Class #1

I had my first class with Bill Nesto this week. Level 2: A Comprehensive Survey of wine. It was the first day, so we just went over some basics, like terminology and basic tasting tips. There are so many ways to describe a wine, and you need to use words that are universally understood, so that other wine enthusiasts know what you mean. Nesto gave us this big binder to read, and although it is a little overwhelming, I am pretty excited, and the material is interesting. One exercise we did was related to smell, and Nesto lined up these little jars with smells and our job was to identify each smell, and two stations had more than one smell. Then we tasted a few different "tastes", like bitter and sour. This was to get our noses and mouths used to smelling and tasting. At the end of the class, we tastes 4 white wines and 4 red wines.

The wines we tasted were:
St. Urbans-Hot, Ockfener Bockstein, Riseling Kabinett, Mosel Germany, 2011
Branko, Pinot Grigio, Collio Italy, 2012
Montes, Sauvignon Blanc, Leyda Chile, 2012
Mer Soleil, Chardonnay "Silver", Santa Lucia Highlands CA, 2011

Chateau Boutisse, Saint-Emillon Grand Cru, Bordeaux France, 2009
Ladera, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, 2010
Gachot-Monot, Cotes de Nuits-Villages, Burgundy France 2010
Chave, "Offeurs", Saint Joseph, Rhone Valley France, 2011