The Mock Exam Self Torture

 

Many of the MW students are clustered together in places like Napa, London, and New York.  The great benefit to them is they can split the costs and logistics of doing a mock exam, 12 wines set up like one of the MW exams.  I try to do one a month if I can, but it's a bear.  In the past I'd have someone in the program log onto my wine.com account, put together a case of wine, and email me the exam questions.  It ain't cheap though.  Sometimes I'd have one of the Blind Wine Wednesday guys put one together.  The tough thing for someone not in the thick of the struggle is knowing what wines to choose to put into a mock.  In theory, you could get anything in these exams, but there is an effort put in by the examiners not to trick you.  They could put in a Lodi gamay or a Finger Lakes blaufrankisch but nobody in their right mind is calling that in an exam.  The other challenging part in assembling the wines is vintage variation.  Maybe the producer's 2022 Chablis is lean and high acid, but their 2023 is sort of like an unoaked Macon Village.  You can't know all the specific wines when you assemble the test, and wine availability might be an issue.  These mock exams aren't perfect, but at least you can get a sense of the timing.

For the one I did yesterday, I emailed my associate Yoann with a kazillion white wines I have at my house at the moment that I can coravin.  I tried to avoid screwcap wines which will end up being largely wasted, but with New Zealand and Australia, there might not be an option.  I have multiple refrigerators going over here, so he had about 40 wines to make an exam out of for me.  The downside is that I'm now doing an exam with a known subset of 40 wines.  Randomly I have a 40-1 shot on each wine of getting it correct, but again, what are you going to do?  I tried to stick to clusters of classics like chardonnays, sauvignon blancs, and rieslings with some weird shit sprinkled in to at least provide some good laterals.  I hadn't sat one of these since seminar in late January, so I was anxious to see where I was after my previous debacle on the last P1 test.

I took the photo above right before I flipped the paper.  Question 1.  And I quote, "The 2 wines are sparkling wines sucker".  Here we go...

Wine 1 wasn't very aromatic, pale lemon with medium + acid.  It was citrus, tangy and clean.  There is a little bread dough on the nose and palate, but not much complexity. Small bubbled mousse, but it's falling apart fast.  At this point I know it's traditional method and probably cheap because of the bubbles dissipating so quickly.  The acid isn't ripping so it's not a cheap champagne.  There's a rubbery thing here, so I'm thinking it's a cava.  I knew I had a Dibon $12 cava in the mix, so it's probably that.  (It's not.  It's a $15 Willm Blanc de Blanc cremant d'Alsace.)

Wine 2 is almost water clear.  It smells like flowers and grapes.  The mousse is really foamy and the alcohol is sitting at 11%.  It's also a little sweet, maybe 8g/L.  There isn't any breadiness that indicates time on lees, so this has to be a prosecco.  It's a pretty good one too.  (It is.  It's a Destefani Prosecco Extra Brut.). 

I then get to work writing the answers to questions about the origin, grape varieties, method of production (always pointing to evidence in the glass) and commercial potential related to quality.  Now I'm clipping along writing a decent answer to these questions, the problem being I'm writing a cava answer for question 1 talking about Xarel-lo, macabeo and parallada but the commercial position and winemaking are the same, so it shouldn't kill me there.  I move on.

Question 2:  OK, so this was a problem.  The question I get from Yoann reads like this:  W3-6.  Wine 1 and 3 is a pair and W2 and 4 the other.  2 grapes from two different countries.  For each pair, what is the origin as closely as possible related to the grape(s)?  Compare and contrast commercial potential related to quality.  

So now I'm thinking, wait...  when he says wine 1/3 he really means 3/5 and 2/4 are actually 4/6.  So I need to then compare and contrast the quality of 3/5 vs 4/6 or am I comparing 3/4 and 5/6?  Wait... what goes with what?  Now I'm sort of confused but just taste the wines to figure out what they are... hopefully.

