When Life Imitates Art

While visiting my parents in Ashland, OR, my sister came across an interesting wine label in their supermarket and was tempted to buy it. However, my mother admonished her that choosing a wine by its label was not the right thing to do (although market research indicates that many people do). Whether or not this is an appropriate way to choose wine, when she told me the tale, I tracked down the wine and proceeded to do just that.

The wine in question is Three Legged Red from Dunham Cellars, which prominently pictures their three-legged border collie, named Port, on the label. This discovery was both timely and of particular interest to my husband and me because our border collie/black lab, Sabrina, had her front, left leg amputated in late October due to bone cancer.  Although we were initially devastated by the diagnosis and proposed treatment, we have been amazed at her miraculous recovery as she bounds up the stairs and romps through our mini-vineyard (99 vines).

Consequently, we purchased a full case of Three Legged Red sight unseen (or rather, palate untasted) to give as gifts this holiday season, especially for our beloved dog walkers as well as other friends and family. We feel that it is a fitting tribute and happy coincidence.

Upon taking delivery of the case of wine, we took one bottle for ourselves to taste and enjoy. We were pleased with the wine and look forward to sharing it with friends and family. Of course, we took a bit of a chance in buying a full case, but as the wine is reasonably priced (~$15-20/bottle retail), it wasn’t such a big gamble.

The wine has been well received by friends and family alike and was a bit hit at our co-op’s holiday party, to which we brought the wine as our contribution. Our neighborhood were quite delighted and actually thought it was Sabrina on the label, until we advised them otherwise.

Wishing you and your family (of all leg counts) all the best for the holiday season and beyond!

Message in a bottle

This is a (lengthy) review of my participation with Bottlenotes, a new wine club service.

I received an e-mail in September regarding a new wine club service called Bottlenotes. I was asked to consider participating in their Bloggernotes program, which provides select Bloggers an opportunity to try the Bottlenotes service in exchange for providing feedback that will be used to improve the service. While it was hoped that participants would love the service so much that we would write about Bottlenotes, it was not a requirement of the program. In the full interest of disclosure, I was provided with a free one-month subscription to try out the service. My participation with the program is still ongoing, but I thought I would begin with some preliminary feedback.

Bottlenotes prides itself on being a different kind of wine club, with several club options available to meet a wide variety of interests. These include the "Little Black Dress Club" aimed at female consumers, Explorers Club, Dinner Party Club, and the Kosher Wine Club, among others. They also tout the ability to match user preferences with wines, custom-selecting one’s wines to meet their tastes. They also sell wines separately from the clubs.

As another component of its service, club members’ wines are automatically listed in their online cellars, which permit them to track their wines and keep notes. They can also manually enter other wines not purchased through Bottlenotes. The service also permits you to view other members’ cellars. We use the stand-alone Cellar Tracker to accomplish this task, so this was less useful to me than it might be for others.

I choose to join their Limited Addictions Club, which offers limited production wines and is limited to 500 members. There was a long delay between signing up and receiving the wine, but club members finally received the just released Diamond Creek Diamond Valley 2005, which retails for $175.00. Accordingly, the two bottle/month shipment was reduced to the single bottle as this club costs $200.00/2-bottle shipment.

I haven’t spent a considerable time browsing through their selection, but in general, it looked to be quite good. However, I have been a little disappointed in their service, which is a change from my initial interactions with the company. When I first signed up for the Club, I was supposed to enter an access code, which somehow didn’t go through. Consequently, my credit card was charged, but before I could follow up with the company for a credit, they reached out to me letting me know that the credit had already been issued. I was quite impressed. Unfortunately, I have had uneven service since then.

The first issue has to do with my account, which somehow became co-mingled with my husband’s order, who is also participating in this market research project. We now have one account in my name, with his name listed in the "ship to" and "bill to" fields. We will accept some responsibility for this as he may have inadvertently logged into my account when submitting his own order. We honestly don’t know how this happened.

