WSET Session1

Question 1

What are the four things you need for a wine tasting environment?

Answer 1

Good lighting, no strong odors, spittoons (spit cups), space for glasses and notes.

Question 2

What four things do you need to do to prepare yourself for wine tasting?

Answer 2

Clean your palate, come free of perfumes and scents, have clean and suitable glassware, and correctly fill glasses.

Question 3

SAT

Answer 3

Systematic Approach to Tasting

Question 4

What are three reasons might someone use the SAT?

Answer 4

To calibrate their palate, to have a common language to describe wine, to evaluate a wine.

Question 5

What are the four classifications a wine can be evaluated on?

Answer 5

Appearance, nose, palate, quality

Question 6

What are terms used to asses clarity of a wine?

Answer 6

Clear and hazy

Question 7

Why might a wine be hazy?

Answer 7

It could be faulty.

Question 8

What terms are used to asses appearance intensity of a wine?

Answer 8

Pale, medium, and deep

Question 9

What are terms used to asses the color of wine wines?

Answer 9

Lemon-green, lemon, gold, amber, brown

Question 10

What terms are used to asses the color of rosés?

Answer 10

Pink, pink-orange, and orange

Question 11

What terms are used to asses the color of red wines?

Answer 11

Purple, ruby, garnet, tawny, brown

Question 12

What terms are used to asses the condition of a wine?

Answer 12

Clean and unclean

Question 13

Why might a wine smell unclean?

Answer 13

It could be faulty

Question 14

What terms are used to assess the nose intensity of a wine?

Answer 14

Light, medium, and pronounced

Question 15

What are the kinds of aroma and flavor characteristics of a wine?

Answer 15

Primary, Secondary, Tertiary

Question 16

What are some ways a wine can become faulted.

Answer 16

Cork taint, closure failure, heat damage

Question 17

What determines primary aromas and flavors?

Answer 17

The aromas and flavors of the grape and alcoholic fermentation?

Question 18

What are some descriptors of primary aromas and flavors?

Answer 18

Floral, green fruit, citrus, stone fruit, spice, etc

Question 19

What determines secondary aroma and flavors in a wine?

Answer 19

The aromas and flavors of post-fermentation winemaking

Question 20

What are the three descriptors of secondary aromas and flavors?

Answer 20

Yeast, malolactic conversion, and oak

Question 21

What three things might give a wine a yeast aroma or flavor?

Answer 21

Lees, autolysis, and flor.

Question 22

What is lees?

Answer 22

The dead yeast that fall to the bottom of the fermentation vessel.

Question 23

What is autolysis?

Answer 23

The chemical reactions that take place when a wine spends time in contact with the lees after fermentation.

Question 24

What is flor?

Answer 24

The film of yeast on the surface of a wine.

Question 25

What is malolactic conversion?

Answer 25

Bacteria lowers the acidity of the wine.

Question 26

What does malolactic conversion taste and smell like?

Answer 26

Butter, cheese and cream

Question 27

What are some examples of what an oaked wine tastes like?

Answer 27

vanilla, cloves, smoke, chocolate, coffee, etc

Question 28

What determines tertiary aromas and flavors?

Answer 28

The aromas and flavors of maturation (age).

Question 29

What are some descriptors of tertiary aromas and flavors of red wine?

Answer 29

dried fruit, leather, mushroom, caramel etc

Question 30

What are some descriptors of tertiary aromas and flavors of white wine?

Answer 30

Dried fruit, marmalade, petrol, nutty, honey etc

Question 31

What are some descriptors of tertiary aromas of purposefully oxidized wines?

Answer 31

Nutty, chocolate, coffee, caramel

Question 32

What are the descriptors of sweetness level of a wine?

Answer 32

Dry, off-dry, medium, sweet

Question 33

What descriptors are used to asses acid, tannin and alcohol?

Answer 33

low, medium and high

Question 34

What descriptors are used to asses body?

Answer 34

light, medium, and full

Question 35

What descriptors are used to asses flavor intensity of a wine?

Answer 35

light, medium and pronounced

Question 36

What descriptors are used to asses flavor characteristics of a wine?

Answer 36

Primary, secondary, tertiary

Question 37

What are are some descriptors used to asses finish in a wine?

Answer 37

Short, medium and long

Question 38

What are the different levels of quality

Answer 38

Faulty, poor, acceptable, good,very good, and outstanding

Question 39

What are the four criteria to assess quality of a wine?

Answer 39

Balance, length (finish), intensity, complexity

Question 40

What has more impact on each other; wine or food?

Answer 40

Food has more impact on wine.

Question 41

How does sweet food interact with wine?

Answer 41

Wine seems more drying and bitter, more acidic less sweet and fruity.

Question 42

How does umami food interact with wine?

Answer 42

Wine seems more drying and bitter, more acidic less sweet and fruity

Question 43

What does umami mean?

Answer 43

Savory and meaty

Question 44

How does salty food interact with wine?

Answer 44

Wine seems, less drying and bitter, less acidic more fruity, and has more body

Question 45

How does acidic food interact with wine?

Answer 45

Wine seems less drying and bitter, less acidic more sweet and fruity

Question 46

What are three considerations to keep in mind when pairing food and wine?

Answer 46

Chilli heat, flavor intensity, acid and fat