VintageWhen
it comes to wine, vintage is the big one, the thing most people tend to
find complicated and confusing. But the bottom line is that it's all actually quite simple. A wine's vintage simply tells you which year the grapes were picked.
Almost all still wines come from a single vintage, and the labels on the bottles
will show the year in which the wine was made. The few exceptions to
this rule are a few cheap and barely drinkable wines, or branded wines.
Wine Tasting Tips The idea behind wine tasting is as simple as this: Slow down, relax and take the time to think about what you're drinking.
First, examine the color. Is it clear or hazy, transparent or opaque? Next, take a deep sniff. Swirl the wine to allow aromas to escape as the wine "opens up" in the glass. Does it smell like fruit? Flowers? Road tar or sweat socks?
Finally,
take a drink. Swish it around in your mouth, sensing not only its taste
but also its texture and weight, often described as "mouth feel."
As the moment of tasting becomes swallowing, let the memory of the wine
on your palate "speak" to your own taste. The aftertaste, or "finish," of
a wine can be brief or lengthy, extraordinary or off-putting, but is
usually a major influence in our ultimate enjoyment of a favorite wine.
Don't
judge a wine solely on its looks – enjoy it with all of your senses –
even sound! Listen as all of your tasting senses tell you what you like (or dislike) about each wine. Never underestimate the importance of smell. We actually smell most of the things that we think we taste. Our taste buds can discern only four flavors – sweet, sour, salt and bitter
– while the nose is capable of discerning thousands of subtle variation
of scents, distilling sensations even from the recesses of memory.
Wine 101Each
of us is evolving in our personal cultural experience. Perhaps you too
have come to the place where you're ready to experience more adventure
as a connoisseur. There is
culture in wine. It can be found in the ritual of drinking it,
appreciating the craft of the winemaker, and in the wine's stimulation to our taste buds. And now, let us pursue the pure taste enjoyment of wine.
When
we drink wine, our taste buds are stimulated in a unique way and the
alcohol has a calming effect on the brain. Human taste has four
components: sweetness, saltiness, acidity and bitterness. The acidity
and sweetness in wine are the two factors that balance together to
produce a pleasant sensation on our sense of taste. We taste the acidity with the middle of the tongue and sweetness with the tip of the tongue.
Wines
with excessive acidity taste harsh, those with insufficient acidity
taste uninteresting and their flavor does not linger in the mouth long
enough. Tannins contribute to the relationship of bitterness on the
tongue.
If you've ever chewed into grape seeds, then you've tasted the dry
bitterness of tannin. Wine with too much tannin is unpleasantly bitter. The right level of tannin has an effect of bringing all the flavors together with a good "grip"
in the mouth. The various fruit-like flavors detectable in wine
contribute nuances to the sweetness we taste. It's fun trying to detect
different fruit characteristics, such as berries, plums, apples,
pears...
Our other senses are involved as well. Our sight enjoys the color and our sense of smell enjoys the fragrances. Much of a wine's character is revealed only through the aroma it exudes. This adds richly to the dimensions found in wine.
There are many species of grapes, but most of the world's wine is made from the Vitis vinifera family, of European origin. Wine grapes have various unique, signature characteristics. Check out the following varietal grapes:
Popular Red Varieties
Popular White Varieties
Cabernet Sauvignon - Although
there have been many fanciful theories of the origin of the Cabernet
Sauvignon grape, modern fingerprinting indicates that it is a chance
crossing of Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc.
Merlot -
Although most experts agree that Merlot is native to Bordeaux, there is
disagreement regarding its parentage. One theory has it deriving from
Cabernet Franc, while another opinion claims the grape was named for
the blackbird, or merle, which loves to eat the sweet grape. Merlot is
a popular red grape and is known for its up-front fruitiness and smooth
flavors.
Chardonnay -
Once thought to be part of the pinot family, the Chardonnay grape is
now believed to be related to Pinot Noir and the obscure Gouais Blanc
grape. Even with sketchy ancestry, Chardonnay is one hot grape and is
the United State's leading variety.
