Summary: Following on from the Taste like a Master of Wine session in May this will be another chance to test your tasting skills using an MW style approach. A quick recap on how to taste in an MW way will be followed by a tasting of two wines which will be used to answer an exam-style practical question. No preparation is needed, the session is open to all.  Just turn up with an open

Summary: Join vigneron Olivier Humbrecht MW, of the famed estate Zind Humbrecht in Alsace, for a deep dive into one of the key building blocks of wine: acidity! In this WSG Live, you will learn about: The different types of acids found in grapes and wine and their sensory perception How to not only quantify but qualify acidity in wine The viticultural factors influencing

Summary:  Polyphenols, in particular anthocyanins and tannins, are the main contributors to wine color and mouthfeel, and are strongly related to the wine quality evaluation. In this WSG Live, an introduction to tannin's origin in grapes, evolution during ripening and extraction in the winemaking process will be explained. Moreover, the implication of the technological approach to vinification will be discussed, such as maceration style or the use of oak containers.

Summary: The 'Beyond the Textbook' series seeks to get under the skin of specific varieties and regions from around the world. Here Justin tastes 3 amazing, but very different style from Viré-Clessé. It's Chardonnay, but not as you know it... Details of all three wines can be found in the attached pdf About the Speaker: Justin Martindale is the Wine Scholar Guild Membership Manager and one of our in-house Masters of Wine. Justin passed the

Summary:  Taste, or “flavor” in common usage, is a phenomenon of enormous complexity. This seminar presents a simplified understanding of the chemistry of wine flavor. The components of wine aromas and tastes are highly diverse and are derived from three principal origins: the fruit, fermentation and maturation (in wood or another material). Taint and “off flavors” constitute a separate yet related element. Associations and euphemisms of wine-tasting terminology such as

Summary:  This WSG Live will explore wine in Ancient Roman society: what it meant to people, what viticulture and winemaking techniques they used, and we will imagine what it tasted like! This webinar will explore examples of ancient grapes and winemaking techniques still in use today to make many modern wines of Italy that are still known today.  Presenter: Tanya Morning Star  Tanya Morning

Is a wine horizontal or vertical? Square or round? Hollow or dense? Relaxed or tensed? Grainy or smooth? This is a small sample of GeoSensorial Tasting vocabulary — a method that seeks to empower the taster to feel, interpret and give voice to wines of place. By focusing on mouthfeel and assessment criteria such as energy, salivation, geometry, texture and consistency, this methodology helps you to better understand the nuances that a specific terroir, among other factors, brings to wine and helps you to express those nuances. It puts light on how, for example, Chenin Blanc wines from the schist soils of Savennières, the tuffeau of Saumur and the flint-clay and limestone-clay of Vouvray differ from one another.  Quite an ambitious undertaking!

Summary: Did you enjoy reading our Great Debate blog on Ripeness and Balance with Andrew Jefford and Julia Harding MW? In this written article, Andrew and Julia tackle the finer points of ripeness and balance in wine. Their back-and-forth covers a lot of ground: how to decipher

Summary: Did you enjoy reading our Great Debate blog on The Language of Wine, Tasting Notes & Scores with Andrew Jefford and Dr William Kelley?  The challenge of how we might best describe wine aromas and flavours continues to fascinate wine students and enthusiasts alike: this is your chance

Summary:  Join Master Sommelier Tim Gaiser in a seminar exploring the major wine flaws.  Tim will discuss the causes, effects, and sensory markers for wine flaws including TCA, Brettanomyces, Mercaptan and more. Presenter: Tim Gaiser MS Tim Gaiser is an internationally renowned wine expert and lecturer.  He is one of 240 individuals worldwide to

Summary:  Join WSG founder and president Julien Camus as he unveils the mask on the Guild’s latest initiative, the WSG Tasting Lab®. The WSG Tasting Lab® is an interactive online tasting platform. It was initially designed as a tasting data collection and analysis tool as part of the Guild’s Architecture of Taste Research Project, which is aimed at developing a new and enhanced wine-tasting

Summary:  Meet Coravin founder Greg Lambrecht and master the Coravin system during this upcoming educational webinar!Join us for a special educational webinar with Coravin founder Greg Lambrecht. Bring along your Coravin and a favorite bottle for a hands-on, step by step instruction on how to most effectively use the Coravin system. Greg will also be giving you tips on how the Coravin can help you throughout your wine studies and pointers on how the Coravin can be used

Summary:  What are the main tasting methods and what are their key characteristics?  How do different cultures, languages and sensibilities impact how wine tasting is approached?  Can we envision a more overarching and universal tasting method?  These are some of the

Summary:  Can you taste ‘minerality’? What do we mean by ‘terroir’? Where do aroma and flavour come from? Is too much attention paid to the role of the soil in discussions of the aromas and flavours of great wines? How rare are truly great wine-growing sites? These are some of the questions we aim to discuss in the upcoming Meeting of the Minds on November 25th. Wine Scholar Guild

Summary: Minerality is now the single most widely used wine descriptor, yet its meaning remains elusive. Are we talking about a smell, a mouthfeel, a taste, or what? Does it depend on the grape varietal or wine style? It’s all very debatable, and in this webinar I will summarise studies illustrating how opinions vary.There are various suggestions on what may be prompting minerality but many commentators invoke a

Summary:  This session explores strategies and techniques for tasting and is intended to address nuances many may know but often overlook or consider unimportant. The aim is to provide a theoretical template to organize, or participate in, a professional wine tasting. The topics covered are: “Sell or educate – what’s your objective?”; “Control the setting – layouts, mats, lighting,

This article is the first of an upcoming series by French neuroscientist Gabriel Lepousez. Gabriel is part of the Scientific Committee formed by WSG in the context of its "Architecture of Taste Research Project". He has also presented a fascinating segment on "The Neuroscience of Wine Tasting" as part of The Science of Wine Tasting Webinar Series which will resume with new episodes in the Spring of 2022. The wine tasting paradox There is a real paradox in the experience of tasting a product like wine. Tasting is such a familiar, instinctive, and seemingly obvious act; something that we take for granted. At the same time, wine is a one of the most complex sensory objects that we put into our mouths. Indeed, wine is one of the rare sensory objects of our daily life which solicits all at the same time:

Summary: Ever wonder how those hints of green bean, bell pepper, jalapeño and celery stick got into the wine?It’s a fascinating story of insatiable, greedy-gut pirating, Mother Nature’s grand design for consummate fertility and the vigneron’s attempt to farm for flavor. Guess who wins? Presenter:  Lisa M. Airey, FWS, CWE has thirteen years of experience selling wine at the wholesale level and in training both the sales force and wait staff. She sat on the

Premature oxidation of White Burgundy was first noted in the early 2000’s on 1995 and 1996 White Burgundies and no single cause has been isolated yet. Join Richard Bampfield MW to explore this phenomenon and investigate what might be behind it. Presenter: Richard Bampfield MW Richard Bampfield graduated in French from Cambridge in 1981 and immediately decided the wine trade was where he

As part of a partnership between Wine Scholar Guild and Decanter, we are pleased to share with our readers this article pulled from Decanter Premium. Try Decanter Premium for 4 weeks for just $1! More information HERE Robert Parker says a 100-point wine should be ‘as exceptional as a particular wine can be: a perfect blend of power, richness, texture, depth, length, balance, freshness, and of course a reflection of its vintage and terroir or origin’. Here are Parker’s most memorable 100-point wines.