Author: PersonalSommelier

So you wanna learn geography? Let’s drink wine!

The biggest fear for students approaching the final exam to become sommelier is not being able to remind the hundreds of existing denominations (italian DOCG and DOC, plus those from other Countries). In Italy only there are more than 70 DOCGs and over 300 DOCs. The neo-somm have to – must – know each of them. And have to be able to place them geographically.

Generally speaking we all know the geography of our zone of origine, or the one in which we live or have lived, or carefully visited. But, regardless how many maps are stored in our mind, those will ever be just a small tile of a thousand pieces puzzle.

Geography is a fascinating subject for many but from which many others run away, almost scared by names and numbers, not to mention a natural incapacity to position themselves even on their own place’s balcony.

I’m in the group of those that have always paired geography with the idea of traveling, exploring new worlds, arriving in unknown places and need to handle logistic difficulties; as I grew up then, these thoughts turned on the philosophic side, but this is another story.

I still remember when I was a child with my fingers sliding on the coloured lines on the roadmap’s pages, with my mind creating imaginary trips in real places: the mountains, the State’s borders, the cities, the seas.

Once grew up, I made those trip for real, by car, by motorcycle or other means of transport. And I feel lucky to have made a number of them when still technology didn’t put into retirement those roadmaps, clearly marking the border between the necessity to understand where we are and the ability to follow a line on the screen. Of those trips I remember almost every single town I passed through, valleys and mountains, beaches and countrysides.

From the beginning of my studies in the wine world I’ve always been made aware how geography is important for a somm, and I do the same today with my students, to whom I don’t get tired to repeat it.

As per any subject, describe something we touched with first hand is alway easier and more precise compared with something simply imagined in our mind. With wine is exactly the same. The list of denomination of origin of a region is not anymore a pure list of names without meaning, but becomes a trip throughout the vineyards, in the villages where wines are produced; we’re gonna visualize the morning fog on the hills, the top of those hills that protect the vineyards against the cool winds, the lakes that mitigate winter temperatures and thousands of other details.

It’s well known that an imagine can be much more powerful than thousand words and the same applies for our memory. Even just visualizing a map and position some names in their space allow our brain to create almost accidental connections, creating the joining link we didn’t think before.

Remember the production zones of grape varieties such as Nebbiolo or Vermentino is definitely easier with a quick look at the map: the zones appear virtually (or even physically) connected each other, so it pops up the reason why these grape varieties can be found right in these areas and not elsewhere. And even before thinking of it, your mind will already have matched joining links based on style of produced wines, on climatic differences and much more.

Another, possibly too easy, example is about the interregional PDO. It seems taken for granted that knowing Brescia and Verona province areas can be helpful to identify the PDO shared between two or more regions, but under stress for an exam and with countless other informations to remember, it can really make the difference.

The examples on how geography can help to study a subject like the wine could be endless. The basic idea is really simple: the more informations about a subject, the easier to remember even just a share. And the more point of view we know, the more understanding of the subject. If we hold a globe in our hands, regardless the area we will be looking at, we’ll know what’s on the opposite side.

Geography allows us to observe the wine world from an alternative point of view and this ease the load of specific informations we’re trying to memorize. And it becomes an allied even more precious when we approach the study of areas we haven’t travelled to yet. In this latter case then, raise your hands if you can state you don’t feel the need to leave and travel, especially after this prolonged period of missing travels.

So, if geography is helpful for studying reasons, it’s not less important its beneficial effect on our willing to discover, to explore, to know. Let’s open an atlas, right now!

Semi-serious approach to survive a wine list

Choosing a wine at the restaurant is not so easy as it could seem, but there’re few tricks to safely escape the situation.

In the last 12 months the entire world accumulated an insane quantity of postponed dinners to date to be set. Dinners with friends, relatives, business dinner or with future lovers.

Sooner or later we’ll be able again to put legs under the table and fully enjoy a nice dinner, with any worries but feeling good.

