Article on wine education

The New York Times had an article in Sunday’s metro section about the American Sommelier Society’s 20-week wine education course. Mostly filled with restaurant workers looking for a better job.

Past studies

One year ago I was in the last-minute throes of studying for the unit 3 exam for the diploma. The test included two hours of blind tasting in the morning and three hours of essay questions on the “Light Wines of the World,” the title of unit 3. That’s all the wine in the world that’s not fortified or sparking (I’d already taken those tests).

Needless to say I worked myself into quite a state. A friend was staying at my house and at one time she counted 60 open bottles of wine on my kitchen counter, where I had been standing for hours on end sipping and spitting into the sink. It kinda smelled.

What’s open now

Domaine de la Quilla 2006 muscadet-sevre et maine sur lie

As is all Muscadet, this wine was made from melon de borgogne in the region where the Loire river meets the Atlantic Ocean. Also typical of muscadet, this wine is 12 percent alcohol, fresh, easy to drink and meant to accompany a plate of oysters.

Tasters say you can perceive the mineral influence of the ocean breezes, that the wine is almost salty — the same is also said of albarino, which is grown on the Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal — and you know what? They’re right. This wine smells herbal on the nose, a step above grassy but with the mineral of water evaporating off the stones in your garden. It’s got med-high acid, stops a little short on the palate but the finish stays around for a while. (This descriptor is decidedly not WSET-approved. How long is ‘awhile’?)

Smell is my strong suit, and sometimes curse, but I always think what kind of wine would I mistake this for if I were tasting it blind. And in the nose it could be a mid-Loire sauvignon blanc, but then the aromatics are not as pronounced, but that can happen when it gets really ripe.

I love low alcohol wines.

Muscadet is becoming popular again, but nature is not cooperating, last month a frost hit the region and destroyed half the crop.