Once upon a time commencement speeches were the stuff of dust and tedium. Most were 10-15 minutes of filler provided by an extinguished luminario—usually an alum—meant to provide pearls of wisdom to graduating acolytes who would soon be unleashed on an unsuspecting world. But all that’s changed. In the last decade or so it’s become fashionable for universities large and small to invite major headliners—be they politicians, actors, or high tech gurus—to present at commencement gatherings.
 
Some speeches, like that of the late Steve Jobs and his address to the Stanford class of 2005, quickly go viral. Neil Gaiman, one of my very favorite authors, gave a brilliant speech to the 2012 class at Philadelphia's University of the Arts called, “Make Great Art.” If you’ve not seen it, it’s a must.
 
What was once tedious filler has now become an opportunity for someone at the very top of their respective game to tell their life story and impart hard-earned wisdom not only to the attendant graduates—but to everyone in cyber space as well.
 
I have a new a recent favorite. It’s a portion of the address given this past May by James Ryan, Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Ryan is the 11th Dean at the HGSE. His commencement speeches from the past three years have quickly gained a huge following. One of the major themes of Ryan’s address this year was the power of asking good questions:
 
“Posing good questions is harder than it might seem … It’s hard because asking good questions requires you to see past the easy answers and to focus instead on the difficult, the tricky, the mysterious, the awkward, and sometimes the painful. But I suspect that you and your listeners will be richer for the effort, and that this will be in both your professional and your personal life."
 
"For those who will be teachers, for example, you know that well-posed questions make knowledge come to life and create the spark that lights the flame of curiosity. And there is no greater gift to bestow on students than the gift of curiosity. For those who will be leaders, which is to say all of you, don’t worry about having all the answers. Great leaders don’t have all the answers, but they know how to ask the right questions — questions that force others and themselves to move past old and tired answers, questions that open up possibilities that, before the question, went unseen.”

Ryan's Five Questions
 
Dean Ryan then goes on to list what he calls five truly essential questions. He poses the idea that if one habitually asks these five questions the possibility of living a happy, successful, and fulfilled life are exponentially greater. Ryan’s five questions are:
 
1. “Wait, what?” A question I often hear from kids staring at their phones who aren’t paying attention, but whose focus is suddenly zapped into the present by an important bit of information that directly involves them. Ryan writes that, “Wait what” is a very effective way of asking for clarification, which is crucial to understanding. It’s the one question that should be asked before drawing conclusions or before making an important decision.
 
2. “I wonder,” followed by “why” or “if.” Asking “I wonder why,” or “I wonder if,” is a way to introduce curiosity into the thinking process opening up possibilities for a potential answer. Ryan writes that asking “I wonder if,” is "a way to start thinking about how you might improve the world.”
 
3. "Couldn’t we at least...?" This is the question to ask to when stuck in any number of situations. Asking “Couldn’t we at least…” leads to the all-important initial step that hopefully will result in an agreement or some sort of consensus. It’s also a good way to get started on anything if you’re not entirely sure of the outcome.
 
4. “How can I help?” Not much need further be said; asking “How can I help,” can be invaluable in practically any situation. It also implies caring and empathy on the part of the questioner.

5. "What truly matters?" to which “to me” can be added as appropriate. Ryan writes that this question forces one to get to the heart of issues not to mention the heart of one’s beliefs and convictions. He further suggests substituting the question in place of New Year’s resolutions.
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These are Ryan’s five essential questions. He summarizes: “Wait, what” as the root of all understanding. “I wonder” is at the heart of all curiosity. “Couldn’t we at least” is the beginning of all progress. “How can I help” is at the base of all good relationships. And “What really matters” gets one to the heart of life.” 

Five Other Questions

Questions are indeed powerful vehicles. At one turn it’s too easy to ask sh**ty questions. Some people make a career or a life out of it. But asking the right questions can dramatically alter the quality of our internal lives in terms of how we think, feel, and experience the world. With that, here are five questions I've used many times in the past:

1. What prevents me or stops me from doing ___?

This is the question I’ve used when stuck or hesitant about a decision or making a move. It never fails to produce some kind of change.

2. If I could do ___, what would it be like? Feel like? Look like?

A question that’s all about possibility, potential outcomes, and pure imagination. I like it. I use it a lot.

3. How can I do ___ and have a good time at it?

This question is all about getting through tedious or less than exciting tasks without brain implosion—and even finding a way to enjoy the moment. For me it usually involves adding music, even a specific playlist, to whatever the task at hand. My “cleaning the bathrooms” playlist immediately comes to mind.

4. What’s the best use of my time right now?

As an independent contractor working out of a home office, I have to ask myself this question constantly. I usually have small windows of time to get various jobs/tasks done. The one bit of wisdom I can impart that came directly out of asking this question is to try to “batch” activities; scheduling time slots to answer all emails at once, make all the calls during one time period, and to put the all-important writing and research projects first in the morning when I have the brain space.

5. How can I best use this?

​Another question I ask myself often. I’m constantly looking at other disciplines—most completely unrelated to wine—in order model best practices and bring something new to the table for students on the M.S. track. 

Ryan's Last Question

At the end of his address Dean Ryan poses one final question to the students from a poem by Raymond Caver called “Late Fragments”:

 “And did you get what you wanted out of life, even so? 

The two words, “even so,” really get to the heart of life and all the challenges, disappointment, and pain that come with it. But along with the downs come the possibilities for joy, fulfillment, and connection. Ryan writes that if one regularly asks his five preceding questions one will probably be able to answer the final question, “I did.”

Raymond Carver's poem continues:

“And what did you want?

To call myself beloved. To feel beloved on the earth.”

To Ryan, “beloved” is the operative word in that it, “not only means dearly loved, but also cherished and respected.” He then reminds the assembly of graduates to think about students and how their world would be a better place if it simply wasn’t a matter of excelling in class, but also feeling beloved by their teachers and fellow classmates. Ryan closes the address by expressing his hopes that the graduates never stop asking and listening for good questions so they too, “will feel beloved on this earth, and, just as importantly, will help others, especially students, feel the same.”

Ryan’s thoughts about the concept of “beloved” lie at the very heart of education. As teachers and coaches we create and hold a space for our students to learn, thrive, and develop their potential. Our influence can be immeasurable with a single positive comment becoming the impetus for someone’s lifelong career. One never knows. 

Ask good questions.

Always.

And strive to make students feel beloved.

Hopefully you had a chance to watch some of the recent coverage of the Olympics. I was busy so only had bits of time here and there to tune in, but was always glad when I did. What made the games so compelling to me was not so much the competition itself, but observing the various athletes’ ability to focus in the moment under tremendous pressure, not to mention their ability—or not--to control their nervous system so they could bring their “A” game at a specific time on a given day.

One thing I noted from watching the best of the best during the games—and here I have to include the remarkable Simone Biles and the other-worldly Usain Bolt—is how they used their eyes to trigger very deep altered states. In doing so they were able to shut the world out and tap into their unconscious—and monumental—abilities. Here are other observations from watching these two incredible athletes and others get into their respective “zones”:

1. Initially they look out in space in front of them to a specific place or zone. Most focus straight out in front or slightly down with some looking slightly to either side. It’s unique for each athlete.
2. Once settled into that location their eyes initially seem to go a bit unfocused into a soft gaze.
3. From there, some of them (Michael Phelps!) harden their gaze, seemingly narrowing their focus and probably amping up their internal intensity as well.

Clearly what’s going on is a sequence with the eyes being used as a trigger to access one or more internal resource states. By doing so the athletes are also able to shut out unwanted outside distractions and minimize or eliminate completely random internal chatter. But more importantly, an eye sequence is being used to tap into the unconscious to take maximum advantage of countless hours of practice, timing, and routine.

Watching the Olympics I was also reminded of how incredibly stressful the Master’s exam can be for students, especially the theory exam where one sits across from a panel of examiners and faces incredibly difficult questions for the better part of an hour. For some students, especially those without an upper level academic background (as in college), the theory is the most difficult of the three segments of the overall exam. During the theory exam one must be able to keep a clear head in order to access memories of bits and pieces of information, some bordering on the insanely obscure. What happens if the student can’t find the answer to a question quickly or has to pass on several questions in a row? Odds are they might quickly go into overwhelm, a polite way of saying freak out. During one of these moments of fear/panic one has to be able to quickly reset and call up, for lack of a better word, courage.

I’ve come to believe that these reset moments can be incredibly valuable. The combination of being able to quickly clear one’s mind and then go into a maximum resource state adding a dash of courage/determination can be a huge difference maker. If that’s the case, can the strategies used by Olympic athletes described above also be used by us mere mortals for other purposes? The answer is a resounding yes. With that in mind, here’s a strategy based on the sequence mentioned above. It combines two powerful internal resource states in a quick and elegant sequence using eye positions and quality of focus as triggers. With practice and repetition, it will provide anyone with the necessary keys to access a top positive memory state as well as much-needed feelings of courage and determination.

Setting Up the Resource States

Technically we’ll be using anchoring and eye positions to access establish and two combine two powerful resource states. The states are:

1. Your happy place: the space/memory where you feel emotionally up, free, and remarkably focused.
2. Courage/determination:​ we’ll call it the “James Bond zone,” the space/memory where you feel as if nothing can stop you--and everyone else should really stay out of your way.

