Who's Up For A P2 Mock Exam?

 

I assembled a large bunch of half bottles and a good 40 wines under coravin to make a mock exam to do on a Blind Wine Wednesday.  It’s not a fair test because it’s sort of a single blind for me.  I know at least what’s in the realm of possibility.  I placed all the wines in an area downstairs and what I decided to do was backwards engineer.  I wrote the questions first based on some of the programs “greatest hits” like origin, grape identity, market position, quality level, etc.  Then I had Melissa put together some wines that would fit the question hoping I wouldn’t just run through in my head what I had bought in the last year.  Look, it’s not perfect but it’s better than not training at all.

With a couple of The Wine Lads out of town, it came down to Hardy, Wes and I on a Wednesday, which was sort of ideal since I had so many halves.  It’s a tough situation for those guys as they just want to do the IDs and walk away, and frankly I’m not that excited to write extended notes on the market position of a sort of unremarkable red wine either, but the task is the task.  I had the wines poured into small bottles and numbered them with stickers 1-12, put them in a box, and got my glasses together.

One of the big challenges of the exam is the timing.  You’ve got to keep moving but at the same time, you can’t just rush through it all because you’re going to get destroyed.  After you sit enough of these mocks, you start to get a feel for a good pace, a silent clock running in your head.  I do plenty of timed three and four wine flights, and that helps.  Still, the bonafide 12 wine test is a different beast because of palate fatigue.  Of the three exams, I find the red wine one (or “P2” in MW program speak) the most difficult.  Because you need to move quickly on the wines, I have a lot of difficulty on tannins carrying over from wine to wine.  I can’t tell you how many times I have misread tannins thinking something falls squarely into the “tannic as fuck” category only to taste it after I turn my paper in to discover it’s not that tannic at all.  I think I have called a soft fruity Beaujolais “a grippy Cornas” in a public setting, which isn’t great.  There’s nothing like having Peter Marks MW nodding at you with a somewhat quizzical look trying to be supportive going, “OK… OK… maybe misread the tannins a bit there, but… OK”. 

I’ll take you through my mindset as honestly as I can.  Some of these coravin wines didn’t hold quite as long as I would have hoped, they had oxidation either creeping in or asserting itself loudly.  Still, I had had them in the past, so that gave me a huge advantage over the world of MW exams and their Elgin chardonnay and Aussie Nebbiolo.  OK, so let’s go… 

Question 1.  Wines 1 and 2 are from the same region but from a different single grape.  Wines 3 and 4 are made from a blend of those two grapes are from a different single region.  Identify the grape(s) and point of origin as closely as possible.  Note market position and quality level.

Going into this I am thinking it’s probably going to be a Bordeaux blend or a GSM.  There aren’t that many relevant grapes that fit this profile of being worth making on their own as well as being in blends internationally.  In theory, we could be looking at syrah with something weird like cabernet, some Sangiovese thing, or maybe Carignan/grenache but that one is too stupid to even worry about.  I nose the first two wines, and they smell like oak, red/black fruit like blackberries, raspberries, and currant.  One of them has more black fruit to it and some leather.  Wine 1 has softer tannins, more juicy rounded fruit and Wine 2 has some serious grip in the tannins.  They are both fruit led, so I’m thinking New World merlot/cabernet here.  They are clean but don’t seem like they got made in a science lab so I’m out on Australia.  There isn’t enough funk for South Africa.  I’m also not getting pyrazines so it’s from somewhere warm.  Alcohol is 14% on these give or take.  I know I have plenty of Napa half bottles, so I cheat.  These are Napa.  The one with the softer tannins must be the merlot.  That second wine is really structured so that’s the cabernet sauvignon.  They’re good but not exceptional.  These are $50 price tier wines.

Wines 3 and 4 smell like Bordeaux, that old library/ headmaster’s office/ tobacco secondary aroma.  They are both tannic as shit too.  Wine 4 is very savory and leathery.  The tannins are verging on rustic.  The fruit is black like blackberries that didn’t get quite as ripe as you’d like but are still somehow overripe at the same time.  I think this is a wine from either Pauillac or St Estephe in Bordeaux because of a graphite note on the finish.  The clunky tannins feel St Estephe to me as I’d expect Pauillac to be more powerful and grandiose.  That means I am going to go Right Bank on the other one.  I don’t like this fourth wine as much as wine 3.  It seems younger and lacks the complexity of wine 4.  This fruit is sort of red plum and black cherry and there’s plenty of French oak here.  It’s a tough call to place.  It could be a St Emilion from a middling producer.  It could also be an aspirational wine from someplace like Lussac that’s just out of the good side of town but maybe owned by someone with deep pockets that can throw new oak on it to make it fancier.  I am going St Emilion on this.  If it was a Right Bank lesser neighborhood it would be a little more simple than this, and probably taste more tobacco/earth.  

