The more I study and teach about wine, the more I realise that a source of many complications and confusion for many wine student when it comes to wine appreciation is a general lack of a framework of thinking to approach their journey of discovery.  In this post, I want to propose an approach, a way of thinking that lays solid foundations upon which to rest the building blocks of wine knowledge and help to connect the dots more effectively. 

Still preparing for the Vinitaly International Academy exam, I created various MindMaps (dropbox folder) showing essential information for several of the key wine regions of Italy.  Find them all here.

A work in progress, these are notes gathered during my study of the excellent & award winning book by Ian D'Agata on Native Grapes of Italy (http://amzn.to/1QKvmrC). As well, I used the thorough website of the Italian National Registry (http://bit.ly/1Q7IqE7) for photos & other information.

Here my latest Study Guide, this time on Rosé wines: http://bit.ly/1aIjWkL. Actually the most difficult table to compile of them all...

I was surprised to learn how many styles of Rosé wines there are in the world.  Huge number of styles.  Also, it seems that there are not too much agreement as to the vocabulary of the winemaking process in various websites.  Is Rosé production a trade secret more closely guarded than anything else?

Just for fun, I created a new Study Guide... This time a table quickly outlining the effects of winemaking techniques on the character of a wine... You can find it here: http://bit.ly/1BAofp (dropbox folder).

This is based on so many books I have studied over the past 4 years, I can not list them all here. I had it checked by a winemaker master of wine at my last residential seminar & it pretty much covers all.

Here are new Grape Profile Tables this time for Italian Grape Varieties in white & red color - you can find it here from my Dropbox folder.

The tables were compiled using the excellent book on Italian Grapes by Ian D'Agata - "Native Grapes of Italy" (http://amzn.to/1JYRo3C).

Following my study guide on major grape varieties, here I would like to share a guide on Sweet Wines: http://bit.ly/swtwnstbl (pdf document in dropbox folder).

It is a unique table now its 2nd edition. It lists the major sweet wines styles found around the world. For each, it describes typical grapes, structure, production methods & sugar levels.

Following my post in Jancis Robinson's website forum thread "WSET Diploma" in which I shared a study guide on major grape varieties, here I would like to share a guide on Sparkling Wines: http://bit.ly/1qdYYQH (pdf document in dropbox folder).

it is a unique table now its 2nd edition. it lists the major sparkling wine styles found around the world. for each, it describes typical grapes, structure, production methods & dosage. 

An invaluable tasting assistant...you can download the latest PDF here from my dropbox folder.

At the BBR Portfolio tasting earlier this week, I felt very happy when Vincent, a student of WSET L4 I had not previously met, approached me to say that this table helped him tremendously with his unit 3 exam - aka "the big one"...

In his honor, I release here the latest version.  It is a unique table of its kind and now its 4th edition.

During our tasting of various sherries last week, it became clear quite quickly that knowledge of other fortified wines would be necessary to identify them promptly in a blind tasting. And so, I created a profile table for fortified wines to help me study. Download file