Sunday, April 26, 2009

What grape would you be?

I am attending classes to attain my Sommelier degree (wine degree) from the International Sommeliers Guild (ISG). The "If I were a grape" paper was an exercise that my class was assigned in order for my instructor to get to know us better. It also gave us an opportunity to explore the wild world of grapes.

There are roughly 5000 grapes that make some variation of the adult beverage known as wine (excluding synonyms). If you are interested in learning about the most important grapes you can check out one of Jancis Robinson's book. Jancis Robinson is know in the wine community as the "Varietal Queen" and for good reason. You can check out one of her books for more information. The most comprehensive being the Oxford Companion to Wine (more of a reference). One of her more consumer friendly books is The World Atlas of Wine, the book used for the introduction course to the Sommelier Diploma Program for the ISG. You could go one step further and check out her more in depth look at grapes in her book Vines, Grapes, and Wines.

This exercise was great for me, I had a lot of fun exploring, learning and relating. I wasn't the only person who had fun with this assignment, some of the other students in my class had unique answers. For example one of my classmates compared herself to Pinot Meuniot, one of the grapes used in making Champagne. She justified her choice by explaining that she blended well with others, because Champagne is made from a blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meuniot. She also highlighted that she was bubbly, self explaining. Another classmate of mine shared that he most resembled Chardonnay because like the grape he had many faces, pending on where he was.

I posted my paper on what grape I am most like in order to inspire you. I had a good time exploring grapes and myself and now I want to know what grape you would be and why.

Salut,
Nicholas Barth
Cru Wine Specialists
Wine Director

2 comments:

Kristian Twombly said...

I think I'm probably Pinot meunier. It's more important to Champagne than Pinot Noir, although for some reason the French haven't really acknowledged it. It's also a still wine in Germany, and has a longer history in Australia than Pinot Noir!

Nick Barth said...

Great job! I will have to agree with the Pinot Meunier, however I have a few things to add. First, you could argue that you blend well with others, as Pinot Meunier does in the Champagne region of France. Second, you are more or less "bubbly". You have the ability to befriend just about anyone, whether you like them or not. Last, you are "thick skinned" when it come to your feelings. As is the rich dark skin of the Pinot Meunier. Thank you for the comment, I look forward to more.