Learning
About Santa Barbara Wines
By FBWorld Team
Santa
Barbara's Best in Class
Two
sommeliers, one of them a star of the new documentary Somm,
teach the basics of Santa Barbara's wine by focusing on three
components: grape variety, alcohol level and age.
In
this Article
Lesson
1: Grape Variety
Lesson
2: Alcohol
Lesson
3: Age
The
Master Sommelier test is like the bar exam for wine experts-if
the bar involved eating the paper your test was printed on and
pinpointing exactly where and when the trees were grown that
were pulped to create the pages. As I learned from watching
the new documentary Somm, the test is amusingly hard (unless
you're taking it, and then it's just hard hard). Less than 200
people in the world have passed the test to earn the Master
Sommelier distinction, and of the 32 people who attempt it in
the movie, only six succeed. One of the aspiring somms is Brian
McClintic. Recently I traveled to Santa Barbara, California,
to meet him and fellow sommelier Eric Railsback. I sought their
help.
Like
many people who enjoy wine, I thought I knew a bit about it;
I can amble my way through a list. Then I watched McClintic
prepare for the big test, using something sommeliers call the
"tasting grid" to masterfully assess wine after wine:
sugar, acid, tannin, density, alcohol, body, fruit, wood, earth,
complexity, balance, finish. I felt like an amateur blackjack
player watching a professional card counter. I wanted to learn
to comprehend wine with the same amount of skill...
By
David Katz
THE
REST OF THE ARTICLE
96
— 100 |
Spectacular |
92
— 95 |
Outstanding |
89
— 91 |
Great |
85
— 88 |
Good |
81
— 84 |
Solid |
|