The only setback that can fit between us and a perfect night is the choice of wine. Not for the bottle itself, but for the image of us we’ll show at that stage. This obviously is reinforced in case of business dinners or even more for a romantic ones, not mentioning a first date…

Some restaurant’s wine lists sometimes scares, other times give a sort of embarrassment, sometimes a awe for the quantity of listed bottles.

Seated (hopefully) in good company, if the dishes list makes us feeling a bit unsure because we’d like to try a bit of everything, the wine list seems planned by psychologists looking for subjects to be tested as they try to survive the anxiety in looking for the “right” wine.

But which one is the “right” wine? Many criteria can be used, don’t trust the experts, they’ll always tell you wine need to be paired with food! From a pure academic point of view food and wine pairing is surely the right criteria. But what if we’d like a cheap wine, or try a brand new wine, or if we’d like to amaze our fellow diners or even more make a good impression on a future partner?

Restaurants with a refined wine list offer to their client a wide range of choice, often suggesting winemakers and wines not readily available for private consumer, that is reserved for restaurants. It comes out a wine list able to get attention from wine-passionates, but also able to floor a less-incline to extreme sports customer.

From a non-accurate and super-personal statistical survey over a long period and numberless bad deals – both in term of paid price and wine quality – comes out that the most applied criteria in choosing a wine from a wine list of totally unknown wines is the average price: taken away the most expensive wines (what? 175 euros for a sparkling wine??) and the cheapest ones (what a bad impression with my fellow diners and with the waiter…), we’re gonna stay in the middle.

Once targeted a price range, the second scientifically proved criteria is the one related with the more or less pretentious denomination (G.I, PDO), that in some way lead the thoughts to more exclusive denominations.

It’s not a coincidence that in recent years wines like Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG or Morellino di Scansano DOCG have been amongst the most popular and purchased by Italians, both in supermarkets and restaurants. Their names bring to super quality wine production area, to a clearly viticulture-voted land; and the, wanna bet in choosing a wine paired with a loud “here we go, let’s take this, great wine!”, with high chances of approval by the fellow diners to who the wine name will sound exactly as it sound to us.

Willing to stay on a more conservative mood, once tightened our research range, most of the job is done and in the worst case a few labels will remain to choose from. At this stage we’ll be able to show off courage and risk taking attitude with a nice “I don’t know this, let’s try it!” – giving the impression of knowing the others (anyway, who’ll ever find out we never heard about the others?).

Limiting the range of choice will enable us to engage with the waiter/sommelier, asking for a suggestion between the few selected bottles, being sure not to risk a jump into the unknown on the price side from which would be hard to safely escape.

It obviously exists an opposite approach: going directly to the “names” in order to be sure to hit the target. Famous names, famed denominations, prestigious wines. The food pairing could be be not the best one but who cares? A Brunello, a Barolo or an Amarone on the table never caused anyone to turn up his nose and I call you out to find someone able to complain!

Choosing a top-end bottle you need to know the aim of the most expensive bottles in the wine lists: their presence is not meant to broaden the client’s choice, but to give fame and prestige to the restaurant.

Their presence justify a upward adjustment of the entire list, with remarkable focus on the bottom line. In choosing an “entry-level” wine be prepared to pay a bit more for it if in the same wine list super-premium priced wines are listed.

Let’s make it clear, the possible upward adjustment is not a mere matter of profit, but it’s also based on higher costs due right to the presence of these super-premium bottles.

The dilemma “I don’t know any wine – too expensive – too cheap – I wanna make a good impression” has no perfect solution formula. If you’re trying to solve it keeping the wine list high in front of you to hide your eyes away from your fellow diners you need to make a choice.

You can either decide to simply declare to not knowing any wine and so choosing a wine in the medium-low price segment in order to limit the risks (but anyway trying something new), or asking for help to the waiter/sommelier clearly stating your budget limits.

