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2 minute read

And … it’s the final part of wine at the right temperature where we look at REDS. Yep – as it’s coming into winter this is certainly a timely post!

Fortunately, with reds things are relatively simple (or are they?!). The rule of thumb for reds is “room temperature”. But what does that mean?! I always tell my students to imagine “room temperature” as being in a French château 200 years ago in the middle of winter. That might be a bit chilly, to be fair, but it’s far closer to the ideal than having your bottle of Grange sitting in full sun, next to the BBQ on a 40°C day!

In terms of numbers, you are looking at 15-18°C. The lighter the red, the more you might want to consider chilling it lightly (especially on a hot day). In fact, with our summers, I’d go as far as suggesting you should never be afraid of popping any red in the fridge for, say, 15 minutes on a super hot day.

The thing to keep in mind is that most reds are relatively low in the acidity department and, as I’ve mentioned previously, chilling a wine helps our perception of that acidity. Acidity not only make a wine feel refreshing, it’s an important structural component too (think of it like part of a skeleton). Without appropriate levels of acidity or served at too warm a temperature, a wine may feel a bit flabby, unstructured or cloying.

And, especially if it’s a warm day, that’s the last thing you want!

Now – you might be wondering what constitutes a ‘lighter’ red. Well, it’s not your big, bold Barossa Shiraz! Keep those more on the 18°C side of things! Some Pinot Noir can be very light, and European wines like Valpolicella and Beaujolais are also very well suited to a few minutes in the fridge.

As always, it’s best to work out what suits you. Put the wine in the fridge for a touch too long? Pour a glass, leave it aside for a little while and it will warm up! Just don’t try to warm it up in the microwave …

4 minute read

Last time, we covered off the ‘right’ temperature at which to serve sparkling and sweet wines. The headline there is … well-chilled. While you can worry about a temperature range, straight out of the fridge is going to serve you well as a guideline.

This time, things are a little trickier. We’ll talk about whites and rosés, but, of course, there’s whites and then there’s whites! You’re probably wondering if you would you serve your light and breezy Pinot Grigio at the same temperature as your very serious white Burgundy … and you’re right to do so.

In general, we do want to serve our lighter whites and rosés a little cooler than we want to serve our big, serious wines.

Chilling a wine does a couple of things. A quick recap if you don’t remember!

Firstly, it enhances our perception of the wine’s acidity. Acidity is the mouth-watering characteristic of wine which makes us reach for another glass and gives us that sense of refreshment. That sounds like a great thing, right? And yes, it is. But the flip side is that chilling a wine can start to mask flavours and if we’ve got a fabulous, complex Chardonnay, we want to be able to enjoy every one of those flavours, even the most subtle ones.

So we really don’t want to over-chill a white wine. Something which is light, relatively simple – so with one or two key flavours – we want it to be refreshing so we’re going to serve it a little cooler, but not sooooo cold that those flavours disappear altogether. We’re looking at about 10°C. This is the type of temperature where you want to get the wine out of the fridge maybe half an hour or so before serving – and, unless it’s a fearsomely hot day – you probably don’t want to dump it in a bucket of ice. Wine in the bottle takes a surprisingly long time to warm up when the ambient temperature is relatively normal so you don’t need to worry about your wine getting too warm. If anything, Australians are shockers for serving their wines too cold!

And, of course, if your wine does start to warm up … then pop it back in the fridge.

Bigger, more complex wines we want to serve them a little warmer again – so this time around 13°C. Cool enough that the wine’s acidity can still shine but also warm enough that you can appreciate the range of aromas and flavours.

OK – this is all well and good – 10°C for some whites, 13°C for others. But – what’s what here?

As a guide, wines that haven’t seen very much in the way of winemaking are often the ones best served slightly cooler. Think of a Pinot Grigio or a Sauvignon Blanc – bright, refreshing, lighter bodied wines that generally won’t have had time in oak barrels (or lees contact or gone through malo … all the wine-making things!). Riesling would usually fall into this category, alongside grapes like Vermentino, a Semillon (or a Semillon Sauvignon Blanc blend) and a Grüner Veltliner. Rosés also fall into this category – predominately a rosé is, after all, about refreshment!

The slightly warmer wines would be wines like a premium Chardonnay that has spent time in small oak barrels (and so on). The tasting notes on the back might make mention of spices, dairy characteristics, a fuller body – rather than just rattling off a list of fruits. Not just Chardonnay, of course – Fiano, some wines labelled Pinot Gris, and grape varieties like Roussanne. Some Sauvignon Blanc gets the oak treatment too, in which case those wines would be a candidate for the slightly warmer temperature.

It’s worth having an experiment to find out where your sweet spot is … perhaps pour a couple of small glasses of the same wine and taste them over the course of an hour or two. You’ll be able to see for yourself the difference the temperature makes!

Maybe you’ve just signed up for the WSET Level 1 Award in Wines class or perhaps you’re thinking about taking that first step in the WSET journey. Either way – this blog post is for you!

