Sorry for the lack of posts, in my defence, I’ve been a bit busy on the Wine and Spirits Education Trust Course and the odd incident at home (enough to drive me to drink but have womanfully resisted).
Ok so to the update…. have progressed through week 3 of my course and can honestly say that it is worth doing if you even have the remotest interest in wine. By comparison, I went on a course at my local college which claimed that it worked to the WSET syllabus and was regulated by them, you could even do an exam which gave you the level 2 certificate. However…….. the tutor, course materials and wine provided was truly shocking.
Hopefully you will have realised by now that I’m a girl of taste and refinement. Unfortunately the local course had me spitting in public (actually onto a table and not into a spittoon which apparently can be considered polite). The tutor gave us wines which were so bad… he considered a Black Tower Red an acceptable wine to demonstrate German wines!
The WSET course is like chalk & cheese to this. Professional tutors, most of whom are judges at international competitions, like minded fellow students and some truly excellent wines.
The only drawback is that they give us 6 ISO standard crystal wine tasting glasses, which we have to take home at the end of each session. They are rather fragile to say the least, so I’m terrified of breaking them. I was on crutches at the start of the week and had to commute to London clutching my glasses and hobble. Not a good look and rather distracting!
Anyway, will report back with full tasting notes of all my favourites. Sorry but some of them are rather pricey. For example, last week we had a chevrey-chambertin, a monumental pinot noir at a monumental price of nearly £45. It was worth the money but a definite pay day/special occasion treat.
This evening, I am cosying up to a rather nice rose, celebrating the almost spring-like weather. Pale salmon in colour, wild strawberries on the nose, medium acidity and ripe berry fruits on the palate.
I will also post details of my latest venture – I did a tasting session for my colleagues and friends at work – 6 wines, all hopefully representative of their type. A great session, seriously good fun, hosted by a great cook Lucie, to whom we all owed thanks.
Signing off for now. again, apologies for lack of posts – promise to make it up to you all asap
thehappydrinker 