II. Your James Bond Zone*

Now we need to add a pinch of courage/determination/kick-ass to the recipe. To do so we need a second memory; a time when you were unstoppable and kicked the world’s ass, so to speak. If you can’t come up with one you can pretend to be Daniel Craig playing James Bond in the meme above.
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* The author wants to assure the reader that no small animals were harmed in the writing of this blog post. The author is further not condoning faux movie violence in any form. For the sake of transparency—and because people can take what they read entirely too literally—the author will of course note that there is no actual intention of harming anyone in the room. Capiche? Good. Moving on.

1. Go into your James Bond zone: think of that time when you were unstoppable. As with the first memory, see what you saw at the time, stand the way you stood, breathe the way you breathed, feel the way you felt. Make it strong! Really get there.
2. Freeze frame: note PRECISELY where you’re looking to access your memory/fantasy. Carefully note the exact location in space where you look to trigger the James Bond zone. Point to it in space so you know exactly where it is.
3. Disassociate: as before, once you have the precise location disassociate--look up then down; think about what you had for breakfast or what you’ll be having for dinner—anything but your Bond zone.
4. Return: now take a deep breath and move your eyes quickly back to that precise spot that puts you back into the James Bond zone. As for the memory itself, make the feeling even stronger. Double it! Once you really have it, disassociate again by looking around the room.
5. Add determination: once you have the exact location for the James Bond zone down, go back to it and while in the zone become aware of the two spots just beneath your eyes and intensify the feeling of determination while making your gaze a little firmer—the opposite of a soft, relaxed gaze.
6. Chin: lower your chin slightly and smile a bit while holding your eye position and maintaining the feeling of determination.
7. Phrase: end with saying a phrase to yourself. Two come to mind: “I’ve got this,” or, “Your ass is mine.” Or something like that. Be creative and find something that works for you. Remember, use your inside voice!
8. Practice: try looking around randomly and then suddenly and quickly snap back to that spot that triggers the Bond zone. Do this at least 10 times and remember to disassociate in between as completely as you can. Practice until you can quickly and easily zap back to your Bond zone.

III. Combining States

Now we’ll combine the two resource states:

1. First, take a deep relaxed breath and then quickly move your eyes to the location of your happy place. Really get into it and feel it as completely as possible.
2. Next move your eyes to the location of the Bond zone and feel the feelings of determination, etc. Become aware of the two points just beneath your eyes, lower your chin just a bit, smile, and say your internal phrase.
3. While keeping the feelings of the Bond zone move your eyes back to the happy place location.
4. Sequence and practice: go back and forth multiple times moving your eyes from one position to the other, linking both powerful resource states. 

IV. Two Places at Once

Once you’ve practiced linking the two states as described above it’s time to trigger the entire sequence quickly with the eyes alone and one location.

1. Take a deep, relaxed breath.
2. Look to the precise spot for your “happy place.”
3. Keeping your eyes in the happy place location, firm up the quality of your gaze, be aware of the two spots below your eyes, lower your chin a bit and smile, and say your internal phrase.
4. Disassociate!
5. Practice until you can quickly trigger the entire sequence in a few moments by simply looking to the “happy place” location changing your gaze and feelings to your Bond zone.

Coda

At some point in the not so distant future neurologists and/or neuro scientists will make big splashy headlines concerning findings about how important eye positions and patterns are to cognition, memory, and learning—even to our emotional states. And how we can even leverage our kids’ natural eye/thought patterns to make learning and memory far easier for them.
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But you read it here first. 

Two things I shared with my Dad were classical music and a love of great art. The first was a vital part of my life from fourth grade when I started playing the trumpet all the way into my mid-30’s. During that time there were two music degrees as well as a short career playing freelance classical trumpet in San Francisco. The second, my love of painting, goes all the way back to around 1960 when my Dad ordered a series of books called “Metropolitan Seminars in Art,” written by Robert Canaday and published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The set was comprised of 12 volumes each focused on a specific era or style of art. With the arrival of a new volume—each costing a whopping $4.09--my Dad and I would sit down together before bedtime to go through the book.

I have many memories of sitting with him looking at the reproductions of great paintings printed on thick glossy stock that accompanied each volume. I recall him saying dozens of times that this or that painting was “beautiful” or “gorgeous” or “amazing.” I also clearly remember him tell me emphatically, “this is important. Art is important. It’s one of the greatest things man has ever done.” Mind you, I didn’t connect with him on many levels so these two exceptions—music and art—quickly became near and dear. 

To this day ​I’m a huge fan of painting of any era from the 12th century on. Two favorites are Renaissance Italy and Impressionism. For Italy and the Renaissance the room at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence housing the Botticelli works is it. I’ve been there twice and it changed my life both times. But l’m also a huge fan of Impressionist painting. Last spring I was in Chicago for an event and spent a few hours at the Art Institute, one of the country’s great museums. It also houses one of the finest Impressionist collections outside of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
 
I love Impressionist art for how it represents nature and people in nature so subjectively, an enormous departure for painting at the time. With the use of remarkably beautiful colors and nuances of light and shadow, much of what is conveyed on the canvas is implied but not precisely depicted. The artist has left it up to the viewer to fill in the spaces internally and each of us does so uniquely and very subjectively. It’s as if Impressionism is the indirect communication of the art world.
 
Van Gogh’s work, “Starry Night,” completed in 1889, is the one painting that immediately comes to mind. Though technically Post-Impressionist, Starry Night continues to astound with its dramatic use of color, intensity of emotion, and almost shocking application of paint on the canvas. The creative energy that became Starry Night can only be described as electric. ​Looking at the work today we get the slightest glimpse into what was the tumult of Van Gogh’s inner world.

Your Brain on Music

Daniel Levitan is a Stanford-trained psychologist who also has a successful career as a recording engineer and producer. In his book, “This is Your Brain on Music,” he combines both disciplines to explore how the brain and our thought processes can be profoundly influenced by listening to music. He writes: 
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“Much of what we see and hear contains missing information. Our hunter gatherer ancestors might have seen a tiger partially hidden by trees, or heard a lion’s roar partly obscured by the sound of leaves rustling much closer to us. Sounds and sights often come to us as partial information that has been obscured by other things in the environment. A perceptual system that can restore missing information would help us to make quick decisions in threatening situations. Better to run now than sit and try to figure out if those two separate, broken pieces of sound were part of a lion’s roar.”
 
Levitan writes further that the great perceptual psychologist Hermann von Helmholz calls this process, “unconscious inference,” a way of saying that “what we hear and see is the end of a long chain of mental events that give rise to an impression, a mental image, of the physical world. Many of the ways in which our brains function—including our senses of color, taste, smell, and hearing—arose due to evolutionary pressures, some of which no longer exist.” 

Unconscious Inference and Tasting
 
What does Impressionism in art and unconscious inference in music have to do with wine? Good question. I’ve often thought about the role that expectation plays when looking at a glass of wine. How our memory of previous wines in terms of color, texture, and other aspects creates expectations when looking at a “new” glass of wine; literally how we fill in the blanks with a new glass of wine using previous information. I’ve also questioned the value of previous experience when looking at a new glass of wine. Should we allow previous memories to influence expectations? Or should we attempt to view each new glass of wine as a separate and unique experience without drawing on previous memories as a more accurate way to experience, much less assess?
 
Several years ago I had a long conversation with a good friend and industry colleague who said that she always tried to approach each wine as a totally new and unique experience; that she wanted at all costs to avoid judging a new wine based on previous experience. I respected her viewpoint but also immediately wondered if it was actually possible given the concept of unconscious inference mentioned above.
 
Personally I’m a firm believer in the value of previous experience when it comes to looking at a glass of wine. To a seasoned taster the simple act of tilting the glass forward to have a close look at a wine can—and should—build instant expectations with regards to a wide range of criteria; from possible grape variety to climate of origin to fruit character (fresh, dried, tart, etc.) and most importantly the structural elements including potential levels of acidity, alcohol, and tannin. For example, looking at a glass of red wine that’s lighter in color can build instant expectations in terms of a thinner-skinned grape variety grown in a cooler climate with red fruit dominating the palate and the structure of the wine offering less alcohol, higher natural acidity, and moderate tannins. 
 
No doubt that this is all far from hard science. One can always be surprised when actually smelling and tasting a wine when initial expectations aren’t met. But drawing from one’s previous experiences can be considerably useful in blind tasting practice and exams, not to mention mental/associative rehearsal of classic grapes and wines. Given that, here are four scenarios with possible expectations as well as thoughts on secondary colors in red wine and the potential information derived from the legs-tears.  

