First day of my wine course

So I got up on Saturday, bright eyed and bushy tailed, excited to be heading into town for my Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) level 1 course. The organisation is based on Bermondsey Street, just behind London Bridge station, and as it's an area I don't often frequent, it was fun to go past the Shard, down some back streets and find some cafes and pubs hidden away...

The Shard looming over me...

The classroom soon filled up with approximately 20 people from various countries, all with the one desire to learn more about wine. The most dedicated had to be a young couple from Singapore who had arrived at Heathrow at 6am that morning, and were sat down ready to learn at 10.30am!

The tutor was very amiable and explained everything really clearly and the slides and interactive whiteboard worked really well. Whilst some of the course was quite basic, it was good to find out there were a fair few things I didn't know.

Never having paid much attention to French wine, and with a trip to Languedoc only a couple of months away it was useful to find out a bit more like which grapes are grown in Burgundy (white = Chardonnay and red = Pinot Noir) and Bordeaux (often a Cab Sav/Merlot blend and called Claret by the Brits).

I also had no idea that there were thousands of different grapes used in wines, or that the Chinese have just planted over 1 million hectares of vines. A lot of the south of China is in the same latitude as Europe and the US, so theoretically it could be good...in about 20 years time...

After lunch we got to get down to the tasting. We tried a white, rose and red. We learnt about when wines had high acidity you would call them crisp, and you could tell high acidity by tipping your head slightly forward when you had finished your mouthful, and seeing if you salivated underneath your tongue! Charming!

If a wine had a lot of tannins (obviously only red) then you would tell that by your tongue going dry on top. Interesting stuff!

The White was an NZ SB from Marlborough (Wild South). It was  12.5% abv, dry, very crisp, light bodied with plenty of lime and apples, with a hint of grass. RRP was £11.49.

The Rose was an NZ Merlot from Hawkes Bay (Esk Valley). It was 13% abv, dry, crisp with low tannin, light bodied with a great nose of strawberries. The wine tasted less of strawberry than the nose would suggest, but plenty of red fruit in there, including red currants. RRP was £8.99.

The Red was an Australian Cab Sav from Mclaren Vale (Chapel Hill). It was 14.5% abv, dry, medium tannins, full bodied with blackcurrant, black cherry and hints of spices and vanilla from the oak barrel. RRP was £15.99.

All 3 were pleasant, and as I wasn't driving, I chose to drink them rather than throw them away...I also got to snaffle the rest of the bottle of the Cab Sav to take home, as it was only going to go to waste.

We learnt about how to store wine and how best to open and pour for our guests. We also learnt about social responsibility and when too much wine becomes a worry (gulp) ...

All in all a really interesting morning, and I wonder if a fair few people will go on to do the level 2 course, as there were a number of questions we were asking that went past the level 1 course.

So this week I must go over everything I learnt and get ready for my exam next week...!!! Gosh I haven't done an exam for some time...ARGH!!!