The day before my big certified exam, I did a mock Court of Master Sommelier style blind tasting again. I did one before, remember? That one didn’t turn out so great. Big fat fail. But that was a few months ago.  And with 2 more months of not only working in 2 wine shops but going to Italy again….I had a A LOT more wine under my tasting belt. So, I had higher hopes for the outcome of this blind tasting. Jill over at domaineLA brown bagged some wines for me (she marked W for the white that I would need to chill.) I brought ‘em home and got down to business.

And I did pretty well this time around! I was on target with use of oak aging or the lack thereof and also right on point with old world vs. new world, alcohol percentages and more importantly varietals and country. The wines? For the white we had a 2008 Old World (French) viognier. My guess? 2008 Chardonnay from France. I have to say the wine was too cold straight out of the refrigerator and a lot of the tropical notes were muted. The acidity seemed higher than it actually was which threw me off a bit.

The red? A 2005 tempranillo (30% cabernet) from Spain. My guess? 2006 tempranillo from Spain. Off on the aging a bit but my guess on mixed French and American oak was semi-spot on (it was just American.) This gave me enough of the confidence I needed to rock out on the actual exam the next day. Although- I may have been off on a varietal but everything was correct. According to my feedback, that is. I still have no idea what the wines from the exam were and I never will. Yep- they’re not telling. The mystery remains…

As for these blind tastings? I think I’ll take a breather for a minute and rest on my certified laurels for as long as possible. Which will be for almost… exactly one minute.

I did it! Woooohooooo. And yes- I actually think I made that exact sound many times yesterday. Yesterday being the day I became a Certified Sommelier. Certified! Or as my friend Joy says- “Legit!”

It was a long day that started at 8AM. I arrived at Spago (the location for the LA exams this year) and checked in. I got my time slot for the champagne service portion of the exam- 10:30. I was first! Always. The curse of having a last name that begins with A. I looked around and couldn’t help but notice that once again I was in the minority. Out of maybe 35 people, there were 6 women. A sea of dudes. A sea of dudes in suits.

We were shuffled inside to one of the private dining rooms which were set up with tables and glasses of wine. This would be the blind tasting. We had one red and one white. We also had exactly one hour to complete the blind tasting as well as a written theory exam. The exam was 40 questions in length with short answer, multiple choice and matching. The first few questions in I was all “this is easy!”…then I got to the Bordeaux questions….damn! I am seriously weak on my French knowledge. This was when I started to freak out. But I pulled myself together and did my best. And I guess, this time, my best was good enough.

The service portion of the exam was nerve wracking to say the LEAST. A room full of master sommeliers, champagne flutes and silver trays…..I won’t go into details because, well, I’m not supposed to. I am of the fraternity now! The brotherhood! Sommelier-town! But- seriously- give me a glass of wine and I’ll probably tell ya. Anyway- we reconvened later that afternoon to get our results. I have to be honest and say that I thought there was a good chance I failed. Some of the questions on the theory exam were hard and I didn’t know if I had gotten enough right. We were thankfully greeted with a glass of champagne (to celebrate or drown our sorrows) and we stood there. In a little cluster of anxiety.  And waited. They called the names one by one of those that would receive a pin. And it was a truly surreal moment hearing my name called. Whiiitttneeeey Adaaaaaams. Whitne-What?! Me? Yes- ME!

Thank you to my friends and fam for rooting for me and also being just as excited as I was to get a little pin. And to the Master Sommeliers that proctored the exam- Keith Goldston, Darius Allyn, Michael Jordan (no- not that one), Peter Neptune and Steven Poe. And to my study pal Dee (who also passed!) And to Chris Miller at Spago who gave us generous pours of some fine ass champagne just when we needed it.

