Since its inception in late 2005, the goals of the Certified Sommelier Examination have always been the same: first, to provide the hospitality industry with a much-needed basic sommelier certification. Second, to introduce students to the MS examination format. I first wrote a post on advice to students taking the Certified Exam in early 2014. Since that time, the exam has undergone numerous revisions. I thought it might be useful to update the post for students taking the exam this year.
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The exam itself has always been comprised of three parts: tasting, theory, and service:

• Tasting: a blind tasting of four wines, two white and two red, with the student filling out a written grid based on the MS Deductive Tasting Method. The grid and testable grapes for white and red wines can be downloaded from the MS website.
• Theory: a 45-question written test combining multiple choice, short answer, and matching questions.
• Service: sparkling wine service in some form with students being asked questions about various beverages that might be served during the course of a meal as well as questions about food and wine pairing. 

With the following, I’d like to offer some advice to students who are preparing to take the Certified Exam, especially those taking it for the first time. 

Disclaimer! The following is my personal advice to students taking the Certified Sommelier Examination. It does not, in any way, reflect the policies of the CSMA or its Board of Directors.

Tasting Examination

The Certified tasting examination consists of tasting two white and two red wines and filling out a written grid based on the Deductive Tasting Method, first taught in the Introductory Sommelier Class. The grid requires the student to input information concerning a wine’s color, aromas and flavors, the presence of minerality and/or earthiness, and the use of oak. Further, the grid asks that students assess the structural components of the wines in regard to the levels of residual sugar, acidity, alcohol, and tannin for red wines. Finally, the student is asked to deduce the best possible conclusion about the wine given the sensory information gathered. The conclusion includes the type of climate in which the grapes were grown, old world vs. new world style, the actual grape variety or blend of grapes, the country of origin, and relative age of the wine. 

It goes without saying that a good deal of practice is needed to become proficient at using the grid, not to mention tasting in general. The grid itself can again be downloaded for practice from the CSMA website. Also posted on the site is a list of testable white and red grapes and countries of origin that could be used in the exam.

One other important bit of advice about the tasting grid now used for the exam vs. those used previously; be sure to fill in every line. With the current grid students are being tested on recognizing various components in a given wine as well as when certain components are absent. Thus filling in a “No” answer for an aroma/flavor that’s missing in a wine is just as important as answering “Yes” because the aroma/flavor has been recognized. In other words, don’t leave any of the lines on the exam blank. Otherwise, here is further advice in preparing for the tasting segment of the Certified Exam:

• Color: it’s important to know the major colors for white and red wines. Knowing the difference between straw, yellow, and gold is important for white wines; likewise, being able to tell the different between purple, ruby, and garnet for red wines is important.
• Descriptors: be as thorough as you can in examining the wine for families/kinds of fruit and any non-fruit descriptors. Often students will hone in on one or two flavor descriptors and leave out important pieces of information about the wine—information that could help identify the wine.
• Work on expanding descriptors for fruit and non-fruit. If anything, use the exam grid as a checklist and look for all the kinds of fruit and non-fruit listed in the wines.
• Structural components: be as precise as you can in calibrating the level of acidity, alcohol, and tannin. This is best practiced by establishing “low” and “high” for acidity, alcohol, and tannin. Examples in actual wines could be Beaujolais Villages vs. Barolo for tannin, Alsace Gewurztraminer vs. Clare Valley Riesling for acidity, and Moscato di Asti vs. Port for alcohol. 
• Oak vs. no oak: this is one of the more important aspects of basic tasting--being able to assess the presence of oak aging in a wine or lack thereof. Once again I recommend calibrating oak usage by establishing extremes. This is because the brain recognizes extreme opposites quickly as in the difference between the colors black and white vs. gray in the middle. With respect to oak, tasting a non-oaked Chablis or Macon vs. a heavily oaked California Chardonnay will easily establish the two extremes. 
• Earthiness vs. no earth: use the same technique above—calibrating with extremes. One can also use the same wines listed above (Chablis vs. California Chardonnay) or another pair of extremes such as Chinon vs. a Napa Merlot or Chianti Classico vs. a Barossa Shiraz.
• Old world vs. new world style: this is a deduction based on the presence of earthiness along with the levels of alcohol and acidity in the wine as well as the use of (or lack of) new oak. The exercise above of using pairs of wines for earth vs. no earth will help.
• Climate: assessing the possible climate of a wine can be done by reviewing the levels of alcohol and acidity as well as the ripeness level of the fruit. The general rule is that wines from grapes grown in warmer climates have higher alcohol and relatively lower natural acidity vs. wines from cooler climates, which usually display restrained levels of alcohol and higher levels of acidity.
• Varietal recognition: this arguably is the most challenging part of the Deductive Tasting Method and the MS tasting exams as well. It requires the student to practice with the tasting method over an extended period of time. It also requires the student to assemble and memorize a list of “markers” or common attributes that can be found in specific grape varieties and wines. Good sources for grape variety markers can be found on the Guild of Sommeliers website (guildsomm.com) as well as my blog (timgaiser.com/blog).

A word about practicing tasting: make sure you are working in a tasting group as the dynamics of a good study group are essential to learning and improvement, not to mention the camaraderie and shared experience. 
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Finally, I’ve written about tasting and preparing for the MS tasting exams extensively on my blog. I’ve found that smelling and tasting wine is completely based on one’s memory; not only the memory of the various aromatics and flavors in wine but the combination of these components that make up the complete profile of a grape or style of wine. If memory is the key, then students can—and absolutely should—work with their own personal memories of these components and varietal profiles apart from actually tasting wine. I strongly believe that practicing memory of the components and profiles of grapes and wines is just as important and beneficial as actually tasting them.  

Theory Examination

The CMSA philosophy of theory curriculum has a lot to do with what a sommelier theoretically could be asked tableside by a guest about any beverage served in the restaurant. Emphasis is placed on wine, but beer, spirits, sake, and aperitifs are important as well. No mystery that geography is vital to a sommelier’s body of knowledge; knowing where a wine is produced down to a single vineyard (if necessary) is paramount to success in the MS program.

Example: if a guest is asking about a vintage of Savennières “Clos de la Coulée de Serrant” from the producer Nicholas Joly, the sommelier/student should know the following about the wine:

• It’s a dry white wine
• It’s made from the Chenin Blanc grape
• The Clos de la Coulée de Serrant vineyard is located in the Anjou region of France’s Loire Valley, specifically in the AOC/AOP of Savennières
• The Clos de la Coulée de Serrant is actually a single vineyard AOC/AOP itself
• Owner Nicholas Joly is one of the major proponents of biodynamic farming

Once again, it’s important to note that MS theory exams focus on geography and being able to connect grape varieties to styles of wines made in specific places. From there students also need to study country and regional laws, classifications, terms about grape growing and winemaking, and major producers for important wines such at prestige cuvée Champagnes.

Service Examination

The MS title is all about being a world-class sommelier and thus service is a vital part of the Certified Sommelier Examination.

*A thought: with the increasing popularity of the sommelier profession in the last few years due to movies, TV, and other media, more and more non-industry people are taking the Certified Exam after taking the Introductory Course. Many have little, if any, experience working the floor. It’s imperative for them to somehow get the needed exposure/experience of working the floor—as in serving wine in actual restaurant--to have any chance of success with the exam.

The service segment of the Certified Exam is based on Champagne service. Here safety is key. There are any number of ways to open a bottle of sparkling wine or Champagne incorrectly—even dangerously—but only one way to do it right. Here are some vital pointers to do just that:

General Service Points

• Remember to serve from the right and to move around the table clockwise—ALWAYS--even if just returning to the service station.
• Never reach across a guest’s space to place or clear glassware or serve wine--even if the chair is empty.
• PRACTICE CARRYING A TRAY. This is the one part of service that cannot be faked. If you don’t regularly work with a tray, lots of practice will be needed for an exam setting. Odds are you will be nervous. Practice!

Mise-en-Place—Setting Up

• Fold two—and ONLY two—serviettes for service. One will be used for opening the bottle and the other will be left on the bucket tableside if a bucket is used for service. In other words, don’t fold all the napkins on the service station.

• Always line the tray with an unfolded cloth napkin; no fancy origami folds as they result in an uneven surface on the tray almost guaranteeing you’ll lose glassware in a spectacular fashion.
• Place the glassware consistently at each cover. Placing a glass at the point of the knife is the most straightforward method.
• Place glassware starting with the host or the person to the host’s left. Placing glassware is NOT gender specific so one trip around the table clockwise will suffice.
• Place two under liners or coasters to the right of the host; one for the cork and the other for the bottle in case the host decides to keep the bottle on the table.

Opening the Bottle

• Watch where you’re pointing the bottle when opening. Never point the bottle at the table or anyone else in the vicinity. Doing so is dangerous and cause for deductions on your exam score.
• Always place a serviette over the top of the bottle when opening. Drape a serviette over the top of the bottle when opening to prevent spilling any wine if the cork exits the bottles suddenly and tragically.
• Never take the top of your hand off the bottle when opening. This is utterly crucial to opening the bottle safely and properly. Loosen the cage ONLY after placing a folded serviette over the top of the bottle and then holding both serviette and bottle FIRMLY. After loosening the wire cage, slowly remove the cage and cork at the same time by twisting the bottom of the bottle back and forth. Remember, the cage is NEVER removed before the cork. 
• Open the bottle as quietly as possible. A no-brainer. This is proper wine service and not the end of a Formula 1 race. Opening a bottle of sparkling wine quietly is a matter of practice and repetition.
• Present the cork to the host on an underliner, which has been placed to the host’s right.
• Wipe the top and lip of the bottle with your serviette after you’ve removed the cork and before pouring a taste for the host.

Serving the Bottle

• Hold the bottle with a still wine grip. Do NOT hold the bottle with your thumb in the punt of the bottle when pouring; this method does not provide enough control and stability and the odds of dropping or losing control of the bottle increase significantly.
• After presenting the cork, pour a 1-to-1.5 ounce taste for the host. Wait for them to approve the wine and then serve the table in the following order: lady guests first and then men. If there is a guest of honor, he or she is served first, then lady guests, gentlemen, and the host last. Remember, the host is always served last regardless of gender.
• Fill the glasses at least ½ to ¾ glass full with a maximum pour of an inch below the top of the glass.
• Fill the glasses one at a time with a maximum of two pours for each glass; partial pouring and/or going around the table multiple times is not allowed.
• Make sure the pours are even!
• Gage the pour level/amount based on glass size and number of glasses to be poured so you don’t run out of wine.

Service Exam Theory

• Work on major cocktails, aperitifs and after dinner spirits. Lists of all of the above are on the Gild site (guildsomm.com). Study cocktails and aperitifs by category, i.e., vodka cocktails, gin cocktails etc.
• Food and wine pairing: have specific wine recommendations with producer and vintage in mind.
• Be able to take a specific style—be it a high acid red wine or a white with residual sugar—to multiple places in the wine world.   
• Above all, know why the pairing works! Be able to explain why a wine works well with a specific dish in terms of the structural components of the wine (i.e., high acidity, lack or oak or smooth tannins). It’s the entire point of selling a specific wine with a certain dish. 

