Professional Wine Consultants - Milwaukee Wine - Sommeliers

Cencibel, Ulle de Llebre, Aragonez, Valepenas, Tinto de Toro, Tinto Pais and Tinto Roriz. What do all of these things have in common? Well they are all names for the same grape and with the exception of three of them, these are names for the same grape in the same country. And by no means are these the only names for this grape. I have in my notes about thirty synonyms for this wonderful grape of Spain most commonly called Tempranillo.

There is this geeky thing on the web called the Geilweilerhof database that has every conceivable synonym for every conceivable grape on the planet that I visited it often when I was studying for the test I took in August in 2007.

I remember one of the questions on the test was “ What is Mataro called in France?”

Whatever! Well if I had not studied this weird quirky subject, I would have gotten that wrong on my test. (Actually I think I guessed at that one.)

In Austria common grapes have all sorts of silly names. Chardonnay is called Morillon and Feinburgunder but in France the aliases include Aubaine, Auvernat, Beaunois, Epinette Blanche, Petite Sainte-Marie and Weisser Clevner!

Also in Austria Pinot Blanc is called Weissburgunder and Klevner, Blaufrankish is known as Lemberger in Washinton State but it is also called Kekfracos in Hungary! And some of the other grape names, although they might not have synonyms in other countries are equally silly, Zierfandler, Rotgipfler and Blauer Wildbacher just to name a few.

Don’t get me started on Switzerland! The most important grape in the country that makes fab watches, (and is a great place to keep your cash if you have lots) is Chasselas. But it has three different names, Fendant in the Valais, Dorin in the Vaud and Perlan in Geneva!

If you travel to Pourtugal some of the grapes of Spain have totally different names. Tempranillo is Aragonez in the south and Tinto Roriz in the area where Port is made. Mencia the grape of Bierzo is called Jaen. Garnacha (called Grenache in France and Cannonau on the Island of Sardinia) is called Alicante, but that’s not to be confused with Alicante Bouschet which is a cross between Grenache and Petite Bouschet.

Malbec is a classic grape of France that has about 34 different names including Pressac, Auxerrois, Cot and Grifforin. But as the black grape, Malbec is called Auxerrois in Cahors in Southern France. But Auxerrois in Alsace and Chablis is a white grape while in other parts of France Malbec is called Cahors!

Nebbiolo is called Spanna in Gattinara and Ghemme, Picutener and Pugnet in the Carema DOC of N.W. Piedmont and Chiavennasca in Lombardy. At least these grape aliases are confined to the same area of Italy!

Welschriesling in Austria is not to be confused with the Riesling of Germany, which is called Riesling Renano in Italy. But there is a Riesling in Austria that should not be confused with the true German Johannisburg Riesling, which is known by the name Rheinriesling, aka Olasz in Hungary.

Ugni Blanc or St. Emilion (not the AOC in Bordeaux) in Cognac and Armagnac is called Trebbiano in Italy with the exception of in Tuscany and Umbria where it can be called Procanico. But don’t call Trebbiano d’Abruzzo Trebbiano because in actuality it is the grape Bombino of the Abruzzo.

Every now and again people comment about how much fun it would be to study the subject of wine implying that studying about wine includes the constant consumption of wine. All I can do is think about explaining what really goes into studying about wine (see above) and then I decide against it and say, “You got that right!” with a conspiratorial wink.

Oh and a quick hint about Greek grape names, if the name of the grape has a lot of X’s or multiple K’s of the word tiko or mavro imbedded somewhere in the name, it is a grape grown in Greece.

OY!

“Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven! Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh. It was like a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now. As I slooshied, I knew such lovely pictures!”

Alex in A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Santé

In 2007 I passed the advanced level with the Court of Master Sommeliers. This is an organization that now has only 105 members in the United States and just 17 of those are women. Passing the advanced level makes me eligible to sit THAT exam and I will be doing just that in February of 2011.

I started this journey in 2004. I knew of only one person that had taken the first test here and I was the second.  Since then many of my friends here have taken that test successfully and then moved on to take the certified level. Here in Milwaukee there are a good dozen wine professionals that are certified sommeliers. Although I am the only person here to have passed the advanced sommelier exam, I know there are many to come.