White wine scenario I

Light/pale color =

• Youth
• Possible cooler climate/vintage
• Possible anaerobic fermentation
• Lack of new oak aging
• Possible lighter body
• Possible less alcohol
• Possible ​higher natural acidity
• Tarter—less ripe—fruit quality

White wine scenario II 

Deep yellow or gold color =

• Warmer climate/riper vintage
• Oxidative winemaking/overall age
• Possible extended aging in new oak
• Possible botrytis
• Possible phenolic bitterness
• ​Possible higher alcohol
• Possible lower natural acidity with potential for acidulation
• Riper fruit quality

Red Wine Scenario I

Lighter Color =

• Thin skinned grape
• Cooler climate/vintage
• Less overall ripeness
• Red fruit dominant
• Possible higher natural acidity
• Possible lower alcohol
• Possible less overall tannin
• Possible more non-fruit elements

Red Wine Scenario II

Deeper color =

• Thicker skinned grape
• Warmer climate / vintage
• Dark fruit dominant
• More overall ripeness of fruit
• Possible less non-fruit elements (fruit-dominant wine)
• Possible higher alcohol
• Possible lower natural acidity with potential for acidulation
• Possible higher tannin
• Possible residual sugar
• Extreme cases: less varietal definition

Color of edge/rim in red wines:

Pink or purple color =

• Youth
• Lack of extending oak aging

Salmon/orange/yellow/brown =

• Age in barrel or bottle and/or oxidative winemaking
• Possible thin skinned varieties (i.e., Sangiovese, Pinot Noir, Nebbiolo, Grenache)

Legs/tears:
 
Quickly forming, thinner and quickly moving tears/legs =

• Lower alcohol
• Possible cooler climate
• Lack of residual sugar

Slower forming, thicker and slower moving tears/legs =

• Higher alcohol
• Warmer climate growing region
• Possible presence of residual sugar
• Higher dry extract

Staining of the tears in red wines =

• Thicker skinned grape
• Concentrated wine
• Possible warmer climate
• Higher dry extract

Recently I was in Washington D.C. to present at the annual Society of Wine Educator’s Conference. The night before I joined two friends for dinner at The Grill Room in the Rosewood Hotel. The Grill Room is a small, intimate dining room that seats about 60 featuring a seasonal menu created by Executive Chef Frank Ruta. The cooking was simply superb and no mystery there as Ruta’s resume spans over three decades in D.C., including stints as the executive sous chef at The White House during the Carter, Reagan, and Bush administrations. He’s also received top awards from the James Beard Foundation and Food & Wine Magazine. But the wine program is also outstanding. The list at The Grill Room is overseen by good friend and fellow MS, Keith Goldston.

As long as I’ve been in the business there is still really nothing like being taken care of by someone the caliber of Keith. His service was, for lack of a better word, flawless. As he described wine recommendations to us and moved around the table opening and serving bottles he effortlessly nailed the MS service standards from A to Z. It’s as if he’s been a sommelier all his life. In sense that’s true.

Keith has been on the floor for practically all his working career. Born and raised in Napa Valley, his first job at age fifteen was working in a small now long defunct Italian joint called Momma Nina’s. Then Keith somehow quickly parlayed that experience into getting on the staff at the dining room at Domaine Chandon. There under the tutelage of Daniel Shanks Keith got his first serious training in fine dining. Daniel Shanks may not be a household name, but it should be. Shanks has been on staff at the White House since the early ‘90’s and has served as assistant usher to four presidents and their respective administrations.

“Daniel was the one who really got it into my head that it’s really more than just food and wine,” said Keith. “That dining is an experience, that it’s something special. You should respect the guest and respect service in general. If you’re not there to do it right, don’t do it at all.”
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From Domaine Chandon Golston went to work at Masa’s in San Francisco in the early ‘90’s. In the span of four years he worked his way up from busser to captain—but not sommelier. During those four years there were two sommeliers on staff—the late Mike Bonacorsi, MS, and Burke Owens.

From Masa’s Keith went to Las Vegas to work at Spago and then Picasso in the Bellagio Resort. In 2000 he took time off to study for the MS exam. His efforts paid off; he passed all three parts of the exam on his first attempt in early 2001 becoming one of only 17 in the history of the Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas (CMS,A) to win the coveted Krug Cup.
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After passing the exam Keith went back to Las Vegas opening Aureole and Charlie Palmer Steak before moving to D.C. for the first time where he opened Charlie Palmer Steak D.C. In the last 10 years Keith consulted on various projects in the Bay Area and Los Angeles before returning to D.C. to open Chef Bryan Voltaggio’s restaurant, Range. Most recently he’s spent the last 18 months at The Grill Room revamping the program. 

End Game

My experience at The Grill Room and Keith’s superlative service made me think about recent movies and TV series concerning sommeliers and how they have affected the profession and more specifically the Court. I probably don’t need to document said movies or the TV series other than to say they have often portrayed individuals on the MS exam track.

The upside to all the publicity is obvious; increased public awareness of the MS program and exams not to mention the sommelier profession in general to the extent that in a short period of time anyone who watches TV now knows what a sommelier is and what they supposedly do. Granted that’s a huge upside and with it has come an increase in the numbers in MS classes and exams. How much of an increase? I asked Kathleen Lewis, the executive admin for the Court here in the U.S. and the one person who knows more about the organization than anyone, and she provided some figures. In the last five years the number of Introductory Courses offered in the U.S. has grown from 62 in 2011 to 98 scheduled for 2016 with the number students attending the courses during the same period rising by almost 40%.

At the Certified Sommelier Examination the numbers have also risen considerably, from 44 exams in 2011 to 62 scheduled for 2016. No surprise there’s also been an increase in student numbers during those five years. In fact, the number of students taking the Certified Exam has almost doubled during the same period. While the increase in class and student numbers is impressive and shouldn’t be dismissed in any way, I would hasten to add that the number of CMS,A classes and attendees has with little exception risen every year since 2001.

Is there a downside to all the media exposure and increased numbers? Perhaps. If anything, more non-industry people are taking MS classes than ever. While not a problem at the Introductory Course, it becomes a concern at the Certified Sommelier Examination with more non-restaurant industry people now taking the exam with little--if any—restaurant service experience. During the past 24 months I’ve examined attorneys, dentists, veterinarians, and finance industry professionals at my service table in Certified Exams. The common denominator? All of them lacked the necessary service skills and experience to be able to pass that portion of the exam. 

​While it’s certainly possible to study wine theory and practice tasting with the Certified Exam grid becoming proficient at both, proper wine service using the MS standards requires previous experience—especially under the duress of an exam. The basic skills of carrying a tray and opening a bottle of sparkling wine may seem simple and straight forward, but they must be practiced hundreds, if not thousands, of times until they become automatic--and that only comes with a duration of time spent working the floor of an actual restaurant. Keith Goldston, exhibit “A.”

If you think that I’m trying to ward off non-industry people interested in the MS program, think again. I’m simply reminding those interested in taking the exams that the MS title--and the entire program for that matter—is based on service in the restaurant industry and any success is directly tied to experience in said industry. It’s what separates the Court from the WSET program, the Master of Wine title, and practically every other wine certification organization.

It’s also important to remember that the Court is non-profit sommelier organization based in the restaurant-service-hospitality industry. Our mission and vision as an organization is to raise the status of the sommelier profession by training and examining sommeliers at the very highest level.
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I think we do it better than anyone.

During a follow up conversation to our dinner I asked Keith why he remained on the floor and hadn’t gone to other segments of the industry as so many Master Sommeliers have done. He joked that he was “allergic” to nine-to-five by this point in his life. He also said:

“There’s an honesty and authenticity to being on the floor. In our society there’s very few times where we get to impact people’s lives on a passionate level. I’m in a great situation in that I’m in a tiny little jewel of a dining room and have a real comfort zone which is my list. All of that definitely sets the table for success.”

And further:

“I don’t know if it’s Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point,” but for me the last 12-15 years of working service has brought a comfort level in that it doesn’t matter what the floor throws at me, I can handle it. Also the confidence that your list is your expression but not your ego, and it’s all about having the perfect wine for what the guest wants. For me that’s what is really fun; finding the right bottle that makes the night perfect for the guest. Sometimes that’s recommending a wine that you would never sit down and drink yourself. It’s a matter of making them feel great by finding the best bottle for that time.”

In the end I commend anyone setting out on the journey to become a top professional sommelier. It is anything but an easy one. The long hours, compensation, and ultimately years needed to gain enough experience can initially seem daunting. But the rewards in the form of unforgettable experiences, life-long friendships, and the camaraderie of sharing great wine and food at the table are a combination rarely found in any other profession. Ultimately though, it's all about service--the heart and soul of who we are and what we do.
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I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto (1848 – 1923) was an Italian engineer, economist, and philosopher. He made numerable contributions to economics and the social sciences in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1896 while at the University of Lausanne Pareto published his first paper called “Cours d’économie politique.” In the paper Pareto put forth the theory that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. The 80/20 ratio came to him from observing that 20% of the peapods in his garden produced 80% of the peas. Pareto went on to demonstrate how the 80/20 rule applied to the distribution of income and wealth among European nations. The 80/20 ratio became known as the “Pareto principle”as well as the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity. It’s widely written about and used today in business and multiple other fields. Tim Ferriss’ book, “The Four Hour Work Week,” is a perfect example.

Does the Pareto principle apply to wine? I believe it does in a very simple yet profound way. One of the major challenges for the beginning and novice taster (much less the more experienced student), is recognition and memory of a myriad of aromas and flavors found in wine, and connecting those aromas/flavors to specific grapes and styles of wine. I’ve come to believe that there are about two dozen aromas/flavors that appear in most wines. If that’s the case—and I’m calling the Pareto principle into play here—then developing a good working memory of the components in this subset would aid the beginner/novice immensely in navigating through any wine.
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I call these common aromas and flavors the Basic Set—the two dozen or so most common aromas and flavors found in a majority of all wines. I’ve found that working on one’s memory of these aromas can improve recognition of them in wine and ultimately improve one’s tasting ability, in some cases considerably. 

​Here are the components of the Basic Set, the aromas and flavors found in most wines. Keep in mind that the intent of the list is not to carve anything in stone but to merely serve as a vehicle for learning.  Thus the list and its components can always be altered as needed. 

