As the next step toward my Sommelier Certificate at Algonquin College, I've started taking the New World Wine course with instructor Denise Dompierre. That's the good part.
The bad part is that I'm not, in fact, in Ottawa to take the course. I managed to get home to take the first class, but I'll miss the next four. In fact, the next one I attend will be the mid-term exam.
That's not great. I discussed this with Denise and she said that she'd post the notes, including the wines that the class is tasting, to Blackboard, Algonquin's online resource for students and instructors to share materials.
I missed last week's class, on Ontario wines, and downloaded the info the next day. The class had tasted six Ontario wines, and it was my mission to secure bottles for my own private tasting.
The nearest LCBO carried two of them, and found a third at another nearby store. The rest are simply unavailable.
But there was another solution. Cave Springs, which produces the Cabernet Franc on Denise' list, is actually not far from where I am. Even better, it's only a few minutes from Flat Rock Cellars, a winery I had already planned on visiting this weekend. So I made an early Sunday morning run to the Jordan area of the Beamsville Bench to take in two wineries - one specifically so I could taste a wine on my list.
I'm still two tastings short, and I'm afraid I'll just have to live with that. Hopefully, next week's California wines will be easier to buy and I won't be forced to fly to Napa for a tasting...
By the way, Denise wants us to do very technical notes on our tastings, including notes on balance and ageability - two areas that I'm only beginning to learn. So I'll reproduce those here, just so you get to read the kind of stuff we learn in wine school.
Cheers,
Dave
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