Title: WSET Level 2
Tags: chardonnay syrah_and_grenache cabarnet_sauvignon_and_merlot wine_with_food other_whites sauvignon_blanc storage_and_service pinot_noir Questions factors_affecting_wine

Q: Chardonnay can grow in which climates?
A: Chardonnay can grow in a range of soil and climates

Q: Chardonnay flavors in a cool climate?
A: High Acidity
Green fruit (apple, pear)
Citcrus fruit (lemon)
Vegetable (cucumber)

Q: Chardonnay flavors in Moderate Climate?
A: Citcrus fruit
Stone fruit (white peach)
Tropical fruit (mango)

Q: Chardonnay flavors in Hot Climate?
A: Tropical fruit (banana, pineapple, peach, mango, fig)

Q: Winemaking techniques used for Chardonnay?
A: • Malolactic fermentation (softens harsh acids, adds dairy flavors)
• Lees contact (dead yeast cells) ▪ savoury flavours (bread, yeast)
• Oak ageing ▪ wood (toast, vanilla, nuts)

Q: Chardonnay in blends
A: • semillon
• other local varieties (Viognier)

Q: What kind of wine comes from Chablis?
A: Chardonnay
Bone dry high acidity, green fruit and citcrus
Many have recognisable smoky, flinty, mineral signature (grand and primer cru)

Q: Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet are names of?
A: Famous villages in Côte de Beaune

Q: Name these 3 regions
A: Top to bottom:
Chabli
Côte de beaune (Mersault, Puligny-Montrachet)
Mâconnais

Q: What are white wines from Côte de Beaune like?
A: Chardonnay, full bodied, with flavors of citrus, white stone and tropical fruit, oak, spike, and savoury notes.

Q: Premium Chardonnay locations in Australia?
A: Yaara Valley, Adelaide Hills, and the Margaret River

Q: What is Chardonnay from Australia like?
A: Ponounced fruit (fresh citrus and melon), and well integrated oak flavors.

Q: Chardonnay in New Zealand?
A: Marlborough is an important area for premium Chardonnay, with high natural crisp acidity with prononunced citrcus and tropical fruit falvors and mineral notes. Most of the best wines have pronounced oak flavors.

Q: What allows Premium Chardonnay in California?
A: Cool breezes and misty mornings cool down the grapes and slow down the riping, allowing flavors to develop

Q: Premium Chardonnay regions in California?
A: Sonoma, Carneros

Q: Bulk production regions for inexpensive Chardonnay?
A: South Eastern Australia,
Western Cape,
California, Central Valley (Chile),
Pays d'Oc IGP
Southern Italy
Argentina

Q: What is inexpensive Chardonnay like?
A: Fermented blended and stored in staineless steel vats. Oak flavours are added often in the form of staves or chips. Occasionally may be fermented

Q: Components that make wine taste harder? (more astringent and bitter, more acidic, less sweet and less fruity)
A: Sweetness
Umami

Q: Components that make wine taste softer? (less astringent and bitter, less acidic, sweeter and more fruity)
A: Salt
Acid

Q: Wine <-> Food, who has more effect on how the other tastes?
A: Food has more affect on how wine tastes.
In particular, more likely to have a negative effect

Q: Sweetness in food has which effects on wine?
A: • Increase the perception of bitterness, acidity, and the burning effect of the alcohol in the wine
• Decreases the perception of body, sweetness and fruitiness in the wine

Q: How to pair wine to a dish that contains sugar?
A: Select a wine that has a higher level of sweetness

Q: What kind of effects does Umami have on wine?
A: • Increase the perception of bitterness, acidity, and alcohol burn in the wine.
• Decreases the perception of body, sweetness and fruitiness in the wine

Q: Which Umami foods are easy to pair with wine?
A: Foods that are high in Umami but also tend to be high in salt, such as cured or smoked seafood, meats, and hard cheeses (especially Parmesan)

Q: Which umami food is hard to pair with wine?
A: Food that is high in Umami but low on salt, such as eggs, ripe soft cheese, mushrooms, or asparagus

Q: What effect does Acidity have on wine?
A: • Increases the perceptioan of body, sweetness, and fruitiness in the wine
• Decreases the perception of acidity in the wine

Q: How and at which temp. should wine be stored at for long term storage?
A: Cool and constant 10-15 degree celsius, lying down (if corked), not exposed to light, and kept away from vibrations

Q: In which temp. should full bodied red wine be served?
A: Room temperature is often the recommended temperature or ull-bodied red wine.
If reds are too cold, they will taste bitter and harsh.
The most gentle way to warm the mis to allow the bottle to warm up slowly or by holding the bowl of the glass in your hands.

