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5 week

Wine Course Red Nose Wine

Clonmel Business Park www.rednosewine.com

Course Details

•  €75 per person •  5 weeks starting Thursday October 11th •  7.30-9pm in Shop •  At least one night will be offsite ( not

included in price – Food & Wine extra ) •  Set agenda – but open to change •  Cheese night – Nov 1st •  Food night – Nov 8th

Course Outline

•  What is wine ? •  How to Taste & Assess Wine •  Wine Serving & Storage •  Grapes – 3 White & 3 Red •  Wine & Food & Cheese •  Wine Regions •  Wine Styles •  Anything else we think of

It’s a tough job

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Wine Philosophy •  Wine should reflect the land where the

grapes are grown and also the people who tend the vines and make the wine

•  Wine is an organic living entity that changes constantly

•  It is not a production line product – Different should be good, not bad

•  Try to mix up the type of wines you drink – There is huge diversity out there

Wine Quotes •  “Wine is bottled poetry”.Robert Louis

Stevenson •  “The best use of bad wine is to drive away

poor relations”. French proverb •  "In water one sees one's own face; But in

wine, one beholds the heart of another.“ French proverb

•  “Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world” Ernest Hemingway

•  “Wine improves with age. The older I get, the better I like it”. Anonymous

Wine

•  Alcoholic beverage made from fermented grape juice

•  Yeast + Sugar = Alcohol + Carbon Dioxide •  Most wines are Light Wines •  Except

– Sparkling à Champagne, Cava, Prosecco – Fortified à Port, Sherry, Madeira – Aromatised à Vermouth

Differences

• Colour à Red, White & Rosé • Sweetness

– Dry ( <=4g/L RS ) – Medium Dry ( <= 12g/L RS ) – Medium Sweet ( <=45g/L RS ) – Sweet ( > 45g/L RS )

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Examples •  Bone Dry

–  Muscadet, Loire S/Blanc ( Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé ), Chablis, Brut Champagne

•  Dry –  Most Chardonnay, S/Blanc, Semillon, Loire based Chenin Blanc

•  Med Dry –  Riesling, Viognier, Gewürztraminer, Chenin Blanc, Pinot Gris

•  Med Sweet –  Tokay, vendage Tardvive

•  Sweet –  “Botrytized” wines, Sauternes, Saussignac

Sweetness & Acidity • All about balance – just like life • Sweeter the wine à more acidity

needed • Dry wine à acidity not needed

– Already appetising & crisp • Too much acidity = ‘green’ wine ( or

“tart” ) • Too little acidity = “flabby” wine ( or

“flat” )

Tasting Wine

• The 5 senses – Smell, Taste, Touch, Sight, Hearing

• Taste – Sweet, Acid, Bitter, Salt, Savoury

• Smell – MUCH more….

The Jelly Bean Test

1.  Close your eyes 2.  Pinch your nose 3.  Start eating a jelly bean

•  What do you taste 4.  Let go of your nose

•  What happens? 5.  The difference?

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The Palate Tasting •  Quality

– Cleanliness •  Cork taint, Sulphur Dioxide, Oxidised

– Balance •  Acidity, sweetness, tannin and alcohol

– Length •  Flavours linger long after the wine

•  Environment – Avoid à Perfume, Smoke – Correct temperature

•  ( 10° - 13°(W) OR 15° - 18°(R) )

To spit or not to Spit

• Wine Fact à there are no tasting facilities in your throat – You do not need to swallow to taste

wine • Economic Fact à we are in recession

– Only spit bad wines – Enjoy the good ones (sensibly of course)

Wines to taste •  White – Chardonnay

–  Santa Alicia Reserva Chardonnay 2011, Maipo Valley, Chile •  Brilliant yellow with golden tones •  There are intense aromas of banana, papaya, pineapple and

mango combined with elements such as toasted oak, vanilla and butterscotch.

•  The palate is concentrated, with mineral and tropical notes.

–  Christophe Camu Petit Chablis 2010, Burgundy, France •  Light to mid gold •  Clean, flinty nose, restrained citrus, melon, hint of gunflint/smoke •  Tangy grapefruit and lemon, tart acidity but nice roundness and

richness, smooth, hints of butterscotch and white pepper spice, lovely flinty finish, with more grapefruit, refreshing with good length.

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Wines to taste •  Red – Tempranillo

–  La Granja ‘Pig’ Tempranillo 2009, Cariñena, Spain •  A soft rounded juicy red wine, with rich ripe raspberry flavours. It

is nicely balanced with tobacco and coffee. •  A great match for barbeque roasted pork chops, spare ribs,

sausages, grilled vegetables and cheeses.

–  Lar de Paula Madurado, Rioja, Spain •  Single variety Tempranillo from a selected harvest from vines over

20 years old, matured in new oak for four months. •  The wine has an intense cherry red colour. •  The nose has a great intensity with nuances of ripe black fruit. •  On the palate it is meaty, with sweet tannins and notes of fruit

jams

What’s in a Grape ? •  White – Chardonnay

–  It is a good-yielding variety that is like a sponge à easily influenced.

–  Buds early in the season and also ripens relatively early – delicate. –  The best chardonnays come from cool climates like Burgundy or

California’s Carneros District, but the variety also adapts well to warmer regions like Australia

–  Chardonnay ripens easily and produces medium-to-full-bodied wines with rich apple, citrus, and tropical fruit aromas and flavors.

–  It can be vinified as a crisp, fruity quaffing wine, the best, most complex chardonnays, as in Burgundy, are fermented in small oak barrels and put through a secondary, malolactic fermentation, which imparts toasty, buttery characteristics to both the wine’s aroma and flavor.

–  Chardonnay is best paired with simply prepared seafood and poultry dishes – salmon is great with it.

What’s in a Grape ? •  Red – Tempranillo

–  Tempranillo is a primary red wine grape for much of Spain, especially wines from the Ribera del Duero and the Rioja Alta.

–  short growing season and this early ripening tendency is the source of the name tempranillo, which translates to "little early one".

–  Tends to be low in acidity and sugar but high in tannin. –  Can age well in ideal growing conditions. –  Berry like fruit ( plums ) , vanilla, coconut and sweet wood

with light oaking –  More smoky, tasty and tarry with heavier oaking. –  Some wines display leather and tobacco characteristics –  Also works very well blended ( Garnacha being a good match ) –  Great match for lamb – pork – herbacious foods – roast chickn