Displaying items by tag: tasting

Summary: 

This seminar explores the history, evolution and application of ‘minerality’ in wine tasting notes. In the rich lexicon of wine terms that have developed in the modern era, few have proved more important, and more divisive, than this one.

Justin conducted a content analysis of more than 20,000 tasting notes published in the UK’s Decanter magazine from 1976-2019, to chart for the first time the possible origins of the term, how and when it is used, and also which wine characteristics are most associated with ‘minerality.’

The presentation is derived from the findings in Justin’s Master of Wine dissertation, which was awarded the Quinta Do Noval Award for the best MW research paper of 2021.

Presenter: Justin Martindale, MW

Justin is an educator, consultant and wine judge based in Edinburgh.

After studying for a music degree at Leeds University, followed by a brief stint as a classical musician, Justin joined the wine trade with Majestic in 2008. He worked across some of London’s busiest stores whilst studying for his WSET Level 3 certificate, for which he was awarded a distinction and the Cálem Port Award scholarship. Since 2010 Justin has been based in Scotland, studying the WSET diploma during his time at Majestic, and winning the Derouet Jameson Award Scholarship which set him on the road for MW studies.

Justin became an MW in 2021, scooping the coveted Madame Bollinger Award for the best tasting paper, and the Quinta do Noval Award for best research paper.

It is a regular occurrence, even for the most accomplished wine aficionado: a loss of words to describe exactly what’s going on in the glass. Try as we might, the language of wine will always be a tricky landscape to navigate. But, as educators and students of wine, it is a necessity. Whether scratched into a notepad or typed into a report, tasting notes help us commit our experience to memory, and serve as a vital avenue for sensory translation.

Nonetheless, issues abound when it comes to finding a common understanding of these experiences. 

In this edition of our Great Debate series, Andrew Jefford — wine writer and the Wine Scholar Guild’s Academic Advisor — is joined by William Kelley, wine critic for Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, to discuss a host of issues facing the language of wine and its primary vehicle of communication: the celebrated (or maligned, depending on your point of view) tasting note.

“A good tasting note should communicate as relatably and usefully as possible the character and perceived quality of the wine,” notes Kelley, who reviews roughly 5,000 wines annually from Burgundy and Champagne for his publication. However, he cautions, “it is a very limiting genre.”

By and large, Jefford agrees, but he also calls for “an equivalent of the ‘natural wine’ movement for wine writing” to refresh the possibilities and broaden the perspectives of wine language worldwide. 

In the end, this debate is a fascinating look into the process of crafting tasting notes from two of the industry’s most accomplished practitioners. But both admit that there remains plenty of open area for discussion on how to best utilize language to communicate the magic (or lack thereof) in the glass.

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• 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 questions we will be addressing in this Meeting of the Minds panel discussion.

Wine Scholar Guild Academic Advisor Andrew Jefford, speaking from France, will be bringing together a panel of key thinkers, educators, writers and experts in four countries to discuss a world of tasting methods. UK-based Professor Barry Smith not only directs the Institute of Philosophy at the School of Advanced Study at London University, but is also founding director of the Centre for the Study of the Senses/CenSes, which pioneers collaborative research between philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists. He is himself a philosopher of language and mind. Sommelière (and former philosophy student) Pascaline Lepeltier MS, speaking from New York, grew up and studied in the French tradition of wine appreciation but has spent much of her working life talking about wine to Anglophones. UK-based Matthew Stubbs MW is one of the wine world’s most experienced and popular educators, and has taught both on his own behalf and for WSET and IMW around the world. Finally, speaking from Nanning in China, comes Julien Boulard MW, one of the most brilliant of recent MW graduates and a wine educator in China whose mastery of Mandarin sees him regularly appearing on Chinese media.

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