I sniff wine 3 and immediately know it's chardonnay.  It has apple/pear/cedar with medium acid/medium body blah blah blah.  It's chardonnay.  It has really ripe fruit, isn't especially complex and a little savory click at the finish.  Now according to the question 3 is matched up with 5.  I move over to wine 5.  Wine 5 is medium gold.  It's all apple and apple skins on the nose.  Sorta Motts applesauce.  The acid starts slow and blows up at the end, this blast of trumpets.  Medium+ body, 14% ABV, and dry.  Really good quality with intense fruit, complexity and length.  This is Savenierres.  I have no doubt.  The companion wine to this must be Burgundy, but I'll figure out what part later.  I'm thinking Macon but maybe it's better than I first thought.  

I move over to wine 4.  It's primary fruit driven, all apples.  I think there's some integrated oak in there.  med/med+ acid and about 14% ABV.  It's not really exciting.  It's a well made simple fruit forward wine.  Pleasant.  Wine 6 has apples/baking spice on the nose.  Alcohol is sitting 13.5%?  The palate is apple, apple skin with an acid that shines through at the finish.  There's more acidity here than on wine 4.  Now I've got an issue.  I KNOW wine 5 is Loire chenin blanc which means wine 3 MUST be Burgundy.  I taste wine 3 again and I'm thinking, OK this is pretty good Macon or maybe a not great Meursault... maybe...  So what am I going to do with wines 4/6?

So if it's new world chenin and chardonnay, it's probably South Africa.  In theory it could be California or Oregon or any other good New World region where they plant whatever they feel like, but I didn't have any of those in the mix.  So with wines 4/6, wine 6 has the most acid.  That has to be the chenin, because a South African chenin is going to have more acid than a chardonnay.  The chardonnay (wine 4) is fine but nothing to get excited about.  That chenin (wine 6) is really good.  Great finish.  Hats off.  I start writing manically all my answers.

Now here's the problem....  Wine 3/5 weren't a pair.  3/4 and 5/6 were a pair.  The question was written incorrectly.  Now if I had known that, I would not have pounded a couple square pegs into round holes.  3 was a Kloof st old vine chenin Swartland which had barrel fermentation and aging, hence the wood.  Wine 4 was the mediumy apple not exciting wine with some oak, the Glenelly Chardonnay Stellenbosch.  Had I known that 5/6 were together, that's an easy call with the obvious Loire chenin of wine 5 (Savennière Mosse Arena) meaning wine 6 is a Burgundy with med+ acid and really nice length (Yves Boyer Martenot Meursault).  I was killing myself trying to figure out how wine 6 was chenin because it sure as shit didn't seem like chenin, but it had to be because no way that Glenelly Chardonnay could be chenin.  Jeesh.  OK, that was an unnecessary mind fuck.  We move on.

Question 3. One grape is common to the three wines.  What is the grape variety?  For each wine:  Origin as closely as possible, winemaking, and quality.

OK, so wine 7 has a super aromatic citrus/fresh cut grass nose.  It smells like Marlborough sauvignon blanc.  It is high acid, tangy gooseberry.  Steel tank winemaking, cool climate, 13.5% ABV.  That's gotta be Marlborough.  Wine 8 has this honeydew melon scent I equate with French oak aged sauvignon blanc.  The citrus/green apple fruit has rounded edges to it confirming oak aging.  The acid isn't nearly as ripping as wine 7.  This is Sancerre or white Bordeaux.  I'll circle back later.  Wine 9 has a very quiet nose, reductive winemaking,  High acid with clean citrus flavors, pretty simple.  This isn't nearly as vibrant as wine 7.  The fruit is crisp, but it's really clean so I'm thinking cool climate New World, maybe something coastal.  This could be from Australia, Chile, South Africa or New Zealand.  Hmmm.  What if this is Marlborough and wine 7 is from somewhere else?  I dunno.  Wine 7 has all the markers of Marlborough.  It's practically glowing.  I'm going Marlborough with steel tank, cool ferment, short steel tank aging, sterile filter, out the door on Wine 7. Wine 8 it's a bit of a coin flip.  The oak is fairly reserved here and there's a little flinty note on the finish.  I'm going Sancerre here.  Wine 9?  I'm going Walker Bay, South Africa.  It's ripe but crisp fruit with high acid which is reasonable for a coastal sauvignon blanc.  There's a little savory turn on the finish which correlates with the South Africa "one foot in, one foot out of the Old World" profile.  It's a reasonable argument.  

