Uncorked Ontario

I am really enjoying this wine class I am taking, “Wine Sensory 1″ but it is really messing up my palate.

I was visiting a local winery yesterday and talking to an employee who works there and is also in my class. I was asked if I liked the class and when I toldthem that I did and went on to explain how my palate seemed all messed up the employee stated that they noticed the exact same same thing. We are both a bit confused by this. Not sure exactly why this is but I actually was glad to know that it wasn’t just me who felt this way.

I wonder if it has something to do with what my palate has been exposed to. I taste and drink mostly local wines, wines fom Lake Erie North Shore and Pelee Island. In the first two weeks of our wine class I have been exposed to wines from France, Italy, New Zealand, Chile and California, USA. I wonder if it is this world wide exposure to wines has put my palate to the test.

I really like the LCBO’s online product search tool.

I have been reading about MALIVOIRE’s 08 Gamay VQA Niagara. It was a new LCBO Vintages release on January 9th, 2010. All of the reviews have been very good. A search for this product online at lcbo.com showed two bottles still available in Windsor at the Roundhouse Center. I planned to be in that area yesterday so I stopped in and picked up the last two bottles.

The online inventory seems to be up to day. I went online again today and see that there are now no bottles of MALIVOIRE Gamay available in Windsor now. I imagine the online database is updated once per day late at night. It is a usful tool when looking to locate vintage wines that are not available at all LCBO locations.

Gary

Well I attended my first class of Wine Sensory 1. This is part of a credited course for a Master Wine Taster certification run by Niagara College. The classes are held at Viewpointe Estate Winery right here in Essex County.

Some thoughts on the first class:

Very interesting and a good first night. The instructor is John Carnahan. He has a very easy going teaching style that I liked. John works for the LCBO and I recall seeing him at the Round House several years ago. I had a few questions about some wines I wanted to buy and he was very helpful. He knows his stuff and is the perfect teacher for such a course.

Some interesting wines were tasted. (not drank). Let me tell you that drinking wine is a lot easy than tasting it. While I believe I have a good sense of tastes, tasting involves spitting the wine out after tasting, this is something I am going to have to get used to doing.

About the wines we tasted. John obviously wanted us to experiences the four main taste on the tongue (sweet, sour, saltly/ mineral, and bitter). Baby steps …. a good way to start as we can’t run until we can walk. Two Sauvignon Blancs, one from France and one from New Zealand were tasted. Very interesting how the one from France had a pronounced mineral taste while the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc had a sweet / gooseberry taste. I thought the taste was a bit more citrus than gooseberry but then I haven’t tasted gooseberry in quite some time so citrus was the taste that hit me.

The two Sauvignon Blancs were:

JEAN-MICHEL SORBE QUINCY 2008, Price: $ 18.95 and SAINT CLAIR SAUVIGNON BLANC 2009, Price: $16.95.  

There was also some red Italian wine (can’t remember what it was) but it was one bitter pill.

Looking at the class schedule I see that I will need to miss one of the classes over March break as I already have a vacation booked with my family in Florida that week.

The course looks like it is going to be a challenge and I am ready for it.