This document provides an overview of the contents and structure of a foundation wine course. The course aims to introduce participants to wine appreciation and selection. It is divided into 6 sessions covering topics like winemaking, major wine regions, food and wine pairing, and practical tasting exercises. Each session includes theoretical information, video clips, and a guided tasting. The introductory session outlines the origins and definitions of wine, factors that influence wine styles, common grape varieties, and teaches participants how to properly taste wine.

1. Foundation Wine Course
2011
Copyright © Brian Jamieson

2. Course aims
• To provide an introduction to the pleasures
of assessing, understanding and enjoying
the wines of the world.
• To broaden your experience and increase
confidence when selecting and offering
wines.

3. Introductions
• Name
• Wine Circle experience?
• Any favourite or memorable wine?

4. Course outline
Sessions
1. Wines & winemaking
2. Old World: France
3. Old World: Iberia, Italy
& others
4. The New World
5. Riesling
6. Matching food and
wine

5. Structure of each session
• Some theory and information
• DVD clips
• Practical tasting

6. Wines & winemaking: Synopsis
1. Origins
2. What is wine?
3. Factors affecting style and
quality
4. How to taste wine
5. League tables of production
6. Winemaking
7. Grape varieties
8. Introduction to single variety
wines

7. Origins
• Mesopotamia 10,000 BC
– Chance discovery of fermentation?
• Egypt & Phoenicia 3,000 BC
– Phoenicians producing, bottling and trading
wine
• Greece 2,000 BC
• Italy & Nth Africa 1,000 BC
• Iberia & France 500 BC
• Roman Empire [inc. England]

8. Definitions of wine
(extracts from EU directives)
• “….fermented juices of freshly gathered grapes
made [according to local tradition and bottled in
region of origin …]”
but, under pressure from newer member states, EU eroded
the above to:
• “….total or partial alcoholic fermentation of fresh
grapes….or grape must….”

9. Winemaking chemistry
Grape juice Yeast
Sugars: Fructose; glucose [Natural or cultured]
Acids: Tartaric and malic
Water: 75%
Ethyl alcohol Carbon dioxide (gas)

10. Composition of wine
– Water 85%
– Ethyl alcohol 12%
– Glycerol 1%
– Everything else 1 – 1.5%
• Organic acids (Tartaric, Malic, Lactic)
• Minerals
• Tannins & other pigments
– colouring & ageing properties
• Esters, aldehydes & higher alcohols
– aroma & taste

11. Alcohols
• Ethyl alcohol
C2H5OH
• Glycerol
HOCH2CH(OH)CH2OH

12. Added ingredients
• Most national regulators allow controlled
additions of:
– Sugar, to increase alcohol levels
– Fruit acids, if natural acidity is low
– Cultured yeast strains, to improve
fermentation
– Sulphur & sulphites, universally used as an
anti-oxidant, preservative
– Alcohol, usually grape spirit, to
fortify/strengthen

13. How is quality & variety introduced?
In Vineyard Post-harvest
• Grape variety • Sorting
• Geology & soil • De-stemming
• Climate • Crushing
• Aspect; slope • Fermentation
• Culture • Filtration
(pruning, training of
vines, etc) • Blending
• Weather at harvest • Fining
• Time of harvest • Maturation
(residual sugar levels) • Bottling/labelling

14. Wine tasting
1. Sight Eyes
2. Aroma Nose
3. Palate(taste) Mouth

15. Tutored wine tasting

16. 1: Sight - Eyes
• Clarity
• Colour
– rim
– body; density
• Suggestions of
– production method – steel or oak
– age
– grape variety

17. 1: Sight – Age of wine

18. 2. Aroma - Nose
• Fresh - Proceed
• Any mustiness – REJECT
– One bottle in 20 corked
– Try the cork first for mustiness
• Aromas?

19. Aroma exercise: 1
• Lemon
–1
• Raspberry
– 13
• Vanilla
– 40

20. Aroma exercise: 2
• Aroma 27
– Honey
• Aroma 4
– Pineapple
• Aroma 18
– Cherry

21. 3. Taste - Mouth
• Tip of tongue – Tingle of bubbles
• Front of tongue - Sweetness
• Front side of tongue - Saltiness
• Back side of tongue - Acidity
• Back of tongue - Bitterness

22. Taste
• Acid/fruit balance
• Which fruits or non-fruit flavours
– Fruity
– Floral
– Vegetal
– Mineral
• Length of taste

23. Tasting “ground rules”
1. Eyes first! • Colour, clarity, depth, rim,
tears/legs
2. Smell
• Fresh or musty?
• 500 chemical aromas
– objective & subjective
3. Taste • Tongue/senses
• „Length‟ a sign of quality
• Teetotal tasters!

24. 1. Weighbridge Un-oaked Chardonnay
2009. Peter Lehmann. Eden Valley
• South Australia
• Since 1979
Look
– Light straw: greenish hues?
– Density of colour?
Aroma
– Fresh; pre-dominantly fruity – melon, peach, papaya
Taste
– Light, subtle. Fruity with acidity conferring crispness
and freshness
Drink with?