General Service Advice

• Taking care of the table is paramount. Even though you’re in an exam setting remember that you are a sommelier and your job is to take care of the table—NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS. In a real life service situation, you do not have the luxury of freaking out or giving up on a table or “failing.” Your job is to take care of the guest and give them great service. The exam should be no different. Take care of the examiner(s) as you would any guest in your restaurant. To do so will translate into success. 

There is perhaps no more contentious term in the wine world than terroir. The mere mention of the word can send the listener into a state of uncertainty, confusion, trance, or agitation--even fury. Trying to nail down the definition of terroir can be just as challenging. Over the years, I’ve heard the word defined as microclimate, soil type, brettanomyces, poor winery hygiene, old barrels, even disposable income.

No surprise then that the terroir camps are decidedly split: on one side are those that ascribe to the notion that a wine—if not overly manipulated in the winery—is intimately connected to its place of origin. That one can “taste” the vineyard in the finished product. On the other side are those who cry foul, bulls**t, and more, claiming that any sensed connection between wine and place is a quaint hallucination more often than not due to winemaker influence. To the latter, Alex Maltman, geology professor at the University of Wales at Aberystwyth, has written two excellent articles for Guildsomm.com on vineyard soils and geology. He has strongly put forth the maxim that mineral content in a vineyard soil is not absorbed through plant material, a.k.a. vines, and therefore cannot contribute to the aromas and flavors of a finished wine. No argument there.

Some colleagues dismiss terroir outright as the effects of sulfur, post-fermentation and bottling. That quickly brings to mind Meursault and Bordeaux Blanc, both of which often display a whiff of mercaptan on the nose. The brett-terroir argument is also tempting with of any number of old school Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Rhône wines; some profoundly complex, even temporarily life-changing. However, if I try to adopt the position of the naysayers, it simply doesn’t work. There will always be a universe separating Raveneau from Rombauer, and Rochioli from Richebourg--and not just because of brett or sulfur. Regardless, however we define it, connecting terroir to wine has always been problematic simply because no one has ever been able to prove a scientific link between the vineyard and wine in the bottle.
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Until now. 

Biome Makers

“The microbiome is essential for making nutrients and minerals available to the vines to pull from the soil. Different yeast and bacteria species, through their metabolic activity, also generate or liberate sensory molecules on the grapes and in the finished wine.”
 
Biome Makers
 
I first started working with Francisco “Paco” Cifuentes last fall. Cifuentes is an ex-Silicon Valley biochemist originally from Madrid. He left the corporate world with the goal of creating a Spanish portfolio comprised of small, family-owned estates that farm organically or biodynamically. My job was to taste through the wines with him to assess quality for potential portfolio inclusion and to put together tasting notes. Over the course of several tastings, we worked through more than fifty wines from two dozen-plus estates in Ribeira Sacra, Rioja, the Penedès, Priorat, and more. Much to his credit, Paco—for a non-industry person—has a very good palate and practically all the wines he presented were spot on and very good representations of their appellation. His company, called Whole Wine, is just now releasing wines to the Northern California market (www.wholewine.com).

Last month Paco told me about a colleague who was a principal in a company called Biome Makers, an agriculture-technology startup with offices in San Francisco and Spain. Biome Makers develops tools and products to map the microorganisms present in different environments. The firm uses “WineSeq”, a DNA sequencing and machine learning-based technology, to evaluate the microbiome in a vineyard soil. “WineSeq” reveals the vineyard microbiome that, through the fermentation, influences the finished wine with specific chemical compounds. Needless to say, the concept is both extraordinary and revolutionary.

Recently I met with Adrián Ferrero, co-founder and CEO, and John Dimos, PhD, GM of the company, to learn about the technology and its potential application. Here is our conversation:
 
TG: What was the technology you’re using originally designed for? Where was it developed and how long has it been used?
BM: WineSeq technology leverages advances in DNA sequencing and advanced computer learning. DNA sequencing was first developed in the late 1970s as a basic research tool to identify genes and gene mutations. The technology developed slowly until the 1990s, when it then was used to map the human genome at a cost of three billion USD. Since then, the cost of DNA sequencing has dropped and it’s being used broadly in healthcare settings and spreading into other industries like agriculture.
 
TG: Could you provide a brief description of the process--one that can be understood by sommeliers.
BM: The first step in WineSeq’s process is to isolate the DNA found in a soil sample. We’re able to purify DNA from all microorganisms, yeast, and bacteria, present in that soil sample. The exact sequence of this entire pool of DNA is then read by a machine. Because the genes of every species are unique, we can then look at the DNA sequences and identify which species of yeast and bacteria was in the starting soil sample, and their relative abundance.
 
TG: How important is the microbiome of a vineyard to the finished wine?
BM: The microbiome in a vineyard has many functions. It maintains a healthy balance in the soil to prevent disease, or can cause a disease if a particular pathogen is present at high levels. The microbiome is essential for making nutrients and minerals available to the vines to pull from the soil. Different yeast and bacteria species, through their metabolic activity, also generate or liberate sensory molecules on the grapes and in the finished wine.
 
TG: Is the connection between the microbiome and character of the finished wine what we call “terroir”?
BM: The microbiome is a dynamic and integrative biomarker. The microbiome is influenced by agricultural practices, soil chemistry, soil history, vine variety, and weather. It’s quite possible that the microbiome could serve as an objective measure of ‘terroir’ as it integrates all influences on the vine itself, and carries over into the cellar.
 
TG: Does the microbiome directly influence varietal typicity?
BM: This is a possibility that we’re studying. We’ve found an association between varieties and particular microbiome fingerprints. It’s quite possible that the variety affects the microbiome just as the microbiome affects the variety, and that this two-way influence is an important component of varietal typicity.
 
TG: Can we map qualities of a specific grape variety given a vineyard - microbiome?
BM: Today we can use the microbiome to predict how grapes will behave in a natural fermentation. We can detect species that will add character to the wines, as well as potential spoilage species. Because a third to a half of molecules involved in a wine’s smell and flavor come from microbial metabolic activity, there’s tremendous potential to predict flavor profiles with foreknowledge of the microbiome.
 
TG: How can the technology help keep vineyards healthy?
BM: The microbiome is composed of all microbial species, both beneficial ones and potential pathogens. WineSeq can detect the full microbiome and the relative proportions of each species within that ecosystem. Detecting imbalances or the presence of pathogens early, before there’s a visible manifestation on the vine, gives the grower the opportunity to implement preventative measures.
 
TG: What do you want the sommelier community to take away from knowing about the technology and your company?
BM: We would like the sommelier community to join the WineSeq community and contribute to explain and communicate the value of the microbiome to consumers through a glass of wine. The microbiome could be an objective biological measure of terroir, and sommeliers are perfectly suited to help us connect it with how the wine is experienced in the glass and how to communicate it.

Going Forward
 
Could the work of Biome Makers be the missing link in explaining what we call terroir? I strongly suspect so. Adrian and John are now starting to work with Paco on a long-range project. The goal is to map the vineyard soils of 10 different producers in the Whole Wine portfolio, conduct microbiome analyses, and connect the data to wines produced from the vineyards. We’re planning a seminar to be held in San Francisco this fall to introduce the project and the technology.

Stay tuned for details. 

"There's always room for a story that can transport people to another place."

J.K. Rowling

Last November I was in Idaho’s Snake River Valley working on a project with the Idaho Wine Commission. My task was to visit winery tasting rooms and be a “secret shopper” of sorts, taking notes on the various wineries visited. The end goal was to present my findings to the commission and its members at their annual conference in February a few months later.

Idaho now has 52 wineries with over 1,300 acres under vine producing an average of 164,000 cases a year. The Snake River Valley, an AVA since 2007, has a unique climate. The combination of an average elevation of 2,880 feet, semi-arid climate, rich volcanic soils, and a compact—and very intense—growing season make for wines of considerable intensity that offer purity of fruit and high natural acidity.

On a brisk Saturday morning I drove to the Snake River Valley, about an hour from Boise. My first stop was at Ste. Chapelle, the state’s oldest and largest winery. Afterwards, I had several, much smaller producers to visit. The first on the list was Bitner Vineyards, a winery in the Sunny Slope region near Caldwell. I turned down a long winding drive into the winery. No other cars were in sight and the place looked almost deserted. No mystery as practically all the wineries in the valley don't open until noon on Saturday—a detail I somehow had missed on the itinerary. Undeterred, I tried the tasting room door only to find it locked. After knocking lightly a couple of times, the door was opened by Amy Bitner. She explained that the winery wouldn’t open for almost half an hour but I was welcome to come in and wait. What happened next was a one of my best tasting room experiences ever.

Amy and her colleague were in a mad rush to clean up from a big fall release party the night before. After making chitchat for a few minutes, she decided pour for me wine even though it was probably the last thing she wanted to do. While she was cleaning and setting up for the day, Amy poured all the current releases for me describing the wines in detail. She then went on to tell the story about her dad and how he started the winery years before. It went something like this:

Ron Bitner is originally from a small town in Idaho with a population of less than 200. He went to the College of Idaho before pursuing a master’s degree at Purdue where he studied entomology, focusing his work on one kind of bee--the blue orchard bee, a pollination bee. Bitner would go on to get his Ph.D. in entomology from Utah State where he studied the leaf cutter bee—a bee he would work with for his entire career. After finishing his doctorate, Bitner worked for Pioneer Hi-Bred, a large seed company, for over four decades as a pollination consultant.

In 1979, Ron was looking for a home for his family back in Idaho. He knew about the Sunny Slope area of the Snake River Valley from his experiences there growing up. He purchased 15 acres there later the same year. At the time, there were only two wineries in Idaho, Ste. Chapelle and another smaller, now-defunct producer. Bill Broich, the first winemaker for Ste. Chapelle, lived on the next property. He told Ron that the part of the lot he had just purchased with a south-facing slope was potentially a world-class site for Chardonnay. Bitner didn’t even know what Chardonnay was at the time. But Ron took Bill’s advice and the family planted two acres of Chardonnay later that year. In the years to come, Riesling and other grapes were added with the fruit being sold to Ste. Chapelle and other wineries.

All that changed in 1995 when winemaker Greg Koenig initially purchased fruit and then offered to make wine for the family. The first releases made by Koenig were in 1997 from the ’95 vintage. Eventually an old tractor shed with an added deck became the winery and tasting room. In the years since, Koenig has continued to be the winemaker, production has gradually increased, and the Bitner wines have found a broader market. 
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Ron had always wanted to have a wine that would showcase his family’s vineyard; a grand reserve of Idaho. In 2010 Koenig made three barrels of a Petite Verdot-Syrah blend that would come to be called, “Mi Tierra.” Mi Tierra translates as “my native land” or “my roots.” The wine reflects the unique terroir that is the Snake River Valley and the Bitner vineyards. It also pays tribute to Ron’s long career working with the leafcutter bee. No surprise that bees figure prominently on the label. Without doubt, Mi Tierra is one of the most striking and attractive wine packages I have ever seen. The wine is outstanding too. 

