Congratulations!

A quick “congratulations” to David of the Secret Cellar for passing Unit 3 and to Jenny who has now finished and passed the Diploma. How I envy them. The more I think about the Unit 3 exam the more I feel ill prepared. I feel I know and understand a lot given how much reading, researching and tasting I do. I just wish I could recall it when needed.

I'm shortly off to Greece for a week's holiday. A friend has just returned saying she has had the worst weather ever during her holiday. I think I'll go prepared for staying indoors with lots of reading and a few sample Unit 3 question papers to while away the hours waiting for the sun to come out!

D'Or to manual

Earlier in the week I attended an excellent tasting at Berry Bros and Rudd, London's oldest wine merchant. Entitled "D'Or to manual" the title referred to the fact that manual activities are widespread amongst the many smaller Bugundy producers.

We tasted 15 wines – 6 white and 9 reds ranging from inexpensive Beaunes at £9 through to top end Chassagne Montrachet at £40 per bottle. I won't give the complete list but the highlights for me were a 2005 St Aubin, a 2003 Puligny Montrachet, a 2002 Pommard and a 2002 Morey St Denis.

So what did I learn to help me in my Diploma?

* it's a complicated area with many appellations where the name of the producer is key to finding a wine that won't disappoint.
* considering all the reds are pinot noir you wouldn't think so when comparing the hugely contrasting colours, aromas and how it tastes on the palate.
* there are a huge variety of soil types that have an impact on the finished wine. You only have to read Serena Sutcliffe's Wines of Burgundy to have that confirmed with much reference to Argovian limestone, marl, Bajocian limestone, clay, sand, pebbles, silt, scree - the list goes on. I'm sure the WSET will not expect us to recall the major soil types for each appellation.

I'm glad I went. I'll also be seeking out bottles of St Aubin and Pernand-Vergelesses, described as the "up and coming" white appellations so less expensive than the other better known ones. The same also seems to apply to Morey St Denis for reds.

Spanish wine and sinking ships

What has a sinking ship got to do with Spanish wine I here you ask? Nothing, except I had been reading John Radford's new book on the way into work when I came across this ship next to my office in Canary Wharf in London. It's not a Spanish galleon full of old bottles of wine but an “art installation” according to the local paper. No, I don't get it either.

John Radford's new book is an excellent combination of the foods and wines of Spain. Entilted Cook Espana, Drink Espana it has been written with a chef Mario Sandoval. The wine section is organised by region to match the foods of the region. It lacks detail about viticulture, vinification, soils and so on so in that respect won't help with my Diploma. Where it is of enormous help however is how it talks about which are the up and coming regions and which grapes grow best where. It also gives key bodegas in each region or DO which again will help with the Diploma when it's appropriate to mention a particular producer.

The food section looks wonderful with lots of interesting sounding recipes and pictures. Fancy “21st century chocolate breadcrumbs” which is a "chocolate flavoured nutty crumble providing a crunchy contrast to creamy frozen yogurt and frothy white chocolate”? I certainly do along with a glass of moscatel.

Wine competition results

There has been lots recently about the 2008 competitions run by Decanter and the IWC. Given I've decided my next and final Diploma unit 1 essay will be about wine competitions I'm looking carefully at how the results are portrayed.

Sunday's Observer Food Monthly has 2 pages on "cheap but not plonk - Drink for under £10" which gives the medal winners from the DWWA available from the high street.

Tim Atkin's in Sunday's Observer magazine goes over the wines from M&S in an article entitled "Top Marks". Marks and Spencer won supermarket of the year award from both the IWC and the DWWA.

It's interesting analysing how the DWWA and IWC are promoting their results. Decanter has the advantage of having a magazine fairly easily available in the high street (M&S even now sells it in selected stores). It also has a name more readily known than Wine & Spirit magazine, published by William Reed the company behind the IWC. With "Spirit" in the title and less widespread availability than Decanter, its high street appeal is less. However the IWC has Tim Atkin who writes for a number of publications and is one of the co-chairmen of the IWC. The competition whose results don't seem to get as much visibility is the IWSC. I'm not sure why that is.

The title of the essay I'll be writing is Glittering Prizes or Fool’s Gold? – How useful are wine competitions? I see from an entry over at Jancis Robinson's site another candidate is preparing their essay and asking questions about competitions. I'll probably do something similar as we have to contrast and compare competitions in both hemispheres and I know nothing about Southern Hemisphere competitions.

I'm going to attempt to show no bias. As a helper at the IWC over the last 2 years and a judge at the IWSC I'll own up to my personal involvement. I don't feel the competitions offer either "glittering prizes or fool's gold" but given the kind of features over the weekend in the Observer, these wines are bound to see a positive impact on sales. Are they good wines? Well, having had experience of the judging I would say "yes" they are. Some may be commercial but that doesn't make them "bad" wines.

More Diploma unit 3 essay feedback

64%. That's the mark I got for my last essay submitted as part of the distance learning Unit 3 programme. The essay subject was:

Explain why retail prices for New Zealand wines are high. Despite this, how has the NZ wine industry expanded its markets?"

