimated my little village.  The other factor that got me was I had the nebbiolo with the tannins that ripped my face off.  I then quickly concluded as to what that was and moved onto wine #3 in haste where the residue of that acid/tannic nebbiolo onslaught was still on my palate.  This undoubtedly carried over as I sipped Wine #3 and led me to overestimate the acid and tannin on the last wine.  Stupid rookie mistake that cost me 45 points.  45 of the potential 75 points!  

OK, time to move to the next set...  I have to be insanely good from here on out.

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Question 2:  Wines 4-7 are made from Bordeaux varieties.  For each wine:

a)  Identify the origin and grape variety(ies) (4 X 10 marks)

b) Comment on quality in context of the origin, with references to maturity and potential for development (4 X 10 marks)

c)  Identify the key winemaking techniques used (4 X 5 marks)

The question tells us we are dealing with cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, malbec, petit verdot and carmenere.  Those grapes are planted almost everywhere at volume except Germany, Austria and Spain.  Sure, there are exceptions, but these wines can be from almost anywhere.  The key is to find structure, climate and winemaking clues.  Possible origins off the top of my head?  California, Washington, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and France immediately pop into my head.  These could be from anywhere...

Wine 4 is very green on the nose.  It smells like green tobacco leaf and herbs.  The palate is rich black berries with a soft ripe mouthfeel, plenty of new oak that is well integrated, and soft medium grained tannins with medium grip.  It's a warm climate wine with 14% ABV.  It's weird that it is ripe AND green at the same time.  This feels like it is sitting on the second shelf down at the fancy supermarket, probably around $30.  It is so green and pyrazinic it feels like a high end Chilean Carmenere.  I'm putting that in a mental placeholder.  

Wine 5 is youthful, very tannic with grip.  It's red fruit, leather and savory on the finish.  I'd even say this wine is a tad rustic.  It's Old World for sure, and not a top example from the point of origin.  I'm 50/50 if this is a Bordeaux blend from a satellite or maybe Cahors.  I'll see what the other two wines are like and swing back on this.

Wine 6 is a brett bomb.  It smells like a freshly mucked stable and Marlboro Red gold foil tobacco.  I know that this is Chinon, and I think I even know the producer.  I think this is from Baudry.  That's how confident I am on this one.  OK, Cab Franc is off the board.  Total banker.

Wine 7 has red currant dominated fruit with a green streak that flashes through the middle.  The tannins are high, good quality and provide a firm structure to the wine.  There is a decent amount of oak on this, but not as much as you'd expect from California.  It's a premium wine, but not a "fuck you" luxury wine bathed in oak.  This is more classic cabernet to me than wine 5.  The fruit quality points to a warm climate.  The winemaking is fairly precise.  I am thinking Australia, and with that leafy streak I'm going to Coonawarra.  $40 Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon.  Wine 5 in comparison is very rustic.  I'm going to take that to Cahors.  It's French for sure.  $25.

W4 Kanonkop Kadette Cabernet Sauvignon Stellenbosch South Africa $19.99

W5 Domaines des Barons de Rothschild Les Legenderes St Emilion 2019 $49.99

W6 Bernard Baudry Chinon Les Granges 2021  $22

W7 Poggio al Tesoro II Seggio Red Blends Bolgheri Tuscany IT 2020 $49.99   

Calling wine #4 a Chilean Carmenere instead of a South African inexpensive cabernet isn't a complete disaster.  I picked up on the key components of the wine, but I probably should have noted that New World/Old World combo on the wine.  I just forget South Africa exists sometimes.  On my answer for wine #5 I funnelled through St. Emilion before going to Cahors, so also not terrible.  That wine is a tad "rustic" shall we say.  On Wine #6 I could not have been any more correct.  Wine #7 had me feeling better when Yoda also called Coonawarra Cabernet, but that slightly elevated acid and tannic level and quality should have led me to Bolgheri.  It's one of those places that is easy to forget in the heat of the moment.  Italy= Nebbiolo. sangiovese. amarone.  It does not equal 50% merlot, 20% cabernet sauvignon, 20% cabernet franc and 10% petit verdot.  Defendable miss.    

I would have been clipped on a few of the origin, grape variety points, BUT quality, maturity, and winemaking techniques would have been an area to make up ground.

OK, we are still alive in this thing... a little behind but still in the game

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Question #3:  Wines 8 and 9 are made from the same single grape variety and come from the same region.

With reference to both wines:

a) Identify the grape variety and region as closely as possible (20 marks)

b) Compare and contrast style and quality (20 marks)

c) Compare and contrast market potential (10 marks)  

Both wines are deep dark purple.  There's a violet rim.  Wine 8 smells rich like baked plums and blackberries.  It's rich, full mouthfeel, almost but not quite stewy ripe black fruit with a plush finish.  There's a little leathery aspect for secondary complexity.  The tannins are soft and ripe but turn a little savory at the end.  Big alcohol.  This is an expensive wine where it's from.  Wine 9 is less forgiving, with grippy tannins and a wet slate mineral finish aspect.  This is a wine that could age but the fruit might drop before the tannins.  This is a by the glass airport lounge favorite.  They are either merlot or malbec.  That sweet/savory aspect plus the violet appearance point to malbec.  Malbec makes sense since wine 9 is a high volume version and wine 8 could be higher elevation with lower yields to give it more intensity and higher tannin quality.  Mendoza malbec.  I'm feeling 80/20 on it, but I know which wine is better and why + their market potential.  If this turns out to be Mendoza Malbec, I'm getting big points here.

W8 Altocedro Old Vine Reserve Malbec Uco Valley Mendoza $29.99

W9 Serie A Zuccardi Malbec Uco Valley Mendoza $15.99 

OK, score one for me there.  Next up are the three P3 wines.  I'll handle that on my next entry...