-Whitney

Certified Sommelier

It’s time to get serious. Seriously studious. I told you about my certified sommelier exam that I was set to take in Las Vegas (big pimpin’ style at the Bellagio.) Yeah- that didn’t happen. Life got in the way…a trip to italy, starting a new business…so, i thought it would be better to give myself more time to really focus and devote adequate time to studying. I rescheduled to take the exam right here in LA at the big pimpin’ in its own right Spago in Beverly Hills. So- the countdown begins. 3 weeks. Me and some Master Sommeliers in the extremely colorful interiors of Spago.

I ran into someone that just took the exam in Vegas…and failed. What?? It got me a bit freaked out because this is someone that works in the business and is no dummy. She is taking the exam again the same day as me in Beverly Hills and we are promptly forming a study group. My house will soon become flash card central. Pray for me.  In addition to prayers, I will also be accepting as many sparkling wines as possible. If you would also like to come over and grill me with hard vintage questions and berate me while I try to open those bottles perfectly and elegantly that would be nice too.

Fail. A big fat F. That is the grade I would have received on my blind tasting exam. If that exam took place in my friend Rachel’s living room this afternoon. Luckily for me, it does not actually occur until March. In Vegas. Where, if I screw up, I can drown my sorrows in whisky and blackjack.

But, let us remain positive, shall we? OK- down to the nitty. The blind tasting: one of the more daunting tasks in the Court of Master Sommelier certified sommelier exam. 15 minutes will be given to taste a red wine and a white wine and correctly identify the grape varietal, the country of origin and the vintage. Yeah…not hard at all.  When will I ever need to be able to do that in “real life” situations? Probably never. But, by training the olfactory senses in this intense way, it better enables us wine folk to inevitably understand value in a wine, regional and varietal identity, styles of winemaking, etc.

The Court is comprised of some nice people who have had to take this very same exam at some point in the early stages of their careers. Therefore, they kindly email us test-takers the exact format of the tasting exam ahead of time. They have also devised a Deductive Tasting method to help us out and break down each element of a wine into a clue to its grape and origin. There are 3 main categories:  sight, nose and palate. Thoroughly examine each element of those categories one by one to then deduce what the wine could be (and what it definitely can’t be). Here is a simple breakdown of the deductive method and how what you see, smell and taste translate to a clue about what the wine in the glass could be.

I had my buddy Matthew at my fav wine shop Silverlake Wine pick out 2 bottles (a red and a white under $15) with instructions to have them concealed in brown paper bags upon my arrival. Rachel and I brought them back to her house and got to work. She opened the bottles without her glasses on so she wasn’t able to decipher any possible writing on the corks or foils. There would be not an ounce of cheating! We set the timer to 15 minutes and got serious.

White was first. I tried to go step by step and focus only on whatever identifier I had to describe: Fruit, Non-fruit, Earth/Mineral, Use of Oak. But I kept jumping ahead and thinking about what grape it was. Or about how sucky my description of  ”slight peach” was or how I was sitting there nose deep in the glass and coming up with zilch. How could I all the sudden not know what anything ever in the world smelled like.  There was a lot of second guessing involved. It wasn’t aged in oak. Or was it? It’s an unoaked chardonnay. No, it’s a sauvignon blanc from a moderate climate. No, wait. What? I’m wrong. I know nothing. I am a fraud… It had been 2 and a half minutes.

The lesson learned here is that I have to trust my instincts and listen to what the wine is saying. ( Yes, it talks. It sounds vaguely like Cate Blanchett.) And not get caught up in what I think it is supposed to be. We are graded not only on the final result but the assessments that lead us to our conclusion.

Rachel and I both independently came to the conclusion that the white was a 2008 New World sauvignon blanc from a moderate climate. WRONG. It was a 2008 French (Old World) gros manseng. Gros what? Exactly. Dear Matthew tried to get tricky. Gros manseng is a varietal that you don’t come across often and it definitely won’t be an option of white wines for the blind tasting exam. The wine comes from the southern coastal part of France in the Gascogne. At first taste I thought it was an unoaked chardonnay and as it opened  and warmed up a bit, the slight stone fruit and citrus notes came forward. The viscosity of the wine was on the thick side for a white (higher alcohol) and I thought it was for sure a sauvignon blanc from maybe Chile or some other such New World country other than New Zealand.