Q: In which glasses should red wine be served?
A: Red wines are best served in larger-sized glasses. This will allow air to come into contact with a large wine surface and develop the armoas and flavours.

Q: In which glasses should sparkling wines be served?
A: Best served in flute glasses. This shape enhances the efect o the bubbles (and thus the wine's aroma), allowing htem to travel thorugh a larger volume of the wine before bbursting at the top of the glass.

Q: In which glasses should foritfied wines be served?
A: Small glasses to emphasise the fruit characteristics rather than the alcohol. However, the glass should be large enough to allow swirling and nosing

Q: At what angle should sparkling wine be held when being opened?
A: About 30 degrees

Q: What are methods to extending the life of an open bottle of wine?
A: Vacuum systems - in which the oxygen is removed from the bottle, and the bottle is sealed. Unsuitable for sparkling wine as they would lose their bubbles
Blanket systems - these work on the principle of blanketing the wine with a gas heavier than oxygen to form a protective layer between the wine and air

Q: What are Gevrey-Chambertin, Nuits-st-georges and what kind of red wine to expect if I see these on the label?
A: Premium Pinot Noir wines from Cote de nuits

Q: What are Beaune and Pommard and what to expect from red wines with those names on the label?
A: Premium Pinot Noir wines from Cote de Beaune, borgogne

Q: What kind of Pinot Noir comes from Germany?
A: Germany produces large volumes of Pinot Noir (Spätburgunder) mainly in the southern regions of the Pfalz and Baden.
These have a cool climat, and the typical style is a light-bodied with pronounced, perfumed red berry fruit and light tannins.
Fuller bodied, barrel aged styles are also made

Q: Where is bulk productino Pinot Noir is produced?
A: Chile in a soft fruity style

Q: How is Pinot Noir blended?
A: PN produces its finest still wines unblended. Although it is used as a component of many sparkling wines, including most Champagne.
In burgundy, PN can be blended with Gamay but apart from a few obscure excpeitons, a red burgundy will be 100% PN

Q: Where in nz, Pinot Noir wines are made?
A: Central Otago makes the ripest, most intense NZ Pinot Noirs.
The variety is also grown in Marlborough where a lighter style is made, and much of the fruit is used for sparkling wine.

Q: What kind of flavors develop by maturation with oxygen?
A: Direct contact with new oak adds oaky flavours
Contact with oxygen however
This softens the tannins in red wines, making the wine taste smoother, and can cause flavours such as toffee, fig, nut (hazelnut, almond, walnut) and coffee to develop

Q: What are the main appelations for premium Cabarnet Sauvignon in France?
A: Médoc
Haut-Médoc (including the communes Pauillac and Margaux)
Graves [grav] (including the communes Pessac-Léognan)
cru classé château
The best sites are on gravel mounds that drain water away and retain heat to aid ripening.

Q: What are premium appelations for Merlot in France?
A: Saint-émilion AC (The best are saint-émilion grand cru AC)
Pomerol AC.

Q: What are Bordeaux AC or Bordeaux Supérieur AC like?
A: Medium bodied dry reds, generally have medium tannins and acidity and a mixture of red and black fruit flavours from the Merlot and CabSauv components. They are generally best consumed while quite young, but can benefit from bottle age.

Q: What are premium Bordeoux Merlot wines like?
A: Softer than those in the left bank, have medium tannin levels, medium acidity, and a red fruit character (plum, red berry), developing cedar and tobacco notes as they age.

