A note on wine...

So I have started a Sommelier course in London Bridge, it lasts roughly 12 weeks and at the end I will take an exam and hopefully have a certified Level Two Sommelier qualification. My first session last week proved to be a pretty eye opening experience. Not only was I completely incorrect in thinking I knew ANYTHING about wine, but I also learnt that men who like to drink wine and talk extensively about it are actually as ignorant as the rest of us, they’re just pissed and loud and have the utter arrogance to say anything enough times that you cave into their opinion. A case in point of this was the weird old wino at the back of classroom who shouted “I taste blueberries!!” at our tutor so many times that she had to pry the tasting glass from his dead lock clamp of a hand and inform him that “no, there are no blueberry traces AT ALL in this wine, perhaps you had a blueberry muffin before class?”. Honest to God, I am not making it up. Aside from that, it was actually really interesting. We tried six different wines, three white, two red and a desert wine, all varying in price and region. We then tasted them with salt, sugar, apple, cheese etc to check for balancing acidities and how to match wine to food. So top insiders tip for you; you can actually have any wine with any kind of food as long as you salt or put lemon juice on your meal. It is not wine that makes food better but actually food that brings out the varying qualities of wine. For instance, red wine is commonly paired with steak because of a presumed affinity in the richness of texture and flavor. However, it is actually the salt on top on your steak that deepens the umami aspect of the meat and that in turn brings out the ‘tannins’ (resonating flavors) of your glass of red wine! Also, Cote De Rhone can be drunk with any meal, its balances with salt, acidity and sweetness and is relatively inexpensive. I also learnt that women are normally better Sommeliers, or more selective tasters than men, as we have more complex taste buds. So LADIES, don’t buy into the masculine dominance surrounding the wine list at restaurants, you have more capacity to choose a nice wine than you know.

So to conclude, the nicest wine I tried at the session was a 2006 Pio Cesare Barolo from Italy, acclaimed to be one of the world’s greatest wines. So if you have £34.99 knocking about, go and pick up a bottle! If not, the Wine and Spirit Education Trust cellar is situated on Bermondsey Street, London Bridge.