Uncorked - New Reality/Documentary TV series

[Ozzie W]

I watched this over the weekend. It follows six ambitious sommeliers from New York as they prepare for the MS exam, which is the hardest professional exam in the wine industry. The six episodes total more than 3½ hours, so it goes into more detail than Somm did a few years ago. If you liked Somm, you will love Uncorked. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Fingers crossed they renew it and make a second season.

http://tv.esquire.com/shows/uncorked
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0rjMa ... PLfD0KEAcg

[Ian S]

Harder than Master of Wine???

[Ozzie W]

Harder than Master of Wine???

They are both ridiculously hard and people will debate which one is harder. In my opinion, the MS is harder because the exams are oral and practical, whereas the MW exams are all written. But it probably depends a lot on each individual candidate too. The MS exam would be harder for someone not working in the restaurant industry due to the practical component. The MW exam would be harder for someone who doesn't have a holistic exposure to all aspects of wine industry.

[Scotty vino]

thanks for posting . Watched a fair chunk of this.
Always amazes me the folk that get thru.

*Spoiler Alert*!!

I couldn't believe the young fella Jack got thru. He was 27? Crazy. I thought his nerves would be his undoing.
What a palate for his age. Give him 20 years he'll be a master of masters.
Dana had the palate but the service let him down.
The 'cool relaxed guy' approach bit him in the end and you could see he was kicking himself
for not giving his service component more attention. He obviously had the palate.
I noticed Dustin Wilson from Somm was doing some prep judging too.
6 unknown wines tasted blind with zero clues and the added pressure of the examiners?
A tough test indeed.

[catchnrelease]

Harder than Master of Wine???

There's almost half as many MS as there are MW.

Watched the first episode. I actually think some of the candidates are a bit annoying/pretentious, and the tone of the show isn't my favourite, but dammit if it isn't interesting as hell to get an insight into the process of becoming a MS. Will continue to watch.

Also it seems none of them want to accept screwcap as a viable form of long term closure.

[Andrew Jordan]

Started watching this last night. Compelling viewing although agree that some of the candidates are a bit annoying.

Thanks for the heads up Ozzie!

[rossmckay]

Harder than Master of Wine???

MW has a greater tasting and theory component than MS. It's the service component that would be tricky and there's probably more MW than MS because if you don't want to be a somm there's no point in doing the MS course.

The MW has 36 wines blind rather than the 6 in the MS and a dissertation as well as the written and oral exam. Hell, the WSET Diploma has 12 wines blind in the 'Light Wines of the World' subject and 18 wines and three spirits overall.

I don't have anything to back this up but I reckon more amateurs would do the MW rather than the MS because if you are good at factual recall and have a reasonable palate you could get through a MW. Pouring a bottle of champagne evenly into five glasses is a physical skill that only comes from long practice.

[Ozzie W]

The MW has 36 wines blind rather than the 6 in the MS and a dissertation as well as the written and oral exam.

I thought all the exam components for the MW are written?

[Ian S]

With any exams it's not how many pass, but the proportion who pass from those that started the course. I don't know the numbers for each, but counting the numbers of 'masters' in each would not tell you how hard is. e.g. there are more qualified actuaries than people with a degree in Surf Science and Technology.

[JamieBahrain]

There are a few MW's in my wine group and I don't follow much of the process closely, but the tasting preparation must really be boring? When studying they were limiting their exposure to the great wines of the world we drink to concentrate in Tesco or Marks and Sparks generic brands to pass the tasting. Again, I could be wrong, but the academic side of it seemed very old school with essay technique dominating as a number of our members are university lectures they helped in the process.

At face value, this Top Gun like MS exam looks far more exciting.

[JamieBahrain]

I started to watch but couldn't get past the "best of the best" bullshit. It was too American for me. Does it get better?

[Ozzie W]

I started to watch but couldn't get past the "best of the best" bullshit. It was too American for me. Does it get better?

It does get better as the series progresses and it gets closer to the exams.

[rens]

I'm two episodes in and it is not too bad. Will continue to watch it.

[rossmckay]

The MW has 36 wines blind rather than the 6 in the MS and a dissertation as well as the written and oral exam.

I thought all the exam components for the MW are written?

No, there's a half a day of blind tasting

When studying they were limiting their exposure to the great wines of the world we drink to concentrate in Tesco or Marks and Sparks generic brands to pass the tasting. Again, I could be wrong, but the academic side of it seemed very old school with essay technique dominating as a number of our members are university lectures they helped in the process.

This is the worst part of the tasting preparation because you're likely to get something really great and something very ordinary and something in the middle in any bracket. I failed a Diploma fortified blind tasting because I hadn't become familiar with entry level Madeira. The Sparking wines subject I'm doing now requires familiar with the different styles of cremant and prosecco and well as prestige grande marques.

Spirits was the worst, tasting St Agnes brandy and Bundy is hard work

[Ozzie W]

No, there's a half a day of blind tasting

I just had a look at the MW website. The blind tasting is a written exam. Here's the one from this year: http://www.mastersofwine.org/en/education/the-mw-examination/the-practical-papers.cfm.

[rens]

Harder than Master of Wine???

There's almost half as many MS as there are MW.

