Monday, July 25, 2011

Class Notes: The Science, Art & Business of Wine (Class #3)

Date:  July 25, 2011

Today at the wine class, we learned the most useful thing.  How to say you like the wine, and how to say you don't like the wine without hurting so much.  :)

 

If you like the wine, and do not want to say the wrong thing... this is what you can say...

Appearance:

"It's Pleasant!"

"It's Charming!"

"It's Lively!"

Nose:

"It's Clean!"

"It's Refreshing!"

"It's Complex!"

Vino Adverbs:

"Classically!"

"Delicately!"

"Elegantly!"

Palate:

"It's well balanced!"

"It's well Developed!"

"It's Structured!"

 

If you don't like the taste of the wine, and you do not wish to offend the host, this is what you can say....

Appearence:

"A wine reflecting well its age and aging conditions."

"Standing out on its own."

"Characteristic Colored."

On The Nose:

"It is very distinctive!"

"It is very interesting!"

"It is very unique!"

Palate:

"Defining structure."

"Straight forward structure."

"Unpretentious."

Finish:

"Unexpected."

"Astonishing!"

"Unassuming!"

 

Today, we go into the French Wine.  One of the famous wine place is Bordeaux.  It is damn hard to pronounce the name.  Also, French wine is full of history, so, you need to learn them all in order not to say the wrong thing.

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AOC, VDP, VDT

Again, we touched based on the AOC, VDP, VDT system.  Now, Malcom gave a simple analogy.

AOC is usually given to a region, for example, East Coast region & Taman Jurong region.  The condo in East Coast is AOC, and the HDB can be the VDP.  So, the same goes to Taman Jurong.  So, in general, all condos are better or should be better than HDB.  But the HDB in East Coast region sometimes can be much better than the condo of the Taman Jurong region.  In this case, the VDP in East Coast is better than the AOC in Taman Jurong.

As for the 1st Growth, 2nd Growth, 3rd Growth, etc.  This is like the valuation of the unit.  So, in the same condo, you can have better facing, better floor that can fetch better valuation.

Also, you will see the Cru, Grand Cru, Premium Cru, etc.  All Cru has a AOC status.

 

Better Year for French Wines

These are some of the good years... 2000, 2001, 2005, 2009

 

Bordeaux

3 important regions... Left Bank, Right Bank and the Sweet Bank.

Left bank is more of Sauvignon Blanc, and the Right Bank is more Merlot.  And the Sweet Bank just around the Ciron river, produced lots of good sweet wine.    Now, why the sweet wine is good?  That is because to the south, you have the pine forrest, which is quite cold.  So, the river water came from the south joined into Garonne River which is warm.  So, when the cold water meets the warm water, it creates a lot of mist.  And these mist start to rot the grapes.  And this is what they so called "Golden Rot".  I see...

In Bordeaux, most wines are blended wine.  Why blended?  This is to add more complexity.  Feel of the wine come to you continuosly.  It makes the wine more appealing.  For example, the front palate, you can have carbenet, and the middle palate, you can have merlot, and the back balate, you can have carbenet sauvignon.

 

- Wow... today class is overwelming.  There are a lot of information about French wine that has been covered.  I think I need a lot time to chew on it.

- Again, we had 8 bottles of wine tasting today.

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- Today we paired with Spicy food.  The blue wine - Chateau Vendome, brings out the spicy taste on my tongue.  I must say is a very unique feeling.

- I don't like the Chateau De La Gravelle's Muscadet.  It is a bit dry.  This wine is best pairing with Grill Seafood, etc.

- The Chateau Lafitte (Not Lafite)... is one of the worst wine I have tasted so far in the last 3 classes.

- The Haut - Medoc is quite pleasant!

- Today, we also learn the Vines, Vinyard Management.  Now, I know why the wine always has < 18% alc.  That is because Yeast cannot survive > 18% alcohol condition.

- Small grapes make good wine.  And I am surprise to see there is such a simple formula to explain it.

- Today's spicy food includes Mee Siam (dry), black pepper chicken, and fried wonton.

OK... Friday, I going to join the lecturer and some of my friends for wine tasting at Vintri @ Singapore.  It's going to be fun!

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