Halloween P2 Mock Exam

 

Yoann "came in hot" this morning landing at 4:52AM.  I had no idea that airplanes landed at CLE at 4:52A, but I got up at 4:30A to go get him at the airport.  When he told me he was getting here at 5am, I thought for sure that he was fucking with me, but there he is, a French guy typing into a laptop that's perched on a garbage can at Gate 6 at the Arrivals deck.  The plan is to do a mock exam today, something that leans heavily into classics and not worry about Australian nebbiolo and mexican petite sirah (which have been on two flights provided by the MW during course days, but whattya gonna do?).  

Yoann passed theory last year, so he "only" has to pass tasting this time to get over the top.  He's moving to Santiago, Chile so it's going to get very challenging for him to be able to source the wines for exam study.  He will, however, be very well versed in Chilean cabernet and likely be able to write at length about regional typicity of Pais, which is a super power no one needs.  We had Wes put the flight together, so I was reasonably sure he wasn't going to load us down with a bunch of curveballs, but would toss a couple in to keep us honest.  (He did).  Here's how I approached these wines.  I'm not typing out extensive tasting notes, so if you're reading this thinking "why did that idiot not consider "X", it's because there weren't enough characteristics to warrant that potential answer OR I'm just kinda stupid.  Give me a break.  I'm trying my best over here.  If I note another wine region other than my answer, I likely funneled it in the written answer.  It was a mock P2 exam which means all red wines.  It's two hours and 15 minutes to identify and answer the following questions while "tasting like a detective but proving like a lawyer".  Clock started, so let's go...

Question 1

Wines 1-3 are made from the same grape but come from different countries.  Identify the grape and origin as closely as possible.  Discuss quality level and consumer position.

These three wines are pale ruby in the glass.  I can see through wine 1 easily, and wines 2/3 aren't much darker.  Wine 1 is a delicate little bowl of berries on the nose with wines 2/3 having more savory earth and some oak influence.  Wines 3 has A LOT of new oak on the nose, like someone just opened a cedar closet.  On the palate wine 1 is very delicate with low soft tannins.  The fruit is tart and the alcohol is low, like around 12.5%.  If I wasn't thinking pinot noir before, I sure am now.  Wine 2 is a bit more focused with the same sort of fruit delicacy but is more aspirational in nature with well integrated oak.  OK, this is pinot noir for sure.  I am having a hard time figuring out of this cool climate pinot is fruity enough to be Coastal Cali or is it a lesser Burgundy Village wine.  That first one feels German for sure, and I'm guessing Mosel because of the alcohol level and fruit character.  The other two are very difficult.  

I move onto the third one and the oak is sitting so far on top of this wine it is distracting.  This is someone that is trying to charge more money than they should for some pinot by dropping it into a bunch of new oak barrels.  The wood is so overt I am having a hard time figuring out if the wine is New World covered by oak, or is it sort of savory Old World fruit like a low rent Burgundy.  Fuck, this is razor thin.  The wines are all about $40, even the lower quality third one.  It's pinot so the market will support it.  I gotta move.  Clock is ticking.  I call it like this...   

My Call:

Wine 1 Mosel Pinot Noir $40 retail

Wine 2. Santa Rita Hills CA due to the delicate cheerful fruit leading the wine at $40

Wine 3. Bourgogne regional bottling at $35.  It's not very complex but they had enough money at the winery to toss the oak on it.

Actual Wines:

Wine 1:  Meyer-Nakel Pinot Noir, Ahr Germany 2022. 

Wine 2:  Domaine Louis Boillot & Fils Beaune "Les Epenotes" 2022

Wine 3:  Melville Santa Rita Hills CA Estate Pinot Noir 2023

Question 2

Wines 4-6 come from different places but from the same grape variety(s).  Identify the origin as closely as possible and the grape(s).  Discuss quality levels.

These wines are darker in the glass than the last three.  They sort of all have a violet rim of differing levels of brilliance.  Wine 4 has a slight stable note on the nose and is a combination of red/black fruit.  It's not terribly aromatic.  It's sort of an anonymous "red wine".  The tannins are fairly grippy.  There is sort of a little coffee mocha thing there.  Hmmm.  This could be Syrah.  The second wine of the set is very fruity, with tart happy fruit that is clean as a whistle.  It's almost reductive with the fruit crunchy in the glass.  It's from somewhere that gets cool that makes their wine clean.  There is no way this is syrah unless it's some reactionary Aussie bottling.  I'm thinking maybe cabernet franc now, but where is are the herbal pyrazines?  Cab franc always smells like Marlboro cigarettes gold foil to me, and I'm not getting that.  Wine #6 is all brett, all the time.  I mean it smells like cleaning out a stable of horseshit with a sweaty horse standing next to you judgementally while you do it.  This is for sure either Northern Rhone or Loire.  It can't be anything else with that much brett and tannin.  I now have to decide what wine 4/5 could be.  OK, the question says "places" not "countries' so maybe we have two from France.  That would explain the slight brett note in wine 4.  Of course, that could still be two French syrah and a shiraz.  I dunno...  there's not enough black fruit in these.  The body isn't rich enough either plus the tannins are wrong for syrah.  I'm going Bordeaux for wine 4 with the grippy tannins, something rustic like Fronsac.  This fucker is savory wine.  Wine 5 is New World but where?  It's too crunchy for Argentina.  How about New Zealand?  Could this be Finger Lakes?  It is so technically clean.  Definitely cool climate.  How about Hawke's Bay?  That gives me technical winemaking, cool climate and a place where they grow Bordeaux varieties.  The last one is Loire for sure.  I'll go Chinon since it feels like a bretty Baudry.