Q: What kind of climate does Cabarnet Sauvignon grow in?
A: Moderate or hot; it cannot ripen in cool climates or cool years. Wines made from under ripe CabSauv can be very harsh and astringent with unpleasant herbaceous flavours.
Wines from hot climates are fuller bodied iwth softer tannins and more black cherry fruit and a less  herbaceous character

Q: What is the labeling system in Bordeeaux?
A: Many of the very best wines are permitted to put Grand Cru Classe on the label. In Saint-Emilion the classification of Grand Cru is linked to the appellation. However, in the left bank this is a labelling system, used by many of the best wines that is independent of the appellation system.
Consequently, not all the wines produced in the smallest appellations such as Pauillac and Margaux are considered equal. Chateaux whose wines are not classified as Grand Cru Classe, can apply to have them classified with the less prestigious title of Cru Bourgeois, which they have to apply for Annually./
This leaves the most basic and inexpensive of the Bordeaux wines simply labelled as Bordeaux AC or Bordeax Superieur AC.

Q: Compared with red wines, white wines are generally fermented at...
a) either higher or lower temperatures
b) the same temperature
c) high temperatures
d) lower temperatures
A: d) lower temperatures

Q: What can happen to vines that are exposed to too much heat?
A: It can stop the vine from producing sugars?

Q: What are premium regions for Cabarnet Sauvignon in Argentina, and what are the wines like?
A: In Mendoza, traditionally wines were aged in oak for a long time before release, giving meaty, leathery flavours. Modern styles are much fruitier.

Q: What are premium CabSauv Merlot regions in South Africa and what are the wines like?
A: These typically have less intense fruit and more herb flavours compared with smaller wines from Australia or California.
Many of the wines from Stellenbosch are close to the Bordeaux style, with high levels of tannin and acidity.

Q: What are bulk production regions for inexepensive cabarnet saauvignon and merlot?
A: Blends:
Chile
Southern France (Pays d'Oc IGP)
Mostly CabSauv:
South Africa (Western Cape)
South Eastern Australia
California
Merlot:
Northern Italiy, and basic Bordeaux

Q: What kind of blends are CabSauv and Merlot used?
A: In Australia, Shiraz is often used with Cab Sauv to give the softness and richness that Merlot supplies in Bordeaux and elsewhere.
Merlot is sometimes blended with Malbec in Argentina, and both CabSauv and Merlot are blended with Carmenère in Chile.
CabSauv is used in many regions to improve iwnes by adding a little aromatic fruit, colour, and tannin.

Q: Syrah common profile? (color, tannins, acidity, body, flavors)
A: Syrah wines are usually deep colored
Have medium to high tannins
Medium acidity
Full body
Black fruit (blackberry) and dark chocolate character

Q: Syrah flavors in moderate regions?
A: Black fruit (blackberry) and dark chocolate.
In moderate regions, this may be accompanied by hints of herbacouseness, smoked meat, and spice (black pepper).

Q: Syrah flavors in premium aged wines?
A: With age, syrah develops vegetal complexieties (leather, wet leaves, earth)
Along with his common profile for
Black fruit (blackberry) and dark chocolate.

Q: What kind of flavors does oak aging give Syrah wines?
A: Toast, smoke, vanilla, and coconut

Q: Common profile for Grenache wines? (color, body, flavors)
A: Seldom deep in color
Full bodied
Red fruit character (strawberry, raspberry), with spicy notes (white pepper, liquorice)
With age, the spicy notes evolve into toffee and leather.

Q: Grenache grapes have ___ skin
A: thin

Q: What is gained by adding Grenache to a Syrah wine? (alcohol, tannin, acidity, flavors)
A: Can result in a wine with more alcohol, lower levels of tannin and acidity, and red fruit and extra spice flavours.

Q: What is gained by adding Syrah to a Grenache wine? (color, tannin, acidity, flavor)
A: Boosts the level of color, tannin, and acidity
Adds a dark fruit character.

Q: Where is Côte rôtie and what kind of grape variety is used in wines produced there?
A: A Northern Rhône main appellation
Syrah wines

Q: Where is Côtes du Rhône and what kind of grape variety is used in wines produced there?
A: The main regional appellation for Southern Rhône.
Grenache grapes
The better vineyard sites are entitled to label their wines Côtes du Rhône Villages. (style and quality vary considerably)

Q: What are regions of Grenache in spain?
A: Priorat, Rioja, Navarra

Q: What is the most planted grape in Spain?
A: Grenache (Garnacha)

Q: What are famous regions for hot climate Shiraz in Australia?
A: Hunter Valley, McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley

Q: What are flavors of Shiraz wine from hot regions of Australia?
A: Flavors of black fruit (blackberry, plum), sweet spices and notes of dark chocolate. Use of oak can give flavors of smoke, vanilla and coconut.

