Viticulture and vinification for the Level 1 Sommelier exam

Before regions and grapes make sense, you need two things: how a vine becomes a grape (viticulture) and how a grape becomes wine (vinification). At the Court of Master Sommeliers Europe, the Introductory course lists “elementary practices in the vineyard and winemaking procedures” as part of its content. The exam is a multiple-choice theory paper plus a short service test, with 60% needed in each. Here is the material, in the order I would learn it.

Climate: the first question

• Cool climate: higher acidity, lower alcohol, lighter body, green and citrus fruit. Champagne, Mosel, Chablis.
• Warm climate: riper fruit, more alcohol, lower acidity, fuller body. Barossa Valley, Napa Valley.
• Continental: big difference between summer and winter, often with spring frost. Burgundy, Alsace.
• Maritime: the sea keeps temperatures mild all year, but brings rain. Bordeaux.
• Mediterranean: warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters. Southern Rhône, Tuscany.
• Climate vs weather: climate is the pattern over years; weather is this year. Weather is why vintages differ.

Terroir and the site

• Terroir: everything about a place that shapes its wine: climate, soil, slope, water and the people who farm it.
• Aspect: the direction a slope faces. In the Northern Hemisphere south-facing slopes get the most sun; in the Southern Hemisphere, north-facing ones.
• Soil: what matters most is drainage and warmth. Limestone and chalk (Burgundy, Champagne), gravel (the Médoc), slate (Mosel), granite (the Beaujolais crus).
• Water nearby: rivers and lakes reflect light and soften frost and heat (Mosel, Loire).

The vine

• Vitis vinifera: the European vine species behind almost all quality wine: Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest.
• Crossing: a new variety bred from two vinifera varieties. Pinotage (Pinot Noir × Cinsault), Müller-Thurgau.
• Hybrid: a cross between vinifera and another species, often American. Vidal Blanc, used for Canadian icewine.
• Phylloxera: a tiny insect from North America that feeds on vine roots. It devastated Europe's vineyards in the late 19th century.
• Rootstock and grafting: the answer to phylloxera. A vinifera variety is grafted onto American rootstock, whose roots resist the insect.
• Clone: a selection of one variety, propagated from a single parent vine for a particular trait.

Growing and protecting the vines

• Pruning: done in winter. It sets how many buds, and so how many bunches, the vine will carry.
• Guyot: a cane-pruned system, one or two canes along a wire. Burgundy and Bordeaux.
• Cordon: a permanent arm along a wire, spur-pruned each year.
• Bush vine (gobelet): free-standing, no wires. Southern Rhône, Beaujolais.
• Pergola: an overhead trellis. Northern Italy.
• Canopy management: positioning shoots, trimming and removing leaves to control sun, air and shade on the grapes.
• Hazards: spring frost, hail, drought and too much rain at harvest.
• Diseases: powdery mildew (oidium), downy mildew, and Botrytis cinerea, which is grey rot on most grapes but noble rot on the right grapes in the right weather.
• Harvest: by hand (gentle and selective, required in Champagne) or by machine (fast and cheaper).

For the whole growing season, stage by stage, read a vine's year.

In the winery, step by step

• 1. Destemming and crushing: stems removed, berries broken to free the juice. The juice-and-skins mix is called must.
• 2. Pressing: white grapes are pressed before fermentation; red grapes after it. Free-run juice flows on its own; press juice or wine is squeezed out and has more tannin.
• 3. Alcoholic fermentation: yeast turns sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, and gives off heat. Yeast can be ambient (wild) or cultured. Whites ferment cooler to keep fresh fruit; reds warmer to pull out colour and tannin.
• 4. Maceration (reds): the skins stay with the juice to give colour, tannin and flavour. The skins rise to form a cap, kept wet by punching down (pigeage) or pumping over (remontage). A cold soak before fermentation is an option.
• 5. Malolactic conversion: bacteria turn sharp malic acid into softer lactic acid. Almost all reds, many Chardonnays. See the malolactic fermentation guide.
• 6. Maturation: stainless steel or concrete keep fruit fresh; oak adds vanilla, toast and spice, and new oak more than old. The Bordeaux barrique holds 225 litres; the Burgundy pièce 228. Lees ageing (sur lie) adds texture, as in Muscadet; bâtonnage is stirring the lees.
• 7. Clarifying and stabilising: racking off the sediment, fining (with agents such as egg white or bentonite), filtration, and cold stabilisation to stop tartrate crystals forming in the bottle.
• 8. Bottling: usually with a small dose of sulphur dioxide to protect against oxidation and spoilage.

Wine styles and how they are made

Exam trap: in the EU, still rosé may not be made by blending red and white wine. Rosé Champagne is the famous exception.

Key terms to know

• Chaptalisation: adding sugar to the must to raise the final alcohol, not to sweeten. Allowed within limits in some cool regions, banned in others.
• Acidification: adding acid, common in warm regions.
• Carbonic maceration: whole bunches ferment in a tank full of carbon dioxide, giving fruity, low-tannin reds such as Beaujolais Nouveau. See carbonic maceration is basically a pop song.
• Lees: dead yeast cells and solids left after fermentation.
• Véraison: the moment grapes soften and change colour, the start of ripening.

How to study it

• Draw the winery: a white-wine line and a red-wine line, step by step, from memory.
• Taste in pairs: an unoaked and an oaked Chardonnay; a cool-climate and a warm-climate Sauvignon Blanc.
• One term, one wine: link every word to a bottle (sur lie, Muscadet; noble rot, Sauternes).
• Test yourself daily with the Level 1 practice test and SOMM DIGI AI.

Quick quiz: vineyard and winery

Questions people ask