Story and Branding

How important is “story” to the success of a winery? I asked longtime friend and colleague Paul Wagner. Paul is the founder of Balzac Communications, a successful industry PR Company based in Napa. Over the years, one of the things Paul has repeatedly told me is how important the role of storytelling is to marketing and selling wine. When I called him about this post he began by saying, “I’ll go back to my experience as a teacher. In the basics of communication, we teach and learn by using stories and not by quoting numbers or data. Students remember stories when they don’t remember facts. They repeat stories in a way that they never repeat facts. Storytelling has proven to be just as effective in selling wine as in teaching history or anything else."

I then asked Paul how important storytelling was to his work with winery and other industry clients. He responded, “It’s one of the first things we do when we sit down with a client. We try to get them to explain who they are. My latest mantra is, 'don’t tell me how you make the wine, tell me why you make the wine.' What a consumer really wants is to share that expression, that dream. We think winemaking is either an art or a craft. In each case we need to understand the person behind creating that art or craft, the same way we want to know what Beethoven was thinking when he wrote one of his symphonies or what was Picasso thinking when he painted.”

I immediately wondered how storytelling could work in the case of a winery or wine group that clearly made commercial wines. What could the story possibly be then? He answered by telling me about the time when he and his team helped launch Red Guitar, a Garnacha blend from the Navarra province in Spain marketed by Constellation. He said that initially they were told that the company had gone to Navarra and sourced some very good wine from local producers. So there didn’t seem to be much of a story. He continued, “When we called the people who were making the wine and talked to them about where the wine came from, it turned out that there was a wonderful story. Back in the 1950’s, a single nobleman owned the entire region. All the vineyard owners at the time were sharecroppers working his property. Then the local Catholic priest organized all the farmers and managed to get the church to front them the down payment for the land they were working. He then negotiated with the owner so the farmers could purchase their own vineyard and have a say in the land as time went on. That’s a great story and it made for really interesting reading.”

My last question to Paul was about storytelling and how it applies to the sommelier world. In most cases, the window of opportunity to sell a glass or a bottle is less than a minute, much less thirty seconds. Does storytelling apply to selling wine on the floor? He answered, “Absolutely, it’s much more effective. No one has ever walked into a restaurant and said, 'I’m looking for wines made from volcanic soils.' However, if the sommelier turns to the diner and says, 'There’s a great story behind this wine,' that’s all they have to say. The diner will want to hear the story and it doesn’t have to be 22 minutes long. You can tell a good story in less than a minute if you know how to tell it. That’s what people want. I always say that the biggest fear any consumer has when they buy a bottle of wine is that someone else at the table will say, 'Why the hell did you buy this?' An answer of 17 months in French oak with full malolactic fermentation and calcareous soil doesn’t really answer the question; at least not like saying, 'my mother was born in this village or this wine was made by a guy who works the vineyard only using horses for farm equipment.' Any of those sorts of stories will be a far more interesting and compelling reason that the bottle is on the table than the alcohol content is 14.3%.”

I’m inclined to agree with Paul completely and for more than one reason. A quick inventory of some of my favorite wines inevitably brings up a good, even great story. Bernkasteler Doctor? Etna Rosso? Clos Vougeot? All have great stories.
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As sommeliers and industry professionals, it’s all too easy for us to geek out about the minutia surrounding a given wine, spouting numbers about R.S., T.A, and the like; numbers that are almost always meaningless to our guests. In doing so we quickly lose touch with what could be the most interesting facet of a wine—the story behind the bottle. It’s these stories that can help forge a connection between the guest’s experience and the wine; a connection creating memories that last for an evening if not for years afterwards.

Recently I was reading Scott Adams’ book, “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big.” Adams is the cartoonist behind the highly acclaimed comic strip Dilbert. I highly recommend his book for many reasons, not the least Adams’ way of offering life advice across a broad spectrum—both professional and personal—in a humorous and quirky way.

One bit in the book that stuck with me is Adams’ concept of practicing. Scott relates the story about the three-year-old son of a friend. One day the boy was in Adams’ back yard totally absorbed in trying to hit a tennis ball amidst the frenzy other kids playing. He gave the young boy an impromptu lesson on how to properly hold a tennis racket, the basics of a good swing, and how to hit a ball. Then he set the boy loose only to watch him practice like a fiend for an extended period of time, far beyond what most three-year-olds are capable.

Adams goes on to write about how as a kid he spent entirely too much time mastering completely useless tasks such as spinning a basketball on his finger, juggling, and playing Ping-Pong with his left (off) hand. He concludes that some people are born with the inclination—not to mention the attention span and patience—to practice things while others find repetition of any kind to be an exquisite form of torture.

I must be in the former camp and I say this because of many years playing the trumpet, arguably the most frustrating instrument. Why so frustrating? Simply because the vibrating medium that produces sound is part of your physical body. Day to day, your ability to play well (or not) or even the potential to produce a decent sound on the instrument relies heavily on how good you physically feel. Thus on any given day, regardless of the level of skill and experience, one can have an epically, monumentally, ecumenically bad day on the horn. I know too well from personal experience. I’ve also seen top professional orchestral players take a dive. It’s not pretty.  

Over the course of two decades-plus, part of every day for me was spent in a practice room or at home behind a closed door going through scales, exercises, and whatever pieces I was working on at the moment. Regardless of whatever I was practicing, the focus was always on producing a good sound. To point, the essence of being able to play any wind instrument—trumpet included—is one’s ability to consistently produce a good, even great, sound. With the trumpet, that means a consistent cycle of inhalation/exhalation in the most relaxed manner possible. In other words, and this is hugely counter intuitive, one works at being relaxed.  
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As for actual practicing, I remember playing through major trumpet orchestral excerpts countless times; the ballerina’s dance from Stravinsky’s Petrouschka, the opening solo from Mahler Symphony No. 5, double and triple tongue passages from Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade, and the lyrical solo from Strauss’ Don Juan. All literally thousands of times over many years in preparation for auditions either taken—or not. 

It’s All About the Myelin

In a recent TedEd video educator Annie Bosler and Don Greene, a Pasadena-based performance psychologist, explain how practicing a physical activity affects our brains. Bosler and Greene begin by noting that there are two kinds of neural tissue in our brains: gray matter and white matter. The gray matter processes sensory information directing signals and sensory stimuli to nerve cells. The white matter is mostly comprised of fatty tissue and nerve fibers. In order for us to produce movement of any kind, information has to travel from the gray matter down the spinal cord to our muscles through a chain of nerve fibers called axons.

Bosler and Greene then pose the following question: how does practicing or the repetition of an activity affect our brains? The answer has to do with the above-mentioned axons, which are neural pathways in the white matter. These axons are wrapped in a fatty substance called myelin and it’s this myelin that changes when we practice. Myelin is similar to insulation on electrical cables. It prevents energy loss from electrical signals that the brain uses and allows them to move more efficiently along neural pathways. Recent studies suggest that repetition of a physical motion increases the layers of the myelin sheathe that insulates the axons. More layers of myelin results in more insulation around the axon chains forming a super highway of sorts for information connecting your brain to your muscles. Many athletes and performers commonly attribute success to muscle memory. In fact, muscles themselves don’t really have memory. It could be that increased myelin insulation of axons gives athletes and performers their edge over the competition.  
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Bosler and Greene end the video by offering strategies for practicing. They note that effective practicing is always intensely focused and targets either content or weaknesses that lie at the edge of one’s current abilities. They further stress focusing on the task at hand while minimizing distractions such as smart phones, laptops, etc. They recommend starting out slowly or in slow motion. This because coordination and habits (either good or bad) are developed with repetition. From there, gradually increase the speed of quality repetitions while taking common allotted breaks. It’s common for top athletes and performers spend 50-60 hours a week on activities related to their craft. Many divide their daily practice into multiple sessions of shorter limited duration. Bosler and Greene’s final bit of advice is to practice visualization in vivid detail. Numerous sources suggest that once a physical pattern is established it can be reinforced by simply imagining it. 

​The best advice I’ve ever received on practicing was from the late Kenny Anderson, former principal trumpet in the New Mexico Symphony. Kenny was my first trumpet teacher from the time I was a sophomore in high school until the first two years of college. He was arguably the most strategic teacher I’ve ever worked with. Kenny spent more time sleuthing out the best way to practice a particular passage than actually practicing it. One of the first things he taught me was to break down anything I was working on into the smallest possible segments. The idea was that I needed to master each small segment before attempting to practice the entire passage. He also suggested that I think about what the passage would sound like if I could play it perfectly and then work backwards trying to figure out the sequence of what I would have to do to get it to that state of perfection. These two pieces of advice worked well then and still do now. ​

Practice and Tasting

How did the thousands of hours of practicing the trumpet serve me later when it came to preparing for the MS exams, especially the tasting exam? The strategies of breaking down a large area of study into small segments and studying for brief, focused periods with planned breaks were two major themes I used over and over. But the tasting exam is different. Aside from actually tasting flights of six wines double blind to simulate the actual exam format, here are some suggested strategies for practicing tasting. All make use of the ideas above.  

Use a Coravin

The Coravin is the best investment one can possibly make when preparing for the Advanced or Master’s tasting exam. Yes, it’s expensive (about $300), but a Coravin will allow you to taste cork-finished bottles over weeks or months without oxidation to the wine. Thus you’ll be able to purchase best examples of wine types (which tend to be expensive) and taste them repeatedly over an extended duration of time.

Learning the Grid

There are over 40 things on the deductive grid. Learn them in chunks of 3-5 things. Be able to explain them to anyone—especially someone who is not in wine. Remember, you don’t really know something until you can teach it or explain it. Break down the deductive grid into small segments that you can practice individually.

Sight

Primary Colors: practice visualizing the primary colors for white and red wines in your internal field. It’s vital to know the following colors and be able to easily differentiate between them:

• Whites: straw, yellow, and gold
• Reds: purple, ruby, and red​

Cause and effect in regards to color: this equally important. Know the “why” behind the primary colors in white and red wines.

White wines:

• Straw: possible youth, cool climate origin, and little if any oak usage
• Yellow: possible age or use of oak.
• Gold: oxidation in the form of bottle age, barrel age, or presence of botrytis.

Red wines:

• Purple: thicker-skinned grape, dark fruit dominant, potential elevated alcohol and tannin, youth.
• Ruby: continental climate, red and dark fruit, potential restrained level of alcohol and tannin.
• Garnet: extended barrel or bottle aging (or both), dried fruit and non-fruit condition, presence of earth.