The next issue was the considerable delay from sign-up to order fulfillment. The sign-up occured in September, but the wine was not received until late October and there was limited, if any, correspondence from Bottlenotes regarding the order. In fact, I began to think that an error had occured with my account and followed up with them to inquire. At that point, the reason for the delay was explained. This bottle never showed up in my online cellar and had to be entered manually.

The following month, both my husband and I noticed charges on our credit card from Bottlenotes, in the amounts of each of our clubs (he joined the Explorers’ Club) depsite the fact that we had each signed up for a single shipment, not multiple shipments or ongoing memberships. We immediately logged into our account and suspended our memberships, not having seen this option previously. In addition, we sent an e-mail to Bottlenotes requesting that the orders be cancelled and charges refunded to our credit card. While we received two e-mails from Bottlenotes (clearly computer generated): 1) confirming our request to suspend our memberships and 2) asking us to please share our reasons for suspending membership with the company, we never received any response to our request to cancel the orders or receive a refund.

We chose not to pursue it and waited for our orders to arrive. My husband’s arrived a few weeks later. Mine never arrived, nor had I received a credit for the order until last week. On Friday, I sent a follow up request through the Customer Service page on their website. I received a response via e-mail the same day with apologies and the immediate issue of a credit. This has since shown up on my statement.

All in all, I have a mixed review for Bottlenotes. Their customer service was initially wonderful and then suffered a few gaps, returning to good service, so I would recommend them on that count. If you are interested in a wine of the month type club, this may be of interest as they do have a wide selection of choices. I buy too much wine already, plus I am generally shopping for something particular, so the club concept isn’t really for me. I did like the "exclusive" aspect of Limited Addictions, but in reality, these aren’t the wines I drink with much frequency.  Finally, the online cellar tracking is useful, but as I already have a system in place, it duplicates those efforts. However, I would recommend them overall if these features are of interest.

Two Roads Converged: The Wine World Meets Dentistry

When not immersed in the wine world, I serve as Director of Professional Development and Special Projects at NYU College of Dentistry and was recently appointed as an adjunct faculty member in our Department of Cariology and Comprehensive Care.

Generally, the world of wine and the world of dentistry would seem to be two different worlds, but somehow in my life, the two seem to collide quite frequently. Most recently, I was asked to participate in a research project with two colleagues concerning the effect of wine acidity on tooth enamel. No, I am not a dentist (nor do I play one on TV); however, my wine expertise has been sought out in identifying wines for use in the project.

I have also been asked to conduct a literature review and an initial cursory glance has been quite interesting. A study published in June 2007 indicates that wine may fight the bacteria that causes caries (also known as cavities). Another study has linked the polyphenols in wine with a reduced incidence of periodontitis (gum disease).

But despite this good news, a report on a doctoral student’s thesis from the University of Stellenbosch suggests that the acidity in wine may do significant damage to the enamel. This view was also proffered by my colleague and fellow SWE member, Herbert F. Spasser, DDS, CWE (yet another instance of wine meeting dentistry).

While I still have a more rigorous scrutiny of the literature ahead, these reports provide opposing views on the effect of wine on teeth, which call for additional research to be done. More specifically, research weighing the benefits and risks of wine consumption should be explored. Not that I will stop drinking wine, mind you, but I would like to know the potential consequences of my actions. In any case, it will be an exciting project on which to work and I look forward to the continued convergence of my two worlds.

A Tale of Two Tests

It was the most exhausting of times. In an act of discipline (or mere gluttony for punishment), I succeeded in completing two exams in two cities over the course of two days.

As alluded to previously, I have been preparing for the Unit 6/Fortified Wines exam for the WSET Diploma of Wine & Spirits, this fall. While I still have two papers to write, this was the last of my exams for that credential.

