OK so I'm in the "certified sommelier" program at the Professional Culinary institute in Campbell CA and I absolutely love it...but I've ran into a problem with training my pallet or rather my mental data base...of course I've been tasting wines from all over the world to really get a grasp on their particular flavor profiles etc. for blind tasting purposes...
I know that the court of master sommeliers are not going to blind taste me on a port wine and if they did it would be pretty obvious that it was port wine....but I'm worried that when I'm running a restaurant program I won't have the knowledge or tasting experience I need to really analyse port wines for the wine list...I mean I could always just buy the knowen good producers from good vintages but I want to provide my customers with more than that....
so here is the real problem...money...how do I afford to taste through all types of different ports and different styles of port wine...I'm not rich so their needs to be a better way...
I get my wines at 10% less-than wholesale price from a negotiant I know but he doesn't dabble in the fortified wines or port wines....is their no hope....?
HELP FOR A SOMM IN TRAINING!
Moderators: Glenn E., Roy Hersh, Andy Velebil
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Frederick Blais
- Posts: 2710
- Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:07 am
- Location: Porto, Portugal
Training port is the same as training wines... it does cost money! You can't train your palate to get the taste of a region by tasting the 7$ wines.
The best way in my opinion is to attend wine fair. you can easily taste 50+ wines per day.
Another trick is to organise events. You buy 10 ports and you split the bills with friends in your class or FTLOP offline attendees for example. I'm sure there are many Port lover in your region!
The best way in my opinion is to attend wine fair. you can easily taste 50+ wines per day.
Another trick is to organise events. You buy 10 ports and you split the bills with friends in your class or FTLOP offline attendees for example. I'm sure there are many Port lover in your region!
Living the dream and now working for a Port company
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Frederick Blais
- Posts: 2710
- Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:07 am
- Location: Porto, Portugal
As I live in the far opposite east corner of America I'm not too aware of the happening near you.
You can check this website : http://www.localwineevents.com/
The other tips are to keep in contact with your wine shop/importer. They normally are aware of those events.
You can check this website : http://www.localwineevents.com/
The other tips are to keep in contact with your wine shop/importer. They normally are aware of those events.
Living the dream and now working for a Port company
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Derek T.
- Posts: 4080
- Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2005 5:02 pm
- Location: Chesterfield, United Kingdom - UK
- Contact:
David,
Set yourself a educational budget of $xxxx and look out for tastings organised here. You will find lots of events in LA. Seattle, NYC and Boston. I'm not sure how much an internal flight is in the US but you could equate 1 bottle of Fonseca 1963 to a flight to NYC plus the chance to taste 10 to 15 spectacular wines.
I have opened 5 bottles of port in my house in 08 but I have tasted 33 duderent ports in one month !
Derek
Set yourself a educational budget of $xxxx and look out for tastings organised here. You will find lots of events in LA. Seattle, NYC and Boston. I'm not sure how much an internal flight is in the US but you could equate 1 bottle of Fonseca 1963 to a flight to NYC plus the chance to taste 10 to 15 spectacular wines.
I have opened 5 bottles of port in my house in 08 but I have tasted 33 duderent ports in one month !
Derek
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Shawn Denkler
- Posts: 185
- Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2005 10:21 am
- Location: Napa, California, United States of America - USA
training yourself
The best inexpensive way to learn about wine of many different types is to attend the many, many trade tastings given in the SF Bay Area. These are free to the trade and you are part of the trade. If you have a wine business card you can attend many of them. It is better if you have a card from a wine shop or restaurant, but you can get in most of them with just a sommelier card of your own. The hard part is finding out about them. Get friendly with a high quality wine shop - they will get invitations to everything.
Over the years I have tasted some very fine wines at these trade tastings, but many times more average and just plain bad to worse wine. To learn about high end wine you need to spend the money to go to quality tastings. It is usually the only way to learn about older wine since the trade tastings are current releases - that is what they have to sell. Rarely older wines are tasted, but the invitations are more limited.
I have personally organized or helped organize probably close to one hundred port tastings over the years. Years ago my port cellar was huge. Just from my own cellar I could put together dozens of horizontal or vertical tastings. But I've been drinking it without replacing it and now only give one tasting a year. If you are interested I can put you on my list and let you know more.
Over the years I have tasted some very fine wines at these trade tastings, but many times more average and just plain bad to worse wine. To learn about high end wine you need to spend the money to go to quality tastings. It is usually the only way to learn about older wine since the trade tastings are current releases - that is what they have to sell. Rarely older wines are tasted, but the invitations are more limited.
I have personally organized or helped organize probably close to one hundred port tastings over the years. Years ago my port cellar was huge. Just from my own cellar I could put together dozens of horizontal or vertical tastings. But I've been drinking it without replacing it and now only give one tasting a year. If you are interested I can put you on my list and let you know more.
Shawn Denkler, "Portmaker" Quinta California Cellars
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*podvodnic
Tasting
Have you checked out A Perfect Finish in downtown San Jose? They are pretty new and have a decent selection of dessert wines. They offer some flights and special tastings which are reasonably priced. Their list seems to be continually growing. They're located on 1st street. We're in San Jose and always up for some port tasting!