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From the lips of the masters: 'A revelation'
By William F. Ast III - Herald Palladium | February 3, 2010
Michigan wines fare well in event at MSU Extension Center
BENTON HARBOR - Southwest Michigan wines took on the world on Tuesday and were equal to - and in some cases superior to - the competition.
A panel of three professionals led an all-day tasting session for restaurateurs, winery officials, and those who just wanted to learn about wine at the MSU Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center. The results surprised even the professionals.
"I was really surprised by the quality of the Michigan Syrah (a grape variety)," said Claudia Tyagi, one of only 170 master sommeliers (trained wine experts) around the world. "I hadn't encountered wines of that depth and intensity from Michigan. I thought some of the examples were northern Rhones. And the northern Rhone was my least favorite."
"This was a revelation today," said Tyagi, of Napa, Calif. Overall, "The quality is very high. The varietal character is in line with standards for cold-climate wines."
Other panel members were Chris Cook of Ann Arbor, an international wine judge and a maker of documentaries, and Rick Rubel of Charleston, S.C., a third-level sommelier. The session was sponsored by the Michigan Grape Society.
The tasting wasn't a wine contest, but rather aimed at teaching the participants how to taste and judge 11 varieties of wine. It was a blind test, meaning there were no labels on the bottles.
The tasters and judges were equipped with several wine glasses each, water, bread, and buckets in which to pour excess wine. In such sessions, people are not supposed to drink the wine, but merely to taste it and then spit it out.
Once panel members and tasters were done, the panel members would discuss each wine and assign scores. The wines included benchmark wines; wines from around the world aimed at giving a standard example of what characteristics wine varieties should have.
The experts didn't always agree.
Tyagi said one wine had "a nail polish nose (smell) ... which really turns me off."
"A woman's nail polish is this man's eucalyptus," Cook countered. He thought it was "an OK wine, nothing special."
They judged different wines to have different hints of fruit, from cherries to blueberries. They also found such curious tastes as tobacco and cedar - Rubel found one that had green olive tastes - and Cook sniffed at one wine as having hints of raw green beans. Tyagi objected to another wine's nose as "cooked veggie."
Still, they evidently knew their wines. About another wine, Cook said, "I'm going to be surprised if this was a Michigan wine." And it turned out to be one from California.
But while it wasn't a competition, organizers were delighted by the results.
"I think this was unprecedented in what we accomplished today," said Extension Director Tom Zabadal, who organized the session along with Mike deSchaaf of Hickory Creek Winery in Baroda. "... across the board we fared extremely well, and most of the top wines within the flights of varieties turned out to be Michigan wines, to our delight."
"I'm absolutely floored by the leap in quality," Rubel said after the session. When compared to the benchmark wines, the local wines often won out and were sometimes "drastically" ahead, he said.
"I think the people of Michigan often think our wines can't be any better than wines from California or New York," Cook said. "In fact, they already are."
All the local wines were "very well received and accepted as internationally correct and good, so we're on our way," deSchaaf said.
The modern local wine industry is only about 20 years old, "truly in our infancy," and is clearly a growth industry with a bright future, Zabadal said. It's also an industry that boosts tourism, he said.
"When you look at what grape production does for wine making, what that does for tourism, the multiplier is double fold," Zabadal said. "It goes well beyond the raw product value. That's what is often called the value-added aspect of a crop like this, and it's huge. It's huge."
While the terminology of wine may sound esoteric, Tyagi after the session said anyone who likes wine can learn to enjoy it even more through such tasting sessions.
"As you taste, your palate accepts more variety," Tyagi said. "You learn more delights. Every year is a new chapter in the book of wine. I just find that absolutely wonderful and thrilling."
There were about 70 people at Tuesday's session at the Jordan Tatter Conference Center, which Zabadal said presents a problem.
"Our biggest problem now is we're at capacity today," Zabadal said. "We could not fit any more people in the room. That's a delightful position to be in."