Asking suggestions to the sommelier, targeting a price range, won’t make you loosing points in his/her eyes but it will rather give the sommelier the chance to work at his/her best, sorting out for you the best available wine, with great relief for you that will not run the risk of a wrong choice (and maybe even costly).

Do you want to pick up the cheapest wines during a romantic dinner? Easy! Let’s reason your choice as an accurate analysis of quality/price ratio of the selected wine! “I never found this wine at this price, they probably got wrong…let’s take it, you’ll like it”!

Anyway let’s remember the number one rule in these situations: let’s take it easy, if you’re asking you thousands of questions in front of a wine list because you have no clue of what picking up, then very likely wine is not your primary passion – at least not yet – so too your expectations will have no their nose in the air like those of a wine passionate ones. Let’s then choose with levity, you’re at the restaurant to enjoy the dinner and the company, wine will just be a decoration. Let’s treat it accordingly.

As you’re knowledgeable, would you suggest me a good wine?

This is probably the more frequent question people are gonna ask you as soon they will get to know about your knowledge on wine, regardless you are a wanna-be sommelier at his very first lesson, a worldwide famous expert or a very experienced wine drinker.

Personally, when I’m asked this question, I have a double reaction. On one side I’m happy as I take it as a positive curiosity from the questioner who’s asking me a suggestion to raise his/her level of pleasure; on the other hand I’m often afraid of the question being a mere continuation of the chat and that my suggestions will end up nowhere

If I think about it, however, what’s the matter about the aim of the question? By the end of the day wine, as many other life pleasures, has a personal purpose and, in being so, it can’t be judged, so questions welcome!

Let’s assume the question is genuine, asked by a person really interested to get to know a new wine to increase his/her tasting expertise.

If the question is easily understandable, the answer is not so straightforward. Having said that “good” is clearly subjective, the problem in answering is to understand the palate and the sensibility of the person I’m suggesting the wine to.

It often happens to me to be present at situation in which someone suggests a wine to someone else and this is part of the beauty of wine, the sharing. Unfortunately too often the suggestion is exclusively based on our own judgment, on what we liked. The needs of the person who asked the question are usually not taken into consideration, given the fact that if a wine is good, then is good for everybody!

Willing to give a reasonable answer, first of all it’s necessary to understand the habits of the person we’re talking with about wine, his/her ability to comprehend given differences between different wines and other elements. It’s necessary, above all, understand the aim of the purchase: personal satisfaction, dinner with friends, present, thousands of other reasons?

This rapid analysis also require the ability to interpret the indications of the questioner who, if not “trained” to the oenological slang, could easily be not technical and very subjective.

Recently I gave as present to a friend of mine a bottle of white wine with few years on its shoulders, to make him tasting it and possibly, selling on his bar. The wine had very specific smelling and tasting notes, clearly derived from evolution in bottle as well as from the winemaking process. Regardless the introduction to explain the wine and making my friend ready for a taste I was sure he was not accustomed to, it has been firmly marked as oxidized and old (I can guarantee and other tastings can guarantee, it was not!). I love that wine!

The difficult part in suggesting a good wine is in the end to connect the wine with the person, creating a link between them, a kind of blind date. We need to be the friend that makes two persons meeting, hoping that they will like each other and potentially fall in love with the other. It’s not an easy task, nor simple, you can run the risk to give a delusion because you’ve not been able to understand the other’s need or simply because you don’t have a hand the right tools.

So if you ask me a suggestion, be ready for a short interview! Made for the pleasure to share with you some nice experiences. And be suspicious with those answering to your question too quickly, because they would give the same answer to everyone or just thinking about his/her own tastes instead of yours… After all wine is a means of connecting people, so why should we waste an occasion to get to know each other a little bit?

Are orange wines a trend shortly fading away?

Fashion, trend, discover, re-discover, innovation, renewal of traditions. Call it as you like, but what sure is that Orange Wines became today an integrated part of the wine world and find their epicenter in Italy.