Wine 1:  I call Napa merlot.  (It turns out to be Clos du Val cabernet sauvignon, Napa Valley)

Wine 2:  I call Napa cabernet.  (It’s a Hall Merlot, Napa Valley 2017)

Wine 3:  I call St Emilion.  (It’s a Chateau Laroque St Emilion 2015)

Wine 4:  I call St Estephe (It’s a Chateau Le Bosco 2021)   

Question 2:  Wines 5-7.  These three wines are from the same country and different regions.  They are all made with different grape(s).  Identify the origin and grapes.  Discuss relevant winemaking.

These are lighter colored wines than the last set with wine 6 being especially light ruby.  That’s a thin skinned grape, so already I’m thinking that one is probably the key to making the identification.  The main suspects on a think skinned grape are pinot noir, grenache, and Nebbiolo with Sangiovese a possibility.  Sure, it could be something weird like Pais or Cinsault, but I’ll worry about that later.  I nose wine 6 and I’m getting some cherry but it’s pretty quiet overall.  The structure is high acid and absolutely ripping tannins.  That makes it most likely to be Italian.  It’s a light bodied wine, so I am thinking Nebbiolo on this all the way.  With this much structure it is either Barolo or Barbaresco.  It could still be a tannic pinot, but that would be an outlier.  Sangiovese gets like this sometimes.  I’m thinking about some of those Felsina I have had lately.  Trying to keep an open mind on this wine but it’s screaming Nebbiolo.  There is so much grip and it doesn’t have that dusty feel of Sangiovese tannins.

Wine 5 smells like dried red fruit.  It’s oxidized with a rusty rim.  It seems intentional, not like this is a shitty bottle with a bad closure, but who knows?  The acid is elevated but it’s nothing like that last wine.  Tannins have grip and a dusty quality.  This is likely a Brunello as it is fairly powerful and the extended oak aging is showing in the dried fruit character.  I feel pretty good about this identification too.  That leaves wine 7 as the wild card.

Wine 7 smells boozy.  The alcohol is evident on the nose with a raisin/baked nose.  It’s full bodied, rich, and has a combination of baked black fruit, black cherries, and dried fruit.  High alcohol, above 15%.  If I got this wine as a stand alone I might strongly consider Zin, which is the first thing I think of, but all these wines are Old World.  They’re all very savory.  When I think something is zinfandel, it’s usually Amarone.  Medium acid and medium tannin check out.  I don’t drink a lot of Amarone, but the textbook markers fill the boxes.  I’m going Amarone, though I don’t remember ever buying a half bottle of Amarone.  The other two wines are Italian for sure, so if this isn’t Amarone it’s a big ass primativo but there’s just too much ABV and dried fruit character pointing to Ripasso action on this.  Amarone is the final call.

Wine 5:  I call Brunello.  (It’s a 2015 Camiglaino Brunello di Montalcino)

Wine 6:  I call Barolo.  (It’s a 2019 Massolino Serralunga Barolo)

Wine 7:  I call Amarone.  (It’s a 2019 Allegrini Amarone Classico)

Question 3:  Wines 8-12 are all from different countries made from different single grapes.  Identify origin, grape, and quality in context of region.

This is a classic bastard of an MW exam question.  Your problem here is if you misidentify one of them, this can start a tragic chain reaction of incorrect answers.  (see my P2 2025 exam attempt for an example of this mistake).  Each wine is a stand alone, so in theory if you aren’t sure when you have two low tannin pale wines, you could call pinot noir on both hoping to hedge out on points.  The problem is that there is an unwritten rule that the examiners “don’t like that”.  You are better off just going for it and either getting the glory or flaming out in spectacular fashion (much like I did last year).  

Wine 8 is really dark.  There is a violet aspect to it but not like malbec.  Not especially aromatic.  The palate starts out with this burst of earthy black fruit and then the bottom totally drops off a cliff.  There are no tannins to speak of.  These wines are from my sea of coravin bottles.  If I hadn’t tried this wine a few weeks ago, there is no way in hell I would ever get it, but I did.  This is a Lagrein.  It was such an odd wine I really remember it.  It’s like the first part of the wine says “I’m from somewhere in Europe where it gets hot!” and then the last two thirds say “but that summer is pretty short Bro”.  I am positive this is that Lagrein from Alto Adige.  I feel bad for the other two guys.  They have no chance at this.