A very busy season (and personal issues) kept me from the study schedule I had envisioned. However, I managed to really buckle down in the last week. Consequently, I arrived at the International Wine Center feeling confident. This confidence remained throughout the one-hour exam, which included a blind tasting of three wines and a short-answer essay on Montilla-Moriles, Port grape varieties and oxidation. While I will not receive my score until around January, I felt reasonably sure that I had passed the exam.

Pausing only for a few minutes to reunite with a classmate who has since moved to Napa, I headed to Penn Station to wait for my train. The two-hour wait did not go wasted as I used the time to review all of the material I had studied in preparation for the previous units (Light Wines of the World, Viticulture and Vinification). This review continued for the better part of my trip, resulting in five hours of study in total. I arrived in Norwood, MA weary and ready for bed.

Thursday morning, I hastily showered and dressed, heading voer to Martignetti Companies’ offices in plenty of time for the 9:00 AM exam start. I was ready for the Certified Wine Educator (CWE) exam (having successfully completed the Certified Specialist of Wine credential in June 2005). This exam entailed 85 mutiple-choice questions, which were to be completed within an hour. This was followed by an essay (30 minute time limit) with a choice of four topics of which we were to select one. With the information from Wednesday’s exam still fresh in my mind, I was very lucky to find one of the topics involved Port. Afterward, candidates had to identify 8 wines from a list of ten and then match 8 faulted wines with their respective faults.

I left feeling that I had achieved a sufficient score on all parts of the exam, with the exception of the wine identification. Blind tasting has never been my strong suit, so I was not surprised. It will be 8-10 weeks before I receive my results on the CWE, but I suspect that I will be headed to re-take the blind tasting part of the exam sometime in 2008. In the meantime, I have two papers to write and lots of wine to drink. Perhaps, it is the best of times.

To SWE or WSET?, that is the question…

I was recently asked to expound on the relative advantages/disadvantages to the Society of Wine Educators (SWE) credentials as compared to the Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) certifications. The inquiry came from someone whose purpose to wine education was more professional than personal. As others may have similar questions, I have chosen to answer the question in a more public forum than a reply e-mail.

For those of you unfamiliar with the two organizations and their respective certifications, an overview is in order. The Society of Wine Educators is a volunteer organization, based in the U.S., but with members throughout the world. Membership is open to both novices and professionals. SWE presents an annual conference, several additional educational programs and presently administers two credentialing programs. The first level credential is the Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW), which is earned by successfully passing (75% or higher) a 100-question multiple-choice exam. The Certified Wine Educator (CWE) is much more rigourous, entailing multiple-choice questions, an essay question and two blind tasting exercises (one on identifiying varietals and the other on identifying faults).

The WSET is a non-profit organization based in London, England, which adminsters a number of educational programs, worldwide, primarily focused on wine, but also inclusive of spirits (hence, the S in the title). Its programs are open to novices and professionals, but are primarily intended for professionals, particularly at the higher levels. To that end, coursework and content focus on trade and industry issues as part of the curriculum. In addition, the Diploma program serves as a prerequisite to those interested in pursuing the Master of Wine (MW) credential, which is administered by the Institute of Masters of Wine. The largest U.S-based WSET program is offered by the International Wine Center in New York, NY, where I take my classes.

The advantage to the WSET programs is that, if you live near an approved program provider, you can participate in a traditional class. Students have the opportunity to taste 6 wines per class and are instructed by credentialed wine educators. If you are not near a provider or if you can’t commit to traveling to one (IWC does offer condensed format programs for those traveling to NYC), you will need to complete your program as a home study student, traveling to a provider only to sit for your exam(s).

SWE does not offer any formal classes to prepare for its certifications, so one needs to be more disciplined in their preparation. A Study Guide is available for the CSW; a list of recommended books is available for the CWE, along with some helpful hints from previous exam takers. Exams are offered throughout the year in various cities and at conference; a schedule is posted annually. My understanding is that the CSW must be successfully completed before one can sit for the CWE, which is a change from the past.