Which leads one to believe the MS is harder.

In Australia we only have 3 MS but we have 23 MW's (no one in Australia has both qualifications)

[winetastic]

Although there are the usual reality TV cliches and the pacing is slow with the 'previously' segments, its actually pretty compelling viewing. Thanks for the heads up.

[Ian S]

Harder than Master of Wine???

There's almost half as many MS as there are MW.

Which leads one to believe the MS is harder.

In Australia we only have 3 MS but we have 23 MW's (no one in Australia has both qualifications)

see my comment & example above. Pass rates, or perhaps numbers passing who start the studies, are the way to measure difficulty. Numbers qualified means very little on it's own.

[swirler]

Re: Uncorked. Bit late to the party. I thought it was pretty good. Better than Masterchef, anyway!

And I say someone who finds this kind of job quite cringe worthy. I can choose and pour my own wine, thanks. Just as I can choose my cut up my own food. If other appreciate them, that's fine.

[catchnrelease]

Some of the service stuff was a bit stupid imo. I mean, seriously, who cares which direction the waiter walks around the table??? Also getting them to double decant without a funnel - in any serious restaurant/bar they would have access to all the tools they need to perform a task properly, why not make the test more practical and give them access to the tools they need? I get trying to challenge them, but it's just not practical.

[swirler]

Setting them up for failure was the expression used.

I've only seen the first 2 episodes, but usually they show all the bad stuff first to make drama and to contrast when they do well. Formulaic reality show stuff, but lots of interesting stuff along the way.

Don't they talk quickly!

[Andrew Jordan]

Cannot believe none of them suggested Sparkling Shiraz was a good pairing with a Thanksgiving turkey dinner. Clowns!!

[rossmckay]

No, there's a half a day of blind tasting

I just had a look at the MW website. The blind tasting is a written exam. Here's the one from this year: http://www.mastersofwine.org/en/education/the-mw-examination/the-practical-papers.cfm.

Sorry, I meant practical rather than oral. You're quite right.

There's a significantly greater level of blind tasting in the MW over the MS but you have to write your answer rather than just say it.

[Polymer]

Ross -

Not that it really matters..but in your experience does a MS or MW seem better in blind tastings? From what I've seen, MS's seem to do a lot better than MW's when it comes to trying a wine, breaking it down, and making an educated guess on what it is....There is more blind tasting to pass the MW but you have a lot more time to spend with the wine as well...

[rossmckay]

Ross -

Not that it really matters..but in your experience does a MS or MW seem better in blind tastings? From what I've seen, MS's seem to do a lot better than MW's when it comes to trying a wine, breaking it down, and making an educated guess on what it is....There is more blind tasting to pass the MW but you have a lot more time to spend with the wine as well...

Great question. Both are being trained to accurately identify the characteristics of a wine and using their theoretical knowledge of wines determine what it could (or couldn't) be.

In my limited experience both are almost identical. When you hear a MS or MS candidate doing a breakdown it's almost exactly what the MW would do in a written form. The analytical process is an oral versus written but they go about it the same way. There's a podcast here http://guildpodcast.com/-interview-with-john-hoskins-mw-on-the-tasting-exam-for-the-masters-of-wine that sort of compares the two.

The SAT process which we use in WSET tastings and is as near as dammit what MW use is here http://www.wsetglobal.com/documents/dip_sat_wine2014_v2.pdf and if you listen to them it's the same process.

I'm not sure that the time difference is an advantage as you do have to write rather than talk. It's 10 minutes per wine but you have to write those stinking notes and bloody hell that 10 minutes is quick, especially when you change your mind on the conclusion with 1 minute left in the exam. I've never sat an exam where I've had any time left over in the practical and that's just at Diploma level.

I'm in awe of the knowledge that both of them have and without that knowledge the best palate in the world will still fail a tasting exam. Perhaps the difference is the amount of practice that an MS does day in day out. I try to blind taste a wine every day but those guys must do a huge amount.

[swirler]

They always seem something like this:

Medium plus colour. Medium plus body. edium plu alcohol. Medium plus acidity. Medium plus tannins. Medium plus intensity. Medium plus finish.

Easy!

[winetastic]

They always seem something like this:

Medium plus colour. Medium plus body. edium plu alcohol. Medium plus acidity. Medium plus tannins. Medium plus intensity. Medium plus finish.

Easy!

That's kinda true, though if you watch the 'scoring' they tend to get no points for that standard leader...

[swirler]

Just cut to the chase then.....


.....2007 Yellowtail Merlot

[GraemeG]

Spirits was the worst, tasting St Agnes brandy and Bundy is hard work

This is what keeps me from trying to turn my Level 3 into the Diploma...
cheers,
GG

[rossmckay]

Spirits was the worst, tasting St Agnes brandy and Bundy is hard work

This is what keeps me from trying to turn my Level 3 into the Diploma...
cheers,
GG

Oh I hear ya. The worst part is spending $100s on samples of stuff like Eau de Vin, brandies etc. The best part is finding some great tequilas and malt whiskies.

Now that I've been advised that I've passed, I have a box of spirits that I'm going to do my best to get rid of in a cocktail party aka debauched bacchanalia.