For less wine-experimenting people, orange wines are basically (and for the more experts, please forgive me the extreme simplification) white wines made in a similar way of the red ones, with prolonged maceration and long maturation, often in contact with oxygen. These winemaking techniques give to the wine the typical colour going from orange to amber, plus a extreme diverse and specific range of flavours.

Technically speaking, orange wines are not at all a recent invention. This type of winemaking goes after the antique techniques for producing wine in Georgia and Armenia used already thousands (thousands!) of years ago. In recent times they have been resumed on the border area between Italy and Slovenia, drawing since then the attention of wine producers all over the world.

When a product is on the wave of success it becomes a trend and, every trend, its life is similar to a parabola, with a growing phase, one of stability and, finally, a decline. True. But not properly right. Every product, in every sector, live seasons of increased or decreased success, short or long. The limit in considering orange wines a temporary phenomenon is the though of these wines being a modern innovation, which make them more similar to a marketing operation rather than something different. The reality is that these wines have always been here, winemakers simply lost willingness and interests in producing them for a very long time. Now they’re back and are finally earning the deserved interest.

An element that take orange wines away from a passing trend is experimentation. This is the basic for this kind of wines and is related to used grape varieties, maceration times, maturation times, longevity checks and in general everything related to winemaking. If some of these wines have already a sturdy market position, thanks to a few forward-looking producers, for many more we’re still in the experimentation phase. I recently heard statements like “it’s not time anymore to experiment, the phenomenon is already defined and the market is tired” and I definitely disagree.

Experimentation in the wine world is a daily task, never-ending, essential for the progress and for the innovation of the products. It’s due to experimentation the ever better quality of wines arriving of the market in general and the solid commercial position of wines became icons (of which too often we just accept they exist, not thinking of also them are result of experimentations). Experimentation is part of the winemaker DNA and of everyone involved, with different roles, in the wine market.

For sure, is much easier identify the orange wine world as an experimental world as, to the sight of the most, these are a recent invention if compared to white or red wines already established. But, when in the 1980s a group of winemakers in Langhe area started using barriques instead of big traditional wooden vats, was this an experimentation? This about Barolo is just one over the countless examples that can be produced about this.

In my opinion, orange wines won’t end up on the most hidden shelfs of the wine shops but will live side by side to other types of wine, even in the restaurant wine lists (where today they are still insufficient). Certainly, the moment of greater media visibility is about to progressively diminish – but this is a common process of all “new” products – while their presence will strengthen in the consumer’s mind, who is still in the discovery and comprehension phase. This strengthen will need to be supported by professionals, able to communicate the real phenomenon entity, avoiding to relegate it as a passing trend.

As in every aspect of life, experimentation is the fundamental ring of progress and, pushed by curiosity and by research, leads to the identification of new paths to be walked on, each of them always has surprises and lead us to discover new experiences.

Can you too smell a sandal get wet by lake water, at sunset, in a warm end of July evening?

Let’s admit it, looking at an expert tasting a wine in front of an audience is fascinating. The ease of observing, of sniffing, of tasting the wine and talking to the public about the characteristics, about the flavours and the tastes, make the audience hanging on his lips.

The tale of the flavors is, even just itself, a show. The ability and the ease for the expert to detect them is something out of reach, his confidence is that each one of us would be willing to achieve and, above all, his flavours database could make a maitre parfumeur jealous!

Nobody can be emotionless in front of the quantity of flavours that can be detected in a glass of wine and, first of all, in front of the quantity of flavours totally unknown by the majority of us. They might be already heard names, but our brain wouldn’t be able to recognize, nor to remember.

