Barrels & Bottles Wine Blog

The Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) have announced a new bursary targeted towards disabled students and those that do not have English as their first language. This is open to UK students already studying or planning to start a new course.

WSET has some 225 centres around the UK accredited to run the WSET courses - including Barrels & Bottles, Chesterfield (NE. Derbyshire).

Labels: wset

Results of the WSET Level 2 course at Barrels and Bottles were indeed impressive again this year with all students passing the exam, 6 with Distinction and 4 with Merit.

After the success of 2004 when the OCHOA AWARD winning UK student, Rosemary Dando attended the Coghlans Wine School Course, they again have a candidate for this years award with Nigel Hitchin achieving an exceptional grade. Nigel along with 4 other students will go on to the advanced level course starting in the summer.

Course Tutor Andrew Coghlan said "I was impressed with the dedication of the students again this year. We had a great mix of interested amateurs, restaurant professionals and retail wine merchants. They all applied themselves well to the course and to have 50% achieve distinction level is well above the average expectation of WSET courses"

Congratulations all round to everyone taking the course.

Labels: wset

After finally nailing down some of the wine-makers (not literally) we are pleased to annoce the first few wine tastings for the 2007 season. As well as tastings from Spain, Rhone and Burgundy we are featuring a Madeira Dinner showcasing some traditional local cuisine with speciality wines with each course.

We have extended our WSET courses this year and feature a Level 2 and a Level 3 course. WSET Level 2 is ideal for those with some knowledge of wines looking to extend and refine their knowledge and finishes with a multiple questoin exam. WSET Level 3 takes things to the next stage and really tests your palate and knowledge culminating in a blind tasting examination. All our WSET courses feature full self-study notes and tutoring over an intensive 5 or 7 week study period.

Book mark the wine tasting page for further updates and announcements on events throughout the year. All events are at our Sheepbridge showroom (Chesterfield) unless otherwise stated.

Wine Tasting Events

Labels: tasting, wine, wset

Barrels & Bottle Wine Club member Rosemary Dando has won the "Ochoa Scholarship".

After gaining an impressive 100% score on the WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) Intermediate Certificate exam Rosemary was nominated for the Ochoa Scholarship. Completing a 150 word paper on "Why I would like to visit Navarra, one of the up and coming quality wine regions in Spain" she won the following prizes:

Ochoa Scholarship
Advanced Certificate course fees paid
Visit to the Bodegas Ochoa
Case of wine

Not only is gaining 100% a very impressive achievement the Ochoa Scholarship is a National Award and a highly regarded prize in the wine industry. Congratulations all round.

Rosemary's winning paper singled her out over the other short-listed nominees. Her entry was as follows:

"Where is Navarra?" I hear people say
Perhaps not surprising, it's out of the way
Of hot, crowded beaches where they lie in the sun
But that's not for me and there's lots to be done.
The pilgrims came through and stopped on the way
To sample the wines - but they're much better today!

Garnacha's the grape for fresh roses, great flavour;
And reds are now winning the critics favour,
Cab. Sauv. And Merlot, Tempranillo as well
For aroma and richness and flavours that dwell
I'd love to taste them, and also the whites -
Chardonnay and Moscatel are scaling new heights.

I seem to have stuck to the wineries so far:
Ochoa, Chivite and de la Vega are
Just a few bodegas for me to try.
But there's culture and history; plains, mountains and sky
And wonderful food with win in la barra,
So please invite me to visit Navarra!

Labels: wset