Nose
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Fault factor: learn the major wine faults. This one will require some investment as well. Purchase the Le Nez du Vin kit called “Les Défauts,” a kit containing small vials of the 12 most common wine faults. Keep the kit in your garage or at least away from your living space because it will inevitably—and quickly--become the vilest smelling thing ever. That’s a good thing. Work with one or two vials a week and develop a good memory for the faults du jour. Also read about what causes the fault and how it can be remedied in the winemaking process. Remember to always work with the kit either in your garage or outside. I’m not kidding about this one. I learned the hard way.

Signatures: I’ve written previously about the two dozen or so signatures that professional tasters have to “own.” First, source wines that really show each signature strongly. Using the Coravin, choose one or two of the wines and taste them daily if not multiple times a day. Practice until you can quickly recognize specific signatures even in trace amounts. Here’s a list to work from:

• Pyrazines: New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (the Coravin is a no-go here because of screwcap), Sancerre, or Chinon
• Terpenes: Alsace Gewurztraminer or Salta Torrontès
• Rotundone: Grüner Veltliner for white, Syrah/Shiraz or Zinfandel for red
• Carbonic maceration: Beaujolais Village
• Stem inclusion: Beaujolais Village or traditional red Burgundy
• Botrytis in dry wine: Alsace Pinot Gris and certain bottlings of Vouvray
• Diacetyl: any number of California Chardonnays
• High volatile acidity: traditional styles of Barolo, Barbaresco, and Rioja
• TDN: Clare or Eden Valley Riesling

Palate
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Tasting consists of confirming what’s been smelled in the wine and then calibrating the structural elements. But there are also several potential points of confusion. The Coravin will help here again in terms of repeated comparative tastings:   

• Mineral/earth vs. no mineral/earth: Sancerre vs. California Chardonnay
• Oak vs. no oak: same pairing - Sancerre vs. California Chardonnay
• Phenolic bitterness vs. used oak: Alsace Gewurztraminer or Torrontès vs. Vouvray or other white with used wood

Structure: the easiest way to learning consistent calibration of structural elements is by comparative tasting using extremes:

• Alcohol: low vs. high: Moscato d’Asti or Mosel Riesling vs. high alcohol Chardonnay
• Acidity: low vs. high: Alsace Gewurztraminer vs. Clare or Eden Valley Riesling
• Tannin: low vs. high: Beaujolais Villages vs. Barolo

Conclusions

It’s important to spend time doing comparative tastings between easily confused grapes and wines. I like to call them the “evil dwarves.”

White grapes: Grüner Veltliner vs. Albariño, vs. dry Riesling vs. Loire Chenin Blanc vs. Pinot Gris/Grigio

Red grapes: Pinot Noir vs. Sangiovese vs. Tempranillo vs. Grenache vs. Nebbiolo

Using the Coravin, practice tasting pairs of wines within the same group repetitively until it becomes easy to tell them apart. As you work with the various wines you’ll quickly note how similar the fruit qualities can be but how the non-fruit and winemaking signatures are completely different. Just as important, if not more so, you’ll note how the structure of each wine is also very different.

One last piece of advice: great progress is made by making small incremental changes over time. Remember that mastering deductive tasting requires a duration of time and a lot of repetition with great sensory acuity. Be patient and remember to feel good every time you learn something during the journey. 

Cheers!

According to numerous sources, the number one fear among people is public speaking. Number two on the list is death, which is curious as there’s a bit more finality with the latter. Nevertheless, public speaking in no uncertain terms mortifies the average person. The reason this factoid fascinates me is because most of what I do at this point is some form of teaching or presenting. Mind you it was never my intention to do either. If anything, it was just the opposite.

The only formal training on public speaking I ever had was when I was 14. I was a Boy Scout then working on my public speaking merit badge. To fulfill the necessary requirements I had to show up every Tuesday night for six weeks at a local chapter of Toastmasters in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For those six Tuesday nights I would arrive promptly at 7:00 in my khaki uniform and join a small band of executives devoted to the art of public speaking. To be honest, the group was amused and pleased by my being there. I became their temporary mascot of sorts.

After completing the requirements and collecting my merit badge I never really gave public speaking another thought. However, not long after I passed the Master’s Exam fellow MS Fred Dame asked me to help teach an Introductory Course for the now long-defunct Julliard Alpha Distributorship in the Bay Area. The class numbered over 400 in size which has to be the largest Intro Course ever given. I clearly remember being the rookie and feeling terrified the first few times I stood in front of the huge assemblage of sales people and managers. Somehow, I made it through my lectures without melting down, humiliating myself, or suffering a major wardrobe malfunction.
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As I gained more teaching experience in the years after I would still have trouble sleeping the night before the first day of a class. However, through repetition and accrued experience the prospect of standing in front of a group to speak seemed less daunting and finally—hard to believe—it’s something I now look forward to.

Getting Beyond the Fear Factor

The question remains: how can one quickly and easily get over the anxiety/potential terror of standing in front of a group when just getting into the game? I’m not sure there’s one answer to that question. I do recall a huge shift happened for me when I was able to focus all my attention on whatever group I was speaking to vs. internally and microscopically on myself. Along with that outward focus came an intense—even compulsive—desire to make sure that the group really “got” whatever it was that I was teaching/presenting. More on that later. In lieu of lots of actual experience, here are three strategies that will help if you find yourself in the life-threatening dilemma of having to talk to a group of fellow humans for the very first time.

EFT

EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique consists of tapping on acupressure points to stabilize and redistribute energy in the body’s meridians. It’s the quickest and easiest way I know of to alleviate fear or discomfort in a few short minutes. I teach all the students I coach EFT to help with test anxiety. Instructions can be found in a previous post at the following page:

http://www.timgaiser.com/blog/exam-strategies-using-eft-for-test-anxiety

Spin Dynamics

The strategy of spin dynamics takes full advantage of the fact that everything in the universe—from solar systems down to sub-atomic particles—spins. Our feelings are no exception and Spin Dynamics, developed by Tim and Kris Hallbom and Richard Bandler, allows us to take conscious control of our negative feelings like the fear of public speaking by first becoming aware of the direction that they move/spin in our body and then consequently reversing the spin to release them. It’s a strategy that can be easily learned and it never fails to produce the desired results. Instructions for Spin Dynamics can be found at this link:

http://www.timgaiser.com/blog/game-day-skills-part-one-the-dynamics-of-spin

Circle of Excellence

The two previous strategies are all about alleviating and redirecting fear. However, in releasing the fear factor you’ve also created a vacuum of sorts that needs to be filled with a powerful resource state and there’s none better than confidence. I’ve never found a more effective strategy for instantly dropping into a powerfully confident state than the Circle of Excellence. I recommend it to anyone because it has unlimited applications:
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http://www.timgaiser.com/blog/game-day-skills-the-circle-of-excellence

Other Thoughts on Public Speaking

Caring Overriding Fear

Neuroscientists tell us that our nervous system can’t do two things at the same time. In the context of public speaking that means you can’t simultaneously freak out and focus on giving a good presentation. It doesn’t work and never will. The goal then becomes to give your nervous system a choice and here is where caring about your attendees and making sure they “get” what you’re teaching really comes into play. The important thing to realize is that ultimately you aren’t the focus/center of attention but more like the conduit or connection for getting important information to the audience. It’s your job to know what you’re teaching and then to get out of your own way to convey the information to the group as best you can. That’s the deal. Which means you really need to…

Know It Cold

At least know the first three-to-five things you’re going to say—but know them cold. Practice the first several things you’re going to say out loud repetitively until they come quickly and easily. Once you’re past the initial several talking points odds are you’ll be fine unless of course you haven’t prepared enough or have no clue what you’re talking about. That’s another thing altogether.

If using PowerPoint be able to either look at the confidence monitor (or your laptop) or the actual screen and immediately point out the most important bullet/bit of information on the slide. All too often, and here I’m as guilty as anyone, there’s entirely too much information on a PPT slide. If you run a couple dozen overly crowded slides together you risk putting a group of any size into a deep trance in a matter of a few minutes. To avoid the deep crowd alpha state help your attendees by sorting the information presented by relative importance. They’ll thank you for it by remaining sentient and even attentive.

Eye Contact

Most sources on public speaking I’ve read emphasize making eye contact with the audience. One article even suggested looking over everyone’s head if you can’t face actually looking at the attendees. Not sure about that one. Other sources suggest making eye contact with as many people as possible during the presentation. I disagree and for a simple reason: if the intent behind making eye contact is to create some kind of connection with the group, how can one possibly create any connection at all with just a second or two of eye contact? My advice is make eye contact with fewer people but for a slightly longer period of time, as in three-to-five seconds or the however long it takes to explain a complete thought.

Uncomfortable making eye contact with complete strangers? You’re not alone. It takes practice. I suggest that over the next week make eye contact with people you pass on the street just long enough to recognize the color of their eyes. You don’t have to smile or do anything else. Just make eye contact. The next step is to make longer eye contact with the people who you interact with daily such as grocery store clerks, bank clerks, and the like. At this stage, looking at someone’s entire face is a good start if not looking at both of their eyes. Once you get more comfortable, make longer eye contact with someone by focusing on one of their eyes. Use a soft gaze. No hard staring as that equals creepy bus driver. The final phase of the eye contact thing is being comfortable making eye contact for extended periods of time—always respectfully—with someone you know or even the attendees in your audience.

Make It Conversational

For me the last piece of the public speaking puzzle is making a presentation conversational. By that I mean presenting has to feel exactly the same as when you talk to a good friend. Imagine that you are deep in conversation with someone you know well about an experience you both shared or a topic you’re both interested in. Recall the comfort level, the state of presence, and your attentiveness; also remember how you “held the space” for the other person you were speaking to, and at the risk being repetitive, how much you “cared” about the other person getting what you were saying. Really get that feeling because it’s your target on many levels when presenting. It also goes without saying that your tonality, pacing, and phrasing have to be similar, if not the same, in both contexts.
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Practice your tonality. Record yourself speaking so you can calibrate where your tonality is in terms of range. If you have a high nasal voice by all means work on speaking from your throat or even lower down in your chest. The latter two are more pleasing to the ear and actually more effective in communicating. A quick strategy for improving your tonality is to hum the tune to “Happy Birthday” and then speak immediately after with the same tonality. Try it; it really works. 

My Not-So-Top-Secret Public Speaking Strategy

I have a simple yet very effective strategy for presenting that I came across by accident. The strategy is this: I usually get to the venue early to make sure the AV is properly set up and to get a feel for the space. After checking the setup, I make it a point to chat with my contact and their staff. When the doors open I introduce myself to the first few attendees who wander in and inevitably sit in the front row. I chat up these early arrivals to find out where they’re from and what they do. By doing so I accomplish two things: I now have a head start on establishing the desired connection so when the actual presentation starts it’s as if I’m still speaking directly to them. I also set up the conversational tone I’ll use later in the presentation. Once the actual presentation starts it’s a simple process of initially acknowledging the early arrivals then making eye contact with the people behind them and so on until I’ve connected with people in all corners of the room, all the while using the conversational tone of voice.