Attend a tasting by an expert could be a traumatic event for a wanna-be sommelier. After the moment “I wanna be like that”, “oh yes he knows that”, the next feeling will be “I’ll never be so good”… Inferiority complexes will start to come out and will be our best friends every time we’ll face someone more knowledgeable, could be another sommelier, a winemaker, an oenologist. Or it might be with someone we just think is more experienced that us… Every time we’ll be asked to make a comment on a wine in front of someone else, our nose will detect some flavours, our brain will perceive a fraction of these, our mouth will pronounce just a couple, just to avoid to say stupid stuff.

But how did these nose guru learnt all this flavours? And, first of all, are them really able to distinguish those endless shades between the indian jasmine, the spanish and the chinese one? Maybe yes. Maybe no. We’ll never know this because we won’t be able any way to distinguish them, not even mentioning to remember them.

So how did these nose guru learnt all those flavours? And first of all, are them really able to distinguish the endless shades between an indian jasmine, a spanish and a chinese one? Maybe yes. Maybe not. We might never know as we won’t never be able to do it neither, nor remember them.

They for sure studied for long time and made a lot, really a lot of practice, smelling everything it could come at a smelling distance, keeping their training, which is essential. But in real life, talking in front of an audience, we quite often have the feeling that there’s a tendency to look for an excessive research for innovative terms, not really motivated from a practical point of view, pretty useless, useful just for the research itself and for the speaker ego. If there would be a world championship for the extravagance of the flavours identified in a glass, the rank would change day by day.

So? All falsehoods? All show, invention? Absolutely not! Every wine is an inventory filled with the most different flavours, but we’re not all able to identify in their totality, for study reasons, experience and physiological differences. There’s a part of show, yes, and sometimes the show hide the taster’s ability, it makes him closer to an anchor-man rather that to a wine expert, closer to a jester rather than someone who devote a lot of efforts to get prepared. When this happens, everything related to that specific wine, loose some respectability and professionalism by the majority of the audience. Sometimes, it’s really enough not to go too far, as in everyday life.

Valpolicella Classico DOC 2019 – Speri

If you belong to the category of person that believe Valpolicella Classico being Amarone’s younger brother, here for you a wine that will be the definitive proof that you’re wrong and that, even if the grape varieties are the same, the two products are far away from being brothers.

There actually is a precise central idea that distinguish all Speri family wines: the cleanliness, the consistency with which the wine shows itself on the nose and on the palate, the celebration of every grape variety characteristics and the ability to maintain a traditional style without give the way to the trend of the moment.

This Valpolicella Classico is a perfect example of how tradition, biological viticulture and love for the homeland can mix to deliver smiles. Yes, smiles! Because this is a happy wine, with flavours referring to cherry and red flowers, to be drunk with nice companions, relaxed, before or during a dinner. Don’t place it in the cellar, drink it young, enjoy the happiness and the light heartedness of its youth.

Mine has gone quickly, it went with an easy aperitif and then it sat with me for a dinner on the sofa, some pasta with tomato sauce and beans and a comedy on the tv. What a nice evening!

I don’t drink Tavernello, or maybe yes…

There’s a game that I like to play with the sommelier course students, but also at events where self-proclaimed wine connoisseurs.

It cannot be avoided to note that the majority of these persons – luckily not everyone! – already at the beginning of their study/knowing start to ignore the cheapest wine, in Italy the Tavernello being the most famous, judging it an awful wine, not to drink, dirty water, not suitable for their sensitive tasting buttons.

Beyond the personal tastes what makes me smiling, but also thinking, is that the judgment is simply based on the fact that this wine is absolutely cheap and packed with TetraPak that, in their eyes, is enough to conclude it tastes badly.

But how many of this wannabe sommelier / connoisseurs really tasted it? A few. Really a few. Let’s admit, those who like wine for sure don’t even think to buy a TetraPak wine (not in Italy at least), rather choosing very chipped bottled wines. But, for those studying or for those calling themselves experts, these wines too should be in the to try list, they are anyway on the market and, for this, they must be known. Not even talking about the fact they are sold in very large quantities.

