A Week at the Odney Country Club - Part 2

I wrote too much for the first round up of the Stage 2 Seminar. Here's some thoughts on the rest of the week's Blind tastings.

Hello.

Part 1 is here if you haven't read that yet.

A Week at the Odney Country Club - Part 1

This is part 2 of my Stage 2 seminar session at the delightfully peaceful Odney Country Club, near Cookham¹.

Let’s get straight into it.

Thursday, Blind Paper 2

Red wines can go fuck themselves. They all taste the bloody same. Honestly. If you don’t really, really overthink it, all red wines do taste pretty flipping similar.

Luckily, I had quite a fair stab at picking them apart this time around.

First up, one single wine, a very old Bordeaux. One sniff and we’re locked into ‘old Bordeaux’ territory. Say no more. Move on. Leave that answer to the end.

Next up a flight of four Chilean wines. Again, W2 was a leafy, herbal Carménère and because the question says ‘Same Country’ we’re into Chile. Now, problem is that deducing where in Chile the wine if from is a big game of hit-and-hope from my perspective. Need to brush up on that².

My initial assumption was we’ve got Carménère, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Pinot. Pretty standard single varietal Chile.

Pinot or Pais? Because the lightest bodied wine was going to be the Pinot, I got myself in a jumble here, because the lightest wines was actually a very pale Pais, from Itata. So, I got Carménère and Cabernet, but missed the Pinot and Pais, for Merlot and Pinot³.

Next up two pairs, “Same predominant grape, different countries. (Only one is from Europe)”. Bit weird. Only one from Europe. So, we’re looking for a classic European variety that also grows internationally⁴?

Fucking Nebbiolo from Australia? Tempranillo from Paso Robles? What!?

Anyway, I got Nebbiolo OK, and even got Italy and Australia, just round the wrong way. Then, get this, last minute I was in Malbec, so had France & Argentina, but rehashed my answers to get to Tempranillo, from Spain and because I’d already written 80% of the answer, Mendoza. There’s heaps in Argentina, honestly. Not a disaster there either.

Finally, 10,11,12 in the Rhone! Boom. But, location within the Rhone and quality and grapes not so accurate. Very good CNDP as a lowly Ventoux and the meaty Gigondas in the Northern Rhone⁵. But, the last wine, a fun carbonic-Grenache was simple, juicy and delicious.

So, in this paper, realistically, 8 from 12, but probably the closest I’d been to getting all 12 pretty much spot on. Not a bad day at the Tasting Desk.

Seminars all afternoon, Research Paper stuff, and then loads of excellent Spanish wines with Álvaro Ribalta MW to finish up the day.

Friday, Blind Paper 5

The last blind exam, technically Paper 3, but the 5th blind tasting mock of the week. Starting with a 6-wine 'calibration’ and the three 12-wine papers, mock, P1 and P2, the last day feels like a slog. Even the actual exam isn’t as intensive as this.

Paper three is my favourite. Someone said to me once it’s like an “open book theory exam”, because the answer are right in front of you, and so long as your identification is solid, particularly with sweet, fortified, sherry, fizz and such, it’s mostly a theoretical exam of winemaking, grape varieties and styles.

There’s quite often a sweet and a dry wine in a pair, which is always a clue of some description.

In the 2022 exam I sat, feeling quite confident with sparkling wines, I was brought down to earth with 4 x non-Champagne but Traditional Method wines, that was a real challenge. I wouldn't want to do that again.

The first two wines of this paper were Louis Roederer, Collection 243, and their Blanc de Blanc 2015. I will admit that I smelled them, knew pretty much where we were…much like yesterday. (W1) high quality NV, and (W2) vintage BdB - both Champagne. Didn't take any notes and left that answer to the last 15 minutes, because I was pretty comfy with it. Felt OK about that even if it does sound a little presumptuous.

The next question was a really interesting one, four wines; lean and tight Pinot Blanc, natty & cloudy qvevri orange, a dark rose, and a full on Malbec. The questions didn't care where they were from, and focussed on winemaking with specific reference to skin contact. Again, I was pretty much there with all four wines.

6 from 6!

The next flight was four red ‘From the Same Region’, and they could either, in all honesty, could on lay be a classic region like Bordeaux, or Burgundy, or at a push, Tuscany. We were in Bordeaux Reds. The four were spilt into a left bank pair, and a right bank pair, which I got the right way around. The questions were quality with reference to winemaking, and then origin as closely as possible. I was happy enough with these wines too. Phew.

Finally a little bit of a head-scratcher, with two wines: One amber, one pale. One Lucious and sweet, one quite austere and off-dry. Both elevated alcohol, one with slight brandy-like aromas. Took a minute to two to get into the White Port zone, but once you’re there it made sense. Taylors Chip Dry is a weird wine, I overstated the sugar levels, then later on remembered it was called ‘Chip Dry’ for a reason.

All in all, pretty much 12 for 12 on this paper, and that is the first time since starting the MW programme I’ve done that. So I finished the week on a high, with quite a bit of wine at the BYOB dinner. I do wonder if Sarah Knowles was a bit pissed off at me for drifting about pouring people Nyetimber at the pre-dinner ‘Bollinger Reception’ … Ho Hum.

Final Thoughts.

In no particular order.

• I wish we all had allocated tables for the day and week. Every morning for the blind tasting, it was grab a desk, any desk, and I’d much rather know where I’m supposed to sit.

• Odney Club didn’t seem to be recycling much. The 100 or so students using 1 or 2 paper cups as spittoons for an hour or so a few times a day, every day just went in the general waste bins. They could easily have been composted or recycled. I had my trusty 1 pint mug with me for most seminar tastings and didn’t spit much out after 7pm. Doing my bit.

• Odney really is in the middle of nowhere.

• I hate wearing a name badge. The magnetic ones, advertising who you are to everyone. Very useful for me that everyone else does, but I don’t want to wear mine. I didn’t wear mine for day one, and had genuinely lost it by day 3. It had my name on it, but I assume nobody could figure out who I was to give it back to me.

• Apparently if you’re not in a single “MW ‘24“ student WhatsApp group, Stage 2 can feel quite lonely, and that is not everyone else’s fault.

• Not enough people appreciate the band LYR. Talisk are far too diddly. Frank Turner karaoke is not advised, at any time of the day, or night, or early hours.

1. Yes, I KNOW, Stanley Spencer.

2. See next week’s newsletter, with some ‘Terrible Maps’ upcoming.

3. Never, at any point, second guess the question.

4. Definitely, at every stage, second guess the question.

5. Is ‘Same Region’, as Rhone enough, or is ‘Southern Rhone’ and ‘Northern Rhone’ two different regions? Who knows?