One Final Thought

Don’t freak out if the audience doesn’t respond to you. Sometimes when I’m in front of group it’s like I’m doing standup in a Siberian nightclub because no one is giving any feedback whatsoever. When that happens, I refocus my efforts to connect with either individuals or groups of people in the audience. In the end, I’m often surprised when someone who looked like a complete zombie the entire time I was speaking comes up and tells me that they really enjoyed my presentation and learned a lot. One never knows…

Last month my blog turned five years old. With this post there are now over 270,000 words of content in 148 entries written during that time. I started the blog in January of 2012 just weeks after leaving the Education Director post with the Court. My last three years in the job were full time and during that period the organization grow exponentially and my job demands did as well leaving little, if any, time to write. So I began the blog as a simple outlet for just that. The first several posts were about various wine regions and grape varieties. I quickly discovered these were far from interesting—at least to me. There are a zillion wine blogs out there most written by non-professionals about their latest and greatest bottles, dinners, and trips. To me reading about someone else’s wine experiences is about as interesting as watching poker tournaments on ESPN. Who knows, I may be missing out on something exciting about people indoors wearing sunglasses playing cards.
 
The posts quickly evolved to topics I found far more practical and hopefully useful to readers in the form of strategies about tasting from my ongoing project, strategies for test anxiety and exam preparation, and the odd post about classical music. In other words, I ended up writing about things that interested me that I hoped would also interest others. Looking at google stats, that seems to have happened. So to you reading this post—and to everyone else who has spent time on the blog—my sincerest thanks. I really appreciate your time, thoughts, and any comments you’ve sent along the way.
 
Most of the content found in the blog is about tasting wine. That’s simply because I’m convinced tasting is one of the most remarkable—and complex—sensory experiences there is. The good news is that anyone can take part in it, learn, and easily enjoy it. I’m further convinced that the most useful and profound strategies for tasting don’t come from the masses—they come from top professionals. These strategies of excellence usually involve a sequence that’s derived from internal extensions of our five senses. Find the right internal sequence and you have a strategy that can make profound changes--and make them quickly. These sequences are rarely complicated and usually a straightforward series of steps. The topic of this post is a perfect example.
 
Dealing with a Dominant Aroma in the Glass
 
Last fall I taught a tasting class at the Napa Valley Wine Academy. A few days later I received an email from one of the students in the class asking what to do about an apparent dilemma. It seems that when smelling a Barossa Shiraz we had used in one of the flights he couldn’t get past the intense mint and eucalyptus aromas in the wine to be able to pick out anything else. This is a common problem for students—even professionals; when something in the wine dominates to such an extent it becomes difficult to find anything else in the glass. Or the taster is so hyper-sensitive to one aspect of the wine she or he can’t pick out anything else. Here is my strategy for dealing with this kind of challenge.
 
*Disclaimer: If you are new to the blog and haven’t read previous strategies on tasting or submodalities, I strongly recommend the following set up steps. Otherwise, the main strategy below might seem completely Martian.
 
The Set Up:

1. First, go inside and think about one of your favorite smell memories. It could be the spices in mulled wine at the holidays, just-baked bread, or coffee roasting. One of my favorite olfactory memories is walking through the spice market in Istanbul with all the incredible exotic aromas.

2. Once you’ve got your memory become aware of your visual representation of it. The form will be either a still image or a movie if it’s a powerful memory. My memory of the spice market is an extended movie of the experience and I’m seeing the market out of my eyes as if I’m actually walking through it.  

Make the visual connection to your memory. You’re going to need it.

3. Now consider the following common aromas in wine: lemon, green apple, cinnamon, and vanilla. Once again, note the images you use to bring up memories of these aromatics. To overstate the obvious, all are your life memories for lemon, apple, etc. Got it? Good. Now it’s time for the strategy. 

The Strategy: 
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If you’re having trouble with a dominant aroma in a wine like the mint/eucalyptus in the Shiraz mentioned above, try the following:
 
1. First, make sure you can easily create strong visual–olfactory connections to things you smell in the glass just like the quick exercise above. 

2. Next, take that dominant aroma and bring the image front and center in your internal field as you smell the wine. I’m going to use the mint/eucalyptus as an example. 

3. Now play with some simple submodalities (structural qualities of the image): 

a. Movie vs. still image: if your representation of mint/eucalyptus is a movie, freeze it and make it a still image. Now smell the wine again and see if you can pick out other aromatics.

Reset the image of mint/eucalyptus to whatever is was previously.

b. Color vs. black and white: if the image or movie of the mint/eucalyptus is in color (and it probably is), make it black and white. Smell the wine again and you’ll quickly note that your perception of the wine has changed and you can probably pick out other aromas that weren’t as noticeable as before.

Reset the image of mint/eucalyptus again.

c. Dimensionality: if the image of mint/eucalyptus is in 3D (again, it probably is), make it flat like a photograph. Smell the wine again and see if you can note other aromas.

Reset the image of mint/eucalyptus again.

d. Size: try taking the picture of mint/eucalyptus and push it away a great distance making the image tiny. Again, your perception of the wine will probably change as a result.

Reset the image of mint/eucalyptus again.

e. Proximity: finally, take the image of mint/eucalyptus and move it way off to one side or behind you. Smell the wine again and note the difference.

f. Final reset: you can always put the image of the dominant aroma back the way it originally was—or you can alter it however you want. It’s your choice. 
If you stop and think for a moment, there are any number of possibilities here for not only building sensitivity to any aroma, but for installing smell memories as well.
 
Explore and have fun with it!

                           “Do simple better.”

                                                                     Joe Maddon

I usually don’t make New Year’s resolutions. In the past I’ve found that any resolutions I make are quickly forgotten causing needless pseudo-guilt and moments of almost feeling bad. For me simple strategies are far more effective; strategies akin to making slight course corrections vs. radical throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bath-water lifestyle changes. This year I’m adopting Joe Maddon’s mantra mentioned above: do simple better. I think there’s more than enough complexity in life and the intent to make things simpler across the board is at the very least a noble endeavor. If anything it should make for less stress. I’ll let you know how it works out.

The beginning of the calendar year also signals the start of the Master Sommelier examination cycle. Candidates for the Master’s Exam found out last fall that the theory segment of the examination—which must be passed before sitting the tasting and service segments—has been moved from the March slot of the last several years to late July. Reaction by students was mixed: joy at having more time to prepare and despair at having more time to prepare. Rest assured that there are more than 150 people throughout the U.S. and in Canada at this very moment assiduously, relentlessly, and ecumenically cramming information into their respective mental hard drives. No doubt the student forums on Guildsomm.com are filled with candidates exchanging information on sources, study strategies, and more. It may be the beginning of January, but things on the Master’s theory study front are already heating up.
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I’ve written about the Master’s theory exam in previous posts as well as thoughts and strategies on how to prepare for it. If not familiar, the exam format is very straight forward: the candidate sits in front of an exam panel consisting of two Master Sommeliers and orally answers upwards of 75-80 monumentally difficult questions about anything in the world of wine, spirits, and other alcoholic beverages. The challenges are threefold: first, organizing a vast amount of information into some kind of system for study, committing said mountain of information to memory, and finally, being able to retrieve the information under considerable stress experienced during the actual exam.

​The three factors pose major challenges to different candidates. For students without an advanced academic background (i.e., no college experience), studying and preparing for an exam of this nature can be alien territory. For others, committing a lot of information to long term memory is a huge challenge. But for most the deal breaker is being able to deal with the nerves and anxiety of the exam in order to retrieve needed information. 

Richard Feynman

Enter Richard Feynman, one of the most accomplished theoretical physicists of the 20th century. He is known for his work on the theories of quantum mechanics, quantum electrodynamics, and particle physics. In 1965 Feynman (pronounced fainmen), along with Julian Schwinger and Sinchiro Tomonaga, received the Nobel Prize for Physics. Feynman was also part of the Manhattan Project during WWII and was appointed to the Rogers Commission in the 1980’s, the panel that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Feynman was especially gifted at popularizing physics in both his lectures and books including three volumes taken from his undergrad lectures at Cal Tech, “The Feynman Lectures on Physics.” Several of his lectures were also filmed and are now available on YouTube. They're well worth watching. Feynman also wrote two autobiographical books, “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” and “What Do You Care What Other People Think?” No surprise that Feynman was also controversial, often going against the grain of the scientific community and even the government. Many quotes from his books, lectures, and interviews point to just that. Here are a few of my favorites:

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” 

“Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent, and original manner possible.” 

“Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.” 

“I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.” 

“The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.” 

 “Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.” 
 
The Feynman Technique
 
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Feynman’s genius was his ability to take profoundly complex theories of physics and make them easily understandable by anyone. The aforementioned Cal Tech lectures are legendary for just this, not to mention his colorful personality, rasping voice, and Queens accent. In keeping with his overarching philosophy of making the complex easily understandable Feynman developed a simple technique that has been named after him. It can be applied to learning anything. With the impending Master’s theory exam there’s no better time to adopt it as a primary study strategy. The Feynman Technique consists of three steps:

1. Be Able to Explain the Information to Anyone

Take the subject matter you’re attempting to learn and write an explanation about it on paper. Write the information down as if you were explaining it to an eight-year-old. Keep the explanation—especially the terms--simple enough so anyone could understand what you’re talking about. This because we so often use the nomenclature of our respective field to mask fundamentals we don’t actually know.

2. Review

When writing out the explanation it’s inevitable that you’ll find gaps in your knowledge—details large and small that are lacking. Or perhaps you’ll forget an important concept that will help you connect the dots all the while keeping your eight-year-old audience in mind. This is when more actual studying is needed to fill in said gaps and make a complete explanation not only possible but easy to do. 

3. Organize and Simplify

Here simplicity enters the picture yet again. Once you’ve finished your explanation you now have a set of notes that can be used for future review. The final step is to then arrange the notes in a narrative so you can explain the subject at hand to the proverbial eight-year-old, much less anyone. Read your notes aloud as if you’re telling the story of biodynamics, the Gran Selezione in Chianti Classico, the VDP classification, or whatever the case may be. If the explanation isn’t simple or straightforward when reading it aloud you really don’t know the information well enough. Stop! Go back to step two and plug in any information needed to make your narrative both easy to remember and easy to recite.  
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*There’s an optional step four: actually find someone not in the industry and practice telling them about your topics du jour. You’ll find their feedback in the form of how they listen and respond to you in the moment incredibly valuable.

Cheers and Happy New Year to all!