Milwaukee has a very sophisticated wine community but the rest of the country hasn’t connected the dots in their (wine culture) view of us. With my passing the Master Sommelier and with each passing first level, certified sommelier and advanced sommelier, the dots will be connected.

A group of wine professionals, and I am proud to say my friends, get together every Monday to taste. Right now we are tasting by varietal and in the mix there will be blind tasting. There are so many possible combinations in regards to tasting that it is almost hard to fathom.

But we continue to taste and sometimes we study. We are taking a test that is coming up so eventually we will hit the books to get that one checked off.

So this is is the beginning of the last leg of my testing journey. I have three years to pass all three parts.

Blind tasting six difficult wines - the advanced level was easy compared to this. There we had Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and possibly Malbec. Compared to what I will be up against those really are easy.

Theory….you can”t even imagine, right now I am committing to memory all of the sub regions of Greece and the grapes soils and producers of each of those then off to Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia. Yipee!!!

And then service which is 45 minutes under a microscope being judged by the clique you want to join!

This is the most ambitious challenge I have ever undertaken and I am determined to succeed!

Napa here I come, in February that is!

In the winter of 2007 I decided working for the employer I was working for, wasn’t working.  So I set out to figure out what I should be doing to better make use of my time and , ahem, talents.

Well after 2.5 years working as a wine sales person and a food and beverage director for two different companies, I found my self with no time for my family, no time for studying and most importantly no time for my self.

So back to waiting tables I go, back to seeing my boys and husband and back to studying for the most challenging thing I have ever tried to do, pass the Master Sommelier exam.

Milwaukee Wisconsin has a very sophisticated wine community and maybe this will help put us on the map!

On Monday, after I spent time in Trento, Vin Italy and Venezia,  we started our tour of the amazing vineyards in an area north of Trento high in the Dolomite’s called Valle di Cembra. Cembra is one of the many small communes that dot the mountains in this area that has to be seen to believe anything can be this beautiful.

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So it’s about 7:11pm as we pull into Verona. I was hoping to write about my experiences in Italy day by day but…….I didn’t think to buy an electrical converter and there wasn’t wireless anywhere except Florence.Every day was awsome, the scenery was breathtaking and the wines from Trento have to get world wide recognition!! I will write more as soon as I can get online.
A couple things to remember when going to Italy…. say Ciao and Si 5 to 7 times in rapid succession to sound like you belong but you only need to say Grazie and Giorno (Bon not nessecary) three or four times!

Ciao Ciao Ciao Ciao Ciao Ciao!

Tonight I get on a plane and travel to Verona to attend Vin Italy! I have never been and was told by a respected colleauge that I had better wear comfortable shoes and get ready to run. I can’t wait!

I arrive on Friday and will be driven to Verona and then attend the event on Friday and Saturday.

On Sunday i am not scheduled for anything so I am going to take a train to Venice, just to take pictures and see it!

Then we travel to Tuscany to visit the wineries that the company represents and will be there for three days. I hope to get to Montalcino!

I am taking my laptop so hopefully I can update every day, plus post pictures as I go.

Ciao!!

Oh the red wines of Burgundy. When I was the Wine Director for a local restaurant, my favorite area to navigate with our guests on our list was the two pages devoted to Pinot Noir. Granted there are plenty of wines that have dizzyingly steep prices on those pages. Like all wine making areas of the world, certain wines and winemakers command exorbitant prices. Sometimes I get criticized for having some of these wines on the list. But I often say, (mostly to myself) “If you are going to have a French wine list, there are things that must be on it.” And those things are usually the most expensive. But there are some wonderful selections in Burgundy that are under $100.00 and some that are just a touch over that are well worth seeking out in a retail outlet.

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My love affair with Pinot Noir began in the late eighties when I was a retail wine buyer for a group of wine stores in Portland Oregon. (Pronounced OAR-eh-gn, not Oar–eh-GOHNE.). Of course the Willamette Valley has become to be known as a mecca for domestic Pinot along with the Russian River AVA in Sonoma County and the Santa Ynez Valley AVA in Santa Barbara County, California. Even though the world may not have known how fabulous they were back then, all of us Oregonians knew it.

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Since August of 2004, I have had a bug. That is when I took the introductory course for the Court of Master Sommeliers and passed it. And I passed it only missing two of the 80ish questions. OMG did I know about wine or what! I thought I knew it all. I only missed two questions!!!

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