Why would you consider doing my Sensory Evaluation of Wine Essentials Course?

To begin with, let me be clear I am aiming this workshop at a couple of niche markets. The wine enthusiast who really wants to elevate their understanding and appreciation of wine, but in a cost and time-efficient manner. Or the individual working in a cellar door or vineyard restaurant, perhaps as a working holiday job, or putting a toe in the water of a longer-term “hospo” career, or in the role on a temporary basis for other reasons – but you want to  be able to confidently represent the wines of your employing winery cellar door/restaurant and to answer any “curly” questions.

That’s not to say that enthusiasts who mean to go on to more serious wine study and individuals who have already settled on a long-term hospo career won’t benefit. You will – and perhaps more than you expect! And you are welcome. But your greater aspiration should be to complete the WSET Level 2 Award in Wines which will take you two weekends of study and set you back about $1400. An excellent globally recognized basic qualification. You can go on from there to complete the Level 3 Award, where you will start to attain some real depth of knowledge about wines of the world, and will spend the equivalent of four full time days of instruction and tasting plus a significant amount of home study and pay around $2250. From there it’s WSET 4 or the Diploma, serious territory now, about 120 hours of classroom instruction and 370 hours recommended personal study time on top, costing you about $10,000, and sets you up for the much more demanding and exclusive Master of Wine qualification if you choose.

I’m a big advocate for WSET! After completing a Winemaking “taster” course on EdX from University of Adelaide I completed WSET 2 and 3 with distinction. But while wine was only a passionate hobby for me, I couldn’t justify the cost of Level 4. However, now it’s my business, I intend to enrol. But I digress, this is not about me but about why my Essentials course might be right for you!

First, for my target niches (go back to the first paragraph if you’ve forgotten) it’s a modest investment of a half day workshop at a cost of $120. Second, I don’t try to cover the wines of the world, which you don’t need right now, just a strong foundation with New Zealand wines. Third, (and don’t take my word for it, check out what previous attendees say on the website) it’s actually quite unique in its learning approach. My background is not just a lifetime of wine as a hobby, it’s a career involving adult learning and education. My degree is in learning psychology. Most of my jobs have involved figuring out what capabilities will help my employing organisation achieve its objectives, what is needed to grow those capabilities, and how to deliver the required learning. My professional development in that regard includes the latest in application of neuroscience to “making learning stick”. To this background I add a lifetime of mixed experience cellar door experiences and three years working a local cellar door myself.

Let me end with an example. You are running a wine tasting at your employing cellar door with a Chardonnay, or explaining it on the winery restaurant wine list to a dining customer. You say “this wine is fermented in French oak barrels 25% new and underwent a full ‘malo’”. The customer looks at you blankly, or perhaps you have a bold one who asks “what’s malo?”

You’ve had the 30 second explanation in your job training. You might say something like this: “You know the tart angular acidity of a granny smith apple, the one with green skin? …Yes…Well what you are tasting is an acid called malic acid which comes from the grapes into wine. To make a softer rounder style of Chardonnay the winemaker allows the wine to undergo a secondary fermentation that changes that tart malic acid to the softer, rounder creamier lactic acid.” It’s a so-so answer that will leave your customer with the half understanding that you have.

In my course, you’ll get a proper explanation – that malolactic conversion is caused by certain types of lactic bacteria that change malic acid to lactic acid and carbon dioxide, and has three effects: first, the acid profile is changed from a tart angular acidity to a softer rounder one. Second, the total acidity of the wine is reduced because when lactic bacteria work on malic acid they convert it to lactic acid and carbon dioxide, so the total acidity of the wine is reduced by half the malic acid. Third, there is a reduction in some of the fruity aromas of the wine through this process.

But you don’t just get a more adequate explanation. In my course, you will taste a 1gm/litre malic acid solution and taste a 1 gm/litre lactic acid solution. Which helps you to ground that explanation in your experience, which is then applied by tasting two Chardonnays with similar winemaking (picking time, oak etc) but one has not gone through malo and the other has a full malo.

In my Essentials course, all of your senses will get a full workout and this will help your understanding, your learning retention and your confidence in sharing the concepts with others – and THAT is what you need to be able to do, whether it is to properly represent your employer’s wines, or to elevate you own sensory experience of wine to make more enlightened personal wine choices and to make better suggestions to your friends.

The next two workshops are scheduled in Martinborough for Sunday 6 April and Sunday 11^th May from 1pm to 4.30pm. To register, (or to subscribe to this newsletter) please use the contact form on my website www.wineinsight.org or email info@wineinsights.org.

I am also able to run the workshop on demand and in in other Greater Wellington regional locations for a minimum of ten participants.