Advance - USSA Wine Course Book 2007 CCL Editon Jan 2007

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The United States Sommelier Association, Inc. ™

Advanced Wine Course

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www.ussommelier.com

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Table of Contents

Introduction

The Evolution of Modern WineThe VineHow Wine is madeThe Aroma WheelTraining TechniquesTasting TechniquesViticultureVinificationThe Influence of OakWhite VarietalsRed VarietalsCorrect Wine ServiceWines of FranceChampagneAmericaThe Wines of ItalySpainGermanyLesser-known Wines of the worldFortified WinesAppendix – Glossary

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The Evolution of Modern Wine

Up to the start of the 17

th

century wine was in the unique position of being the one and onlywholesome and, up to a point, storable beverage. It had no challengers. Water was normallyunsafe to drink, at least in cities. Ale without hops very quickly went bad. There were nospirits, nor any of the caffeine-containing drinks that appear essential to life today.Europe drank wine on a scale it is difficult to conceive of; she must in fact have been in a perpetual fuddle. It is hard to have confidence in the descriptions of wine, which survive from before about 1700. With the exception of Shakespeare’s graphic tasting notes: ‘a marveloussearching wine, and it perfumes the blood ere one can say “What’s this?” They tend to refer toroyal recommendations or miraculous cures rather than to taste and characteristics.In the 17

th

century all this changed; starting with chocolate from Central America, then coffeefrom Arabia and finally tea from China. At the same time the Dutch developed the art andcommerce of distilling, turning huge tracts of western France into suppliers of cheap whitewine for their stills; hops turned ale into more stale beer and great cities began to pipe the cleanwater they had lacked since the Romans.The wine industry was threatened with catastrophe unless it developed new ideas. It is notcoincidence that we date the creation of most of the wines we consider classics today from thesecond half of the 17

th

century. But these developments would never have succeeded withoutthe timely invention of the glass wine bottle.Since Roman times wine had spent all its-life in a barrel. Bottles, or rather jugs, usually of pottery or leather, were used simply for bringing it to table. The Early 17th century sawchanges in glassmaking technology that made bottles stronger and cheaper to blow. At aboutthe same time some unknown thinker brought together the bottle, the cork and the corkscrew.Bit by bit it became clear that wine kept in a tightly corked bottle lasted far longer than winekept in a barrel, which was likely to go off at any time after the barrel was broached. It alsoaged differently, acquiring a ‘bouquet’. The “

vin de garde”

was created and with it the chanceto double and triple the price of wines capable of ageing.It was the owner of Château Haut-Brion who first picked up the idea of what we might call“reserve” wines; selected, later-picked, stronger, carefully made and matured. In the 1660s heopened London’s first restaurant under his own name, Pontac’s Head, to publicize it.In Champagne the great oenologist monk Dom Pérignon proceeded with the same idea, of perfecting by blending a drink so luxurious that the aristocracy would beg for it. By accident, or rather by the inherent nature of the wine of the region, once bottled it started to sparkle. Theoenologist disapproved; the clientele did not.3

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