Wine 7 Southern Right sauvignon blanc Walker Bay.  

Wine 8 Chateau de Cruzeau Pessac Leognan Blanc.  

Wine 9 Clos Henri Petit Clos sauvignon blanc marlborough 

OK, not a disaster here but really surprising on the flip flop of wines 7/9.  I missed all the wines exact identities, but funneled through on their identities in my answers.  I probably scored enough points to stay alive here rolling into the final 3 wines.

Question 4.  Wines 10-12 are from three different single grapes.  For each wine, grape variety used, origin as closely as possible, winemaking, and quality related to maturity.

I smell Wine 10 and I know it's riesling.  It's high acid, sweet (20g/l?), light bodied with citrus and candied citrus notes on the nose.  It's low alcohol (9%) and maybe has some botrytis.  This has to be from the Mosel.  I know this is German riesling of okay quality.  It's fine but it's not that complex.  I'm not sure if it's spatlese or auslese, but there's a marmalade thing going on here so I'm leaning auslese but the sugar is a little low.  I'm still doing OK on time, so I'll loop back on this.

Wine 11 is remarkable for how unremarkable it is.  It's got a medium lemon appearance, quiet nose, med+ acid with apple/lemon primary fruit with a little phenolic grip on the finish.  Medium body.  No oak.  No malo.  It is a wine that can be none more medium.  When I have that, I usually think "pinot grigio".  The slight uptick of acid could be Alto Adige, and I know I've got one of those in the 35 bottle potential pool of wines.  It's a wine that is "white wine".  There's a lemon peel with sort of a saline quality to it.  I'm going pinot grigio from Alto Adige.

Wine 12 is soft, low acid with a med body.  It's sort of floral.  There's a leesy midpalate.  Maybe.  I'm not getting a good read on this wine at all.  I might be getting tired.  Some palate fatigue.  Alcohol seems about 13.5%.  It's Old World for sure.  WTF is this?  Albarino?  They do extended lees on those plus there's a floral quality, but where is the tangerine/orange peel I'd expect?  Time is getting low and I've got to write.  I decide to write the answers for wines 10/11 and try the wine again before writing it.  I write an extensive spatlese riesling from the Mosel note for wine 10.  (It's a cheap ass Baron von Bernan rheinhessen kabinett.  I don't even know where I got this.  I can't find it anywhere on line.  I bet it's a $5 bulk wine fantasy label sample.). Wine 11 I diligently write a note for Alto Adige pinot grigio.  (It's a Papagiannakos Assyrtiko, so I got killed there.). I taste wine 12 again and I've got nothing.  It doesn't seem floral at all now.  The acid seems too low for albarino, and the wine is too smushy.  It's not aromatic enough to be viognier.  The alcohol isn't high enough for cotes du rhone.  I've got 7 minutes to write an answer.  Fuck.  I've got nothing.  I write an unconvincing albarino answer for what turns out to be an Albert Bichot Macon Villages.  Ouch.  That's a really bad miss.

So I only correctly identified two of the twelve wines spot on.  However, that typo question snafu on wines 3-6 would have been four correct if it had been asked as intended.  6 of 12 correct still isn't great, but the test isn't really about identification.  White Bordeaux v Sancerre is razor thin.  Flip flopping the two sauvignon blancs was reasonable based what was in the glass, so that wouldn't have killed me.  The last three wines were a problem though.  I overestimated the quality of wine 10 and missed on the sugar level which would have really clipped me.  Wine 11 I was way off on the winemaking and would have gotten almost nothing.  Wine 12 was a miss on grape/origin/winemaking.  The quality was maybe a source of points on wines 11/12, but that was about it.

All and all, I left too many points on the board by misidentifying the wines.  I also wrote incomplete or poorly worded answers.  I have to tighten up.  I'm tasting better than I was in January.  There's no doubt about that, but I'm still not good enough.  I was a golfer that wants to go pro, but just shot a 78 on his home course.  I need to be ringing up a 65-67 on this course.  This mock exam was an improvement on January but I'm still not passing an MW exam at this level.  Well, this was a nice way to self flagellate oneself on a Sunday early afternoon.  Well, might as well do a P2 later this week.  The madness continues.