My 2025 MW P1 Exam

 

The Institute released the wines used in the 2025 exam this morning.  As I have noted in earlier posts, it's not a wine identification exam, but you'll have a pretty tough time gaining points when discussing how they make sherry when you have called that wine a madeira.    You can pass without correctly identifying most of the wines, but it's a much harder road that way.  I get asked about the exam all the time, so if you want to know what the hell I was thinking as I tasted through these and made fast decisions, I'll do the best I can to walk you through it.  I'm doing it all by memory.  We aren't allowed to keep any of our notes, and we don't get our graded papers back.  All we get is a "pass" or "fail" email on some random morning in September.  Apparently a quirk of the English education system is that you NEVER get your graded tests back.  Like, they threaten us with castration if they discover we had taken a photo of our tasting notes, which seems very counterintuitive to me.  Aren't you most able to learn by seeing your mistakes and then correcting those?  That's how I've learned best my whole life, but they don't do it that way, and if their way was good enough for The Queen, it's good enough for you Buddy.  Seriously, if you even ask about why you can't see your test, they look at you like you are out of your fucking mind by just asking.

I'll make three posts and take you through each of the three tasting exams. Today I'll talk about the white wine exam, called the "P1" that I took a couple of Tuesdays ago.  This is the very first exam I rolled into on a Tuesday at 9:15am in an Embassy Suites ballroom off a highway in Napa.  EVERYONE is uptight.  You can feel a crackling energy of nerves.  I have spent four years to just get to the point where I can sit down and take a crack at this thing.  For me, if I fail it in spectacular fashion, it will be a drag, but life will go on.  There's a number of people there that have been underwritten by employers, so for them to have to report failure to their bosses adds a whole new layer of pressure.  There are people wearing headphones listening to motivational music, walking around like they are about to get into the ring with Marvin Hagler for the WBA Middleweight crown.  Others have walked off into quiet corners with a blank stare reserved for infantry members on amphibious beach landing craft.  Everyone has sacrificed hours and hours and hours to train for this and now it's put up or shut up time.

You have to bring your own glasses, so that's sort of a hassle.  On the one hand, it's good because it's a glass you're used to and you can't blame weird aromas coming off them on anyone but yourself.  On the other hand, there are easier things to fly across the country with than 12 wine glasses.  I bought 8 glasses that I found that matched a set of four I had because they came in a box I could carry.  I really don't give a shit what glasses I use.  You can give me thick industrial wedding glasses for all I care.  I can't smell very much anyway, so I don't think it impacts how I do one way or the other.  I set up my glasses with the goal of not accidentally knocking over a full one during the test like an asshole.  We pour the wines from decanters written with their corresponding number via marker.  A digital clock is set up in the front of the room for 2 hours and 15 minutes for the 12 wines.

Let's talk about timing.  That seems like a lot of time for 12 wines, right?  135 minutes for 12 wines means you have 11 minutes and 25 seconds per wine.  No problem, right?  Well, you aren't just writing "chardonnay from Napa" and moving onto the next one.  For example, Question 1 on this exam was this:  

Wines 1 and 2 are blends of the same two grape varieties.

For both wines:

a) Identify the grape varieties. (10 marks)

For each wine:

b) Identify the origin as closely as possible. (2 x 8 marks)

c) Comment on the style, winemaking and quality. (2 x 12 marks)  

You are looking at 23 minutes to identify those two wines, justifying your answer on the grapes, where they came from, how the wine would be positioned in the marketplace, discussing how it was made and placing it on a quality level with proof of everything in your answer.  The rule of thumb is two minutes per wine to identify it.  When people see these wines on the exam results, I think they are thinking "Shit, that's easy".  As an exercise, have someone you know pour six random wines into glasses, and then you tell them what those wines are 12 minutes later.  You'll get my point on the timing.

Let's get into this thing.  

I smell the first wine and it smells like honeydew melon with this vanilla note.  Based on the question, I'm already thinking sauvignon blanc + semillon, but that's a dangerous game as I'll painfully demonstrate later in these exams.  The wine has elevated tannins, an herbal green note across the back palate and evidence of being aged in oak.  The fruit is clearly Old World cool climate so I'm thinking white Bordeaux unless Wine 2 throws me a curveball.  Wine two is brighter more urgent fruit, lacking that savory edge of the other one but still having a green vegetal component.  The round mouthfeel points right at semillon in the blend.  This is either Australian or New Zealand.  I'm not positive which, but the tart fruit is making me lean South Island NZ.  I start furiously writing my answers to justify two sauvignon blanc/semillon blends from Pessac Leognan and Marlborough, NZ.  

