Wine for the First Blind Tasting

Today was our first test: 25 multiple choice questions and a blind tasting of one red wine and one white. For those unfamiliar with this, a blind tasting is a tasting of wines when you have no idea what they are. In the case of our class today, and at the Certified exam, which is administered by The Court of Master Sommeliers, we are given one glass of red wine and one of white. We are also given a tasting grid on which we rate things like nose, or aromas in the wine (do we get fruit? If so, what kind of fruit? Do we get spice, herbs, if so what kind? Earth or mineral? If so, what? Do we think the wine was aged in oak, and if so, why?) palate or taste (does the wine have low, medium or high acid, sugar, tannin, alcohol, a long or short finish), and overall conclusions (warm, cool or moderate climate; country we think the wine is from (the options on this grid are France, Italy, USA, Australia, New Zealand); varietal (Chardonnay, Riesling, Cab/Merlot, Zinfandel, Sangiovese, etc.) and finally vintage.

Needless to say, this is very hard, and today, I got both wines wrong. On a brighter note, I did very well on the theory exam. But I like to do well. I always like to be good at whatever I do, and when I don't do well I start to doubt whether I will ever be able to do it. So of course I start to question my decision and worry that I have made a big mistake. What if it turns out I'm no good at this at all and I will have to try and find something else that I enjoy? What if I actually have a terrible palate and I never improve?

But before I go too far down that road, I have to stop and remind myself of a few things: I am new at this, which is why I decided to take a class in the first place; if I already knew how to identify every wine in a blind tasting, I wouldn't need to take the class, I would just go straight to the exam; the teacher himself said that this test is used as a baseline, so we know where we are starting from and where we want to go. Perhaps most important for me to remind myself is that NO ONE in the class guessed both the red and the white varietal correctly, not even the know-it-all guy (there's always one in every class, isn't there?). Out of 21 people in the class, 9 of us got both varietals wrong, and twelve people guessed one. Only two people guessed the red varietal. So I am not the only one who has a lot to learn!

What I also have to remember is that it is possible to guess the varietals wrong and still pass the exam, because each of the other items on the grid (tannins, fruit, acid, climate, etc.) has a point value, and guessing the actual varietal is only worth about 2 points. So The Court is not only looking at what conclusion you finally draw, they're also looking at how you get there.

So I am going to give myself a break. Tomorrow is my birthday, and Steve and I are going to spend the night in Napa. I will relax, have a delicious dinner, and of course, a nice glass of wine (or two).

My wine for the first blind tasting? Well I don't know, do I? It is a blind tasting after all. But I can tell you this: it's red. You decide what kind.

Have a great weekend.

Wine for Writing Holiday Cards

Yup, it's that time of year. Time to write those holiday cards. I confess, I love holiday cards. Sending them, getting them. They make me feel happy, festive. I love to watch the pile of finished cards get bigger and bigger, stamped and addressed and ready to go out into the world. And getting them, of course, I love getting them. Putting them around the living room where my hubby and I can see them and count (on a daily basis) how many people love us. Magic.

Emailed holiday cards, I'm sorry, that's cheating. And I'm not going to lie, I'm not a huge fan of those photo cards either. Mostly because they are usually one flat piece of paper and are hard to keep upright on the coffee table. Of course you can lean them against another card, but then they block the card they're leaning against, and eventually they just fall flat on the table and mess up our people-who-love-us count (because we don't see them flat on the table), or they waft away on a breeze and float under the coach and are never seen again.

Anyway, there are many things I love about the holiday card. The thing I enjoy least is that fact that it seems to take me forever to get them done. This is due mostly to the fact that I have the handwriting of a four-year-old, and the more cards I write, the more tired my hand gets and the worse my writing becomes until I wind up sending my friends cards that look like they came off a prescription pad, where you look at the paper from all different angles, wondering if the doctor has written your prescription upside down, in Sanskrit, or in that backward mirror writing Da Vinci used.

The only way for me to avoid this is to write veerrry slowly and deliberately, and for some reason, to press down really hard. This system allows me to write about three cards per hour, because any more than that and I am left with a cramped hand-claw that hurts for days. I have tried simply writing much shorter messages, and the more cramped my hand gets, the shorter the messages become, until I have gone from "Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday season" and "All the best in the new year" to things like "Hooray" and, for some godforsaken reason "Go for it", which, when my hand got REALLY tired, simply became "Go!", which, let's face it, is just confusing.

Now, some of you might say: "Hey, it's the computer age. Why don't you just print out your cards, that way your hand won't hurt?" I'll tell you why: because that is cheating!!! Don't you get it people?! If you just print out your cards, and print out address labels, then you're not really writing holiday cards, are you? You're just stuffing envelopes. There should be a certain amount of personal sacrifice involved in the holiday card-writing. If I can't move my hand for a few days, then neither should you, and that's just how it should be. People may not be able to read anything I've written to them, but dammit, they know that that "Happy Nferw yrsd" and "Yippee" and "Go Go Go!" came from me.

So with all that in mind, I have decided to give in to my slow holiday card writing, and just enjoy some wine while I'm writing them. I can say with absolute authority that drinking wine makes my handwriting look better. At least it makes it look better to me. So off I go: card, sip, card, sip and so on. My husband will either come home to find me in chipper spirits, with that lovely rosey wine-glow about the cheeks, or he'll find me sprawled on the couch, empty wine glass in hand, buried in chicken scrawl holiday cards, drooling into the cushion. I'll let you guess which one.

But for now, on to the wine. My card-writing wine choice is a 2007 Audelssa Tephra. Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, before I sold wine for Canihan Family Cellars I sold wine for Audelssa, but I no longer work for them, and therefore get no commission if you run out and buy 20 cases. Though, hey, it couldn't hurt to mention me, maybe they'll feel bad and pony up.

But seriously, I truly love this wine, and I thought it would be best to start off with something I feel certain you will love too. Audelssa is a small Sonoma, CA family vineyard. It is in a beautiful spot, with vines that grow up on the hillside in multi-million-year-old volcanic soil. The Tephra is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Zinfandel. It is very food-friendly, meaning you can serve it with a variety of dishes like burgers, pizza, paella, but it is also wonderful to drink on its own. It is fruity and warm with a little bit of the spice that comes from the Syrah and the Zinfandel. It retails for $28 a bottle, which, honestly, I think is a steal. If you can find it where you are, it's a great wine to bring along to a party, or dinner at a friend's, and since it's not so well-known at this point, it will be a great discovery. Try it. I know you will not be disappointed.
Until next week...
www.audelssa.com