Life · Quaffing · Tasting

24 wines for turning 24

This post serves two purposes: a sincere smile-and-nod to the 23rd year of my life, and a spring cleaning wine dump of, coincidentally, a number of bottles that equals the number of anniversaries since I was pushed out of my mother. Alas. The past prime number of a year has been good to me, and I’m stoked for the next. Beyond this whole becoming-an-adult thing, I’ve done many things including completing the WSET Diploma (i hate to keep mentioning about it – but perhaps the youngest in BC to do so!), changing jobs, travelling to New York, travelling to France, travelling to Spain, and other things that would probably be best not to put on the internet. Heh.

And home. Oh God – connecting to your roots and family – sometimes I dig myself way too deep into wine culture and its countries that I forget where I come from.… read more

Life · WSET Diploma

WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 14: Business of Wine

Woah! I’m feeling mighty uninspired. I think it might have to do with the clouds and rain, which are normally quite nice, but something’s blocking my brain and I feel like I have to obligatorily blame it on the weather. Maybe I need to watch a movie, or go on a mini vacation, or just hug someone for a really long time. It sure is an excuse to get juices flowing with actual alcoholic juice, but I’m going to not because my brain is telling me no. (Which means it’s going to be one can of beer or just a hint of scotch. And then maybe more scotch.)

Two weeks ago, I skipped class on southern Italy to attend an afternoon whisky seminar followed by a sobering nap.… read more

WSET Diploma

When life gives you rot, make it noble: Château Coutet Sauternes-Barsac 2000

Château Coutet Sauternes-Barsac 2000[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 3: Bordeaux]

I was in the middle of tasting the first three wines in our second flight when I saw the instructor pouring the first bits of the fourth wine into her own glass. Bordeaux class, so Sauternes, unquestionably.

Yeah, gurl.

How often do you get to try one of the most prized dessert wines of the world? I’m not bragging, because all we get is a wee dram enough for tasting, and God knows I’m poor as fuck from WSET diploma tuition, anyways. This is as close as it gets, except for that time I knocked over my boss’s glass of Château d’Yquem. It shattered all over the floor and in perceived slow motion, I’m sure.… read more

WSET Advanced

2000 Chateau Broustet Barsac Sauternes

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, deep gold
Nose: clean, med intensity, developing, honey, marmalade, vegetal, rubber, pineapple, dried apricot, spice, botrytis
Mouth: sweet, med bodied, med+ acidity, long length, med+ intensity
All in all: Very good quality; Drink now, but has potential for ageing.

Excuse the partially incomplete tasting notes. I feel like I’m noticing a pattern with this particular instructor on the first day of classes – opening with Champagne, and ending with a dessert wine. Perfect.

I find it hard to rate dessert wines. As evolutionary organisms, we are inclined to love sweet things because they contain carbohydrates. Although that last sentence can be easily given a nod, it can just as easily receive a furrowed brow when you try a sweet wine that is cloying, or having no acidity to balance it out, and you have an unclean sweetness not unlike the sensation of drinking maple syrup.… read more