On completing check out you should receive two emails – the first will be the payment receipt email and the second will be a confirmation email with some details about the course. If you haven’t subscribed to our email list then this second email is sent manually so there might be a delay – keep an eye out for it! Sometimes emails do end up in spam so if you haven’t received anything then your junk/spam folder is an excellent place to look.

Approximately a week before the course, you’ll receive an email with all the final details. This includes important details about how to find the venue, parking and a reminder to bring along photo ID. This last point is really critical – we can’t let you sit the exam without it!

On the day of the course, please endeavour to be on time! You don’t need to be super early but aim to arrive at about 5 to 9. If you are running late (and we get it – these things happen), please send a text so we know whether you’re 5 minutes or 2 hours away! This is a courtesy to both the person teaching the course and your fellow classmates.

When you arrive, you’re welcome to start the day with a coffee (or tea or other beverage of choice).

After starting with introductions, we then get into the serious side of things! Every student receives the textbook, as well as a handout, a wine list and a pen. You literally do not need to bring anything other than your photo ID. However, a lot of students do bring their own notebook or tasting book and pens/pencils. It’s up to you!

The first part of the day is quite a lot of talking but don’t worry – we do taste wines! We generally taste seven wines (covering off the major grapes and styles) and you will have a spittoon. Please make sure you spit (after all, you have an exam at the end of the day!) and also keep yourself well-hydrated. We have water and glasses on all tables.

Around 1230 we break for lunch. This is included so please make sure you let us know of any dietaries at the time of booking. After lunch, there’s an option for another coffee before we head back to the classroom.

In the afternoon session we delve into food and wine pairing that includes a fun, interactive exercise. Then, we’ve got a practice exam, some revision time and then … the real thing.

For your exam, again – aside from your photo ID you don’t need to bring anything. We supply the pencils and erasers. The exam is a 30 multiple-choice question exam. The pass mark is quite high – 70% or 21/30 so make sure you read the questions and answers carefully AND make sure you answer everything!

It is a closed book exam and you’re not allowed any devices or paper etc. You are allowed to write on the question paper and a lot of people find that really useful in terms of eliminating incorrect answers and so on.

You have 45 minutes to complete the paper – some people will finish earlier than others but don’t worry! You’re not inconveniencing your tutor by being the last to finish and it’s definitely NOT a race to see who will finish first!

You can expect to be finished by 5pm at the latest. Then – if you wish – take yourself to the bar downstairs!

When you’re finished, you need to hand in both the answer paper and question sheet. These are then returned to the UK for marking. We send the papers International Express so they are tracked the whole way and get back as quickly as possible (obviously covid delays make some journeys less ‘express’ than others …). The WSET’s current SLA for issuing results is 6 weeks from receipt – so we ask students not to email us the next day asking for results!

The results are emailed to us and we’ll email you. The certificates follow shortly after that and when we receive your certificate we’ll be in touch to confirm the best postal address. Please do let us know your address as promptly as possible – every now and then we find ourselves holding on to certificates for years!

We hope this information is useful and gives you a good idea of how the day will run. If you have any questions, please just get in touch!

This book, by Alice Feiring and Pascaline Lepeltier MS (Master Sommelier), promises to take us on a journey following flavours “from ground to glass”. Feiring notes that, in part, the idea for the book came about through visiting a restaurant where the wine list was ordered by geology rather than more conventional means. I like that idea … I think too often we are seduced by broader geographical terms (‘Marlborough’, ‘Barossa’) without taking the time to dig a little deeper and understand the subtleties in those regions.

The book begins, promisingly, with an overview of soil types before heading into chapters titled Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic. But before we even hit words, there’s a forewarning of the book’s focus: a map of the world, showing major bedrock types in winemaking regions. France gets a whole inset, detailing bedrock by major region. Australia … granite and limestone, with an indicator pointing vaguely in the vicinity of Margaret River and Great Southern.

The French focus is actually even a little more limited … with a heavy emphasis on the wines of the Loire. Feiring is pretty up front about this – it’s one of her favourite regions (clearly!) and obviously one in which she’s spent a great deal of time. The book’s other emphasis is on natural wines and organic and biodynamic farming (again, interests of Feiring’s) and I found that sometimes I needed to take pronouncements with both a deep breath and a pinch of salt.

The wine lists (‘what to drink’ or ‘tasting box’) probably won’t make a huge amount of sense to many Australian consumers, and while the wines I googled were available in Australia they certainly weren’t cheap. I’m not suggesting this is a problem I know how to solve – a book written in Australia will undoubtedly reference wines that are expensive or difficult to source for readers in America. It’s more something I found frustrating – because it’s always good to try something new!

I really loved the ‘cheat sheets’ at the end of each section, which detailed a wine region’s bedrock, climate and what the region is known for. Although – as elsewhere – the emphasis on France is definitely noticeable!

