A couple weekends back I decided to get back into the classroom and sign up for a wine sensory masterclass. I was anxious and interested in learning more about how wine connects with our senses.
When studying my sommelier certification the past few years, I had really struggled with blind tasting and finding clues to decide on the wine varietals. I would also struggle with the amount of information that you need to retain and recall when thinking about places and appellations in the world. Getting your sommelier certification or any serious wine certification is a struggle and you have to be committed to the struggle.
In Toronto, I would practice tasting with a group and we would comment on what we thought the wine could be and why. Now that I have moved to a different city, I have been missing my tasting group and learning about wine.
It felt very normal to be in a classroom again with people that you have never met previously to that. It was great to be around people who have the same interest and appreciation for wine as you do. You can go on talking about a specific characteristic and people will just jump in a share their thoughts as well.
Sometimes when you smell a wine and look for the characteristics, you think you are so sure of what it could be. Then the reveal comes and you discover you were completely wrong and your confidence is now shattered. As you begin to taste the next wine, you fill your head with self-doubt and you are unsure of your decision.
They say that the first choice is the best choice and one you should decide to pursue. I think that is also the best way to go when trying to identify smells you find in a wine. In order to begin doing that, you have to actually know what those smells smell like.
Most of us don’t work with an unlimited amount of flavours and aren’t even sure what most of the things are saying on tasting notes behind the bottle. I am extremely fortunate to work in a kitchen where I can smell and taste many things. Sometimes it’s easy when I am tasting wine to figure certain things out and other times I am completely stumped and get stuck on a path that is not the correct one.
By giving us strips of smells and putting together how many of those smells you can find in grape varietals, you can recall that smell information when you are “blinding” a wine. Smell is very much based on memory and time, so you really have to get back into your mind and recall those flavours when you are looking to identify a wine.
You may connect flavours to a certain time or place that you were in. You may even remember who you were with or what you were wearing. Even looking at a picture can bring back memories of food or scents from the past.
I feel that even in the novice individuals were surer of certain smells after taking this class. They were surer of their answers and closer to understanding parts of tasting wine that they may have been unsure of before. It takes a lot of time to sit there an analyze wine. You have to have patience to sit there and take apart the many layers of what is inside a wine bottle.
At the end of the class one of the participants, named Allison graciously gifted a bottle of Vin du Constance to our class to share and try. It is a bottle that is rarely seen and greatly appreciated by wine lovers all over the world. It was generous to offer something to people who she had never met before, but she knew who would appreciate such a gift.
I always think that if people are looking to learn more about wine, they should get out there and smell and taste as much as they can. When you are in the grocery store or the market, look at how things are and smell what they are. Sometimes it can help when you are recalling information and linking it to wine and food.
Overall I found the course really interesting and something that would be really beneficial for people who are pursuing the study of wine
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