Diploma tasting group - what the wine is NOT

At my first meeting of the tasting group we tasted four wines all from the same varietal. Our tutor tasted the first with us to ensure we were all making similar assessments about colour, acidity, aroma and taste intensities and then left us to it with the next three blind wines, all from the same variety.

There were some interesting conclusions from us students which helped illustrate the main point being made which is in assessing the grape variety it's as important to work out what it is NOT as a means of getting to what it IS. Two of us thought it was Riesling, one Semillon and 1 Chenin Blanc.

Two of the wines had a touch of wood and reasonable acidity and the third was sweet. It therefore couldn't have been Chardonnay or Sauvignon given the sweetness of the third. Although that left Semillon as a possibility the middle wine was quite austere and so not at all Semillon like. Given the wood it also would not have been Riesling. It didn't have the aromas of a Gewurztraminer. Given the acidity levels with a touch of apple in the aromas it's easy (and with hindsight of course) to conclude that it was Chenin as it's a grape capable of the range of styles we encountered - austere (the second was a Savennieres), wooded and ranging from dry to sweet.

A VERY helpful first lesson.