WSET Advanced

2009 Schloss Lieser Riesling Kabinett

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, pale lemon-green, bit of a spritz
Nose: clean, med+ intensity, developing, petrol, green apple, lime, peach, sulfur
Mouth: medium-dry, med- body, med+ acid, med- length, low alcohol, med intensity
All in all: Good quality; can drink now, but has potential for ageing.

One of the common things I come across is a weak understanding of what sulphites are. A common argument is that “they make you feel sick and therefore people don’t want a red”, but a surprisingly large amount of people don’t know that white and sweet wines actually have a higher proportion of sulphites. Sulphites act as both a yeast-supresser and as antioxidants, which is important when you don’t want your wine fermented a second time, especially if you have a fair amount of residge in your wine.… read more

WSET Advanced

2008 Miner Chardonnay

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, med lemon
Nose: clean, med+ to pronounced intensity, developing, butter, toast, oak, floral (camomile)
Mouth: dry with a slightly off-dry impression, full body, med+ to long length, med- acidity, high alcohol, pronounced intensity, nutty, toasty, oak, buttery
All in all: Very good quality. The rather impressive quality immediately gave me the impression that it had the potential to age, but apparently this wine shouldn’t. It sounds easy to determine: lower acidity – sure, don’t age it – but it’s sometimes too good to be true.

Definitely my favourite of the day. Of the many Chards I’ve had, this one is definitely in the top. Such a nice example of a dense and viscous Chardonnay with just a light to medium dusting of oak.… read more

WSET Advanced

Hidalgo “Faraon” Oloroso Sherry

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, med amber
Nose: clean, med to med+ intensity, developed, meaty, nutty, touch of soy, raisin, light yeastiness, LIKE A BAKERY
Mouth: dry, med+ bodied to full, I got a med acidity but the instructor got low to med- acid, long length, high alcohol, med+ intensity, meaty, brine, nuts
All in all: Very good quality; drink now.

Oh my. I’m not sure if I’m just more partial to Oloroso Sherry, but DAMN this was good, and it was the favourite for everyone at my table. Such delicious aromas on the nose and flavours on the palate. Although we picked out some individual notes on the nose like raisins and an oxidized soy quality, I couldn’t help but go back to the whole bakery thing since it seemed like all the oxidized, yeasty, and nutty notes added up to that.… read more

WSET Advanced

NV Joan Raventos Rosell Cava Brut

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, deep lemon, bubbles
Nose: clean, med+ intensity, developing, yeasty, funk, metallic, floral
Mouth: dry, med to med+ body, med- to med acid, med to med+ length, bubbles don’t really last
All in all: Good quality; drink now (this particular batch was losing its structure).

[Edit: retried this on November 13, 2013.]

What a great value. From what I remember, this guy had a decent amount of stinky yeast on the nose. A quick internet glance tells me people didn’t like this as much as I did, but I think it had a nice amount of complexity despite the agreed-upon falling structure. I would definitely buy this again to reaffirm my thoughts. It’s quite possible that I’m praising it for more than it’s actually worth, but then again it looks like I fiercely circled “yeasty” in my notebook.… read more

WSET Advanced

NV Yellow Tail Bubbles

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, pale lemon, large bubbles
Nose: clean, youthful, med intensity, tropical fruit, fresher than comparison wine (Cava), grapey
Mouth: off-dry?, more aggressive bubbles, med+ body, med acid, med+ length
All in all: Very good quality; drink now.

Yellow Tail is such an interesting brand. It’s one of the only wine brands I knew before I started getting into wine (and more specifically, their Shiraz), and it’s probably one of the brands that is well-known in the wine world. Winecouver states it perfectly – I would say that the touch of residual sugar (in the wines I’ve had, most notably the Shiraz and Bubbles) makes it so welcoming to the non-wine drinking masses, and combined with (what I would guess is) inexpensive winemaking and marketing so brilliant that it makes its way into marketing textbooks, you have a success that angers no one but the wine savvy, who make a Shakespearean grimace into the distance and wonder why people aren’t drinking other wines.… read more

WSET Advanced

NV Breton Vouvray “La Dilettante” Crémant de Loire

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, pale lemon
Nose: clean, med+ intensity, developing, lots of mineral, reserved fruit, touch of yeast, bitter edge, green apple
Mouth: dry, med bodied, med+ acid, med length
All in all: Good to very good quality; drink now, but has potential for ageing.

