Wine Judge Training Progam

Syllabus for Year 2

Sparkling wines

Fermentation chemistry

Wine chemicals and preservatives

Wine diseases and faults - qualitative detection

Effect of vineyard and winery practices on wine properties

Varietal character – Effect of grape variety and fruit type on wine properties

Wine Vocabulary (see list below)

EXAMINATIONS:

A. Written - questions will cover material from all reading material listed above as well as information covered during Year 2 lecture.

B. Tasting - Identification of wine constituents/components. Students will benefit from practicing blind tasting of components (alcohol, sugar, acid, tannin) and flaws (sulfur dioxide, vinegar, sorbate, oxidation, etc.) in the manner described in Manual # 6.

C. Tasting - Wine Judging Exam. This exam will be given at the end of the day. It will consist of a series of wines which may include sparkling, dry and sweet table wines, hybrid, vinifera and native, amateure and commercial, flawed, and superior wines.

Students must be able to write descriptive justifications for scores given for each aspect of a wine's character, appearance, aroma/bouquet, taste/flavor, aftertaste, and overall.

WINE VOCABULARY:

It will be important for students to become acquainted with the following terms before coming to class as they will be used during the day and many will be included in some way in the final exam. Definitions and explanations for most of the terms may be found in Grapes into Wine.

acetic acid bacteria
alcohol, legal limits
amelioration
aroma
astringency
barrel fermentation
Beaujolais /carbonic maceration
blanc de noir
botrytis
bouquet
Brettanomyces yeast
carbon dioxide
chaptalization
Charmat or bulk method for sparkling wine
citric acid
cold stability/ potassium bitartrate
esters
fermentation/Gay-Lussac formula
fining materials & procedures
fortification
foxiness
free run
grafting
haze
heat stability/proteins
hot press wine
hybrid
hydrogen sulfide
lactic acid
lactic acid bacteria
lees/ sur lees
maderization
malic acid
malolactic fermentation
mercaptan
methode champenoise
methyl anthranilate
microclimate
mousiness
mousse
must
noble rot
oxidation
pH
phylloxera
pigment/ anthocyanin/leucoanthocyanin
port & sherry
potassium tartrate
residual sugar
Saccharomyces yeast
spontaneous fermentations/wild yeast
sulfur dioxide
tannic acid
tartaric acid
total acidity
Vitis labrusca
Vitis rotundifolia
Vitis vinifera
vintage

For those of you who are not amateur winemakers, this list may seem formidable. It is intended to help you prepare for your day in class and broaden your overall vocabulary in order to become a more competent wine judge. Most of them are discussed in Philip Wagner’s book.