The red- I had to take a minute and get adjusted to this one as it was so different from the white. It was quite dark and rich in color, with lower alcohol, older French oak, dried cherry flavor and some spice….it could have been many things. But, I knew what it wasn’t. It wasn’t zinfandel or cabernet. Definitely not gamay or sangiovese. Too dark to be pinot. More “woodsy” than a syrah. Still, I was stumped. Rachel and I both thought it was a cool climate old world wine. I took a guess at grenache but, I knew that was wrong because of the color. Yes, WRONG. It was a 2006 Crianza Rioja (tempranillo).

So, back to the drawing board. More blind tasting practice to be had… with less gros manseng involvement.

As you possibly already know, I am studying for my certified sommelier exam conducted by The Court of Master Sommeliers. One of the components of the exam is a blind tasting of 2 wines. The Court, being ever so thoughtful, has devised a deductive tasting method that I first learned about last year at the Intro exam. It’s essentially  an easy way to break down information into clues about what a wine is based only on sight, smell and taste.  Before I get into tasting grids, viscosity, clarity, faults, new oak- I want to start at the beginning. I need to remind my nose of what black pepper smells like, chocolate, vanilla, the subtleties of different citrus fruits. All of these things matter in the world of blind tasting and identification. They are clues.

A Master Sommelier gave me some good advice; just start smelling stuff. Smell the flowers at the farmer’s market, pick up produce at the grocery store, dig around in your kitchen cabinets. Smell, smell and smell some more. Train the nose to understand that you are smelling coconut and sawdust as opposed to vanilla and cocoa.  The latter being a telltale sign of French oak and the former of American oak. French oak= Old World. American oak= New World (for the most part.) I’ve seen some really super expensive “aroma kits” that are like a smell encyclopedia come to life. However awesome they may be, I can’t drop $400 on some vials of liquid. Therefore, I must do as my Master says… dig around in the kitchen.

Berries, herbs, tea, vanilla, black pepper. Fun times. I might next be seen around the Los Angeles neighborhood of Silverlake foraging for wild herbs, picking grass samples and possibly smelling dirt. Don’t be alarmed.

Stay tuned for the next installment of the “Master series.” I am going to break down the tasting grid and then get to the fun stuff. Blind tasting. I am putting not only myself to the test, but my friends as well.

Every year, The Court of Master Sommeliers holds exams throughout the US and the UK. There are 4 levels of exams: the Introductory course, the Certified exam, Advanced exam and finally the Master Sommelier exam (by invitation only). I started my journey with the Court last year in April when I attended the Intro course in San Diego and took the 1st exam. It was a wonderful couple of days meeting other wine professionals, tasting a lot of wines blind and learning from 3 Master Sommeliers. That exam was multiple choice and covered theory, wine service and spirits. A 60% pass rate is all that is needed to go on to the next level so it’s hard to fail if you have done any kind of studying at all. Or paid attention to any of the lectures the day prior.  Even still, my heart pounded as they were reading the names of the list of people who had passed and received a Court pin (I so wanted that pin). There was no way I could fail, right? That would be embarrassing.

I passed. That’s my pin, right up there. In March, I will take the Certified Sommelier exam and it doesn’t hurt that I will be taking said exam at the Bellagio in Vegas. Not bad. Not bad at all. After I pass, I can then officially call myself a sommelier. But, to be honest, you don’t need a certificate or pin that says you are a sommelier to work in this business or be a sommelier. You just need to know your stuff. But I view it as a rite of passage and a great challenge. The worst thing that could come out of it is me learning more.

The one-day exam is in 3 parts; written theory, a blind tasting of 2 wines and practical service. Over the next few months, I will take you with me on my studying adventure.  I’ll be blind tasting as much as possible, doing a lot of reading and perfecting my champagne-opening  and wine-decanting skills. In addition to learning how to count cards. Viva Las Vegas!