Tasting pleasure
Adam Chase saves us from the wine snobs
Since time immemorial (say 12,000 years ago) wine has been a part of human life. It’s a simple, humble thing, a miracle of soil, fruit, sun, know-how, patience.
Yet it seems to have become so over-complicated by The Cognoscenti. Processes vilified and deified. A “market” filled with secretive insiders, fortune hunters, and speculators (some of whom don’t even like wine). Opaque language. None of this helps the cause. “What I didn't like about wine, and what turned me off from the beginning,” says Adam Chase, “A lot of snobbery attaches to wine. At the higher end, there are a lot of people that have gone an inch wide and a mile deep on the subject and think they are superior. Most of us out there look at them and say, okay, whatever.”
That’s a shame because then people avoid wine, or double down on “I know what I like and it’s a white zin,” (my own snobbery is showing), or spend a great deal of time feeling bad about pretending to know about wine.
Deeply curious, witty, erudite, down to earth, and a gifted storyteller, Adam is the antithesis of a wine snob. And in fact, he’s playing a role in changing the wine world’s reputation for snobbery and opacity. A leading wine and spirits educator and consultant to restaurants, he’s earned plaudits for his work in teaching certification courses for the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (UK-based WSET, the world’s leading provider of drinks certifications for those pursuing wine as a vocation). In addition, he shuttles between Boston and San Francisco (supplemented with frequent trips to the world’s leading wine regions).
In many ways, what entranced Adam about wine is what makes his teaching so engaging and impactful. It was a way to weave together his abiding love of history (he briefly contemplated a career in academia) with his fascination with pop culture (a former marketer) and science (botany and chemistry…which in many ways track back to history and civilization.) And Adam brings these together in his teaching, allowing people to find myriad paths into the subject.
The Journey. Learning to smell the bullshit
Once Adam got serious about wine, he started taking classes through WSET, flying from San Francisco to London to take them. (WSET is now global, but at that time was UK-based). But the miles were worth it.
“I found it fascinating, because it did two things for me. Before doing that, I knew enough about wine to be conversant, but by taking an academic course, I really gained confidence: when people were talking to me, I could smell bullshit versus real stuff, not only in the glass, but by what they were saying. And, I could go to a winery and ask them what they’re doing about irrigation given water shortages, or, what is climate doing to their plants, and how that changed the way they do things? And it gave me the confidence to talk to professionals, but to non-professionals as well.”
The knowledge. How did this knowledge change your experience of wine? Or did it?
AC: It absolutely changed the way I experienced wine–and by implication pleasure. For example, Caymus is a great wine label from California. I used to love their Cabernet Sauvignons: they’re very chocolatey and really delicious. As I started to taste and learn about Bordeaux and Burgundies, I found they were more restrained - which was all about their wine making. And I started to lose my taste for the Caymus and the Rombauers of the world. All that creaminess and vanilla was down to their process, which involved having seriously ripe fruit and using a lot of oak. The result: lots of residual sugar. I found myself thinking, do I want that residual sugar? Is that why I want wine?
C: Tasting notes. Smell, taste, swallow, maybe spit… we all know the basics of wine tasting (or how to go through the ritual). But what does it all mean? Am I tasting for “quality” … and what does quality mean – or matter?
AC: Quality’s a big subject of debate in the wine world. I’ve talked to the folks at Australia’s Yellowtail and they absolutely believe they are making a very high quality product that is consistent from year to year, and that people love that consistency. They know what they're expecting, and to them that is quality. So that's one way of looking at it.
But let’s say you’re tasting something less perfectly consistent, new to you, or maybe new vintage. Tasting is really getting you to the two things you probably want to consider.
One, is it “quality”?
Two, do I like it?
The most important thing: those two things don't have to match up. For example, I'm not a huge fan of big Tuscan wines. But I can tell when I’m tasting a good quality Brunello or a good quality Chianti Classico Riserva. I can appreciate the quality, what the winemaker was trying to do. I may not love it. But the key is in knowing the difference.
Beyond “do I like it” I’d say evaluate:
Does the wine feel balanced? If the fruit flavors are really ripe and bold, is there also enough crispness - acidity - to add dimension and what we call "structure" in your mouth, or does it feel heavy and flat? A wine that is well balanced feels pleasurable in your mouth - it is what some people in the industry call "supple."
Does it reveal how it was made? The ripeness of the fruit, how the grapes were handled in the winery, was oak used, etc? A quality wine will show how it was made when you taste it and all those components will be balanced and work together seamlessly.
Is it true to terroir and tradition? For example, a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc should smell like a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc that’s true to its terroir and to that area’s winemaking traditions. I'm looking for very clearly defined aromas, passion fruit, grass, grapefruit, lemon. I'm not going to worry about what professionals call complexity - layers and layers, multiple different things - in this wine, because that is not necessarily the hallmark of the style. Instead, what I am going to look for is precision: can I really taste the purity of ther flavors. Does this wine sing New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc?
