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Tasting season - brief despatch from the front line

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This is my fifteenth Autumn in the Wine Trade, but still I have staggered to the end of September slightly shell shocked from the suddenness of the end of holiday, and the intensity of the return to serious tasting.

Some tastings are extended shopping trips. Or at least, wish-list compilation trips. We are seeking out fine, beguiling, benchmark wines to add to our range of Bordeaux: Italy, Burgundy, the Antipodes, and South America are on our hit list. I was particularly excited by my early peek at 2010 Burgundy: scintillating Chablis is a star of this fresh yet juicy vintage, as are Côte de Beaune whites. There are some irresistible and inexpensive wines from the Mâconnais.

My other tastings this month have been academic, as I join a small group of fellow Masters of Wine to taste, double taste, argue over and finally select the 50 or so wines that will be inflicted on the poor souls about to sign up for the MW education program. This is like tasting boot-camp: we taste blind, answering the questions we’re expecting students to attempt, before revealing all and making sure that each wine is a benchmark of its type. It’s not a shopping trip, but it is very inspiring, sometimes humbling, training, and a reminder of the qualities of character and typicity that make wine such a captivating and rewarding pastime.

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