​In keeping with the ghost of Christmas blog posts past I will once again offer a humble list of potential gifts. I'll also offer a bit of safe and sane advice: buy yourself something really nice for Christmas (Hint: you should do the same for your birthday). To expect friends and family to know exactly what you want is the essence of folly and frustration. Personally that yuletide gift to self is almost always a good book. And if we've learned anything this year, we all need to read a bit more. I digress… With that in mind, here is an assortment of books I’ve read over the past year to ponder along with two completely delightful non-book gift ideas. The first could be a necessity for modern life…

Riedel Vinum XL Martini Glasses

The Vinum XL Martini glass could be Riedel’s finest hour. Yes, I know all about those amazing—and enormous--Sommelier Burgundy and Bordeaux glasses, but the XL Martini glasses are far more durable and arguably as versatile. Packed in a set of two, the XL glasses stand over seven inches tall with a capacity of just over nine ounces. But more than anything, they are simply beautiful to behold. If your spirit animal is a Negroni, these glasses are for you.

Books

Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers, by Tim Ferriss

Although just released on December 6th, literally a couple of weeks ago, Tim Ferriss’ new book Tools of the Titans has quickly become one of my favorites of the year. Ferris is author of the Four Hour Workweek and one of the top bloggers around. He routinely posts podcasts of extended interviews with top people from a myriad of different industries and walks of life. Tools of Titans is filled with valuable and thoughtful strategies and advice from the best. Highest recommendation. 

The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World, by Adam Gazzaley and Larry D. Rosen

I first met Adam Gazzaley several years ago during the initial stages of my tasting project. Gazzaley is head of the neuroscience program at the University of San Francisco. In recent years he’s been at the forefront of research on the brain and aging. Larry Rosen is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills. In Distracted Mind they explore brain anatomy and function to show how and why the combination of electronics and never ending social media is an incredible challenge for us to deal with. The book also outlines strategies to help focus and function in a highly distracted world. 

I Taste Red: The Science of Tasting Wine, by Jamie Goode
 
This is one of two wine books I’m recommending for holiday reading and beyond. I’m a big fan of Jamie Goode and his ability to bring science to wine. His previous book, The Science of Wine, From Vine to Glass, is now in its second edition and should be on every professional’s bookshelf. Goode’s new book focuses on the science behind tasting. As always, Jamie does an excellent job making the complex simple and understandable. Highly recommended. 

Appetites: A Cookbook, by Anthony Bourdain
 
Appetites is no ordinary cook book. The cover is by legendary artist Ralph Steadman of Hunter S. Thompson fame and easily the best book cover of any kind this year. Inside the recipes reflect a combination of Bourdain’s childhood, his 30 years-plus in restaurant kitchens, and most recently his world travel. All the dishes are imminently make-able. His major critic for any recipe to be considered for the book? His eight-year-old daughter Ariane. Enough said. 

Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders, by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton
 
I’ve been on Atlas Obscura’s Facebook feed for quite some time and never cease to be amazed and impressed with the strange, often bizarre factoids, curiosities, and places posted. From the “The Chained Books of Hereford Cathedral” in the UK to the “Moonhole” on Bequia, Grenadines, the info in Atlas Obscura book is guaranteed to fascinate and delight. 

Drinking the Devil’s Acre: A Love Letter from San Francisco and her Cocktails, by Duggan McDonnell

Historically the “Devil’s Acre” was a single block in Barbary Coast San Francisco filled with bars and mayhem. Just a few short blocks away the city’s elite drank the finest cocktails in the poshest hotel bars on the West Coast. Both combined to create the city’s legendary night life as well as a host of the most historic mixed potables known to civilized man. Longtime San Francisco bartender/mixologist Duggan McDonnell’s Drinking the Devil’s Acre is nothing short of a love letter dedicated to this history. The book’s chapters are comprised of a series of essays devoted to specific cocktails, their colorful origins, and best recipes. My favorite chapter in the book? The Negroni, of course. 

The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is also one of the top science fiction-fantasy-horror writers of the last 20 years. His commencement speech to the 2012 graduating class of the Philadelphia Academy of Art called, “Make Great Art,” is one of the best—and most viewed ever. Gaiman's The Graveyard Book is one of my favorites of the year. First released in 2009, the book won both the Newbury Medal and a Hugo Award. Technically it’s a work intended for young adults but so skillfully written it’s enjoyable by all. In the story a toddler boy’s family is murdered and he raised by ghosts in a centuries-old graveyard nearby. The rest is in the telling and no one does it better than Gaiman. 

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, by Carlo Rovelli

Sometimes astonishing things come in very small packages. Such is the case with Carlo Rovelli’s Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. Rovelli is an Italian theoretical physicist and head of the quantum gravity group at the Centre de Physique Théorique at the Aix-Marseille Université. In the scant 96 pages of his Seven Brief Lessons, Rovelli artfully explains the cornerstone concepts in physics including Einstein’s theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, and more. But what impresses is Rovelli’s passion for his subject and how he manages to take the most complex subject matter and make it imminently understandable for anyone. Each short chapter is like sipping a Fernet while listening to a master physicist unravel the mysteries of the universe. Even if you’re not a science fan this book is still completely wonderful.

Foundation: The History of England Volume I, by Peter Ackroyd

Peter Ackroyd is one of England’s top social historians. His book Foundation Volume I spans an enormous range of time in English history, from earliest beginnings to the dawn of the Tudor dynasty in the 15th century. Throughout Ackroyd skillfully weaves history as fascinating narrative. To read is to learn so much about England, the English, and their language. What stands out for me is how incredibly ancient the country is and why, to no one’s surprise, ancient Druid, Roman, and Saxon ruins are constantly being discovered. It’s as if every square inch of the country has been traversed and much of it inhabited for millennia. 

​The Winemaker, by Richard G. Peterson

Before the Wine Spectator, 100-point scores, and Napa Valley’s world fame there was a California wine industry. And one of its most influential figures was Richard Peterson. After getting his PhD in chemistry at Cal Berkeley Dick Peterson was hired by Gallo. He spent ten years there at a time when the winery was the most technologically advanced facility in the country. From Gallo, Peterson succeeded the legendary André Tchelistcheff at Beaulieu Vineyard in Napa and then continued a long and successful career. To read Winemaker is to glimpse back into the window of California wine history at a time when the industry was still recovering from prohibition and trying to find its way in a world where beer, spirits, and sweet jug and fortified wines held the stage. I think Winemaker should be required reading for anyone in the industry under 30. 

Big Books

Taking my own advice, I gave myself two books for combined Birthday-Christmas presents. And they are BIG remarkable books indeed. 

Wonderland, by Kirsty Mitchell

I first came across Kirsty Mitchell’s work several years ago and was immdediately impressed. The U.K.-born Mitchell initially studied art history, photography, and fine art in London going on to train in performance costume at the London College of Fashion. In 2007 everything changed when her mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor and as she put it, “my world fell apart.” Her mother died in November 2008 and Mitchell wrote that photography “engulfed me, becoming an overwhelming passion that I could not stop.” She found herself producing works echoing memories of childhood stories her mother read to her; images in which she designed and made everything. The costumes, props, sets and accessories all became a vital part of the process, as important as the finished photograph. The results are simply remarkable. Her “Wonderland series” created between 2009 and 2014 is the stuff of magic and dreams. In an age where one suspects any and every image to have been manipulated by the likes of Photoshop, Kirsty’s photographs are true works of art. In 2015 she published a volume dedicated to the project; it quickly sold out. This past fall a second edition was released. It’s one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever seen and can be ordered through Amazon.com U.K. or through Mitchell’s website. If you are a photography fan this is a must-have.
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www.kirstymitchellphotography.com

Gustav Klimt: The Complete Paintings, by Tobias Nutter

Nobody does books like Taschen. The German publisher has a reputation for producing books on a wide range of subjects that can only be described as state of the art. Tobias Nutter’s Gustav Klimt is no exception and could be the most beautiful book I’ve ever seen--and easily the most beautiful book I own. It’s also one of the largest weighing in around 10 pounds at 18 X 3 inches in dimension. As with all things Taschen, it's spectacular in design, detail, and production. In a word, amazing.

And finally…

Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years, directed by Ron Howard

Ron Howard’s documentary on the Beatles’ touring years is revelatory. For those of us who remember those first few years when the group toured and released their first six albums the movie serves to remind us of what we already know: in a mere 15 months the Beatles changed popular music and popular culture forever. For everyone else, the movie is a brilliantly rendered primer that follows the group from basement tavern in Liverpool to the stages and stadiums of the world. If you have a Blu Ray player this is by all means a must-have.

​Cheers and Happy Holidays! 

A question I’m often asked by someone not in the industry is, “What’s new in the wine world?” If I ran into you in line at a local market and you asked said question at this point in time, I’d probably have a one-word response: “Furmint.”

If not familiar, Furmint is arguably Hungary’s greatest white grape. It’s the mainstay of the country’s legendary sweet botrytis wines from the region of Tokaj. These historic ambrosias have been made for centuries and were in their time vinous treasures of the courts of czars and other European nobility. But all that changed with the end of WWII and a socialist regime in power for over half of the 20th century. During that time the region of Tokaj and its historic wines took a major hit in both quality and notoriety.

After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in the early ‘90’s there was major effort and investment—both foreign and domestic—in the great historic properties of Tokaj. What followed was a renaissance in wine quality that was enthusiastically received by the wine press but ultimately disappointing in regards to sales due to lack of demand worldwide. But over the last decade a phenomenon has taken place in this region justly famed for its devotion to sweet wines: making dry wines from the same top sites that have historically been used for botrytis wines.

This is not the first time sweet has become dry. Two other examples quickly come to mind: The Douro Valley of Portugal where superb dry wines are now produced from Touriga Nacional and Touriga blends traditionally used to make Port. Germany is yet another example of sweet morphing to dry in the form of the great Grosses Gewächs wines made from Riesling and other grapes sourced from the country’s top vineyards sites--the same vineyards that have traditionally been used to produce fruity-styled wines with residual sugar.
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Such is the case for Hungary and the Furmint grape. Today high quality dry wines are now being made from the top sites not only in Tokaj, but to a lesser extent in the Csopak region on the north shore of Lake Balaton. It goes without saying that both are utterly unique places in the world of wine.

Tokaj

Tokaj is the oldest quality winegrowing region on the planet. It’s also home to the world’s oldest wine classification that dates back to the 1720’s when the region’s vineyards were first graded according to quality. The Tokaj classification predates Port (1756) and Bordeaux (1855). The Tokaj region is also one of the world’s most beautiful wine places; it was granted UN World Heritage site status in 2002.

Climatically the region is sheltered by the Carpathian Mountains and generally has a warm continental climate with long humid autumns, perfect conditions for the formation of botrytis needed to produce great dessert wines. A majority of the 12,500 acres under vine in the region are planted to Furmint.
One of the major factors that makes Tokaj so unique is geology in the form of intense vulcanism--over 400 volcanos in the area--not to mention intense post-volcanic geyser activity throughout the region. This makes for a tremendous range of soil types from practically every type of volcanic soil-- rhyolite, rhyodacite, dacite, and andesite—to tufa/limestone, clay, schist, loess, limestone, red and grey sandstone, dolomite, marl, and various stone outcroppings.