Alternatively, if I'm smelling a great Burgundy or a Central Otago Pinot Noir or a Barossa Shiraz (from Australia), or a Pinotage from South Africa, am I smelling and tasting layers of flavors? Or am I just getting a lot of cherry and blueberry and not much else?Do the flavors evolve as I taste the wine or stay static?
How well do the winemaking components work together? Can you see them in the wine? And do they work together? And, is there enough intensity of those flavors that it doesn't feel wishy-washy? And then, is it either very precise in terms of the flavors, or maybe precise but also layered? And how long do the flavors linger after you swallow? What’s the final impression?
C: And what of cost? To what extent is cost a signal of quality?
AC: Cost can be a signal of quality, but it isn't always. Higher priced wines may be a function of demand and supply, as well as brand recognition. It can be because the cost of making that wine into a higher quality product is high - valuable land, low yielding high quality fruit, winemakling techniques used, etc.
I think in many ways you get what you pay for, but this is where a helpful wine advisor - either in a shop or online - can be a great help. There are some inexpensive gems, often from less popular regions. There can also be some very expensive wines that are not worth the price or don't match up with what you like. At the end of the day quality is all about what you like and should not be something that is imposed on you.
C: The sublime. What’s at the top of your list?
AC: I love white Burgundy: Chablis, Meursault, Puligny Montrachet. For me I would likely choose Chablis and probably a Chablis from the producer Fèvre.
For red wine, I would probably go for Pinot Noir. But strangely enough, I wouldn't go to Burgundy, the home of Pinot Noir. (Red Burgundy is Pinot Noir.) Instead, I'd probably go for a very high end Central Otago (New Zealand) Pinot Noir because it has a little more fruit. It's a little riper. I find that they're more enjoyable. In this case, I’d choose a Rippon Pinot Noir from Central Otago in New Zealand. Another smaller producer is Mount Edward, which is very good. And if you’re talking French wine, then a Burgundy, Joseph Drouhin and Louis Jadot; they’re larger producers but are making great wines.
C: Advice to the wine-curious? Where do you start?
AC: Well, the first thing I would say is take a Level 1 WSET course. It's not that challenging, it’s fun. The exam is a multiple choice exam. It gives you a foundation. Even if you don’t go further you have that foundation, which helps you with the sniff test when it comes to all those “experts” out there. Does this person know their stuff or not? What are they saying? Does that make sense? Or are they blustering? Experts will not try and tell you what they know. They will try and educate you. They'll try and say, “Well, do you taste this?” Here's why, or here's something you should know about this vineyard, not “well, this wine is far superior to anything else.” Someone who cares about teaching will add to the discussion, rather than dominate it.
C: Craziest thing you ever did for wine?
AC: I’d say clambering to the top of Roy’s Peak in I climbed an island peak in Lake Wanaka, Queenstown, New Zealand to get a better understanding of climate and topography.
C: And if you were to cheat on wine…
AC: Well I have lots of obsessions. Art: I collect photography. And baseball. I love baseball: I live and die by baseball scores, which is terrible. But if I were to cheat on the drink itself … there are times I just want a root beer.
C: One last thought…
AC: My mother, who was an artist and who ran a museum, once said about buying art
A. You have to love it.
B. You should appreciate it
C. You should ask yourself whether I’m liking this because others do, or is there something unique about this that speaks to me?
I think that also true with wine. It's really about drinking what you like at the end. You can find quality in lots of things, but if you don't like it, what's the point? Drink what you like. But it helps to know about what you’re drinking.
Cheers, Adam.
The knowledge. Indispensable resources
Books
The Oxford Companion, by Julia Harding and Jancis Robinson (a core resource for anyone with even a modest interest in wine)
The Wines of Australia, by Mark Davidson (The best book on Australia today that you can get)
Adventure on the Wine Route, buy Kermit Lynch (one of the best wine travelog books around – a classic!)
Napa: The story of an American Eden, by James Conaway (part history and part soap opera that provides the basis for Napa today)
The Wine Bible, by Karen MacNeil (a go to reference book)
Online/Digital
Wine with Jimmy – Jimmy’s videos and website set the standard on wine education media today both for fun and serious studies
Commonwealth Wine School – the US leader in Online and in person wine and spirits classes
WSET – the leader is vocational wine, spirits, sake and beer education
The Drinks Business – great daily news feed from the UK
Wine Business – US-based site for information
The Wine Institute – Focused on California Wine
Global Wine Academy Great UK site run by Jim Gore, one of the top wine tutors in the world
Adam Chase
@grapeexperience
Thanks for reading…. Stay curious. Notice more. Savor.