White Wines:
 
 Green apple: acidic and also a bit tannic for me in terms of the texture of the skin; found in many white wines.

Red and/or yellow apple: huge difference between green and yellow apple; more sweetness, mealy texture, and less acid in the latter.

Pear: always lumped together with “apple” when describing white wines but dramatically different in terms of texture, flavor, and acidity.

Lemon: remarkably sour and for me the most acidic of all the citrus fruits. Think Chablis.

Lime: not as acidic as lemons. It’s hard for me to think of limes without seeing a huge bright image of them. More on that later. Makes me think of margaritas as well.

Orange: with orange my thinking moves away from many of the cooler climate wines (Chablis, Sancerre) and to semi-aromatic grapes like Albariño and Alsace Pinot Gris. And nothing rhymes with orange.

Pineapple: common tropical fruit found in Riesling and other semi-aromatic grapes.

Banana: ditto; Riesling, Muscat, Viognier, and other semi-and fully aromatic grapes. Also makes me think of carbonic maceration and Beaujolais Villages.
Peach: both white and yellow; Riesling, Muscat, Gewurztraminer, and others.

Apricot: same as above; also reminds me of various botrytis wines.

Red Wines:

Black cherry: the common denominator fruit for red wine—especially the Cabernet universe.

Blackberry: a touch more acidity than black cherry but still a common fixture in warm climate, thicker-skinner red grapes.

Sour red cherry: a fixture in cooler climate thinner-skinned grapes such as Pinot Noir and Sangiovese. Really sour and accompanied by high acidity and usually a complete lack of residual sugar. Think Burgundy and Chianti Classico.

Red raspberry: similar to red cherry but not as high in intensity—but still tart. Sonoma Coast and cool climate Australian/New Zealand Pinot Noir.  

Cranberry: sour and tannic both. Makes me think of young Nebbiolo.

Raisin/prune: important for recognizing grapes that ripen unevenly including Zinfandel and Syrah. Raisin and prune also make me think of Italian passito wines such as Amarone.

Non-Fruit:

Roses: one of my favorite aromas in the universe—and very commonly found in red wine.

Violets: a fixture in Cabernet family grapes/wines.

Mint/eucalyptus: one of the hallmarks of red wines from Australia and California to a lesser extent. Think Vick’s VapoRub.

Bell pepper (pyrazines): one of the most critical aromatics on the entire list. One simply must be able to recognize pyrazines in order to identify Sauvignon Blanc in one of many forms as well as Cabernet family red wines.

Black pepper/white pepper: like bell pepper above, a vitally important aromatic in both white (Grüner Veltliner) and red wines (Syrah, Zinfandel, and more).

Oak Indicators:

Vanilla: like pyrazines for Sauvignon Blanc, it’s vital for the student to be able to recognize oak usage in any wine much less then difference between oak and phenolic bitterness in white wine. Vanilla is the most common oak aroma and much stronger in American oak vs. French or other kinds of oak.

Cinnamon: another common oak aroma/flavor in white or red wines and the result of the barrel having been toasted over an open flame. Think Red Hots candy.

Cloves: similar to above. Makes me think of mulled wine.                                   
Toast: other than vanilla the most common oak aromatic. Think … toast!      
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Inorganic and Organic Earth:

Chalk: a common mineral aroma/flavor found in classic cool climate European whites including Chablis and Sancerre.
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Mushroom & forest floor: makes me think of any number of classic Old World wines including red Burgundy, Bordeaux, Brunello di Montalcino and many more. 

Using the Basic Set

That’s the list. Work on your memory of all of the above and your ability to recognize any of the aromas/flavors in a glass of wine will improve dramatically. But how? Odds are as you read through the list just now you brought up internal images in your mind’s eye of your own life memories as a way to recall each aroma. I’ve written many times previously in the blog that olfactory and taste memory are highly visual. We shouldn’t be surprised at the image/olfactory connection. After all, we learn practically everything else visually. But it’s still a disconnect for most beginning students because the image/smell memory connection is not widely written about much less taught. Most people arrive at it unconsciously after a great deal of repetition and are completely unaware of how they remember given smells and tastes. Now you know.

Exercise

To work on your memory of the components of the Basic Set we’ll use the natural image/smell memory connection and submodalities--the structure of your internal images. To do so we’ll use your memories of the following aromas/flavors:

• Fruit:
  • Lemon
  • Lime
  • Green apple
• Non-Fruit
  • Roses
  • Vanilla
  • Mushroom/earth

With each of the aromas above take the internal image and intensify the memory by do the following:

a. Make the image (or movie) larger
b. Make the image closer
c. Make the colors brighter
d. Intensify any taste/flavor memory associated with the memory by making the fruit or whatever sweeter, more sour, more bitter etc.

Practice! A bit of repetition can dramatically improve your memory of the basic aromas/flavors and as well as enable you to recognize even trace amounts in a glass of wine.

More on the Basic Set

I wrote an entire post on the Basic Set some time ago with more detailed instructions and exercises. It can be found at:

http://www.timgaiser.com/blog/the-beginning-taster-challenges-and-strategies-part-ii-tools-for-developing-olfactory-and-taste-memory
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Bravo Pareto!

I remember very little about my first attempt at the Master’s tasting exam and for good reason: it was monumentally, epically bad. I crashed and burned to the extent that I can’t remember anything about it, even who the examiners were sitting across the table from me. It was as if I didn’t have a clue about how to taste consistently much less any frame of reference for using the grid. Every wine seemed different because my approach was anything but consistent. 

​But I’m getting ahead of myself. 

​I didn’t grow up with wine. I was raised in a big Catholic family where wine was non-existent. Fine dining and wine in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the 1960’s and ‘70’s were about as remote as the Dog Star. My parents drank nothing but bourbon and coke. Wine would never have worked because much stronger water was needed to raise six kids in a chaotic household. I didn’t find wine until I was in my mid-twenties in grad school. No surprise that passing the Master’s tasting exam is arguably the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.

I did manage to pass the theory and service portions of the exam that first year and then spent the entire next year doing nothing but working on my tasting, spending thousands of dollars out of pocket on bottles that I tasted repetitively but rarely drank. I also had the great fortune to be in a group with several people who were remarkably good tasters: Peter Granoff, Steve Morey, and the late Michael Bonacorsi. All three would pass the exam within two years and become Masters--two of them with me. Without their help and support on days when nothing worked, I never would have passed. The power of group dynamics can and should never be underestimated.

Several days before that second exam I came down with a horrible head cold; the kind of cold that completely wipes out your sense smell and taste. Nothing I did or took cleared up my sinuses. I remember driving down to Monterey, site of the exam, feeling every level of fear and panic known to man as I considered the possibility of an entire year’s work wasted because of a cold. Out of desperation I began to “rehearse” every possible classic wine I thought could be on the exam. I spent the entire trip down and hours afterwards in my hotel room mentally going through the grid with different wines thinking of the best possible examples of each I had ever tasted; talking through them out loud, seeing, smelling, and tasting them as if I were in an actual exam. That night in desperation to free up my cold I took Sudafed not knowing how much caffeine it contained. As a result, I couldn’t sleep at all but at least one side of my nose was working the next morning.

Like the year before I don’t remember much about that second exam but for an entirely different reason. I do recall walking into the room, shaking everyone’s hand, being read the rules of engagement, and then the clock starting. From there the only things I remember about my 25 minutes were starting the first wine and finishing the sixth wine shortly before time was called. In between the wines felt exactly the same as all the rehearsal I’d done in the car and in my room the day before. It was if I had dropped into a tasting “trance” for the 25 minutes because I remember so little about it. After finishing, I got up, shook everyone’s hand again, and left knowing immediately I had screwed up wine four and should have called it Northern Rhône Syrah. But I also felt I’d done well enough to pass.
​
I had.

The Law of 10,000

In his book Outliers author Malcolm Gladwell states that it takes 10,000 hours to master something.

I think he’s wrong.

I think it takes 10,000 times doing something—consciously—to master it. For me the combination of a year’s worth of tasting practice with the repetition of thinking and talking through the grid literally thousands of times made the difference. Years later I realized something else had changed the because of all the mental/associative rehearsal the day before the exam. Through so much repetition the tasting grid went from being external, as in something on paper in front of me to be read and memorized, to something ever-present internally in my mind’s eye. Literally, the grid went inside. I had used it so many times that it became automatic meaning that I always did it the same way so I wouldn’t leave out aspects of a given wine—and valuable points on the table. More importantly, I always knew what was next. I can’t stress how vital that is. In my internal IMAX theater, the grid became the size of a billboard; any time I even thought about it, it was there like a huge gameshow board. It’s been there ever since.

The purpose in relating my experiences with the two tasting exams is not to say that I’m a great taster. Far from it. For me the belief of being a “great taster” is simply not useful. Adopt that belief and the universe will be all too happy to instantly show you someone who’s a better taster than you are. Count on it. My belief about my tasting is that I’m exceptionally good at analyzing and assessing wine—and doing it consistently. For me that’s a much more useful belief; it’s open ended and definitely win-win. In thinking about my experience of the two exams—which were like night and day—I have multiple take aways:

Learning visually; practically all of us are visual-dominant creatures internally. The most effective learning strategies for all but a few are visual in the form of images and movies. Take away that critical visual component and most of us are lost and will fail at learning even basic skills.