Actual wines:  

Wine 1:  Château de Fieuzal Blanc, 2021. Pessac-Léognan, France $69 

Wine 2:  Sauvignon Semillon Circa 77, Xanadu, 2023. Margaret River, Australia $17

Question 2:  

Wines 3-6 are from the same single grape variety.

With reference to all four wines:

a) Identify the grape variety. (16 marks)

For each wine:

b) Comment on the style, quality, and maturity. (4 x 13 marks)

c) Identify the origin as closely as possible. (4 x 8 marks)       

Immediately I am thinking this is going to be a "noble grape", one with high quality and extensive areas that grow it successfully enough for four different wines on the exam.  Going in, I'm looking for chardonnay, chenin blanc or riesling.  The first one is really fleshy and oxidated.  It's feeling pretty "mediumy" so right away I am thinking "chardonnay".  I'll work back to figure out where this is from...  The next one is cool climate because the fruit is restrained with a little lift on the acid.  It's not a very exciting example.  Chablis maybe?   The third wine is riper, has a strong French oak aroma, and is apple/pear flavors with the oak giving a nutmeg quality.  This is New World premium chardonnay, but could be from a kazillion places.  The last one is a much better version of the other New World one.  I'm tempted at first to rush into Meursault because it's so friggen good, but I take another taste and that finish is not matching up.  I'll bet this is Margaret River (which I routinely mistake for Burgundy) and the other one is South Africa as there is a consistent obsessive need to pour South African wines from the tiny zone of Elgin for some reason.  There are 8 hA planted to chardonnay in Elgin, and I've had three of these wines poured in exams to me as if this is Puligny Montrachet in terms of importance.  It's got that "one foot in, one foot out of the New World" quality.  I'm taking that to Elgin.  No matter what wine you get, you MUST ALWAYS FUNNEL ELGIN.  One of those first two is a Chablis and I'm thinking one is a sorta crappy volume regional Bourgogne.  I'm tempted to take the first one to Cali but why would they pour an old grocery store wine and not an aged Chablis?  That first one doesn't hit with the assertive acid and crisp nature of a Chablis though.  Fuck.  Gotta make a decision here.   I take wine 1 as an older Bourgogne as the fruit is so much ripeer/savory than wine 2 plus it sorta sucks.  The second one with the more reserved profile one I take to Chablis with a little age.  The last two are more youthful.  Elgin and Margaret River.  

Wine 3:  Chablis 1er Cru Côte de Lechet, Domaine Defaix, 2010. Burgundy, France $50 

Wine 4:  Chardonnay, Old Stage, 2019. Monterey, California, USA $20

Wine 5:  Chardonnay, Iona, 2022. Elgin Highlands, South Africa. $66

Wine 6:  Chardonnay, Moss Wood, 2023. Margaret River, Australia $62     

Question 3

Wines 7-9 are from the same country and different single grape varieties.

For each wine:

a) Identify the origin as closely as possible, making reference to the grape variety. (3 x 10 marks)

b) Comment on the method of production. (3 x 5 marks)

c) Comment on the style, quality, and maturity. (3 x 10 marks)

The first one is really leesy.  It smells like lemon yogurt.  Medium/medium plus acid, medium- body.  It's from someplace cool, definitely Old World, but it could be a few things.  I move on hoping I find one I am very confident about.  I smell the next one, and I know it's riesling.  It smells like candied orange peel and citrus.  It's got a little more mouthfeel than I'd expect from a classic German region.  If this is Austrian, I have no clue what that first one is.  Maybe gruner but I am not getting a vegetal/white pepper finish.  Acid is wrong too.  Maybe that's a muscadet?  I move the the third wine of the flight.  It's off dry and tastes like Motts Apple Sauce.  That's chenin and probably a Vouvray.  OK, I'm going Muscadet/Alsace Riesling entry level/and a pretty good Vouvray.  How long does muscadet stay on lees again?  Shit.  Does the Loire have a quality designation?  Did that Muscadet quality level thing go into effect?  Is that riesling good enough to be grand cru?  Nahhh.

Wine 7:  Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine Monnières Saint-Fiacre l’Ancestrale, Vignobles Günther-Chéreau 2018 Loire, FR. $22

Wine 8:  Riesling Silberberg de Rorschwihr, Rolly Gassmann, 2021. Alsace, France $43

Wine 9:  Vouvray Côte de Bourg Demi-Sec, Domaine Huet, 2022 $43

My timing is running well.  I am feeling good so far.  I know I got those last three and the first two.  I figure I am right on the chardonnay call but who the hell knows where they are all from.  With chardonnay the winemaking is so important to the end profile of the wine that it can hide origin with heavy use of oak, acidification, or how they use malo.  Still, all things considered I am feeling pretty good at this point.