A disadvantage to the WSET program is that the WSET does not appear to offer any programming outside of its formal classes within the U.S. There are occasional events in London available to students. SWE has its annual conference, which provides additional educational opportunities as well as a venue for networking.

Since students generally participate in an 8-week or 15-week WSET program, inclusive of materials, study guides and wines, the tuition for the WSET program can get expensive, especially at the Diploma level. In contrast, the only expense associated with SWE credentials is each exam’s registration fee.

Of course, scheduling issues and tuition expenses are not the real reasons to choose one program over another.  The learning experience should be the more important emphasis. I don’t think that the credentials are fully analogous, so it is difficult to compare apples with apples. The WSET Foundation Certificate is the most basic level, but doesn’t seem to be offered much in the U.S. Its Intermediate Certificate is a good place to start. The CSW is more challenging than Intermediate, but less so than Advanced Certificate. The CWE is more rigorous than Advanced Certificate, but less so than Diploma.

For those in restaurants or other, more-service oriented facets of the wine industry, the sommelier programs might be more suitable as they cover wine content, along with related service elements. This track leads to the Master Sommelier (MS) credential, which, like the MW, is extremely rigorous and challenging and achieved by only a few hardy souls.

Consequently, one’s choice of credentials is less cut and dried than simply deciding whether to SWE or WSET. Both organizations are well regarded and offer quality programs. For me, the choice was simple, both. I will take my Unit 6 exam for WSET Diploma on November 7 in New York and will hop on Amtrak to take the CWE exam in Boston on the following day. Assuming that I am successful on both exams, I will be left with two papers to complete for the Diploma. I then plan to take a break from formal wine study while I contemplate whether or not to pursue the MW. Of course, regardless of whether I pursue additional credentials or programs, I will never stop learning about wine.

WSET Diploma Unit 1 Writing Assignments

Among the requirements for the WSET Diploma are four, short research papers (1,500-2,000 words). Each spring, the WSET presents four topics on which candidates can write. These topics can be completed for submission for the November or April deadlines. After April, the current topics are no longer valid and a new set of topics is posted.

Last year I wrote and submitted two of the four papers. One was on climate change and the other was on sensible drinking. The other two have yet to be written, but will be submitted for the April 2008 deadline.

A number of my WSET Diploma colleagues who had not yet written any of their papers had asked me to share mine with them. They found it useful to see the example. I thought other Diploma candidates might find it helpful as well, so I have posted it. However, in order to fulfill my monthly submission requirement for Wine Sediments, I posted the article on Climate Change to Wine Sediments this week. The assignment earned a Pass with Merit.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Lenn Thompson

I came across the Lenndevours blog sometime ago, perhaps as long as three years hence. It was a casual occurance and I went along my business. Later, my husband also found the site and began to correspond with Lenn via e-mail given their mutual interests of wine, particularly Long Island wine, and technology.

This correspondence grew over the course of several months and we began to inquire about meeting up. However, fate intervened on each occasion. For any event at which Lenn was to attend, we had other plans and, similarly, he was unavailable to attend the events we did. It seemed ill-fated that we would ever meet in person.

However, I can now say that I have actually met the man and he does exist! As Lenn noted on his blog, he co-hosted a tasting of mature, Long Island wines with us on September 23 at Grand Cru Classes. We tasted twelve wines from the 1995 vintage, which was a terrific opportunity to experience these special wines.

We were also blessed with the company of Neil Dorosin (Brooklyn Wine Guy), Joe Watson (Vine Wine Bar in Greenport) and Chris Watkins (Roanoke Vineyards).

Hungry for Knowledge

I returned to Kansas City, MO for the second phase of my participation in the Academy for Academic Leadership’s Institute for Teaching and Learning last weekend. Some of the time was spent with a few colleagues from my home institution — NYU — and I had the opportunity to dine out with them on several occasions. Knowing of my academic pursuits in wine, they deferred to me in all matters vinous, even to the point of waiting for me to arrive at the bar to advise them on which glass of wine to order.