The rule of 10,000; the 10,000 rule applies but with an important caveat: it’s not 10,000 hours but doings something 10,000 times with considerable awareness and sensory acuity—as in really paying attention to what the hell you’re doing as well as measuring your progress consistently.

Outside in; one must use a learn and memorize a sequence—in this case the MS tasting grid—to be consistent enough in order to master a skill. In the beginning that sequence is usually written and has to be memorized by repetition on a grand scale. Not so easy with the MS grid as there over 40 components to it. It takes a great deal of practice and work to even memorize the grid, much less master it. It took me a solid year and thousands of repetitions to do just that.
​
Associative rehearsal and memory: the tasting exam is all about memory, specifically olfactory and palate memory. Improving your memory has little, if anything, to do with physically having a glass of wine in hand. I’m convinced that students at the Master’s level need to “own” wines; they need to be able to mentally call up the complete experience of a classic wine—as in how it looks, smells, tastes and feels on the palate—on command.  

Strategy

I recommend anyone preparing for a tasting exam regularly make time to mentally mock up a flight of six classic wines and talk through the wines out loud using the grid just like an examination. During this “rehearsal” see a large version of grid out in front of you. The intent is to use it the same way for every wine. From there it’s all about remembering and experiencing each wine as completely and intensely as possible; seeing the wine clearly in your mind’s eye, smelling it completely and vividly, tasting it fully and confirming elements from the nose and calibrating the structural elements accurately, then nailing the conclusion while feeling really confident.

Practicing talking through wines out loud helps connect your memories to what’s in the glass in front of you. It also builds your inner comfort zone in terms of using the language of the grid and speaking aloud in front of examiners. But more than anything, repeated practice of associative rehearsal with tasting guarantees that at some point the grid will go inside and be there even under the stress of an actual exam.

I can’t recommend practicing with associative rehearsal strongly enough. So much of the tasting exam is about having confidence with one’s own internal experience, sensitivity, calibration, and memory.  This is a great way to improve them all--and easily.

Summing Up

1. Always use a visual component when learning anything: with tasting it’s a grid, be it the MS grid, WSET grid, or whatever.

2. The rule of 10,000: as in times and not hours. If it’s 10,000 hours you’re wasting your time and otherwise not paying attention to what you’re doing. Sorry, Malcolm.

3. Outside in: repeat the sequence—the grid--until it goes inside and you can always see it internally. That may take a while and, oh yes, the 10,000 times thing definitely may apply here. The bottom line: when using the grid, you need to always know what’s next.

4. Associative rehearsal: practice “tasting” without wines 10 times more than you actually physically taste. For each classic grape/wine use your memories of the best bottle of said grape/wine you’ve ever tasted. Do it a lot.

And then do it some more.

Good friend Diana Hamann owns a wine shop in Evanston, IL, called The Wine Goddess. It’s the quintessential neighborhood shop with a thoughtful, well-chosen, and value-guided selection. But beyond the bottles on the shelf the ever-charming and gregarious Diana has done a great job building a sizeable, close-knit community that hangs out at her place for tastings, live music events, and more. After several years of trying to line up the stars with my travel schedule I finally had the chance to do a tasting class at her place a few months ago. There were about 30 people in the group—all non-industry consumers—and we had a great time. Throughout the session there were lots of questions and I was surprised at some of them; not so much that they were about wine basics but more that some of the questions were about things in general that we in the industry take for granted.

After the class I stuck around for a glass (or two) of bubbly and to chat with Diana and her staff. When I mentioned my thought about the some of the questions they agreed and went on for a long time about the questions they constantly fielded and the woes of the beginning taster/consumer in general. In the end I asked Diana to send me a list of the most frequently asked questions. She did and I answered them; more than a few are included in this post.

After finishing the list I thought about how the wine industry is a never-ending series of reality checks. These questions are a big one and remind me of how difficult it is to start the wine journey—and how much there is to know and learn. It also reminds me of how important empathy is on the part of us as teachers and professionals when we deal with the public. With that, read on!
 
Beginning Taster FAQ's

Q: How do you swirl the glass without looking like an idiot/swishing wine all over the place?
A: Start by keeping your glass on the table and swirling it in place. Once you’ve got that down you’ll feel more comfortable holding the glass in the air and swirling it. BTW, if you’re right-handed it’s easier to swirl the glass counter-clockwise; left-handers should try swirling the glass clockwise.

Q: How do you spit without being totally gross?
Ah yes, the spitting dilemma. Doing it gracefully takes practice. If you’re just getting into wine and at a public tasting, hold the spit cup close to your face and spit slowly and evenly. If you have to use a “bucket” of sorts get close to it and then let it fly—but again, evenly and slowly. Practice spitting at home over the kitchen sink using water. With a bit of repetition you’ll be a pro in no time.

Q: How long should I take to taste the wine? I don’t want to waste the sommelier’s time but I don’t want to glug down my wine either. What’s the line between thorough tasting and obnoxiousness?
A: When the sommelier or server opens the bottle and pours you a taste, smell the wine to see if it’s off and then taste it to make sure it’s OK and not flawed. Once you’ve done that gesture for the server/sommelier to pour for the table. If for any reason the wine is off by all means let them know—politely. Otherwise, remember you’re not tasting the wine to see if you like it. After all, you chose the wine. Above all, check the wine quickly—and elegantly—without making a huge show of it. To do otherwise is to look like a tool in front of everyone in the immediate vicinity. 

Q: Should I rinse my wine glass out after each pour, or is OK to mix the last drops of one wine with the new pour?
A: Good question with several answers: if tasting all white wines or all red wines you don’t need to rinse the glass between wines. If you’re moving from white wines to red wines, you also don’t need to rinse. However, if you’re tasting red wines first and then white wines you should rinse the glass or you’ll be creating a rosé. Finally, if you’ve just tasted a dessert wine and are moving back to a dry wine by all means rinse the glass.

Q: How many different names does Pinot Noir (or any other grape) have? What does France, Italy, etc., call it?
A: Any of the top grape varieties are grown in multiple places around the world and thus are locally called by different names. Pinot Noir is no exception and known as Pinot Nero in Italy and Spätburgunder in Germany and Austria.

Q: How many different grapes are there?
A: If we’re talking about vitis vinifera—the species of grapes that makes all fine wines—then the number is well over 1,000 even though we only see wines made from a fraction of them. But know there are many different species of grapes of which practically none other than vitis vinifera make fine wines.

Q: Why does everyone smell or taste wine differently? Is there a “correct” interpretation of each wine?
A: Everyone’s life memories of aromas and flavors found in wine are different and thus everyone will react differently to the same wine. There is no “correct” interpretation of any one wine for reasons just stated. Your opinion of a wine is what matters most.

Q: I don’t know anything about wine! How can I get better at wine tasting?
A: Practice! Go to tastings lead by someone in the industry who’s knowledgeable. Form your own tasting group—it’s a great way to learn. Also enjoy wine with dinner regularly and make sure you “taste” the first bit out of the glass before drinking. Above all, be patient as becoming a proficient taster is a process and doesn’t happen overnight.  

Q: What’s does it mean to be a dry wine? As opposed to wet? 
A: The word “wet” never applies to wine. After all, wine is a liquid—like water. So strike the word “wet” from any thoughts about wine unless you’ve just spilled your glass. A dry wine is one without residual sugar as opposed to a dessert wine that’s sweet. If you’re not sure, taste a dry white wine like a Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc next to a fully sweet dessert wine. You’ll get the difference quickly.

Q: Is every tannic wine dry? Is every dry wine tannic? 
A: No and no. Ports, sweet sherries, and certain other late harvest wines can be fully dessert sweet and yet be aged in oak and have considerable tannin. Conversely there any number of sweet wines that aren’t aged in oak and therefore not tannic. Remember, tannin comes from either grape skins (red grapes) or barrels used for aging. Finally, there are plenty of non-tannic white wines that are very dry.

Q: What are the best online/print resources for beginners interested in learning more about wine?
Good question! An excellent place to start is winefolly.com. Madeline Pukette and crew do a great job covering the basics in an easy to understand manner. Beyond that, the best online source for learning about wine—by far—is the Guild of Sommeliers website: guildsomm.com. The Guild is an educational foundation and costs $100 per year to join. But if you’re really serious about learning this is the place. Otherwise, for books I recommend the following:

• The Wine Folly Essential Guide to Wine, by Madeline Puckette
• Wine: A Tasting Course, by Marnie Old
• The Wine Bible, by Karen MacNeil

Q: Am I obligated to buy wine after doing a wine tasting?
A: The answer is no with a caveat: if a retailer or winery tasting room person has poured you a taste of a wine or two by no means are you obligated to buy anything. However, if you’ve been included in a tasting of multiple wines—as in more than 4-6 wines—then it would be a nice gesture to buy a bottle or two. If in doubt, buy a bottle unless you think it’s too expensive for your immediate budget. Worst case scenario you have some wine you’ve tasted to enjoy at home with family or friends. That’s not a bad thing.

Q: Why do you taste wines in a certain order?
There’s a method to the madness here: it’s easier to taste dry wines before sweet wines. Residual sugar in dessert wine usually skews one’s ability to accurately assess dry wines tasted after. Red wines are also usually tasted after whites because the latter have more intensity and usually have tannin and oak. Unoaked whites—or reds—are also tasted before oaked wines for exactly the same reason.