Question 4

Wines 10-12 are from three different European countries.

For each wine:

a) Comment on the style of the wine with reference to the relative importance of human inputs

versus natural factors. (3 x 15 marks)

b) Identify the grape variety and origin as closely as possible. (3 x 10 marks)

What the fuck is this "Comment on the style of the wine with reference to the relative importance of human inputs versus natural factors" shit?  Where did THIS come from?  I appreciate that members on the education committee must want to "shake it up", but for two years I have been drilling on how to answer how different wine styles are made, where they come from, and who buys them.  Now in the tail end of this exam I am being asked to answer a new type of question that is murky at best.  For example, a Mosel Riesling is low alcohol and has residual sugar because they stop the ferment before it goes dry.  That's a human input.  But they make it that way because it has really high acid because it's cool climate there and riesling needs some balance with the sugar which is a natural factor.  Yet, it has been made that way for hundreds of years because that's what the people like to drink, so that's a human factor.  So now with this tight ass 12 minute per wine timeline I need to figure out how to structure an answer that seems like a 1000 word essay on the meaning of "terroir".  If the question is asking me to point out what winemaking steps were taken in direct response to the challenges of growing that grape in that place of origin, I can do that.  If they are asking if the wine is a result of climate as opposed to what the winemaker did, I can do that.  But... what are they asking me exactly?  I am not totally sure.  No time to complain now though... the clock is running.

Wine 10 is low alcohol, sweet, and high acid.  It's delicious, therefore Mosel riesling.  I start writing while working out in my head what they are really asking me for that 45 mark second part.  Wine 11 is super savory, oxidized and weird.  It is SO familiar but I can't put my finger on it.  It HAS to be from Italy or Spain with this much oxidation.  Think of if someone asks you who stars in a movie, and you can see them on the screen in your mind but can't come up with the name.  I know I will be furious when I miss this wine.  And I know I'm about to miss the wine.  "YOU HAVE 15 MINUTES". I move on to the next one.  It's dense, rich, sweet and oxidized like liquid figs.  We don't normally have sweet wines on the white paper.  It isn't fortified.  It tastes like PX sherry without the fortification.  I'm thinking about all the obscure sweet wines I know with this much massive sweetness and no spirit dumped in.  This isn't Rutherglen.  It's too dense to be one of those air dried malvasia.  Could this be one of those Montilla-Moriles non-fortified wines?  I've never had one, but I have read about them.  It seems like raisins so that would fit.  Non-fortified so that fits too.  "YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES". Fuck... Montilla-Moriles it is then.  What's that other one?  Dammit.  I gotta write something down.  I can't remember what I wrote, but I'll tell you this... It wasn't Lopez de Heredia Gran Reserva Blanco, something I drank at the goddamn winery a month ago.  Man, that hurts.

Wine 10:  Riesling Flussterrassen, Grans-Fassian, 2022. Mosel, Germany     

Wine 11:  Rioja Blanco Gran Reserva, López de Haro, 2014. Rioja, Spain

Wine 12:  Vin Santo del Chianti Rufina, Selvapiana, 2015. Tuscany, Italy.

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The P1 exam went pretty well all things considered.  There was only one wine that left me flummoxed. That Rioja had me sitting there knowing I had drunk this before but I couldn't remember Spain existed in the moment I guess?  The whole test moves so fast.  You can easily forget to write a note about tiny details of the production that loses points.  Maybe you don't funnel out a reasonable other option on a grape variety.  Most likely is you will make a small error on a characteristic and shoot yourself in the foot.  If you make a miscalculation on a wine's acid for example, it will lead to you dismiss whole groups of grapes.  "Medium plus acid?  Can't be pinot gris then!"  If you read a bitter lees note on the end as possibly being "flinty", you'll go the wrong way.  "That must be Sancerre!"  In the best of circumstances it's insanely hard much less stressed out of your mind in a room with a giant countdown clock.  My success will come down to the quality of my written answers, something I am not 100% confident in.  

I packed up my glasses to wash in the bathtub of the hotel room.  I went outside and ate a sandwich.  It was a 90 minute break until I had to write viticulture essays for three hours, something I'm no expert in.  The following day I would start the morning with this routine again, this time all red wines.