Bordeaux Cheat Sheet

I was thinking about what a Bordeaux cheat sheet might look like. What are the key pieces of information you would like to have with you when you are buying a bottle of Bordeaux? (either at a restaurant or at a store)

I'm thinking it would look something like this:

Wines from the left bank (of the Gironde) are primarily Cabernet Sauvignon and the region includes: Medoc, and Graves.

• Medoc includes the northern Medoc as well as the Haut Medoc.
• The celebrated regions of the Haut Medoc include (north to south) St Estephe, Pauillac, St Julien, and Margaux
• Graves includes Pessac-Leognan
• The more specific the appellation, generally the better the wine (i.e. Margaux is much more specific than Haut Medoc. Medoc less than Haut Medoc with Bordeaux and Bordeaux Superieur being the most basic
• In the famous wine classification of 1855 (First Growth, Second Growth etc) only the Chateau from Medoc and one Chateau from Graves (Haut-Brion from Graves) were included.
• In Medoc, the 200 chateaux that were never classified are called the Crus Bourgeois. Quality can range a lot on a wine that puts Crus Bourgeois on the label so pay it no mind.
• In Graves, a small number of Chateaux (16) were classified as Cru Classes in 1953

Wines from the Right Bank are primarily Merlot (sometimes 100%) and the region includes Pomerol and St Emilion.

• St Emilion was classified into 11 Premiers Grands Crus Classes and 53 Grands Crus Classes, revised every decade.
• Pomeral was never classified (many outlying areas were also never classfied)
• Cotes de Bourg and Cotes de Blaye (as well as Cotes de Castillon and Cotes de Francs) are north west of Pomerol and are still right bank wines (Merlot dominant) and are generally for everyday drinking

The actual Medoc 1855 classification can be interesting to have available as can a vintage chart although your mileage will vary with both.

Generally, I try to choose a bordeaux based on region and of course, factoring in the amount I want to pay.

What would you include in your Bordeaux Cheat Sheet?

Strategies for Learning Wine

Recently, after close to 8 years, I met up with an old friend and amidst the conversation, I shared how I had gotten into wine and had a modest wine collection. He asked how I got into wine (more on that in a minute) and how he expanded his wine knowledge by focusing on a particular for a year - say Italy for a year, France for year and so on.

It got me to thinking, what are some of the great and enjoyable ways one can get into wine?

For me, I started kind of small, trying a glass of wine here and there with dinner and trying to make note of what I liked. Of course, that didn't go so well mainly because 1) I didn't keep a very good list and 2) Even I had that list, I couldn't use it to understand what I liked or whether I would like a given bottle.

I eventually found that I needed to develop a vocabulary that described the elements of wine and figure out which of those elements I liked. After that, it's about figuring out which regions and types of wines have those elements.

I took a few classes and did a fair amount of reading to develop the vocabulary and to gain experience (i.e. taste a lot of wines). Visiting wineries, joining a wine club and going to wine tastings also helped a lot. Ultimately, there is no substitute for experience and the great thing about wine is gaining that experience is the joy.

The other thing happened unconsiously was that I did focus on particular regions. There was two reasons for that 1) Finding wines I liked in a particular region, say Burgundy, fueled learning more about that region and 2) visiting particular regions, Napa, Sonoma, Willamette Valley brought those regions to life -- nothing will bring a wine region to life like having to figure out driving directions, which wineries to visit and tasting some of the differences between say Stag's Leap and Alexander Valley.

I do believe narrowing focus in order to learn is a great tool because the reality is that the world of wine is huge. It is overwhelming.

I like the example my friend gave of focusing on a particular region for a year. That doesn't mean if you are in the mood for something else you shouldn't act on that mood, it just means you expand yourself in a particular region for a given period of time and round out that exploration with drinking, looking at maps and reading about it.

If you are really lucky, you can also spend time in each region.

Having a wine buddy to share this with will also help in a lot of ways. For me, I've been lucky to share my passion with my wife as a mutual interest which in turn has helped us bond.

What strategies for learning wine would you recommend?

Parker & Zraly Wine Certification Program

Recently I started the first level, Level I - Aficionado of Wine (AW), of the Parker & Zraly Wine Certification Program on eRobertParker.com.

So far I've completed the Wines of France, Wines of Burgundy and Wines of Bordeaux tests all with flying colors. There are 8 exams in total, I still need to make my way through United States, Italy, Spain and Portugal, the Southern Hemisphere, and "Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe".

So what can you expect from this certification program? Well, given that you have to get to level III before you actually have to taste wines in order to pass the test, and Level I is all multiple choice online, the main purpose is for a Wine Enthusiast (don't mind the pun) to test their knowledge.

For me, it was a great way to motivate myself to learn more about regions aside from the American and French regions I tend to spend the majority of my time reading and drinking about.

For the most part, if you read the related sections in Karen MacNeil's The Wine Bible as well as Kevin Zraly's Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 2008 Edition you'll be in good shape to answer the majority of the questions.

On the France test, there were questions on what rules were a part of the AOC, what grapes are used in each region, wine making terminology, terminology from the regions, classifications and such.

Bordeaux and Burgundy dove more into the sub-regions of each region, asking a number of questions about what region a particular winery, or vineyard belongs. Of course, classifications, 1855 for Bordeaux and the Cru system for Burgundy was asked as well.

Occasionally I got what I felt were somewhat useless questions such as "how many acres are in region X" or "how many cases of red wine are produced in region y". Somewhat hard to study for questions like that.

For the most part, I'm getting what I wanted out of the exams, they are making me read more wine books and driving me to learn more about all kinds of different wine regions.

You do have to sign up for eRobertParker.com and pay for the exams which at the time of this writing was $35/exam or $195 for all 8. Quite a bit of money for a certificate and a small amount of bragging rights :)