Q: Will keeping a “tasting notebook” be useful to help me learn about tasting wine?
A: Yes—absolutely. Taking notes of the wines you taste will make it far easier to remember them at a later date. Remember that a large part of becoming a better taster is improving your memory and keeping notes will only make that easier. BTW – your “notebook” can be an iPad or even a laptop.

Q: What is the difference between New World and Old World wines? What counts as “New World” vs. “Old World”? How are domestic wines different?
A: Actually an easy answer to this question. Generally speaking, Old World denotes wines from Europe and New World the wines non-European places/countries as in where grape vine cuttings were transported by ship from Europe and planted somewhere else. New World countries would include North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, and to an extent South Africa.

As for differences, with a multitude of exceptions New World wines tend to be fruiter (NOT sweeter!) and higher in alcohol with the use of oak more common. Old World wines tend to be producer in cooler climates, have less fruit and alcohol, higher acidity and aged in oak less often. Again, there are many exceptions.

Q: Is there a difference between being a winemaker and a wine producer?
A: The terms are often interchangeable but winemaker tends to denote a single person who actually makes the wine while the term wine producer can also be used in place of winery.

Q: What are appellations? Are they in Appalacia?
A: Where is Appalacia? Is it near Andalasia? Appellations are place names—either historic, geographical, or both--where wine is made.

Q: What are varietals?
A: Varietal is the term used for wine made from a single grape variety like Chardonnay and Merlot. There are dozens of fine wine grapes that are bottled as single “varietal” wines.

Q: What does it mean for a wine to be organic?
A good question that has more than one answer: it’s important to understand the different between farming a vineyard organically and making wine organically. Most vineyards used for fine wine production are farmed organically in that pesticides and fungicides are not used in the vineyard. Making wine organically means not adding sulfur or other additives during the winemaking process.

Know that SO2 is a valuable preservative and necessary to make good wine; I’ve almost never tasted a wine I would consider good that didn’t have sulfur added. That especially goes for natural wines. Is a wine made from organic fruit or made organically better than not? Not always the case as the best fruit from a top vineyard can get completely screwed up in the winery by an inept winemaker.

Q: Why are wine distributors and wine importers so important? What do they do? What is the difference between them?
A: U.S. law requires alcoholic beverages to go through a three-tiered system of producer—distributor—seller. The system is a hold over, a condition if you will, for the repeal of prohibition. Originally it was created to prevent any single entity from creating a monopoly which hasn’t worked as a handful of large distributors in fact control over 90% of the market.

Wine distributors—and there are fewer of them as time goes on due to consolidation—purchase wine from wineries and importers and sell to restaurants, retail shops, and grocery stores—who in turn sell to consumers. Importers are licensed to source and import wine, beer, and spirits from regions/markets outside the U.S. In some states such as California they can act as their own distributor and sell direct to restaurants, shops, and grocery stores. But that’s not always the case as the laws are different in every state. Importers primarily sell to distributors.

Q: If I find a wine at a restaurant and want to find it retail, how do I go about this?
A: First suggestion is to use your phone to take pictures of the front and back labels. From there go on winesearcher.com to learn where the wine is being sold near you. 

Q: What’s all the buzz about sulfites? Do these wines have them?
A: Good to clarify this one: all wines have sulfites. Period. Sulfites are a by-product of fermentation and therefore in every wine (beer and cider as well). U.S. law, always erring on the side of the minuscule demographic, requires wineries to post a sulfites warning on the label of any wine that contains more than 10 parts per million sulfites. Know that every wine, with the exception of a few so-called natural wines, has more than the mandated minimum.

Let’s get something clear. There is nothing wrong with sulfites in wine. There are exponentially more sulfites in frozen foods, salad greens, and dried fruit than will ever be found in wine. Winemakers need to add SO2 to wine to stabilize it. As a winemaker once told me, “You keep food at home in a refrigerator; we use SO2 to preserve wine.” Enough said.

Q: Why do wines cause headaches? Hives? Red neck rashes, Etc.?
A: I think it’s called drinking too much wine. The hives, rashes, flushed face, etc. could be an issue with histamines in which case taking an antihistamine before enjoying wine would do the trick. And not drinking so much.

Q: Is the second to the last wine on a wine list the best one to order? 
A: This is a new one to me. There’s no truth to the rumor. To be filed under urban myths next to rats as large as Fiats living in the New York sewers.

Q: Do all wines have wineries behind them that you can visit? 
A: No, only a small percentage of all wines produced actually have a working winery/tasting room that’s set up to receive visitors. If in doubt, go online and look at the winery’s website to find out if they do tours and can receive visitors.

Q: Are vintages important? I don’t have time to learn all the good vintages. How do I know which vintages are good on a wine list?
A: Two good questions: first, yes, vintages can be important especially in regards to European wines where weather patterns can vary dramatically from year to year. Not the same in New World countries/regions (California, Australia, etc.) where vintages are more consistent. That being said, I agree that it’s tough to keep on vintages with so many wine producing regions. But your smart phone can be a quick help in terms of googling X-vintage Bordeaux, etc.

​Restaurants by and large carry current release wines simply because practically none have the resources or space to store wine long term. That’s a challenge for diners as it means many of the red wines are young, tight, and tannic. If that’s the case decanting the wine (and paring with the right dish) can mitigate the problem. Finally, if in doubt, ask for the buyer or sommelier to get their advice on which bottle to enjoy with dinner. 

Q: Do I have to decant every wine?
The quick answer is no. But as Inigo Montoya once said, “let me sum up.” One decants wine for the following reasons:

• To separate sediment from older red wines
• To aerate young red wines (and sometimes white wines)
• To raise the temperature of a red wine stored in a cold cellar (a huge problem for many of us…)
• Because it looks cool

 
So if you find yourself face with any of the potentially calamitous prospects above, by all means decant the wine.

Q: Why do I taste Sauvignon Blanc as “sweet” when wine professionals say it’s bone dry?
A: This sounds like an issue of calibrating your palate. First, let’s not confuse sweetness—as in residual sugar—with fruitiness. It’s very common to find white wines that are very fruity but dry, even bone dry. If you taste a wine and are tempted to call it sweet, ask yourself if it’s sweet enough to have with a full-on dessert at the end of the meal. Odds are it’s not. Remember, fruitiness is not sweetness. Also remember that the true measure of a wine’s dryness/sweetness is the finish or after taste.

Q: What does oak smell like? 
A: When we describe oak in a given wine we’re actually describing how the oak barrels were treated to prepare them for use in fermenting or aging wine. The inside of barrels used for wine is toasted for varying periods of time over an open flame resulting in a set of aromas and flavors in the finished wine including vanilla, baking spices (clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.), coffee, tea, chocolate, smoke, toast, and more. If you smell any of these aromas in a wine you’re probably smelling the results of oak aging.

Q: “I can’t smell what you’re smelling” (people often say as their noses are a good twelve inches from the glass…)
A: First, make sure you have your nose in or very close to the opening of the glass so you can actually smell something. Otherwise it’s a pointless exercise. Then consider the following: everyone’s life memories of aromatics found in wine—be it lime, peach, vanilla or whatever—are completely different. No surprise then that everyone’s impressions and reactions to a given wine will be different.

Q: Why do 22-year-old Somms hate oak so much?
A: I don’t think it has anything to do with age. Too much oak can easily dominate a wine making it one dimensional. Add that the fact that we sommelier types tend to obsess about terroir and place in wine and many of the most terroir-driven wines are not aged in oak. German Riesling is a perfect example. It's a very transparent wine in that there is little winemaking influence to it but lots of earth/mineral character.

Q: Why do 22-year-old Somms love natural wine so much? 
A: A very good question! Every new generation of wine professionals attempts to make its mark in the industry with something new and different. So-called natural wine—even though the concept is millennia old—seems to be the trend with the current generation of young sommeliers.

Q: What is a natural wine and should I care?
A: Natural wine is very loosely defined as wine made from grapes farmed organically/sustainably and made without the addition of sulfur dioxide or other additives during the winemaking process. Natural wines are also made using old, even ancient, methods such as using amphora for the fermentation/aging vessel. That said you should know that using SO2—sulfur—during winemaking is necessary to stabilize the wine and prevent it from spoilage and other microbial issues. The end result? I have never—that is NEVER—tasted a natural wine I considered hygienically clean and well-made much less that I would enjoy drinking a glass of. Should you care about natural wines? It’s completely up to you. 

​Q: What’s a sommelier? Does one have to pass a test to become a sommelier?
A: By definition anyone running a beverage program and serving wine in a restaurant is a sommelier—and that doesn’t require a test of any sort. That being said there are sommelier organizations in the U.S. and around the world that train and certify sommeliers. The Court of Master Sommeliers is the most well-known and respected. 

They're something every serious wine geek owns but rarely, if ever, mentions to outsiders. No one would understand. We take pains to transport them great distances home only to store them on dark, dusty shelves. In my case some live in a basket in my living room but most are tucked away in an old cardboard box in the garage. What are these mysterious things? Rocks. That’s right, rocks.

Aside from a geologist whose livelihood is completely dependent on all things subterranean, no other profession I can think of involves a compulsive desire to collect rocks, even dirt. But wine geeks do exactly that. When on the road in some distant wine locale your average wine geek will reach down to scoop up bits of soil and rocks of varying sizes (sometimes ludicrously large) only to deposit them (rock joke) into jeans pockets and backpacks ultimately to be hidden in luggage to make the long trek home.
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Why rocks? Better yet, why would anyone in their right mind drag a bunch of rocks thousands of miles home in their suitcase? There is no one answer. Once in the deep end of the pool wine geeks can and often do get a bit carried away--even compulsive--about the great wine places they visit. A rock from an important region can be a powerful connection to a time and place where hopefully one really “gets” a wine. And for many wines there is no more meaningful symbol of place than the rocks that make up part of the physical landscape. In effect, a single rock can be a very effective memory and learning device. 