Possibly the biggest spoiler in this book for me was an inaccuracy I spotted early on. This worried me because if I’m reading about something, I want to learn about it … and if I want to learn about it, I want it to be accurate. And once I spot that first mistake? Well, then I’m worried about what other mistakes are there that I don’t know about?

To many, this may well sound silly … But here we go anyway … “But even in Australia, the wine is growing up. In the southeast, outside of Melbourne in the district of Victoria …” Setting aside the patronising tone of the first sentence, the fact that Victoria is referred to as a district is just so wrong. Add to this that is really the only mention of Australian wine (and I find Beechworth Shiraz a really odd choice for an only mention – although in this case I suspect driven by the biodynamic credentials of the producer written about) and you wonder “what else is missing? what else is wrong?”. Is this sloppy editing or sloppy research?

While this book has its issues, I found it a reasonably interesting read – and let’s face it, soil types is dry subject matter so clearly Feiring and Lepeltier have done something right here. If you find yourself in the position of a wine trip to the Loire, I would definitely recommend it. Outside of that scenario, it’s a fascinating premise but not delivered in a way that will engage a broad range of readers, and I think that’s a shame.

The Dirty Guide to Wine: Following Flavors from Ground to Glass*, Alice Feiring with Pascaline Lepeltier, MS

* affiliate link

(4 minute read)
Last updated 19 Feb 2024

Pinot Noir is a bit of a ‘trophy’ grape – some of the world’s greatest (read, most expensive) wines are made from it and it’s notoriously finicky. Add to this that some of the wines can have rather barnyard aroma characteristics, and it becomes a bit of a symbol of sophistication (and spare cash).

However, we’re lucky that in Australia we do have some lovely, affordable examples as well as premium wines and (of course!) sparkling wines.

Australia

In Australia we have roughly 5000ha of Pinot Noir planted, accounting for just under 4% of the total plantings and just under 6% of black grape plantings. For context, that’s about a fifth of the amount of Cabernet Sauvignon we have planted and about an eighth of Shiraz plantings! And plantings haven’t changed that much over the last 20 years either.

And while Pinot Noir is generally a cooler climate grape, the Australian region which has the largest crush is actually South Australia’s Riverland with the more famous Pinot Noir producing regions of Yarra Valley and Tasmania coming in fourth and fifth respectively. The Adelaide Hills falls outside the top 5, crushing under 10% of Australia’s Pinot Noir.

The World

Where else to start but in Burgundy in France? A red Burgundy is almost always going to be entirely Pinot Noir, but these wines don’t come cheaply … in Australia you’re usually looking at upwards of $100 a bottle, heading towards the thousands (and even tens of thousands) for some of the most famous wines, such as those from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

In France, Pinot Noir isn’t limited to Burgundy – you’ll also find it grown in Champagne and the Jura. Germany has the next biggest plantings in Europe and you’ll find some Pinot Noir in northern Italy and it is even the UK‘s most planted variety.

Outside of Europe, look for wines from coastal California, where the vines have been cooled by sea breezes, or from Oregon. Pinot Noir from Chile can represent fantastic value, and, over in New Zealand, Pinot Noir is the second most widely planted grape variety (a distant second, it must be said).

The Key Facts

• Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Meunier (and others) are actually genetic mutations all appearing in a single initial variety.
• Typically the grapes are thin-skinned, leading to wines that are lighter in colour and softer in tannins.
• Key descriptors are focussed on red berry fruits, such as raspberry, strawberry and red cherry. But you’ll often see savoury descriptors creeping in (black olive), along with words like barnyard and (my personal favourite) cow pat.
• Some of the oldest Pinot Noir vines in the world are right here in Australia – Best’s Great Western in Victoria has eleven rows of vines planted in 1868.
• Key Australian regions include the Adelaide Hills (SA), Tasmania, Yarra Valley (Vic) and Mornington Peninsula (Vic).

Food Pairing

When it comes to food pairing, Pinot Noir is pretty delicate, so you want to avoid swamping it with big hearty dishes that are laden with rich sauces. Salmon and tuna are potential pairings as is roast chicken. If you’re cooking game meat simply, then there’s no reason you couldn’t pair it with duck (the acidity of the Pinot Noir the perfect foil for duck’s fattiness) or even kangaroo or venison.

If cheese is your thing, you should look to Burgundy for inspiration and pair with Epoisses – a delicious cow’s milk soft cheese with a washed rind. Yes, this means it’s stinky!

Anything Else I Should Know?

Pinot Noir is typically not blended – although many Australian winemakers do have a bit of an experiment here! Its thin skins make it ideal for rosé – so you’ll probably find it in a pink sparkling wine. However, a white sparkling labelled ‘Blanc de Noirs’ will be white (yet still made from Pinot Noir and possibly also Pinot Meunier).

Thirsty?

We love Pinot Noir so there’s plenty in store!

Our budget pick – the Elephant in the Room Palatial Pinot Noir delivers an eminently drinkable wine at just $14 a bottle.

Our luxe pick – the Shadowfax Little Hampton Pinot Noir from the Macedon Ranges in Victoria.