The first time I made the students of a sommelier course first level tasting a Tavernello, rigorously blind tasting, I presented it in a flight of other 4 wines. I asked the students to fill in the tasting notes and then comment them live. In the end I asked them to express a personal judgment on which wine was their preferred one in general. A number of them placed the Tavernello at the first place against the others! The funny side have obviously been showing them the wine…and proudly looking the faces of who voted it as the preferred one!

There’s also a much more serious side of this. Too often people who learn about wine assume a totally unjustified snobbishness attitude towards product placed in the lowest part of the quality pyramid by a cliché.

A sommelier (but also a connoisseur), based on studies and acquired critical analysis skill, must be able to judge a wine in a free preconception way, doesn’t matter the preconceptions are positive or negative. This is much more challenging than how it looks like, even after years of experience. In this specific case, a wine like the Tavernello (o similar products) is not necessarily bad tasting nor badly produced. From the production point, at least italian production talking, there are no doubts about the strictness of regulations and on the certainty of a healthy product. The wine itself doesn’t come with any defect, it cannot shows any right for the winemaking procedures that, on one side deprive it of the emotional element and its potential organoleptic notes, but on the opposite side make it perfectly clear, impurity free, healthy and stable.

Becoming sommelier, or name ourself connoisseur, means first of all becoming more curious day after day. Every single difference on the market must be an highlight, must draw our attention and make our sensation and tasting notes experience richer, able then to make us really able to judge a wine in a real impartial way. Moreover, without tasting the potential extremes of a quality pyramid, how could we place different wines in a quality rank?

Then, when the curiosity is satisfied, some wines will end up in the sink, others in the span, others will be our company on the sofa with legs under the blanket because, at the end of the day, the best wine is the one we like the most.

In Mendoza…drinking is forbidden!

Ah, Mendoza, the argentinian wine capital… Pronouncing the name – with a soft Z, in spanish! gives me the feeling that push me to pack the suitcase and take off again! Every wine passionate has for sure Mendoza on his wish list destination (or, even better, he craves for it, as for us europeans it’s not just round the corner).

Few years are already gone from my visit, but memories are still vivid. Located at the Andes foothills, short way from the 6.900 meters of the Aconcagua (the tallest peak of the entire american continent), some 1.000 km of endless pampa from Buenos Aires and less than 400 km from Santiago del Chile, Mendoza is the heart of the most important viticulture area of the country and one of the most important in the world.

During the (too few) days spent here, the days have gone between a winery visit and another, with no rush, enjoying the time in each of these, as argentinian rhythms dictate. Here red wines are drunk, Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon on top, bold wines, textured, with a lot of oak, wines to pair with a gorgeous argentinian red meat.

How to conclude the visit in Mendoza, on the last night, if looking for a nice restaurant where to enjoy meat and wine? With a nice company of an australian girl met earlier in the afternoon (food and wine are better enjoyed if shares with someone else, or not?), we seat at the table of an elegant restaurant, loose some time reading the menu and, first of all, to find a remarkable bottle. Found it, let’s place the order!

“Lo siento senor, después de las 8 de la tarde no podemos vender alcohol”… What??? Why?? Because in 12 hours the polling station to elect the new national president are about to open (in Argentina voting is mandatory, and the ban on alcoholic beverage sales seems to be in place to limit potential “forgetfulness” to go voting). “But we are not argentinian!” I try to explain to the waiter, showing the passports. Nothing, unperturbed. I also try – in the most delicate way – that we are not in the most law-abiding country, that we are in a corner of the restaurant, that we are there right to drink some wine…Nothing to do, the waiter is uncorruptable.

All day long dreaming about food and wine, some chat in nice company, everything vanished in the mist in front of a delicious food in the plate…paired with water!

The following morning, at dawn, the bus that will take me further north is ready to leave. Luckily on the way to the bus station I pass by the fountain who spray wine – yes, wine – in the city center. At least, the last imagine of Mendoza will be linked to wine and not to the water from the previous night!