I’m also convinced there are wines and regions that one can never truly understand unless one actually spends time in said place; that unless you physically stand in the vineyard with a glass of wine in hand you’ll never fully get the place much less the wine. Jerez and Sherry are a perfect example as are Burgundy and obviously Germany. A lot of it has to do with looking at the ground not to mention the aspect of the vineyard, the region’s altitude (Mendoza, anyone?), the intensity of sunlight, and so on. Rocks once again are front and center. 

I clearly remember my MS Introductory Course in March of 1990, the second such class ever taught in the U.S. At the time pterodactyls still roamed the sky and primitive man was first starting to decant for aeration purposes. I digress. During the Burgundy lecture Brian Julyan, head of the UK chapter of the Court, passed around a sizable chunk of limestone he pilfered from the Le Clos vineyard to illustrate the terroir of Chablis. He accompanied the limestone chunk with a photo of the slope in Chablis that is home to all the Grand Cru vineyards, then went on to emphasize certain points about the unique minerality of Chablis vis–à–vis its soil using typed notes on an overhead projector. That’s right, an overhead projector. I wasn’t kidding about the pterodactyls.
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In a recent post I put forth the notion that certain ancient vineyards—as in vineyards that are centuries, even millennia old—could be considered sacred spaces. By that I mean vineyards whose history and singularity qualify them as world heritage sites and beyond. I feel strongly about this. Take the Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyard in the Mosel which has been cultivated sans interruption for over 2,000 years. Rieslings from the Sonnehuhr site with its bluish gray Devonian slate formed over 150 million years ago are arguably the most delicate and refined of all the wines produced in the Middle Mosel. The “soil” which is composed entirely of crumbling slate, is not only a major factor of the vineyard’s history but a vital part of the wine’s character as well.

Like others I have my own collection of rocks. Here is a trio—and their stories--from my personal collection. All hold great significance and wonderful memories for me.

I. Santorini and Volcanics: Paris Sigalas and His Remarkable Assyrtikos

September, 2006; the legendary MS tour of Greece. Ten days of seeing literally every part of the country that has anything to do with wine; an average four-plus hours a day in a van driven by a young Greek lad who wore the same synthetic disco shirt the entire trip thereby redefining the concept of localized terroir. The highlight of highlights was visiting the island of Santorini, surely one of the most beautiful spots on the planet. On the windier leeward side of the island Paris Sigalas and his crew tirelessly care for old Assyrtiko vines that are pruned close to the ground into round basket-like shapes called ampellari. I have a vivid memory of our group standing in the late afternoon sun with Sigalas and his winemaker. Paris repeatedly mentions the terroir pointing at the ground which is covered with a proliferation of volcanic rocks of every kind including chunks of whitish pumice so light in the hand they’re almost weightless. We head back to the winery to taste verticals of oaked and un-oaked Assyrtiko. The experience is revelatory. Sigalas’ unoaked Assyrtiko is one of a kind because of its great depth and richness with considerable alcohol—often up to 14.5%--balanced by ferociously high natural acidity. But the hallmark of all his wines is the minerality which is completely off the charts. There probably is no better example of volcanic minerality in any wine made anywhere. On the palate the mineral quality is so incredibly strong it feels grainy like black pepper—minus the black pepper. I took several rocks from the vineyard and they live in the basket in my living room. Today when I hold them for a few seconds I’m instantly transported back that late afternoon bathed with golden Mediterranean sunlight standing in Sigalas’ vineyard looking at the arid, windswept vines in their odd basket shapes. I can smell and taste his exotic Assyrtiko as vividly as if I was actually there. The feeling is remarkable.

II.The Middle Mosel and Slate: Electric Rieslings from the Bernkasteler Doctor 

May, 2002; my third trip to the Mosel. It’s early evening and the fourth and last winery stop for the day. By now the residual sugar and intensely high acidity from dozens of wines has managed to fry the palate of everyone in the group including mine. Since early morning we’ve been tasting wines from the superb 2001 vintage that’s just been put in bottle. But the best of the day was saved for last. We’re visiting Weingut Wegeler in Bernkastel with winemaker Norbert Breit as our host. After meeting us at the small winery just off a narrow cobblestone street in the village we’ve taken the steep and winding drive hundreds of feet above the river to the very top of the legendary Doctor vineyard. Breit pulls a newly minted bottle of 2001 Doctor Spätlese from his leather bag, opens, and pours. From there he really doesn’t need to say anything else. Wines from the Doctor vineyard, widely considered the best in the Mosel and easily in the top five in all of Germany, are known for their remarkable concentration, precision, and opulence. The 2001 doesn’t disappoint. It’s one of the greatest young German Rieslings I’ve ever tasted. Standing on shifting dark slate I looked down the perilously steep slope with the tiny village below and the river snaking away in the bright late afternoon sunlight. Then I reached down to pick up a chunk of dark slate that is somewhere between a large paperweight and a primitive weapon in size only to take another sip of the utterly delicious Riesling. It’s nectar of the gods. Vineyard-wine connection made; game, set, match. 

​III. Red Hills AVA and Obsidian: The Future of California Cabernet?

In early May of this year I spent time in Lake County with Bob Bath, MS. It was my first visit there in many years and I was quickly reminded of how unique the place is. Clear Lake is not only the oldest lake in California but also its largest body of fresh water. The average vineyard elevation is over 2,000 feet, easily the highest in California. That puts the area’s vineyards on course to be later for everything including flowering, bud break, véraison, and harvest. The combination of wide diurnal shift, high elevation, intense UV sunlight, and mineral-laden soils makes for wines of exceptional purity of fruit, high acidity, and—dare I say it—pronounced terroir.

Lunch the first day of our tour was hosted by Andy Beckstoffer at his vineyard house. Beckstoffer needs no introduction. One could argue that he is the most influential individual in California viticulture over the last several decades. The Beckstoffer name is closely associated with some of the industry’s top wines and vineyards. Over ten years ago Beckstoffer became convinced of the potential of Red Hills. He was the force behind the AVA’s genesis and made considerable investment in the area to the tune of 1,200 acres under vine all planted to Cabernet. To meet him we drove through dozens of acres of Red Hills Cabernet where the soil is a bright reddish-brown and littered with countless pieces of obsidian ranging in size from pebbles to a Fiat 500.

Before lunch Beckstoffer sets up a blind tasting of a half dozen Cabernets, 50/50 from Napa Valley/Red Hills. We quickly taste and take notes. When the wines are revealed the Napa bottlings are generally more polished but the Red Hills wines more than make up for it with an intense mid-palate mineral quality, something I infrequently experience in California Cabernet. Other common denominators for the Red Hills wines include intense varietal fruit, high natural acidity, restrained alcohol, and the just-mentioned tsunami of stone-mineral quality. My conclusion? With a few notable exceptions the winemaking isn’t quite there, but the raw material is exceptional—even world-class. It’s only a matter of time. 

April 2011 at the Advanced tasting exam in Anaheim. Several minutes into her exam the student from Colorado did something that got my attention; she stopped--completely stopped. After smelling the second wine in the flight of six she placed her glass on the table, put both hands in her lap, and looked down. She picked up the glass again and smelled the wine for a second time while looking up at the ceiling. Then she put the glass down yet again and her hands went back into her lap. It was obvious that she was confused by the second wine and precious seconds of the 25 minutes allotted for her exam were slipping away in silence.
 
Just moments before she’d been in a groove, describing the first wine of the flight perfectly without missing a single descriptor, nailing the conclusion with confidence. It was then I began to notice a pattern taking shape: when picking up the glass to smell the first wine she first looked down and to her left. As she described what she was smelling she rested her left arm on the table in front of her with her hand raised, fingers extended. But with the second wine everything changed. Her initial poise vanished and she struggled to come up with anything, leaving out key details on the nose and structure of the wine costing her valuable points. Suddenly, after several long minutes had gone by she put the glass down and uttered quiet but emphatic, “no!” She then took a deep breath and started over, this time repeating the body language she had used with the first wine: eyes down left as she smelled the wine and left arm extended out in front of her as she described it. The effect was immediate and dramatic: her focus, self-confidence, and precision returned. From that point on she maintained the pattern of eye and hand movements. Needless to say, she powered through the rest of the flight and easily passed the exam.
 
After she left the room I sat back in my chair somewhat stunned. I had been grading tasting exams for years but rarely bothered to look up and watch someone while they tasted because I was always so focused on scoring. This was a huge wake-up call. Could there really be a connection between eye positions and expertise/success in tasting?

The Theory of Eye-Accessing Cues
 
The answer to this question may lie in a phenomenon called eye-accessing cues. American psychologist William James first hypothesized a relationship between eye movements and internal representation in his 1890 work, Principles of Psychology. But it wasn’t until the 1970's that John Grinder and Richard Bandler at U.C. Santa Cruz observed eye patterns in relation to different kinds of memory during a study they were conducting on language patterns. Since then neurologists have confirmed that lateral and vertical eye movements can be associated with the activation of different parts of the brain.They believe these eye movements provide insight into how people access internally stored information.
 