25. The BBSRC, and to a lesser extent, the Wellcome Trust, have pasted in basic details from your application and final reports. For ease of reference

26. Some facts and figures
Where is wine produced?

35. 2. El Polilla, Sauvignon Blanc 2010.
DO Valle Casablanca
• Central Chile
• Produced for Wine Society by Emiliana Wines, an
organic producer.
Look
– Pale yellow-straw
Aroma
– Fresh acidic fruits; gooseberries; nettles; grassy/
vegetal, rather than floral
Taste
– Fresh, intense gooseberry fruits. Acid/fruit balance?

36. The BBSRC, and to a lesser extent, the Wellcome Trust, have pasted in basic details from your application and final reports. For ease of reference

37. League tables (2005)
• Rankings according to 1. Italy
quantity of annual 2. France
production 3. Spain
4. USA
• Two thirds of all wine is 5. Argentina
produced in Europe
6. Germany
7. Portugal
• Spain has the largest
acreage of vineyards
8. South Africa
9. Romania
10. Australia

38. Consumption

39. UK Imports by volume
1. Australia
2. France
3. USA (California)
4. Italy
5. Spain

40. Grape species and varieties
• European Vitis vinifera
– Wine making variety
– Native to Europe; now universal
• American Vitis labrusca
– Native to Nth America; doesn’t make
palatable wine
– Rootstocks saved European wine production
in late-19th century Phylloxera epidemic;
resistant to the Phylloxera weevil or nematode

41. Grape varieties

42. Anatomy of a grape

43. 3. Tahbilk, Marsanne 2008.
Nagambie Hills
• Central Victoria. Established 1860. ‘Tahbik-tahbik’ – place of many
waterholes
• ‘Marsanne, one of the world's rarest grape varieties - a wine with it's
roots in France but its heart in the Nagambie Lakes Region of
Central Victoria’.
• Look
– Pale-yellow or straw (will deepen with age)
Aroma
– Lemon, peach and tropical fruits with a dry mineral raciness; also
perfumed, floral nose - honeysuckle
Taste
– Quite full-bodied, even oily, more complex than 1 & 2; the
flavours of fruits and honeysuckle

46. Simplified wine making!
White Red

55. Destemming

61. Toasting barrels

62. Simplified wine making!
White Red

63. 4. Te Tera Pinot Noir 2009.
Martinborough
• North Island, New Zealand
• Selected in 1980 as an area that mimicked the climate
Burgundy.
• Hand harvest and careful selection of grape bunches.
Look
– Density of colour?
Aroma
– Fruity – red berries, cherries.
Taste
– Fruity with earthy, mineral hints.
– Complex, dense Pinot noir with soft tannins
– Burgundian!

65. 5. Leyda Cahuil Vineyard, Pinot
Noir, 2007. Leyda Valley, Chile
• Cool region near Pacific Ocean.
• Developed in 1990s.
Look
– Density of colour?
Aroma
– Fruity – red fruits. Some earthy, spicy background?
Taste
– Lighter, simpler than 4.
– Intense cherry and raspberry fruit flavours that are
complemented with a smooth, velvety finish.

67. 6. Turner‟s Crossing, Cabernet
Sauvignon 2004. Bendigo
• Bendigo, Central Victoria [Loddon River!]
• Selected grapes; matured for 18 months in French oak
Look
– Density of colour?
– Rim?
Aroma
– Vanilla from oak casks
– Blackcurrants, mulberries, plums, pepper, cloves.
Taste
– Full-bodied, huge, rich, fruity with hints of the flavours
of matured red wine:
• leather, game, tar, cigar box, chocolate

69. Today‟s wines
ALL SINGLE VARIETY
1. Weighbridge, Un-oaked Chardonnay 2009. Peter Lehmann.
Barossa, Sth Australia
2. El Polilla, Sauvignon Blanc 2010. Valle de Casablanca, Chile
3. Tahbilk, Marsanne 2008. Nagambie Lakes, Victoria, Australia
4. Te Tera, Pinot Noir 2009. Martinborough, New Zealand
5. Leyda Cahuil Vineyard, Pinot Noir, 2007. Leyda Valley, Chile
6. Turner‟s Crossing, Cabernet Sauvignon 2004.
Bendigo, Victoria, Australia

70. Today’s wines
1. Weighbridge Un-oaked Chardonnay £6.75 WS
2. El Polilla Sauvignon Blanc £5.75 WS
3. Tahbilk Marsanne £9.50 WS
4. Te Tera Pinot Noir, Martinborough £12.50 WS
5. Leyda Cahuil Vineyard Pinot Noir £9.95 WS
6. Turner‟s Crossing, Cabernet Sauvignon £15.00 OZ
WS Wine Society OZ Oz Wines M Majestic

71. Mystery wine
• By aroma only, which of today‟s wines is
this?

74. A reminder
• Session II
• 30 March 2011
• 2.30pm
• French wines

75. Finally…
Thank
you