My call:

Wine 4:  Fronsac, Bordeaux. $20 cab franc with merlot in the blend

Wine 5:  Hawkes Bay NZ, $30

Wine 6:  Chinon, Loire FR $35    

Actual wines:

Wine 4:  Calcu Gran Reserva Cab Franc Colchagua Valley, Chile

Wine 5:  Boundary Breaks Cabernet Franc, Finger Lakes NY

Wine 6:  Amirault "Les Quarterons", Saint Nicolas de Bourgeil Loire FR

Question 3

Wines 7-9 all come from the same country.  Identify the country and name the grape variety for each wine.  Discuss quality in regards to context of origin.

The middle wine of this flight is very light color, pale.  After I smell the rich syrupy wine 7, I am instantly in Italy.  This is the first flight where I am unshakably confident. "I'm in Italy here". I have to make sure not to make a stupid mistake by rushing through it.  I taste wine 7 and it's menthol cherry cough drop with residual sugar and lotsa booze.  This is amarone.  It can't be anything else with that hint of VA on the nose.  It's a good version too.  A lot of amarone is shit, but this is made in a classic style.  The very pale wine in glass 8 rips my face off with acid and tannin.  Yeah, this has gotta be nebbiolo.  It's sort of delicate with a cherry primary fruit nose and it's so pale.  Gotta be nebbiolo.  Barolo would be more structured.  Maybe it's Barbaresco.  I got this.  The last one MUST be a sangiovese.  Cherry fruit, dusty tannins, darker than the last wine and not as acidic.  Yep.  Let's go Chianti Classico Reserva here as Brunello would be more oxidized.  This is the first note I write and I'm feeling good that "yeah, I got this".  

My call:

Wine 7 Amarone, Veneto IT  corvina/rondinella

Wine 8. Barbaresco Piedmont IT nebbiolo

Wine 9. Chianti Classico Reserva, Tuscany IT sangiovese   

Actual wines:

Wine 7: Bussola Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2019

Wine 8:  Agostino Pieri Rosso di Montalcino 2023

Wine 9:  Trediberri Berri Barolo 2021

That one hurt when I saw it.  I can't believe I flip flopped the sangio and the nebbiolo, but it's tough when the sangiovese is that pale vibing those kind of tannins.  I look forward to trying those two side by side later down the road.

Question 4

Wines 10-12 all come from the same country.  Name the country and the places or origin/grapes of all three wines.  Discuss market position.

I dive into wine #10 and I have no fucking idea what this is.  It's medium everything with ripe tannins and a violet rim.  There is a leafy tobacco thing on the finish.  I have no clue what this is.  I'll have to go back to it.  The next wine is very pale, as pale as wine #8.  It smells like strawberry candy.  The tannins are grippy but they sorta hit everywhere at once.  I KNOW the last three were Italy, and this ain't pinot so it must be grenache.  That doesn't help much as grenache is grown all over the place.  Thank God I get to wine #12 and smell coconut like a Mounds Bar.  This is Rioja.  It has to be.  This is a rather "generous" amount of American oak on this wine.  That puts wine #11 in as one of those grenache that comes from elevation.  So what is wine #10?  It's probably Mencia.  It's pretty fruity though.  What else is in Spain besides mencia?  Carignan?  Could this be a carignan blend with Grenache?  It's fruity as shit.  Does mencia give a violet rim?  Shit, I don't know.  I should probably go mencia on this but I think I'm going to hedge it as a carignan/grenache blend because it's so ripe.  It hits me that I really have no rock solid intel on what the climate is in Bierzo.  Hmmm.  I better look that up later.    

My call

Wine 10:  Carignan/grenache blend from Priorat or maybe Mencia

Wine 11:  Grenache from Serra del Gredos, made by hippies with beards 

Wine 12:  Rioja Gran Reserva, high quality

Actual wines:

Wine 10:  Corullon Vino de Villa, Mencia, 2022 Bierzo Spain

Wine 11:  Bernabeleva, Garnacha de Vina Bonita 2022

Wine 12:  Ramirez de la Piscina Reserva 2018, Rioja Spain 

This is my first mock exam in a long, long while.  I was happy with my timing and overall reading of the wines.  I did not miss many structural markers.  I underestimated the alcohol and RS in the amarone, which was bad.  The flip flop of nebbiolo and sangio was bad especially after I tried them again.  Since I figured the paler of the two was likely the nebbiolo I tried that last.  I let the tannins carry on wine to wine and attributed the structure of the real nebbiolo to the sangiovese.  I did funnel the right answers on the ones I missed except for that Chilean Cab Franc, so I'm seeing the ball pretty well right now.  

The question remains, are my written answers good enough and more importantly, can I do this three days in a row?  My identifications aren't horrible given the continued international style of winemaking seeping into every corner of the planet.  Still, I need to do better than just 5/12 being absolutely correct and 4/7 being "yeah that is a justifiable answer".  I feel like my writing style under the gun will seem too conversational, and they'll clip me for that.  I need to get to a higher ratio of 100% correct wines.  Still, with P2 being my biggest challenge, I feel pretty good about my result today.  

The slog continues.