On the first night, our group met at the hotel’s revolving restaurant to prepare for our project presentation. When in Rome…, so we all proceeded to order steak — KC Strip and fillet mignon — making my job very easy. I chose a Cabernet Sauvignon from Simi (Alexander Valley, Sonoma, 2004 vintage) and explained the match between tannin and protein. All expressed approval at the selection. The next night, thre of us headed to the well-regarded Fiorella’s Jack Stack BBQ, which practically begged for Zinfandel [Zen of Zin, California (specific details not recalled), 2004 vintage]. It was a terrific match with the sweet barbecue sauce and burnt ends (one of the house specialties) and ribs.

Of particular interest, my colleagues were hungry for wine knowledge, asking detailed questions. Perhaps their roles as scientists can account for some of their inquisitive pursuit. But, more likely, I think it is their true interest in learning more about wine. One colleague noted that she had never had so many wines before and bragged to another that she had learned about five grapes — all in three days! Regardless of motive, I was delighted to sate their appetite with my knowledge and keep the bottles flowing.

What’s in your suitcase?

While at the Austrian wine event, I ran into Reuben, one of my Diploma classmates. He is the Wine Director for the Monday Room, at Public restaurant on Elizabeth Street. He noted that he would be heading home to his native Ribera del Duero for a month’s holiday. Thinking that such a visit sounded quite nice, I asked him if I would fit in his suitcase. While not expecting an affirmative response, I was a bit surprised by his answer. He noted that there wouldn’t be any room left due to all of the wine he would be carrying.

I am always anxious to bring home wine from Europe on my own holidays, but never thought about someone wanting to bring wines back from America. Of course, it makes similar sense as my own purchases, but I guess I hadn’t really ever given it any thought. My classmate noted that he had a cellar at his home in Spain and liked to stock it with American wines in addition to his European collection.

This is certainly a vote of confidence in American wines, which are more recent additions to the wine world than their European counterparts. It also raises the issue about the difficulty in getting a diverse range of wines wherever you live. As a New Yorker, I am fortunate to be able to obtain wines from all over the world, but even still, may not find a lot of the smaller producers since they are unable to get representation/distribution. Likewise, a Spaniard can purchase lots of different Spanish wines, but may have less access to wines from California or Chile. Consequently, visits abroad (in whichever direction) are a great way to learn more about wines one would not ordinarily find at home.

Wine with lunch or lunch with wine?

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a trade event featuring Monika Caha Selections’ Austrian Wine Portfolio at Telepan restaurant. The event began at 11:30, whereby we were invited to begin tasting through Monika’s portfolio. I had tasted through 29 wines before we were called to sit for lunch, missing out on four red wines and two dessert wines.

The represented wines included those from: Johann Donabaum, Forstreiter, Fritsch, Graf Hardegg, Anita & Hans Nittnaus, Stadlmann and Weninger. The white wines featured were Gruner Veltliners, which is the iconic grape of Austria, along with Rieslings and one Viognier (which came as a surprise to me). With one exception (Graf Hardegg’s Weisse Reserve vom Schloss), all of the wines were single varietals. The featured reds were less homogenous with Zweigelt, Blaufrankisch, St. Laurent and Pinot Noir available to taste.

As we retired to the dining room for lunch, we selected two adjacent seats at a booth, at which a gentleman had staked his claim to the other two. Upon being seated, we introduced ourselves and made the acquaintance of Howard Goldberg (wine journalist for the New York Times) and David Rosengarten (food, wine and cooking authority). They were both charming company.

The five-course luncheon was expertly executed, with each course paired with one – two wines, making 37 wines my grand total for the afternoon. I was particularly pleased with the Egg in a Hole, which was a dish featuring a fried egg, hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, wild spinach and toasted garlic. All in all, it was a lovely afternoon, with the opportunity to taste a wonderful collection of Austrian wines and gain additional evidence as to how well these wines pair with food.