[Retried in February 2014]

So basically everything that was tasted during the latter half of this day was rushed, which resulting in the shittiest, most rushed (and incomplete) tasting notes ever (so messy that I can’t even read them). All due to the fact that our exam was right after our sparklings, anyways. 

I’m slightly disappointed I didn’t write more about this wine! In theory it’s interesting:
1) Having the “Vouvray” sub-region designation, we know that it’s 100% Chenin Blanc, which is my favourite white grape (for now, anyways).… read more

WSET Advanced

NV Mionetto Treviso Brut Prosecco

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, pale lemon, large bubbles
Nose: clean, med intensity, youthful, bubble gum, cotton candy, pear drops
Mouth: dry with a sweet impression, med bodied, low to med- acid, med length, low alcohol
All in all: Good quality; drink now.

Prosecco is one of those bubblys that I feel has a bad reputation. More than often people assume that it’ll be sweet – which isn’t entirely false, but its unpopularity might be due to the fact that it has that less serious personality – especially if it has fun packaging like this (but that being said, it’s not so hard to find more serious Prosecchi. Usually.). 

And ironically enough, this was like sparkling white Beaujolais Nouveau and happened to get a solid 2.5… read more

Quaffing

2010 Finca La Amalia Malbec Reserva

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, deep ruby, tinge of purple
Nose: med+ intensity, developing, raspberry, oak, pepper, jam, touch of barnyard, blueberry, spice
Mouth: dry, med+ bodied, med tannin, med+ acid, sour cherry, med- to med length, med+ intensity, med+ alcohol
All in all: Good to very good quality; drink now, but can age.

Many of my co-workers have come to agreement that Malbec is the new Shiraz in terms of its trendiness. I think it’s true – all too often wines made from Shiraz or Malbec can be made in a jammy, fruit-forward, and crowd-pleasing style with lower complexities. That being said, there exist Malbecs that aren’t just simple fruit bombs. I can tell Malbecs are still a little bit under the radar since my computer thinks Malbec isn’t a word. … read more

Life

Playing with Lego for University Credits

Posted on by Josh

A really cool aspect of my major is that we get to build Lego robots in a third-year core lab course. So, essentially, our project is to code and actually have fun doing it, and while (ugh) I understand other normal courses are slightly more “practical” in the sense that, for example, we’re expected to implement a boring word-sorting algorithm for a programming project, this course wins hard in comparison. Word-sorting algorithms: I love you, but you aren’t made of colourful blocks that bring me back to my 6-year-old joys and wonderments. Okay – that was a blatant lie: the same friend that bought me my first serious bottle of wine also bought me my first lego set for my 18th birthday.… read more

Quaffing

2009 Cascina Castlèt Barbera d’Asti

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, medium ruby, a little hazy?
Nose: med+ intensity, developing, cherry, hint of red fruit roll-up, wood spice, smoky, oak, touch of floral, vanilla
Mouth: dry, med- body, low to med- tannin, med+ acid, med to med+ alcohol, med+ intensity, med length, black pepper, expressive, cherry, savoury finish, blue fruits
All in all: Good to very good quality; drink now, but has potential for ageing.

The store was not as busy as I thought it would be. There were a couple of costumes here and there but nothing too wild. Which was great! I find Halloween @ UBC to be such a pooper, though, because no one dresses up – and even though I sort of hate Halloween, it kinda sucks when you’re all up in the Halloween spirit and end up embarrassed because you’re the only one in a 200-person lecture that decided to dress up.… read more