The prospect of working with wine for the rest of my life, I have to say, is quite an attractive one but not being here long enough for the two years required to become a fully fledged sommelier, I jumped at the chance to go for the next step down – a two month wine course with Escuela Argentina de Sommelier.

Sandra Calvete from EAS told me that the course offers a foundation in wine (and other booze) and the knowledge and secrets of a sommelier as well as the opportunity to try plenty of great wines. That it certainly did…

Lesson 1: From old to new

Our first lesson gave us a brief history of wine, comparing the old and new world and outlining Argentina’s own personal transition from is adolescence of cheap, large wine production for its thirsty domestic market, to more recently nurturing a much more palatable and expensive production of quality wines that are: a) unlikely to poison you, and b) impressively working their way up, now recognised as some of the world’s best wines.

After learning the principles of tasting a wine we moved onto the practical part and fortunately with plenty of the good stuff from Mendoza’s younger generations. Sommelier Bárbara Jones encouraged us to explore our vocabulary (however absurd our first tasting notes may have been) as we sniffed, swirled and gurgled our way through six fine wines in a blind tasting. The hardest lesson for that evening class was how to spit out good wine. And how not to dribble in doing so.

Lesson 2: From the vine to very best wine

For the next class we cranked it up a gear and popped open a stunning nine bottles of wine (some of which were steaming well past the 200 peso mark). First of all, sommelier Cecilia Martinez took us through the process of wine making from the vines to the bottle in an informative whirlwind. We learned some interesting and slightly stomach curling historical facts, including that animal blood was traditionally used in wine making and the clarification process. Appetising.

For our blind tasting we worked our way through two Sauvignon Blancs and two Chardonnays – to learn the difference between the grapes and the large taste range within each variety. From there we moved on to an almighty selection of reds: from an impossibly light Pinot Noir to dense, marmeladey Mablecs. Boozy highlights this lesson included a robust 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon (Cadus by Nieto Senetiner) and a deep purple 2004 Malbec (Angelica Zapata). This time I swallowed.

Lesson 3: “My only regret in life is that I didn’t drink enough Champagne”
- the late, John Maynard Keynes

Our next lesson was on sparkling wine: divine! Our lesson on the French region Champagne and the different crus is sure to be good fodder for future pub quizzes. It was surprising to learn that Champagne, like most of the best things in life, was discovered by accident by French monk Dom Perignon (God bless those tipsy monks). Working our way through five sparkling wines – from Brut Nature to sweet – we learnt about the variety in sparking wines and then finished off with a couple roses to complete the epic tasting from the week before.

Lesson 4: The art of a sommelier (and you thought it was easy?)

Next up was learning the art of the sommelier. I knew that sommeliers had to have a vast knowledge of wine and pairing but I honestly had thought of them as glorified waiters in the area of table service. That is far from truth. We learnt and practised the painstaking measures a sommelier should take to serve a bottle of wine – from keeping it in the same position throughout pouring to decanting it over a candle, it was all very ceremonious, and coming half way through our course, it felt like a rites of passage in sorts.

For our blind tasting lesson we worked on blends: one of the hardest identification games to play. Swirling and spitting (this time no dribble!) our way through five wines we explored the complementary characteristics varieties can give each other.

Lesson 5: How low can you go?

Prices of wines can be quite mystifying and most people just follow the rule: the more it costs, the better it is. Fortunately at EAS we learnt the secrets of why this is not always true. Sandra Calvete explained the reasons why some wines cost more and explored the different wine making and aging processes, which can contribute to the price, and unpretentiously discussed the merits and downfalls of a cheap wine.

Then came our most daunting blind tasting – five Malbecs from which we had to guess the prices. This is the sort of tasting that sends fully-grown wine experts into a tizzy… Fortunately for us it was all very relaxed and, despite holding my nose for the first sips in fear of a real stinker, none of them were bad wines – all very good in fact. Fin del Mundo was the cheapest and the line worked up to more costly reserva malbecs from Nieto Senetiner and Andeluna. A challenging and tasty lesson!

Lesson 6: Learning the lingo

For our next class we joined the real sommeliers (or those in training) for a lesson in wine vocabulary. Mouth running dry of things to say about a wine? EAS had a novel solution: pin up a selection of pictures of gorgeous celebrities (Brad, George, Angelina and Nicole to mention a few) and watch the jaws drop and words flow… Voluptuous, vigorous, meaty, distinguished, persuasive, penetrating, orgasmic… the list went on! Tongues limbered we tasted three wines and let the verbose descriptions continue.

Lesson 7: A heavenly marriage

The following lesson was always bound to be my favourite: food and wine pairing. Arriving in class there were plates of cheese and chocolate temptingly waiting on our table. Somehow we were expected to concentrate on our theory lesson on wine pairing and regional differences – not an easy job while smelling dark chocolate - but fortunately for the most part the lesson was practical.

With fruit, cheeses and chocolate we tasted everything with every wine – a Sauvignon Blanc, Malbec, late harvest Chardonnay, fortified Malbec and a Whisky. This was a unique chance to learn about some great, and not so great, combinations and find out why they do, or don’t, work. Some of the best pairings were the more surprising: sweet white wine with blue cheese and dark chocolate with whisky. A delicious lesson with a great learning curve.

Lesson 8: Not just wine

For our last lesson we arrived to what looked like a police line-up of different alcohol suspects: tequila, rum, pisco, whisky… This was our final lesson and an overall look at sweet wines and other alcohols, how they are made and how they taste. I had tried most of the spirits before but what was unusual was to try them all next to one another and truly compare the different properties and see how they change after opening up. A sommelier’s knowledge must encompass all alcohols and this was a final taste of how much more goes into the profession than you ever imagined.

It was a slightly teary ‘cheers’ as we finished our last class (perhaps more so after all the spirits we had been drinking…) but the informative and fun EAS course has only whet my appetite for enjoying more of Argentina’s juice in all its glory. My favourite class note of the two months was: “Probar, probar, probar (taste, taste, taste)”. And that we certainly did – salud!

EAS is located at Hipólito Yrigoyen 242 and runs short courses as well as two year sommelier courses. For more information visit www.sommeliers.com.ar or call 261 424 6602.

The Mendoza Sun, written by Amanda Barnes (Contributing Author), photo by Amanda Barnes.

Amanda Barnes is a freelance writer currently living in Mendoza. For more information, visit www.amandabarnes.co.uk or click here to see her profile.