WSET certificate

I am getting serious and obsess in wine, with my investigative personality, I want to learn more and know more about wine.  At the Good Food and Wine show, I came across the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) stand, I walked forward and spoke to the gentleman standing behind the stand.  He gave me a brief introduction on all their courses.  They have a range of courses from wine appreciation to professional sommelier, I think I have found the right school.  Based on my interests and the price tags on the difference courses, I have chosen the "International Wines - Foundation" course.  The International Wines courses consist of three levels, Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced.  If you want to go further, you can even do the Diploma and Professional Certificates.  Mind you, the prices go up as you advance in your study!

The International Wine Foundation course is a six hours lesson plus 50 minutes examination time.  At the end of the course, you will get a WSET level 1 certificate.  I chose this course because I wanted to do more then just wine appreciation and I didn't need to get into the industry being a sommelier, this will be a good entry level course learning about international wines.  I have enrolled myself and also my husband to be there for my company!

A week before the class, we went to Ryde TAFE to collect our study materials.  I immediately went into my study mode and started reading through it.  I need to pass the exam to get the certificate, study, study, study!  Some of the information was quite basic, but I really enjoyed learning about the region names, hence wine names of the old world wines.

Then the exciting day came, the course started at 9 am in the morning, we arrived around 8:45 and most of the students were already in the classroom seated.  There were 20 seats in the classroom.  We sat down and saw many cheese platters and wines in the front, wine glasses on our desk, I was already very excited. 

The tutor walked in and introduced himself, Clive Hartley, who has worked in the industry for 20 years and I later found his article in the Gourmet Traveller WINE magazine!  Then he asked each one of us to introduce ourselves.  Everyone seems to like wine and hence enrolled in the course, except for one lady who said she hates wines and only drink champagne if she has to, so Clive asked her why is she doing this course and she said because her whole family loves wine and always talk about wine, therefore she was here to find out what it is all about.  Interesting!

Then the class started with a basic introduction on wine styles, geography, grape varieties, wine making, etc.  It was quite interesting and I could pick up on some knowledge that I didn't know before.  The most interesting part for me was learning about the old world wine regions, I tried very hard remembering Chianti = Sangiovese; Rioja = Tempranillo; Beaujolais = Gammy; Chateauneuf du Pape has 13 varieties; etc etc.  I was so happy to add them to my database together with the existing Bordeaux, Burgundy and Chablis!  I guess because I was more familiar with the new world wines, the varietals was quite important to me in choosing a wine.  With this knowledge, I can now confidently dine in a French or Italian restaurant matching my wines with food.

Then it was wine tasting, it was a list of nine wines from all over the world, excellent!

1. Henri Bourgeois Sancerre Les Baronnes 2006
2. Curly Flat Chardonnay 2005
3. Craiglee Shiraz 2005
4. Chateau Langoa-Barton (St Julien) 2002
5. Louis Roederer Champagne Brut Premier NV
6. Mader Riesling Alsace 2006
7. Domaine Christian Moreau Pére et Fils Chablis 2007
8. Domaine Henry Gouges Nuits-St-Georges Premier Cru Les Pruliers 2001
9. Valdivieso Merlot Single Vineyard Reserve 2004

The first wine was the Sancerre, a Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire Valley in France.  It was bright and clear, the colour was pale, straw yellow with a hint of green.  The aroma was fruity, grassy, citrus with strong lemon on the nose.  It has crisp acidity and not too grassy, full of fruit character, very nice.  The second wine was the Curly Flat Chardonnay from the Macedon Ranges in Victoria that has a cool climate.  It was bright and clear with a mid yellow colour.  It has medium acidity and was buttery and oaky on the nose, despite the fact that it was from a cool climate region.  It has a peach and melon fruit character and the new oak gave its long palate.  Then we had the Craiglee Shiraz from Sunbury, Victoria, which was a classic cool climate Shiraz, which resembles a Rhône Valley Syrah.  It has a bright ruby red colour, medium tannin and acidity with red current fruit character and a hint of oak and peppery on the nose, a very youthful wine.  Then we moved to Bordeaux, the Chateau Langoa-Barton, from the left bank of the Gironde river in the St Julien region.  It was an earthy Cabernet/Merlot blend, which has a deep red to black colour, leathery, mushroom-like, damp on the nose with medium tannin and gentle French oak.  It has a dusty, peppery character with a touch of mineral, a very complex Bordeaux wine.  After this, it was a lunch break, I was so glad that I have more time to slowly investigate this wine.

After lunch, we started with a non-vintage champagne.  It has a pale straw colour and an aroma of dead yeast and bread dough, a typical dry champagne.  It has high acidity but at the same time very creamy.  It has green apple character and gave a long finish, very nice.  The next wine we had was the Riesling from Alsace, just on the border of France and Germany.  It has a dry citrus and tropical fruit aroma with a bit of honey with medium acidity and slightly sweet, very refreshing.  Then it was the Chablis, an unwooded Chardonnay from Burgundy in France.  It has strong mineral and oyster shell character with medium acidity, very different to the Australian Chardonnay, a totally different style.  I used to like the buttery, vanilla character of an oaked Chardonnay, and dislike the unwooded Chardonnay, which is just less in favour.  But the Chablis surprises me with its balanced acidity and mineral character, very interesting, I think I liked it. 

We then tasted the red wines, starting with a red Burgundy.  It has a brick red to brown colour, full of berry aroma but also has earthy, smoky, mushroom-like aromas.  It wasn't a very old wine, but the aged character was already there with its fruit character.  A very beautiful wine that reminds me of some very nice aged Burgundy that my friend has introduced to me in the past.  The last wine in the course was a Chilean Merlot, which has a ruby red colour and stalky, leafy aroma with leathery and earthy character.  It was a full bodied wine with strong tannin and very low acidity, very strong oak character.  A wine that might be a little bit big for our afternoon class, but should be nice with a heavy steak dinner!

After the tasting and learning how to take notes, we did a little food and wine matching.  We had corn chips, green apples, smoke salmon, cheese and chocolate on our desk and we had to rate the taste with our wines.  The standard smoky food with oaky wines, acidic food with high acidity wines didn't surprise me, however, I was quite surprised that Champagne can actually go with everything, even green apples and chocolate.  It is such a complex, celebrative drink!

It was generally a very enjoyable class, but with more depth in each topic would be nice.  I guess, that just means I have to do the next level, but to move up, I need more cash to pay my fees!  Meanwhile, why don't I just take my existing knowledge and drink!