Although assessed as being a comprehensive answer which covered all the main points, I should have covered how some of the wines have become cheaper over time thereby bringing down the average price. Although I emphasised how consistent the wines are and this alone helps justify a higher price, I should also have covered the problems of pests, diseases and birds and the problems faced by producers in a marginal climate.

There is a definite pattern to the feedback I'm getting on these essays. This is that whatever the subject I need to ensure I cover all the subject headings given in the Diploma specification - location, climate, soils, grape varieties, viticulture, vinification, maturation, vintage variations, trade/legal structures and markets. Despite some of the links seeming a bit tenuous between the essay topic and these subject headings it seems you can't go wrong if you cover all the headings.

The next essay due in by Tuesday of next week has as its subject:

"If I hear anybody order another bottle of Merlot I'm walking out (from the movie Sideways). Does Merlot only appeal to the mass market or can it achieve greatness? Discuss"

I haven't given any thought to this yet but the following immediately springs to mind - Merlot as a blend in Bordeaux, the importance of Merlot to Pomerol, the use of it in the New World by high quality producers. I suppose the mass market bit needs to address varietal labelling, for example in France and the importance of Merlot to New World countries such as Chile. Its flexibility of style is something else to explore I suppose.

The essays certainly make me think AND spend a lot of time in my books and on the net exploring.

Tasting DWWA competition winners

There's an interesting offer in this month's Decanter. Buy a tasting card for £10 and get 10 samples of wines that have won trophies at the Decanter World Wine Awards. If the wines retail for over £20 then you get 5 samples but if you buy the tasting card before September 30th then you get a further 5 samples to taste. That works out if my maths is right about 66p per sample. The wines are at Selfridges in their Enomatic dispenser and are available from 10 to 17 October. With wines from such luminaries as Bernard Magrez, Craggy Range, Rustenberg and Vasse Felix it looks as though all countries are covered.

This is a good reminder for me that I still have about £20 loaded on my card from The Sampler. I really must go up there with my notebook and taste my way through all 10 chardonnays or sauvignons or whatever they have in one of their several Enomatics. It's a great way to compare and contrast grape varieties from different regions and terroirs.

My local wine merchant The Secret Cellar are also thinking of getting an Enomatic last time I spoke with Mike the owner. I see that this year they have been highly commended in the South East Regional specialist of the year at the IWC 2008. Last year they were winners of the Small Independent Merchant of the Year at the IWC 2007.

Cortes de Cima

I was delighted to see on the blog of
Cortes de Cima that they won two IWC 2008 trophies - the Portuguese Red and Alentejo trophies - for their Touriga Nacional. Their blog entry said they were too busy with the harvest to attend the Park Lane dinner last week. I have always liked the Chamine which you can buy in Oddbins and Majestic and, although I haven't tried the Syrah, it's available in Waitrose.

Having worked behind the scenes at the IWC again this year, I suppose I could have tasted the 2005 but with hundreds and hundreds of wines to process every day it is hard to keep track even in the second week when the numbers reduce and the whole judging process slows down.

Cortes de Cima say their Touriga Nacional will be available in the UK at some point but in limited numbers.

London tastings and events

I'm back working in London and I'm pleased as it will help my WSET Diploma studies.

I can go to any of the WSET's evening tastings. I can even go to the WSET's library on the evening it is open late. I can attend trade tastings such as those for Chile and Argentina coming up in the next few weeks. I can join a tasting study group I know about which I think is re-starting again this month. I can attend other events such as London based Wine Society tastings. None of this was possible when I was working in Brighton.

Why the picture of the O2 arena? This is the picture from my office as I'm at Canary Wharf so not far from Waitrose's excellent wine shop.

And I'll be at the O2 on Friday to see Stevie Wonder in concert - I can't wait.

Studying Australian wine

I've been studying Australian wine over the last couple of weeks. In a bid to look beyond my usual sources - the Diploma study notes, the Oxford Companion to Wine and the World Atlas of Wine - I logged onto my local library and searched their catalogue. I didn't expect to find anything especially up to date but was pleased to be able to get hold of James Halliday's Wines of Australia (2003 edition) and Oz Clarke's Wine Atlas.

James Halliday's book is categorised by zone and most of the major regions with useful if brief summaries of the history, major varieties grown and sometimes something on soils or climate. The list of wineries however is a useful pointer to who is important in each zone so which names it might be useful to drop in to any question or essay.

Oz Clarke's atlas, as it's the 2007 version, was more useful with 25 pages on Australia compared to 14 with Jancis Robinson/Hugh Johnson's 2001 version (I must get the latest one). Each zone and major region has a good summary of which grapes are important, climate, soil and aspect. I am more of a fan of the World Atlas of Wine's maps however. They have much more detail showing specific and exact delineations for vineyards as well as elevations. Although Oz Clark's Atlas gives you a feel for the area the other one has the detail which the WSET is so focused on.

Other sources of info I'll be using will include Wine Australia's very comprehensive site which even has a section for students. I don't know what level it's pitched at but I'll soon find out. I'm also considering attending the seminars at the WSET on Australian varietals now that I'm back working in London.