Csopak

The smaller Csopak district spans a 29-mile-long strip between Zánka and Balatonalmádi on the northern shore of Lake Balaton. With 15,000-plus acres under vine it too is a diverse wine environment with a wide range of microclimates and soils that range from volcanic to loess, limestone, sandstone, dolomite, and marl. Here also Furmint is the dominant variety along with a host of other grapes.

The Furmint Grape

The first documentation of a wine that could have contained Furmint dates back to 1597 from the Hétszölö vineyard in Tokaj. It’s now thought to have been a blend. The first written record of a wine with the name “Furmint” dates back to 1611. Like other grapes—most notably Syrah—the origins of the Furmint grape were long shrouded in lore. One legend had the grape being brought to Tokaj in the early 12th century by Italian missionaries. Another legend told of an Italian soldier named “Formet” introducing the grape to the court of Maria Theresa in Tokaj in the 17th century. But any so-called Italian connections were considered doubtful because Furmint has no genetic link to any Italian variety.

Today we know that the origins of the grape can be traced to the Tokaj region because of the intense genetic variation in the region. Recent DNA testing has shown Furmint to be the offspring of Gouais Blanc and a now-extinct variety. DNA work has further confirmed that Furmint is a half-sibling to almost 80 grapes including Chardonnay, Gamay Noir, Riesling and many more. It’s also the parent of two other important Tokaj grapes, Hárslevelű and Zeta.

Viticultural Characteristics

In the vineyard Furmint buds early and is prone to spring frost damage. It also ripens late in the season developing loose bunches of medium-sized, thick-skinned berries making it susceptible to not only to botrytis, but bunch rot and powdery mildew as well. The latter is important because the production of dry Furmint requires severe selection in the winery as botrytis fruit simply does not work. While the grape shows good drought resistance it will easily give high yields if not carefully monitored and cropped. But what makes the grape so versatile is a combination of the potential for late ripening and achieving high sugar levels while maintaining high natural acidity—not unlike Riesling or Chenin Blanc. The combination of high acidity with high phenolics gives the wines excellent potential to age regardless of style.

Ultimately—and singularly important to the sommelier—Furmint as wine is transparent and an excellent vehicle for terroir. Bottlings can vary dramatically in style from light to very full-bodied and from bone dry to lusciously sweet with botrytis character. Like Assyrtiko from Santorini, un-oaked and oaked wines are equally successful. 

Industry in Transition

The last 25 years have seen remarkable change in the Hungarian industry in both vineyard and winery. In viticulture, old-school practices dating from the socialist regime included wide row planting for use of tractors and single stake planting for ease of farming and high yields. Now vineyard practices are transitioning to higher vine densities—up to 7,000 plus plants per hectare—and the use of Guyot or Cordon training.

In the winery the move from traditional to modern has also been dramatic. Native ferments in old wood without temperature control and a general overall lack of winery hygiene has been replaced with stainless steel or neutral uprights, temperature-controlled ferments on both native and cultured yeasts, increased use of SO2, and drastically improved overall winery hygiene. Needless to say, wine quality has increased dramatically because of better practices in the winery.

The Dry Furmint Revolution

Why is the world just now learning about Furmint as an important grape not to mention its potential to make world-class dry wines? There is no one answer to the question as the reasons are many. The long-standing history and tradition for botrytis sweet wines and emphasis on mass production during the socialist era are major factors. One could argue that the catalyst for change came in the form of new technology, improved winemaking expertise, and considerable investment in historical Tokaji properties after the fall of communism. But two final phenomena also have to be considered: the lack of demand for top quality sweet wines worldwide and the move to dry wines by consumers in Hungary to the extent that over 60% of all Furmint-based wines are now dry.

Rediscovering Top Sites

Another factor in the Furmint renaissance has to do with site selection. The boom in popularity of dry Furmint has led to the rediscovery of historically renowned sites in Tokaj’s two most important sub-regions: Tokaj Hill and Mád Basin. In the Tokaj Hill region sites such as Szil-völgy, Hétszőlő, Nagyszőlő, Szarvas, Mézes-mály, Zafir and Terézia are now being used for top quality single-vineyard dry wines. Soils in the Tokaj Hill region are loess-based with quartz and other minerals, and wines from the vineyards are often called “loess wines.” Generally speaking, Tokaj Hill wines tend to be lighter in style with tart green fruits and high acidity.

By contrast, soils in the Mád Basin are volcanic-based and the wines tend to be richer in style and intensely mineral-driven allowing for longer aging. Top sites in Mád Basin include Úrágya, Szent-Tamás, Betsek, and the Király Vineyard. All produce benchmark wines on a regular basis. 

In the Glass - Markers for Tasting

Lighter-style wines display Pippin apple, under ripe pear, and tart citrus with white floral, green botanical notes (watercress, mint, parsley, etc.), and wet stone mineral.

Richer wines from riper fruit offer riper orchard fruits, tropical and melon, sweet citrus, mixed floral, green botanical notes, and pronounced mineral.
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Structure: alcohol by volume ranges between 12-15% depending on harvest timing and the style of wine; the acidity is always very high with light to medium phenolics.

Malo-lactic is often used in production and the wines do well with it because of the grape’s high natural acidity.

Oak: as mentioned above, Furmint is one of those rare white grapes that do equally well with both with and without oak. It’s important to note that the oak is sourced almost entirely in country most notably the Zemplén forest which has been used for barrel production for centuries. In terms of style, I find Hungarian oak to be slightly spicier and more exotic than French Oak but not as dominant as American Oak.

Glassware and Proper Serving Temps

All-purpose white wine glasses do well especially with lighter wines. I’ve used the Riedel Vinum Chardonnay Extreme glasses for the richer, oaked wines. Also know that Riedel does have a varietal Furmint glass. As far as serving temperatures are concerned, lighter wines do best served between 45°- 50° F with richer wines poured at between 50°- 55° F.

A Flight of Dry Furmints

Here is a flight of dry Furmints I recently tasted during a seminar at SommCon in San Diego. It shows both the versatility and wide range of styles the grape can achieve. With the exception of the second wine, all are from the Tokaj region.
 
1. 2014 Béres Estate Furmint, Tokaj 13% SRP $19
Stainless steel-fermented and aged – cork finished
S: medium yellow with green
N: evolved in style; dried quince, pear, and lime with white flower, straw, light botanical notes, mineral, and no wood
P: medium-bodied and very dry; turns tart on the palate with underripe green fruits, light green herb, and pronounced mineral. The finish is long, tart, and balanced with light phenolics.
5/1/4/6/1/1/4+*
 
2. 2013 St. Donat Márga Furmint, Csopak 12.5% SRP $24
Stainless steel and neutral barrel with no added yeast - screwcap
S: light yellow with green
N: initially some SO2; fresher, lighter nose with ripe apple, peach/apricot, sweet and tart citrus, white floral, straw/hay/green leaf, and wet stone
P: very tart and bone dry; tart citrus - lemon and grapefruit pith—and slight green notes dominate with mineral and slight phenolics.
5/1/4/6/1/1/5
 
3. 2013 Kvaszinger Estate Furmint, Tokaj 14% SRP $22
Neutral oak-fermented and aged with no added yeast – cork finished
S: deep straw green
N: honey, orange, apricot, citrus blossom, straw/dried grass, dried green botanicals, and stone/mineral
P: richer, riper style compared to the first two wines; very dense and concentrated but the fruit turns tarter on the palate with lemon/lime and Pippin apple. Mineral also stronger on the palate with botanical notes and moderate phenolics on the very long finish.
5+/1/5/6/1/1/5
 
4. 2013 Holdvölgy "Vision," Tokaj 13.5% SRP $26
Blend of 65% Furmint, 25% Hárslevelű, 10% Kabar – cork finished
S: pale yellow green
N: floral and herbal with tart fruit--apple, quince, and yellow grapefruit—and wet stone
P: initially very forward fruit but offset by intense minerality and high acidity; moderate phenolics on the finish. Very long and persistent
5-6/2/5/6/1/1/5
 
5. 2012 Erzsébet Zafír, Tokaj 13.5% SRP $24
Single vineyard; blend of 65% Furmint and 35% Hárslevelű – cork finished
Neutral barrel-fermented and aged with no added yeast
S: deep straw green
N: green apple/under ripe green pear, lime, white peach, white floral, green botanicals, and mineral
P: softer rounder mouthfeel (used wood) but still very tart orchard with pronounced minerality on the finish.
5/1/4/6/1/1/5
 
6. 2011 Béres Lőcse, Tokaj 15% SRP $25
Single vineyard, cooler site; barrel-fermented and aged – cork finished
S: medium yellow gold
N: ripe yellow apple, Bosc pear, yellow peach, tangerine, and mango with pronounced floral notes, smoke, and light spice
P: whiff of heat on first taste; very ripe on the palate but not cloying (high acidity!). Stone fruits, orange, and apple puree; mineral comes through on the palate. There's more wood on the palate but it doesn't obstruct and actually compliments the wine.
6/2/5-6/6/1/4/5-6
 
7. 2013 Majoros Deák Furmint, Tokaj 14% SRP $22
Single vineyard; older vines (30 years), loess topsoil, volcanic bedrock. Neutral barrel-fermented and aged for 12 months with extended skin contact; screwcap
S: deep yellow green
N: lots of wood with very ripe pear, peach, tropical and sweet citrus. Also lily, pine/botanical, lees/beer, and wood spice. Very complex nose.
P: very ripe and concentrated with more tart fruit on palate; mineral shows strongly as does a slight bitterness from combination of wood and phenolics.
6/2/5-6/6/1/5/5+
 
8. 2012 Barta Old King Furmint, Tokaj 13.3% SRP $38
Single vineyard, volcanic soil with no topsoil; no added yeast, neutral barrel-fermented and aged; cork finished
S: deep straw green
N: ripe pear, lemon-lime, yellow grape fruit, white floral, botanicals, and stony mineral
P: ripe orchard fruits offset by tart citrus with more pronounced mineral and medium phenolics
5/1/4-5/6/1/1/5
 
9. 2013 Degenfeld Furmint, Tokaj 12.5% SRP $18
Off-dry style; stainless steel fermented and aged; cork finished
S: medium straw green
N: pear, lime, green botanicals-mint, floral, and mineral
P: off-dry to slightly sweet in style; like a lime sweet tart with white peach, green notes, wet stone; slight phenolics. Auslese-level sweetness matched by high acidity.
5/4/4/6/1/1/4-5
 
*About those numbers…

To avoid using numeric scores when writing tasting notes I use a system for profiling wine developed by good friend and fellow M.S., Peter Granoff. During his tenure at the helm of Virtual Vineyards in the ‘90’s Peter devised a system to convey the most important information about every wine in the company’s portfolio. His system used seven criteria to profile every wine: intensity of flavor, body, sweetness/dryness, acidity, tannin, oak, and complexity.  Further, these seven criteria were represented in one-through-seven increments with one representing least/none and seven most or maximum. For example, with sweetness or dryness Peter’s chart lists “bone dry” at one end with dessert sweet at the other; for intensity of flavor the chart ranges from “delicate” at number one to “intense” at number seven. And so on. How effective was Peter’s system? Virtual Vineyards—which became the original wine.com—sold over $50 million of wine in five years using the system--and without ever using a single numerical score. Enough said.

