Today we moved on to practicing ”how to write a WSET tasting note”!

For the past few days I’ve been re-catching up with my WSET level 3 studies, a thing that I’ve postponed for over a year now for several reasons. The theory part is pretty easy to study but when it comes to tasting I’ve hit a small wall. There are two parts on the exam. One is a theory part with questions and the other is a blind tasting part. While we don’t have to guess which wine we are drinking, we still have to follow a certain structure of how to write the notes and screwing those up will cost precious marks (points!). We can not take our ”Wine-Lexicon” with us during the exam so we have to learn all of the steps by heart.

 

The WSET3 Wine Lexicon

From today on until I’ve finished my exam I will be writing my wine notes in that structure, it will sound a little more dull and boring but the information you will receive about each wine will stay the same!

So let’s get started:

Appearance

The wine is pale lemon and is clear.

Nose

The wine has a clean medium (-) intensity and is youthful. The aromas are primary and of lemon, orange peel and green apple.

Palate 

The wine is dry with medium (-) acidity, medium (-) alcohol and a medium (-) body. The flavors are medium (-) intense and have a medium (-) finish. The flavours are of lemon and green apple.

Assessment of Quality

This wine is good.

Readiness for drinking

Can drink now but has potential to age.

Some side information regarding the wine 

  • Single grape variety, Rajnai Rizling (Rheinriesling)
  • Only 10 000 bottles made
  • This is a single vineyard selection, only harvested from the south slopes. The vineyard is called Babszökő, the soil is brown woodland soil with red clay.
  • Harvested between 19 and 21 October 2016, slow cold fermentation in stainless steel tanks and bottled in June 2017.
  • The cost price for this bottle is about 4500 Hungarian forints, which is about 15 euros.
  • Personal note; drank a 2011 vintage in 2016 and it was great, drank another 2011 last week and it was still very good!
  • Fun fact: the cellar is also a monastery!
  • Link to the producer you can find here