Reading Style Rather Than Grape

The capability: you can place any wine into a style position by tasting it.

Prerequisites: Modules 26, 27.

The practice

Taste two wines of the same grape from different climates and describe the ripeness difference.

Then taste an oaked and an unoaked wine of the same grape — the clearest demonstration of a production decision available.

Then one that has undergone malolactic conversion against one that has not.

Then place ten unfamiliar wines into style positions — crisp and unoaked, aromatic, rich and oaked, off-dry for whites; light, medium with structure, full and ripe, structured for reds.

The reference

The style positions themselves, defined by examples the bar actually carries.

What you are building

A frame that lets a bartender recommend outside their memory.

Because a grape sets a range and everything else operates inside it — climate, harvest timing, maceration, fermentation temperature, malolactic conversion, and oak collectively move a wine further than the variety does, per Module 26.

Which is why varietal-based recommendation is weak and style-based recommendation works.

Verification and boundary

Place five unfamiliar wines blind.

Boundary: this confers no wine credential.