Two reasons. One simple, one a little more personal.
Firstly, I like dessert wines. I like sweet, honeyed flavours, and I like off-dry table wines, too. Picking the grapes late gives the chance for the vine to produce fruit with higher sugar content, so 'late harvest' wines can be just what I like. Sometimes.
Secondly, being a child of the 60's and having spent over three decades of my adult life not studying and understanding wine in the best way, I am late to the party, as it were.
In 2010, just before I hit a milestone birthday, 'The One' kindly sent me on a WSET level 2 course as a Christmas present and I got interested in the subject of wine as something other than an economical anaesthetic. Level 3 followed immediately, as did the Diploma (level 4) which took a little longer. I collected my scroll from (HRH) Jancis Robinson in January 2014, having completed the course in mid-2013.
I now have as many professional qualifications in wine as I do in anything else, but far less real experience. So I want to start, modestly, sharing what I have learned so far and also harvesting some return (non-financial) in the investment I have made in study.
Perhaps when I am no longer useful in my professional context, a time which is close at hand, I will be able to reap my 'late harvest', but for now I am, like the grapes, hanging on until the time is right.
Firstly, I like dessert wines. I like sweet, honeyed flavours, and I like off-dry table wines, too. Picking the grapes late gives the chance for the vine to produce fruit with higher sugar content, so 'late harvest' wines can be just what I like. Sometimes.
Secondly, being a child of the 60's and having spent over three decades of my adult life not studying and understanding wine in the best way, I am late to the party, as it were.
In 2010, just before I hit a milestone birthday, 'The One' kindly sent me on a WSET level 2 course as a Christmas present and I got interested in the subject of wine as something other than an economical anaesthetic. Level 3 followed immediately, as did the Diploma (level 4) which took a little longer. I collected my scroll from (HRH) Jancis Robinson in January 2014, having completed the course in mid-2013.
I now have as many professional qualifications in wine as I do in anything else, but far less real experience. So I want to start, modestly, sharing what I have learned so far and also harvesting some return (non-financial) in the investment I have made in study.
Perhaps when I am no longer useful in my professional context, a time which is close at hand, I will be able to reap my 'late harvest', but for now I am, like the grapes, hanging on until the time is right.
As an update, I gave up the day job and have since December 2018 only worked in a voluntary context. This changed, briefly, for Advent 2021 when I offered my services to Majestic as a temporary Sales Assistant. It remains to be seen whether this will remain my only professional engagement in the wine trade.
We have now reached August 2024 and I have continued to work at Majestic Wines in a permanent, part-time capacity since early in 2023. This is proving to be a good way to continue learning and passing on some of the knowledge and learning accumulated over the period described above. It seems I am some way into capturing that Late Harvest!
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