2nd and final day of my wine course - with exam!!!

So this was the second week of my WSET level 1 wine course. I'd really enjoyed week one and walked with a spring in my step in the warmth of July sun to Bermondsey Street for more learning. Actually I am lying a bit, as I had a particularly tough personal training session at the gym on Friday, so I pretty much hobbled like an old lady to the course with my glutes and quads both on fire...

We got straight into the tasting at 10.30am, and I realised I don't think I had drunk wine at that time before (with of course the exception of champagne at Christmas and other celebratory breakfasts).

We had 6 wines to taste: 3 whites and 3 reds.
With an exam looming a couple of hours later I thought I better do 'proper' tasting, and spat all of them out. The wines we tried (in order) were:

• Pasqua Pinot Grigio RRP £5.99
• Montes Alpha Chardonnay Special Cuvee RRP £12.99
• Joseph Drouhin Laforest Bourgogne Pinot Noir RRP£11.49
• Marchese Antinori Chianti Classico Riserva Tenuta Tignanello RRP £22.99
• Grant Burge The Vigneron Barossa Shiraz RRP £11.49
• Chateua Laville Sauternes RRP £34.99

This was very much about identifying characteristics of the wine and looking more at the depth of colour etc and how they were different from each other.

And then onto the really fun bit! We got a plate of various foods and then tried the same wines we had before to see what went with what and what was horrid with what and what to avoid with what!

We tasted Savoury (known as Umami). For this we tasted dried MSG. You can see why Pringles are so addictive as this stuff is added to them (along with a lot of Asian food)! This is an enemy of wine making it more dry, more bitter, more acidic and less sweet and fruity. Nothing tasted that great with this.

The second tastes (to counteract the Umami) were Salty and Acid. For this we tasted salt and lemon - This made the wines that were horrid with Umami taste much better again!

Sweet was some caramel wafers and sweet is another enemy of wine - making the wine take on the negative characteristics that Umami gives it. The best thing to do with a dessert is to give it an equally sweet wine.

Fatty/oily we ate some rather nice mature cheddar. Best to pair this with wines of high level acidity to but through the fat (a good thing to remember here is a glass of orange juice cutting through your full English breakfast!)

Then chili (which was a delayed hit from a chili cracker). Alcohol intensifies the heat in a chili and so best to go with a wine that is light in alcohol, fruity with some sweetness - think Reisling. Although to be honest I would probably go beer with hot food such as an Indian!

This was a really interesting part of the course, and it made me really appreciate what Sommeliers do when they match wine with whole plates of food! It was pretty easy seeing what went with what with just one food, but imagine a plate with 10 different ingredients on it...

Then onto the exam. It was multiple choice and run under strict exam controls. I have taken an exam like that for a good few years. I got 30 out of 30 on my mock paper, but will have to wait a couple of weeks to see how I have got on in the real thing.

Overall I really enjoyed the course. I thought it was going to be more basic than it was, so was pleasantly surprised at the level of detail, particularly in the food and wine pairing part of the course. The trainer was good and had to rein in our enthusiasm for going above level 1 a number of times!

I'm now planning on booking for the next level course (2) in October. That one is going to be for 9 evenings...Gulp! (and slurp!)