Zinfandel -
Although it is now determined, thanks to DNA testing, that Zinfandel is
identical to the Croatian grape Crljenak Kastelanski, the popular
California grape has a strong Austrian connection. The first Zinfandel
vines showed up in a Long Island nursery, brought there from Vienna;
and the name Zinfandel is likely confused with the Austrian vine
Zierfandler. Outside California, Zinfandel has been identified as Primitivo in Italy.
Pinot Noir -
One of the oldest cultivated grapes, Pinot Noir is thought to have
taken root 2,000 years ago in the Burgundy region of France,
establishing the noble pinot as the ancestor of no fewer than 16 modern
grapes.
Sauvignon Blanc -
The historical homeland of the Sauvignon Blanc grape is generally
thought to be the Bordeaux region of France, although some say it is
the Loire Valley. Today’s zesty Sauvignon Blanc pairs nicely with fish
and seafood. Confusingly, Sauvignon Blanc is also known as Fume Blanc in California, Feigentraube in Germany and Muskat Sylvaner in Austria. How Wine is MadeWine
grapes, Vitis vinifera, grow easily in any temperate to warm climate. A
solution of sugar and water develops in ripe grapes and the skins
easily allow the growth of natural yeasts. In the fermentation process,
these single cell organisms consume the natural sugar and change it
into ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. This rather simple process has
been observed and used for thousands of years in human culture. In the
past hundred years or so, technology and new ideas from winemakers have
played an ever-increasing role in the making of wine. It's becoming
more and more a science and an art.
Here
are the basic principles of winemaking. The grapes are either harvested
by hand (this is best), or with mechanical harvesters. Exposure to air
should be kept to a minimum at all stages of the process. Sometimes
powdered sulfites are sprinkled on the grapes prior to crushing to
prevent too much reaction with the air. The fermentation usually takes
place in open vats. Several processes may be employed to give the wine
clarity: fining and filtration for example. Shortly after fermentation
has ended, the wine is transferred to a settling tank where filtration
and other clarification techniques may be used. The Differences Between
Red Wine and White Winemaking.
There
are significant differences between red wine and white wine production.
Basically, red wine is the outcome of crushed, fermented grapes. White
wine is the outcome of fermented grape juice (that is, no skins or meat
of the fruit). Blush wines, out of interest, are made from red grapes
that are made into wine as though they were white grapes. The red grape
skins add a bit of color and nutrients to the juice being made into
blush or rosé, leaving a slight blush of red in the wine.
Red WineAll
grapes contain the same kind of green fruity-meat, but red grapes have
red skins and in the winemaking process, there is a considerable amount
of color, flavors and tannins that are imparted to the final product.
After crushing, the red grapes, skins and all, sit in a fermentation
vat for a period of time. Picture a huge plastic bin with a mixture of
crushed grapes and juice with a layer of crushed wet skins on top. The
skins tend to rise to the surface of the mixture, forming a layer on
top. This top layer is frequently mixed back into the fermenting juice
(called must). After fermentation has stopped, about one to two weeks
later, the new wine is drawn from the vat. A bit of "free run" juice is
allowed to pour and then the remaining must is squeezed, yielding
"press wine". The wine is clarified and then transferred to oak aging
barrels so that it may mature. When the winemaker considers the wine
ready, it is transferred to bottles and labeled. White WineRight
after picking, white grapes are put into a crushing machine. In the
process, the skins are separated from the juice, an important
difference over the red wine process. Some adjustments are sometimes
made to the acid or sugar levels at this stage (the addition of sugar
is called "chaptalization"). The clarified juice is then ready for
fermentation.
Yeast
is then added to the juice for fermentation. Before long the white
grape juice becomes white wine. At this point, some further tinkering
is usually called for: filtering, and perhaps the addition of sweeter
juice to round out the flavor. The wine is then aged by storing in oak
or stainless steel containers, and after a few months, it is bottled. Article © 2002-2006,
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