Q: What are bulk production regions for inexpensive Syrah and Grenache?
A: Wines from Southern Rhone (Cotes du Rhone)
South of France (Pays d'Oc IGP and Languedoc AC)
Spain
South Eastern Australia (Riverland, Murray darling and Riverina)

Q: What is a famous Shiraz blend aside of GSM?
A: Shiraz-Viognier, wwhich follows a northern Rhone tradition of adding some white grapes to the fermentation of Syrah. Viognier helps give the wine a smooth texture nad adds a trace of exotic fruit character.

Q: What are the main appelations in the Northern Loire? What kind of climate? What white grape variety?
A: Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumè
Cool climate
Sauvignon Blanc

Q: What kind of profile do wines from the Loire have? (Grape variety, dryness, acidity, body, aromas)
A: Cool climate results in dry  white wines with high acidity, medium body, moderate or pronounced aromas.
Green fruit and herbacous aromas (gooseberry, grass, blackcurrant leaf, nettle)
Often displays a steely character that is similar to Chablis

Q: What kind of white wine comes from Bordeoux?  (Grape variety, dryness, acidity, bodied, flavors)
A: Most premium wihites are blends of Sémillion and SauvBlanc (Sémillion being the dominant one)
Dry, medium or high acidity, medium or full bodied, sometimes with oaky flavors.
Sauv Blanc alone is usually a fruity wine with distinctively herbaceous, grassy, and elderflower aromas unsuited to aging

Q: What are premium Sauvignon Blanc appallations in Burdeoux? What identifies them?
A: Pessac-Lèongan AC, and Graves AC, SauvBlanc wines age well and develop honyed toasty complex flavours in the bottle

Q: Sauv Blanc Wine in nz?
A: Cool climate Marlborough has established itself as a new classic region for Sauv Blanc wines.
The classic style is dry, high acidity, no oak, medium bodied, and characterised by intense pungent clean varietal flavours (passion fruit, gooseberry, green pepper, blackcurrant leaf). Typically more aromatically pronounced compared with t hose from the Loire Valley.

Q: Sanv Blanc in Australia? (region, and profile)
A: the best Sauv Blancs come from the Adelaide Hills regions. Intensely fruity and clean in style

Q: What kind of Sauvignon Blanc is produced in USA and in what regions?
A: Napa Valley, often labelled as Fumé Blanc
Compared with the oak aged Chardonnays from the same region, the oaked Fumé Blancs are generally a little less full-bodied
, and higher in acidity. Some of the herbaceous varietal character of the Sauvingon Blanc (grass, asparagus) usually shines through the spicy, oaky flavours (toast, liquorice, vanilla)

Q: What is Pinot Gris classic region?
A: Alsace

Q: What is classic Pinot Gris wine like? (body, dryness, flavors)
A: Full bodied dry to off-dry, medium and sweet white wines with spicy tropical fruit flavours (ginger, banana, melon), sometimes with hits of Honey.

Q: What is a new world region known for Pinot Gris?
A: New Zealand

Q: What is Pinot Grigio wine like? (dryness, body, acidity, flavors)
A: Dry, medium or light in body, with medium acidity and a neutral character
Better examples, from Trentino-Alto adige and Friuli-Venezia Giulia show some of the ripe nutiness honeyed character for which this variety is prized in Alsace.

Q: What is Verdicchio wine like? (Acidity, body, flavors)
A: High acid and medium bodied white with flavours of lemon, fennel and bitter almond.

Q: What is Italy's most planted grape?
A: Trebbiano, with high levels of acidity, it is mainly used for inexpensive neutral white wines.

Q: What identifies the Trebbiano grape variety?
A: The most planted grape in Italy, with high levels of acidity, it is mainly used for inexpensive neutral white wines.