Colline Savonesi Alicante IGT 2019 – Durin

Winemaking in Liguria region is an exercise of willingness and tenacity, that really tests both physical and mental resistance of those who work that land in such a difficult conditions. Once all energies are gone for the vineyard management, only the most resilient and passionate are able to concentrate to produce high quality wines.

Passion is the first feeling coming out from this wine. It’s a wine that fascinate you with its energy, not an extreme one, it’s a background energy, like the one played by a loudspeaker, that get into the blood and give rhythm to the moment, that make you feeling good.

It goes straight to the nose, with a rich bouquet of little fully ripe red fruits, without aggressive flavours willing to overtake the others, and in mouth the medium+ body fill in the palate, feeling soft and, here as well, without any unpleasant peaks. The persistence is long and a perfectly integrated acidity leave the mouth ready for the next sip.

Matured in french oak barriques for 6 months, followed by 3 months in bottle, this 2019 – with a brand new fascinating label – is a pleasure right now and will not disappoint the expectations even in next years to come.

If you have just one bottle, don’t bring for dinner at friend’s home (well, when it will be possible…), enjoy it in very few people, on the sofa or in front of the fireplace, paired with meat tapas or little toasted bread with liver patè, because in this case the main character must be the wine. Or, other wise, make a stockpile!

Finally a Somm! What’s next?

And now, let’s study! As everyone will tell you, get the certificate and wearing the tastevin are just the starting point to really become a Somm. Yes, because the 3 levels (either by Ais or Fisar – rigorously in alphabetical order) that lead to the final exam will be, till that moment, a pile of theoretical informations that you won’t have an idea what to do with. Until, freed by being forced on the books at night, you’ll finally be able go enjoy the nice part of these studies, that is the practice. And, letting fantasy and curiosity free, you’ll finally be able, tasting and re-tasting, to give a meaning to all the learnt basics. Cork smell? “Well yes, they described to me at the course, I perfectly know where it comes from…” but statistically is quite hard to find, unless you open a large number of bottles! “I don’t like Lambrusco!”… But are you sure you tasted enough of it, to being able to say that? During the course, if you’ve been lucky enough, you tasted one or maybe two, but there are dozens of Lambrusco.

And so, studying and becoming a Somm, what’s the point? It’s useful because just drinking, even a lot, will never give you the required basics to fully understand this world, to really know how what you’re sipping has been made, to feel the differences between similar products. It’s useful, above all, to improve your senses and your taste, it’s useful to become a thinking drinker, the one who choose the wine with a criteria (any criteria, it doesn’t really matter which one, it’s just important there’s one), the one that follows her/his desires and is able to decode them, placing on the table a wine able to make her/him feeling good.

What does it mean studying? It means going deeper into the single subject learnt at the Somm course, it means try to learn as much as possible of the infinite shades of this wonderful world. Thinking about the Lambrusco you really didn’t want to drink? Let’s try quite a few, from different producers and of different types, pairing them with different food recipes, from che cheapest to the premium ones (in this case it won’t be cash painful!), I’m pretty sure that your initial idea will be dismissed!

Public tastings, from big events such as the Vinitaly of the Merano Wine Festival to the smallest ones created by a number of organizations or associations are not to be missed occasions for our “study”, either during the course that after it. This events are a rich source for in-deep understanding on specific subjects – geography, varieties, types, and much more – giving you the chance to taste a large number of bottles and, quite often, the priceless value of a direct talk with the producer.

But the most important thing is that, during the course, the tastings are manned in group, which is essential to calibrate our senses. Trying to keep this habits, with friends of fellow students, is very important to keep the study mood and stimulate the curiosity, with steady debate and, over all, to learn with fun.

Obviously, all this considerations are valid for people approaching the Somm world without experience in the field. Even, often, people who daily work in the wine sector, enroll in the Somm courses right to fill the lack of theory that, together with the practical experience made on field, will allow them to work better than before.