I attended the Wine Tasting Academy over this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The three-day event was put together by WINE Magazine and Michael Fridjhon. My being there was borne out of a need to fast track my wine tasting experience. I was definitely punching just slightly above my weight category with most of the other course attendees being wine makers, sommeliers, wine buyers and wine writers-nothing like being thrown in the deep end.The weekend was rigorous. We tasted whites (the Backsberg Viognier was tasted and showed very well- thank goodness), reds, fizz and fortified wines. Young wines, old wines and really old wines. There was a fair amount of foreign wine on offer too, which was great since I have had little exposure in this department. As the weekend wore on I definitely grew in confidence and with that seemed to come an increased deftness in identifying wine character.
Yes, sure you can be born with an exceptional palate (and there were some very impressive palates on the course), but my overriding conclusion from the weekend was that it's all about experience. The more you can drink, or at least taste and be exposed to, the better.
Hats off to KWV, the 1930 Muscadel is delicious.
SB
1 comment:
My dad has been writing a book precisely on point with this blog, I have emailed him the web address so perhaps he could pick up a couple pointers. Fantastic Job.
You nicely summed up the issue. I would add that this doesn’t exactly concenplate often. xD Anyway, good post…
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