3. Course aims
• To build on your experience of assessing,
understanding and enjoying the wines of
the world.
• To increase your confidence when
selecting and offering wines.
• To have good fun!
11. Grape species and varieties
• European Vitis vinifera
– Wine-making variety
– Native to Europe; now universal
• American Vitis labrusca
– Native to Nth America; doesn’t make
palatable wine
– Rootstocks saved European wine production
in late-19th century Phylloxera epidemic; V.
labrusca resistant to the Phylloxera weevil or
nematode
17. 1: Sight - Eyes
• Clarity
• Colour
– rim
– body; density of colour
• Suggestions of
– production method – steel (pale) or oak
(darker whites)
– age of wine
– grape variety
19. 2. Aroma - Nose
• Fresh - Proceed
• Any mustiness – REJECT
– One bottle in 20 corked
– Including screwcaps!
– Try the cork first for mustiness
• Aromas?
20. Types of Aromas
• Primary:
– Grapes and terroir
• Secondary:
– Fermentation products
• Tertiary:
– Products of maturing and ageing