Weekend Winedown

Whether you are a professional taster, tasting for fun, or (my favourite) an "educational drinker"; wine tasting is a vital aspect of the world of wine. There are many reasons why we taste including, but not limited to, determining regional/varietal hallmarks, assessing and judging, putting together food and wine pairings, and throughout the vinification process. Let's break it down further... DEFINITION: THE EVALUATION THROUGH SIGHT, OLFACTORY, AND PALATE TO DETERMINE FLAVOURS/AROMAS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WINE IN QUESTION There are 4 major aspects when tasting wine, the visual, olfactory, palate, and conclusions.  VISUAL: What do you see? Wine style, colour intensity, aging, and potential alcohol/ripeness of grape.  OLFACTORY: What do you smell? Intensity, fruit or earth/mineral driven, and oak use.  PALATE: What do you taste? The wine's structure (acid, alcohol, tannin, body), fruit/earth/mineral notes, oak usage, and sweetness level. CONCLUSIONS: What is ...

Let's break down what it means when a wine is described as Old World or New World? In short it comes down to place, history/traditions, and whether vitis vinifera originated/was imported. The Old World is Europe and Eastern Europe. These are countries where vitis vinifera originated and winemaking traditions were started. Whereas the New World is everything else, the Americas, Australasia, and South Africa. These countries are usually warmer, vitis vinifera was imported, and traditional winemaking techniques are borrowed then influenced by technology/science. These general statements obviously influence what end ups in the bottle. All making significant differences with the key notes, structure, new oak usage, and labelling.  Old World (Europe) Lighter Body Lower Alcohol Higher Acid Earth, Mineral, Herb, Floral Driven Terroir Made Regional Labelling (ex. Chianti) New World (Everywhere Else) Fuller Body Higher Alcohol Lower Acid Fruit Driven Higher New Oak Usage Higher Extracted Win...

  Hi, I'm Rebecca, a 30-something wino living in Toronto. Over the past 3 years I have gone from a curious wine drinker to taking individual wine classes to becoming a certified Sommelier through CAPS (Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers) and a FWS (French Wine Scholar) through IWEG and The Wine Scholar Guild. To say the journey was hard would be a complete understatement; I spent countless hours making notes, memorizing flash cards, pulling all nighters studying, and attempting to blind taste hundreds, if not thousands, of wines correctly, however, looking back I wouldn't change a thing. The past couple of years have really shown me if I want something and put my mind to it, I can do it. Which is, besides my love and passion for wine, a huge reason why I continue to put myself through these intensive courses year after year. I am starting Weekend Winedown to share my love and passion for wine with a broader audience, with hopes of sparking some interesting conversa...