In their work Bandler, Grinder, and colleagues observed that test subjects used consistent eye movement patterns when answering specific categories of questions. For example, most people looked up and to the left when asked questions that entailed visual memories. Questions involving visual imagination caused most subjects to look up and to the right. Questions evoking auditory memories elicited lateral eye movements to the left while those concerning auditory imagination resulted in lateral eye movements to the right. Queries that required internal dialogue made subjects look down and to the left; questions about anything kinesthetic (pertaining to physical or emotional sensations) resulted in eye movements down and to the right. It’s important to note that not everyone demonstrated the same eye patterns. In some subjects, particularly some who were left handed, the movements were reversed. Regardless, everyone was found to use eye patterns on a consistent basis to access various memory functions. Here’s a chart that illustrates the basics of eye accessing cues:

Putting Eye-Accessing Cues into Practice
 
My first experience with eye accessing cues in regards to wine and tasting came in late 2009 in two film sessions I did with behavioral scientist, Tim Hallbom. I’ve written about the sessions and their outcomes extensively over the last several years. Over the course of three-plus hours I tasted over a dozen wines on camera while Tim stood next to me. One of the first things he asked me was if I was aware of the fact that my eyes went to the same place (down and left) every time I picked up a glass and smelled the wine. No surprise that I was completely unaware. But there was more. After observing me smell and taste several wines Tim deconstructed a sequence I used consistently:
 
1. When first picking up the glass to smell the wine I look down and to the left, with an inner voice (my own) asking, “What’s there?” Any aroma I recognize is confirmed immediately by a mental image of the fruit, spice, or other element in question. 

2. I then look laterally to the right, comparing what I’ve just smelled with the memory of a verbal description that either I or someone else has made. 

3. I conclude the sequence by looking up and to the left at a large image of the MS deductive tasting grid, making sure I haven’t left anything out. 

Hallbom explained how my eye patterns could be related to eye-accessing cues. When I looked down and to the left I was experiencing internal dialogue. Looking laterally to the right showed a connection to auditory memory, involving sounds or conversations from the past. Finally, by looking up and to the left at my mental tasting grid, I was using the standard eye position for visual memory.
 
After the film sessions and my experience with the student from Colorado I began to observe the eye patterns of all the students I coached. What I quickly found was that any experienced taster had a set pattern of eye movements with a definitive--and consistent--starting position. These students might alternate among as many as a half-dozen eye positions in rapid succession but they practically always started in the same place. It was as if they had somehow found their neurological starting point for tasting—a crucial development. By comparison the eye positions of novice tasters were all over the map with no consistent starting point. I’m now convinced that using a consistent starting eye position when smelling/tasting wine is the single most important strategy anyone can employ. It allows us to be consistent as far as starting a complex internal mental sequence the same way every time.

Then and Now
 
In the years since those initial film sessions my eye patterns for smelling and tasting wine have become much simpler and far more elegant if only because I’m intensely aware of them. They are as follows:
 
1. When I put my nose in the glass I still immediately look down and slightly to the left about an arm’s length away. My gaze, and this is important, is slightly unfocused. 

2. As soon as I internally ask the question, “What’s there?” or “What am I smelling?” my eyes move; they immediately go out in front in the center at eye level. I’m looking in front of me between three and five feet away. My eyes are still slightly unfocused. What causes my eyes to move? Easy answer: when I’m looking down initially I’m asking a question. To answer the question of what I’m smelling in the glass my eyes move out front to receive the answer in the form of an image of the aroma—be it a fruit, spice, or whatever. 

​3. The sequence repeats itself quickly multiple times and doesn’t end until I’m convinced I’ve gotten everything out of the nose of the wine. 

Being in Two Places at the Same Time
 
In the last several years something else also changed with my tasting sequence that was completely unforeseen. Frankly, it's not easy to describe. In the past few years I’ve noticed that once I’m in my “zone” really focused on smelling a wine my eye pattern changes. I go from alternating between looking down left and straight out in front of me to looking at some point about half way in between. At that point my eyes usually go a bit more out of focus. It’s as if I’m holding both places at the same time; literally holding both the asking and answering functions of my brain simultaneously. Just now, with an empty wine glass in hand, I’m able to quickly and easily get into a place where I’m holding both places/functions at the same time. For me this is a trigger, a starting point, to be able to quickly get into a deep focused state of concentration. 

 Finding Your Starting Eye Position

In the years since those initial film sessions I’ve worked with thousands of students and professionals in both classroom and informal settings. Regardless of their level of experience, I often explain eye-accessing cues and then take them through a quick exercise that enables them to discover their starting eye position. Here’s the exercise I use; it requires a a glass of wine.
 
1. Stand up—you’ll be able to focus much better than you do sitting down.

2. Pick up the glass and smell the wine.

3. Take note of whether you find a comfortable and familiar place to train your gaze while you’re smelling. If so, this could be your starting point.

4. If not, focus your eyes downward (at a 15-20° angle from the floor) and straight ahead while still smelling the wine.

5. Point your free hand in the exact direction of your gaze.

6. From there, move your eyes and free hand together, slowly, from left to center to right.

7. Gradually find the one place that feels comfortable and familiar—it shouldn’t take long to locate it.

8. Once you find your starting place, be sure to mark it clearly in your memory.

9. Use your starting eye position whenever beginning to smell or taste a wine.

10. *Remember that it’s just your starting place. After you begin to examine the wine your eyes will move to various places as you process the information in the glass and use different aspects of your memory. To point, you won’t have to be concerned about specific eye positions because your brain—and eyes—will figure out exactly what to do. But again remember to start in the same place every time! You'll be glad you did.

​Cheers!

Throughout the course of a day we constantly change our focus and state of awareness; from holding a conversation to driving, watching TV, or taking part in a physical activity such as a walk in the country. We also process information from the outside world with our preferred sensory system or modality, which is visual for practically all of us. In short, most of us represent our experience of the world internally with pictures and movies.
 
Tasting is yet one of the many things we do that requires a special kind of awareness or focus--a zone, if you will. The ability to shut the world out is a vital key to becoming proficient as a professional taster. But how can we work on our focus, our “zone”? One way might be through an exercise called “overlapping.” Overlapping involves using a past memory—again highly visual--while paying close attention to all the other sensory information associated with the memory. The result is a deeply focused—one might even say altered—state of awareness. Overlapping is very effective and simple to do:
 

1. Go inside and think of a memory of a physical activity such as riding a bike, swimming, or taking a walk. Bring up the memory as vividly as you can. If it’s taking a walk, see the path in front of you in detail as you move easily along.
2. Now add another sensory modality. Feel your arms moving back and forth and your legs striding with each step.
3.  When you’ve added a second sensory modality think of a third. In this case you might hear the sound of your feet hitting the ground with each stride. 
4. Now go back and add detail to each modality. Make the scene in front of you as clear and bright as possible; feel the breeze on your face as you’re running as well as the ambient temperature of the air around you; hear the sounds of traffic around you or birds chirping in nearby trees.
5. Now pause the memory and notice the quality and depth of your state of awareness at this point. Odds are it’s a pretty deep state of focus which is exactly the kind needed for tasting, a tasting exam, or any other activity requiring exacting detail. Also—and this is key—when you pause notice exactly where you’re looking as you go through your memory. If you’re eyes are closed, where are they looking once you open them? Note the exact place as it will be useful. You might even point to it so you know exactly where it is.

Overlapping with Wine
 
Now try overlapping using the memory of a wine you’ve tasted. Choose a wine that’s easy to remember; a botrytis dessert wine is a good example that comes to mind. Using the model above, go through every aspect of the wine in sequence.
 

1. First, see the color of the wine as vividly you can. A botrytis wine—and we’ll use a Sauternes as an example—would be a deep yellow gold in color.
2. Now add some primary aromatics to the memory as in the honey and ripe peach and apricot fruit from botrytis influence.
3. Next feel the luscious texture of the wine on your palate. Pay close attention to the balance of sweetness and tart acidity and how it tastes and feels on your palate.
4. Now add more sensory data and deepen your state of awareness, your zone. Go back to the visual and add the secondary colors which could be glints of green and deeper gold. Also see how the wine moves in the glass with richness and density from residual sugar. Next smell more components in the wine focusing on non-fruit, earth and oak; bring up the ginger from botrytis, the mushroom/earth elements, and all the spice notes from oak-aging. Feel the warmth from the alcohol on your palate and calibrate the precise temperature of the wine.
5. Now play with your memory. Make everything about the wine younger and then much older and more vinous. Then reset it to as it was before.
6. Stop once again and notice the depth and quality of your focus or zone. Notice where you’re looking and also be aware of the soft quality of your eyes. Once again 3point exactly to where you’re looking during your visualization. Finally, if you’re talking to yourself note the quality of your voice—the tonality and volume are especially important.

 
From here the goal is to get into your zone quickly when you physically taste wine. A few repetitions of the exercises above should do the trick. The final step is to practice getting into your zone using the act of picking up a wine glass as the trigger. For me the sequence begins with picking up a glass with my right hand, eyes going down in a soft focus slightly to the left about 15-18 inches away (the length of my arm), and saying internally, “What’s there?” The combination of eyes down left, soft focus, and the internal phrase acts as a consistent start place for my tasting, consistency being the most important word. Discover your starting place and practice getting into your zone quickly. You’ll be glad you did.