Wine 9.  The wine friggen smells fruity.  This is screaming “Australia or California!” from the get-go.  It’s dark with a violet range of color.  I’m thinking malbec or syrah here.  The wine style is very clean with that “made in a sterile laboratory” vibe that so many big volume Australian wines have.  The tannins aren’t overwhelming and they don’t drive through like a Bordeaux variety like malbec.  I get a distinct mocha/coffee secondary flavor that points me to New World syrah.  Medium acid that is perfectly balanced with precision.  No funk on this wine at all.  There is oak but it’s not outrageous like a premium malbec would hit you over the head with.  I’m going shiraz here.  It’s not yelling a particular place so I guess I’ll take it to Barossa since it’s so classic.  This could be from a bunch of places in Australia depending on when they picked it.  

Wine 10:  This is extremely light color, very pale.  It tastes like a refreshing little bowl of berries like you would get on top of an outrageously priced dessert.  It’s sort of like Beaujolais but the body is too light and it lacks that earthiness that a decent Bojo has for secondary flavor.  Maybe it’s Fleurie but it doesn’t have that wild ferment/low intervention winemaking style I’d expect.  It could maybe be a pinot noir from somewhere with a climate that gets heat but has a big temp swing at night.  It just doesn’t have enough complexity to be a Marlborough pinot noir though.  If this was pinot, it missed a lot of what you’d expect in the bottle.  Fuck.  I’ll go back to this.

Wine 11:  This wine has seen better days.  It’s oxidized so it’s spent too much time in that coravin.  It’s weird.  It’s got some VA, is a little funky, but the tannins are medium minus and unremarkable.  It seems like this fruit was ripe and sorta juicy once upon a time.  This is some sort of wine that has seen better days.  It’s sort of a waste that this one was used since it’s so degraded.  I’m thinking maybe Barbera?  The emerging VA checks out with Italy.  It’s got a pinch in the fruit that is tart.  I’m not really sure but Barbera is defendable.  It’s not a noble grape, I’m pretty sure of that.  I have to keep moving.  Barbera it is.

Wine 12:  The wine is moderate ruby color and it also smells a little oxidized.  This has also been under gas too long.  The fruit has that barely ripe quality I think of from European locations that struggle with getting reds to ripeness.  It’s sort of leafy too.  Cranberries, strawberry greens, raspberry.  Now, I have a long checkered history when not knowing what a red wine is in calling it blaufrankisch.  That or sciava.  I don’t know why I think that if I don’t know what something is that I can make an accurate guess by calling something that I don’t really know, but that’s been my history.  I think that when under pressure I’ve already removed all the options that I know it’s not, so I fill in the blank with something that it theoretically could be.  That’s like if you were playing name that tune and you heard a techno song so you just blurt out “Moby!” because that’s the only artist you’ve heard of that is even close to the genre and maybe, just maybe, you’ll be right.  This time I think I know.  I’ve been training on blaufrankisch for a bit now.  This is a blaufrankisch.

That leaves going back to Wine 10.  OK… It could be pinot but I don’t think so.  It could be Beaujolais, but again, I don’t think so.  Shit!  I know what this could be!  Pais!  I got burned on a pais in this exact scenario a couple years ago.  I bet that wine 10 is a pais.  Fuck yeah.  I feel good about that call.  I might have a pais downstairs.  That’s something I would have purchased since I missed it in the past.  Wine 10=pais from Leyda Chile since I don’t know who else makes it and it feels squeaky clean.  

Wine 8:  I call Alto Adige Lagrein.  (it’s a Elena Walch Lagrein Alto Adige 2023)

Wine 9:  I call Barossa Shiraz. (it’s a Penfold’s Bin 28 shiraz 2020 South Australia)

Wine 10:  I call Chilean Cinsault, Leyda.  (it’s Erlegos Cinsault Clements Hill Lodi 2021… Where the hell did I get that?)

Wine 11:  I call Barbera, d’Alba Piedmont (It’s Sydney Back Pinotage South Africa 2021)

Wine 12:  I call Blaufrankisch Osterreich Austria (It’s Meinklang Blaufrankisch, Osterreich Austria 2020) 

This was a good result.  It doesn’t mean anything, but at least it wasn’t bad.  I feel like I am ascending at the right time.  This exam is like training for a marathon where you want to avoid being one of those burned out Asian students that push themselves for 364 days so hard that they burn out.  You have to be on the upswing and confident when you roll into that ballroom.  I like where I’m at right now.  I can’t tell you how much more prepared I am to take this test in 2026 than I was in 2025.  I know some shit now.  Probably not enough, but I’m getting in the ring with a puncher’s chance.  

I go to “course days” next week.  Those are three days of mock exams the IMW puts on to give candidates a final test drive before exam day(s).  I’m looking forward to see what they put on the test and what type of questions are asked.  I’ll know where I’m at after taking those three.  I’ll bring you all up to speed after that dust settles.  Until then, I soldier on.