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Nancie Corum, with St. Julian
Winery in Paw Paw, joins more than 70 people at the MSU Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center Tuesday
for an all-day wine-tasting session. Don Campbell / H-P staff
BENTON HARBOR - Southwest Michigan wines took on the world on Tuesday and were equal to - and in some cases superior to - the competition.
A panel of three professionals led an all-day tasting session for restaurateurs, winery officials, and those who just wanted to learn about wine at the MSU Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center. The results surprised even the professionals.
"I was really surprised by the quality of the Michigan Syrah (a grape variety)," said Claudia Tyagi, one of only 170 master sommeliers (trained wine experts) around the world. "I hadn't encountered wines of that depth and intensity from Michigan. I thought some of the examples were northern Rhones. And the northern Rhone was my least favorite."
"This was a revelation today," said Tyagi, of Napa, Calif. Overall, "The quality is very high. The varietal character is in line with standards for cold-climate wines."
Other panel members were Chris Cook of Ann Arbor, an international wine judge and a maker of documentaries, and Rick Rubel of Charleston, S.C., a third-level sommelier. The session was sponsored by the Michigan Grape Society.
The tasting wasn't a wine contest, but rather aimed at teaching the participants how to taste and judge 11 varieties of wine. It was a blind test, meaning there were no labels on the bottles.
The tasters and judges were equipped with several wine glasses each, water, bread, and buckets in which to pour excess wine. In such sessions, people are not supposed to drink the wine, but merely to taste it and then spit it out.
Once panel members and tasters were done, the panel members would discuss each wine and assign scores. The wines included benchmark wines; wines from around the world aimed at giving a standard example of what characteristics wine varieties should have.
The experts didn't always agree.
Tyagi said one wine had "a nail polish nose (smell) ... which really turns me off."
"A woman's nail polish is this man's eucalyptus," Cook countered. He thought it was "an OK wine, nothing special."
They judged different wines to have different hints of fruit, from cherries to blueberries. They also found such curious tastes as tobacco and cedar - Rubel found one that had green olive tastes - and Cook sniffed at one wine as having hints of raw green beans. Tyagi objected to another wine's nose as "cooked veggie."
Still, they evidently knew their wines. About another wine, Cook said, "I'm going to be surprised if this was a Michigan wine." And it turned out to be one from California.
But while it wasn't a competition, organizers were delighted by the results.
"I think this was unprecedented in what we accomplished today," said Extension Director Tom Zabadal, who organized the session along with Mike deSchaaf of Hickory Creek Winery in Baroda. "... across the board we fared extremely well, and most of the top wines within the flights of varieties turned out to be Michigan wines, to our delight."
"I'm absolutely floored by the leap in quality," Rubel said after the session. When compared to the benchmark wines, the local wines often won out and were sometimes "drastically" ahead, he said.
"I think the people of Michigan often think our wines can't be any better than wines from California or New York," Cook said. "In fact, they already are."
All the local wines were "very well received and accepted as internationally correct and good, so we're on our way," deSchaaf said.
The modern local wine industry is only about 20 years old, "truly in our infancy," and is clearly a growth industry with a bright future, Zabadal said. It's also an industry that boosts tourism, he said.
"When you look at what grape production does for wine making, what that does for tourism, the multiplier is double fold," Zabadal said. "It goes well beyond the raw product value. That's what is often called the value-added aspect of a crop like this, and it's huge. It's huge."
While the terminology of wine may sound esoteric, Tyagi after the session said anyone who likes wine can learn to enjoy it even more through such tasting sessions.
"As you taste, your palate accepts more variety," Tyagi said. "You learn more delights. Every year is a new chapter in the book of wine. I just find that absolutely wonderful and thrilling."
There were about 70 people at Tuesday's session at the Jordan Tatter Conference Center, which Zabadal said presents a problem.
"Our biggest problem now is we're at capacity today," Zabadal said. "We could not fit any more people in the room. That's a delightful position to be in."
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