Not long ago I stumbled across the Khan Academy. If not familiar, Khanacademy.com is an online school that offers free instruction on a wide range of subjects, from math (up to and including Calculus) to science to the arts including classical music. The school is the brainchild of Salman Khan, a former Silicon Valley V.C. Khan’s idea for an online school evolved from an experience close to home. His niece Nadia had failed her sixth grade math placement test and was completely devastated. Khan sensed that her poor exam performance might have negative long term consequences as in a permanent end to math studies for her. He thought she was far too bright for that to happen and was also curious as to why she had shown so poorly in math when she excelled far above her age and grade in every other subject.

Sal took it upon himself to tutor her on math via the phone. He quickly discovered that the phone was far from the optimum medium to teach anyone anything and more importantly, that Nadia had gaping holes in her basic math skills. Khan set about to fill those gaps and in doing so developed a series of short video/audio modules that covered math basics in sequential order of increasing difficulty. Though technologically crude, the videos were effective and in a short time Nadia retook and aced the placement exam. But the story didn’t end there. In working with Nadia, Sal went on to tutor other kids who were in his extended family. The project grew into a bare bones free online school focusing on math and science, using the same philosophy of short videos that broke down the given subject incrementally. Through virtual word of mouth Khan woke up one day to discover over 10,000 people using his videos. The rest is history with the Khan academy now considered one of the top online learning resources of its kind.

After looking at the site I signed up and went through several modules of grammar and classical music. I was immediately impressed by the quality of the information and how it was presented, so much so that I ordered and read Khan’s book, “The World School House, Education Imagined.” I recommend it highly for anyone teaching in any capacity. The book is filled with Khan’s ideas about education, teaching, and testing derived from his developing the online academy. One concept that really hit home was called, “Swiss Cheese Learning.” In it Khan lays out the idea that students—even some of the best—often get to calculus or organic chemistry and hit the wall. He attributes this phenomenon to what he calls “Swiss cheese learning,” or as he puts it, a “shaky understanding early on which will lead to complete bewilderment later.” He further writes that, “Concepts build on one another. Algebra requires arithmetic. Trigonometry flows from geometry. Calculus and physics call on all of the above.”

The cause of Swiss cheese learning, writes Khan, is that students never truly master basic information before going on to the next level. That’s because schools and teachers alike are bound to class and testing schedules that don’t acknowledge the fact that each student learns at a different rate. The pressure to stay on track in terms of a semester or quarterly schedule is also unrelenting. Thus a 75% mark—a “C” by most standards--is good enough to move the student on regardless of the fact that they missed 25% of the information on the test.

Khan likens this to trying to drive a car with just three wheels. He then puts forth one of the major pillars of his education philosophy, “Mastery Learning.” In short, Khan would have that student who got the 75% score not only go back and learn everything missed on the exam, but then retake the exam and continue the process until a perfect score on the exam was achieved. Why go through all the trouble? Wouldn’t 85% or even 90% be adequate? Khan believes not and points again to “Swiss cheese learning,” in that incomplete learning of the basic building blocks of any subject will eventually lead to massive failure when the student is faced with more advanced concepts in the future.
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https://www.khanacademy.org/

Applying the Khan Philosophy to the MS Theory Curriculum

As I read Khan’s book I wondered if his philosophy could be applied to studying the MS theory curriculum. Further, could his concepts of “Swiss cheese learning” and “Mastery” apply to candidates studying for MS theory exams? And if they do, how could the concepts be applied in a practical and easy to format way?  

For those not on the MS exam track, the nature of the MS theory curriculum is at its very essence a model of simplicity: what could a guest at the table ask the sommelier about anything depicted on a wine label much less anything on a wine and/or beverage list? The good news is that there are relatively few “pull-down” menus in regards to the kinds of information that need to be known. The bad news is that the breadth of information—in multiple languages—is monumentally, frighteningly wide. Add to that the fact that the Master’s theory exam is oral and you have an epically difficult challenge especially for those students who don’t have an upper-level academic background (as in college). The challenges are many: not only does a great deal of information has to be memorized and “held” internally but a myriad of connections have to be made between grapes, wines styles, terms for growing grapes and making wines, producers, and vintages from disparate parts of the globe. Again, an epic challenge for anyone.

But here is where two tenets of Sal Khan’s philosophy of learning and education, “mastery” and “Swiss cheese learning,” come into play--especially the second. In chunking down the various wine types or regions in manageable bits the student is able to input the necessary information in an expedient way sans stress with the added benefit of moving it easily into long term memory. In other words, one is able to “master” the information and use it practically.

Tiered Learning

Here I’m using the term tiered as it applies to incrementally breaking down the MS theory curriculum. To do so, I’ll set up the major “pull down menus” or buckets of information categories. As mentioned above, the good news is that there really aren’t that many “kinds” of information the sommelier must know. Here are those major categories:

1. Geography: country, region, sub-region, appellation, and ultimately single vineyards.
2. Geographic features, climate, soils
3. Grape varieties – styles of wine
4. Viticulture and vinification
5. Laws
6. Producers
7. Vintages
8. History and lore

Here are thoughts on each of the pull-down menus:

Geography: all MS theory knowledge begins and ends with being able to find a place on the map, be it a country or region, and even a vineyard. From there being able to identify important cities or towns in a region is also necessary.

Important note: geography will need to be revisited multiple times in the process of learning a major region. This simply because many of the most important wine places have classifications involving villages or sub-regions. But always start with larger/major places and upon revisiting go smaller.

Geographical features: after locating said place on a map next up is being able to point to major geographical features that will influence the place where grapes are grown and wine made. Here we’re talking about two major things that influence climate: elevation in the form of mountain ranges (think rain shadow effect) or bodies of water as far as important rivers, lakes, and even oceans.

Major grape varieties and styles of wine: along with place, the specific grape variety is the most other important part of any wine equation. In a given region what are the major grapes? Are they white? Red? Further, what style or styles of wine is/are made from said grapes? Still, sparkling, aromatized, or fortified? To the last point, knowing that dry wines are made in the Douro Valley in Portugal from the same grapes that have been used to make Port for centuries is important.

Soils, viticulture, and vinification: knowing major soil types and connecting them to places and specific grapes is next. From there being aware of any important methods, even laws, for growing grapes (think irrigation vs. dry farming and sustainable farming vs. biodynamics) and making wine. A good example of sommelier-related winemaking knowledge is connecting carbonic maceration in the production of Beaujolais Villages to the characteristics of said wine in the glass.

Laws & classifications: aside from geography--which can be really complex--laws and classifications require the most time for study and learning. Regardless of the recent changes in EU wine law, every European country has its own set of wine laws which in many cases varies with different regions. They can be simple or markedly complex with long lists of place names (think 1855 Bordeaux classification or the VDP classification). It goes without saying that this “pull-down menu” can get complicated as there are instances where knowing residual sugar in finished wine in grams per liter, minimum aging requirements, or alcohol by volume is necessary.

Vintages and producers: knowing top vintages—and off vintages—in the last two decades for any wine region is key. Exceptions would be vintages for Port since WWII.
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Relevant history and lore: not a deep as it sounds. Many regions have historical figures, events, and dates that make the place what it is in the modern wine world. In California wine we can point to two dates—and monumentally important people—as being the most influential in the last 100 years. Those would be 1938 when George de Latour, owner of Beaulieu Vineyard, hired Russian-born, French-trained Andre Tchelistcheff to be his chief winemaker, and 1966 when Robert Mondavi founded the winery bearing his name in Oakville. Both are red-letter dates and arguably the most influential people in the modern history of California—and American—wine. 

Using the Khan Philosophy in Studies

There are any number of ways to break down study of theory but the two tenets of the Khan educational philosophy, “mastery” of a subject in incremental pieces and “Swiss cheese learning,” can be remarkably valuable tools for the student. I’ll also add two important strategies that I’ve written about previously:

First, that students not think of studying in terms of hours spent sitting in front of laptops or looking at books or flashcards, but instead schedule shorter “modules” of 45 minutes that allow time to completely focus and then take a break. This simply because the mind does far better when studying in shorter intense periods of time.

*One important note from personal experience: visual memory and the stress of an actual exam do not peacefully co-exist. If one just studies visually (reading and looking at flashcards) the potential to blank on an answer to a question in an oral exam goes up exponentially. Multi-sensory memory is absolutely needed. Which brings me to the second point:

Second, use narrative constantly when studying—as in talk out loud when you’re studying and for two very good reasons: first, the simple act of narrative when reading something improves memory by as much as 40%. Second, and perhaps more important, when (not if) you pass the exam you will probably want to teach and so why not start assuming the role of the teacher when studying for the exam? What I have in mind is a scenario where someone studying is standing up (yes, standing up) and literally talking out loud while holding notes in hand and pointing in the air to a place on an invisible map.

Now we’ll add the Khan tenets to the mix. With a region or even sub-region, use each of the pull-down menus or buckets listed above. Start with being able to find the place on a map and then note any major geographical features. From there proceed to major grapes and styles of wines, and so on.

There’s only one rule here: you absolutely cannot go on until you know whatever it is you’re studying cold – as in you could explain it to anyone, even your Aunt Bernina from Des Moines.

There’s one exception to the rule in all this (Of course there’s an exception!). Often wine information comes in the form of extended lists of things, be it vineyards, or producers, or whatever. If there are more than five of anything on a list, I strongly recommend spending time memorizing/learning whatever the list is LAST—after you have mastered everything else about a place.

Nothing saps memory, energy, and confidence like trying to memorize all 61 chateaux of the 1855 Classification or all the Burgundy Grands Cru. These extended lists should be tackled last and in doing so the best strategy is to remain consistent with tiered learning by breaking the list down into communes/villages or smaller geographical units.

Above all, I strongly suggest NOT spending time initially trying to memorize long lists of abstract information. Our brains don’t work that way. Long lists of any kind need to be broken down into more manageable numbers of three-to-five bits of information that can quickly be related to a more complete larger picture—and with wine this always involves geography and that requires a map. Maps are indeed your friends.

Final Thoughts
 
Some countries are far more challenging than others. Italy and Germany are the most challenging of all and need to be broken down in manageable chunks so they can be readily understood. Start with something easy like Alsace or countries in the New World. Begin each study module reviewing things you already know. Memorize information in chunks of three and five bits of information.

Finally, remind yourself often that there are two distinct categories of information: the information that you already know and will be henceforth reviewing vs. the information you are in process of learning and committing to memory. If you don’t constantly remind yourself of this distinction your brain will all too willingly generalize and see all wine theory as a tsunami of data that can never be learned and it will go right into overwhelm mode--which is far from useful.
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Cheers!