I wondered, back in December, if certain kinds of tasting notes were soulless. I want to return to this point, and take it in a slightly different direction. I want to think about the ways in which tasting notes can be unduly restrictive.One of the starting points for this is further reflection on the WSET fortified wines exam I sat about a month ago, and in particular, one of the wines, an Oloroso sherry. The other starting point is...
Read More
Earlier this week, I sat in a hall in the rather decrepit-feeling Royal National Hotel in London to take the WSET Diploma Unit 6 (Fortified Wines) exam. There were somewhere between 130-140 of us, all Diploma students. Did I pass? I don’t know. It will take 3-4 months to find out. I correctly identified two out of the three wines (an Oloroso and a Rutherglen Muscat) but in the tasting section, correct identification is only about 10...
Read More
I’ve written about orange wine before (See here). This is about a different aspect of it – orange wine and expectations. Over the course of doing various wine tastings, I’ve noticed something that intrigues me. Not only does orange wine not follow ‘the rules’ in how it is made, it also doesn’t really follow them in terms of how people react to it. By this, I mean that, as a general rule, people tend to prefer what they know. So you’d...
Read MoreYes, that’s one of the things I’m writing about now. Or will be shortly. I had meant yesterday to post a short note saying ‘Sorry for the silence – been busy with grant applications, writing new lectures and so forth. I still am, but last new lecture is written, and the current grant I’m working on is due tomorrow. So hopefully I have more time in the coming weeks to devote to this blog. I have several ideas I’ve been wanting to write...
Read MoreAfter a longer-than-planned winter break, I’m back to blogging. Earlier this week, I had the pleasant of an all-too-brief visit to Plumpton College, in Sussex. For those not familiar with it, Plumpton is the one place in the UK that offers degrees in wine business and production. The College more generally does various agricultural and ‘land-based’ courses (as their website puts it.) Alas, I did not get to see the kangaroos.At any...
Read More