Enjoying Wines

Archive for the ‘General Wine info’ Category

A number of non-wine drinkers have been thrown by a common misconception about Vintage Wine. They believe the notion that because a wine has been labeled as a vintage wine, that it is better quality and taste. A Vintage wine is a wine that has been produced using grapes grown and harvested in one particular year.

The idea may have originated from the producers of Vintage Port in who make ports based off grapes from certain years, which are later analyzed and the ‘good years’ are then decided. These ‘good batches’ are then labeled as ‘Vintage Ports’ by each winery, indicating a particularly good batch.

Vintage wines do share some aspects of the labeling but it is not exactly the same. While they do use grapes from one year only, labeling it as a vintage does not guarantee that it is a good wine, it is more used to simple display what year the grapes were used. The wine community then samples the wines and connoisseurs then debate over the quality and which years yielded the best wines.

To add to this, Vintage wines do not actually have to be 100% made from grapes from that year. In areas such as Chilie and South Africa, Vintage wines can consist of 75% grapes from that year and up. In other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, America and the EU, they are required to be 85% and up.
The other types of wine, which are just called ‘non-vintage’ wines, can be made from grapes form harvests over two or more years. This is done by wine makers who are seeking to create and retain a consistent style of wine from year to year.

In the past when grape growing was heavily reliant on the weather, different years produced different quality wines, however with modern farming and irrigation, wineries can now grow consistent harvests every year, however this has done little to stem the debate amongst wine fans over vintage labeling.

Follow the link for more information on vintage wine cellars.

There are no set formulas for selecting the right wine for that special meal, event or person. In fact people have their own preferences when it come to wine. We have listed a few suggestions below to help you pick the right wine for the right moment or special meal. We hope it gives you some helpful insights to serving wines that should please any palate.

1. The Whites: When your guests first arrive and are enjoying the appetizers a white wine is always the perfect choice. They are commonly lighter and drier and leave the palate fresh for the main entree’. Some of the whites such as the Chardonnay can also be introduced during a rich dinner such as “Coq a Vin”, with its beautiful creamy wine sauce. Another suggestion is the Sauvignon Blanc that is excellent served with a first course salad or shrimp cocktail or even a plate of delicate fish.

The Cadillac of the whites would be a sparkling champagne.  A good champagne would be served at only those very special events in one’s life.

2. Red Wines:  A nice hearty red wine such as a Merlot or Burgundy would be perfect with an Italian meal or with grilled steak, pork or lamb.  Serving a good red with a meal can actually help to enhance the dinner.

The Pinot Noir, while not as commonly served as a Merlot or Cabernet, is a unique blend of plum, vanilla and blackberry. Oregon produces Pinot Noir where the blackberries grow wild and are sweet and juicy. This wine will certainly be a hit.

The peppery flavor of the Shiraz would be a great accompaniment to spicy Mexican or Italian meal.  This is another wine that would also go well with a meal of beef or pork.

A Chianti is a perfect choice for a hearty lasagna or spaghetti dinner.  You do not have to spend a lot to get a good Chianti. Who can resist those cute little bottles wrapped in the basket weave?

If you are serving a tender rib roast, tenderloin steak, Chateaubriand, filet mignon, or tournedos of beef, a robust Burgundy would be just the ticket.

As you can see from the suggestions above you may wish to have both a white wine and a red wine on hand when hosting a dinner. Some guests will most likely pick the wine they prefer and stay with that choice for the entire evening. Another may choose a white for the start of the evening and finish with a red. So always be prepared.

You may enjoy making your own wine.  You could start with one of the fruit wines.  They are relatively easy to make and go great with desserts.  Wouldn’t your guests be impressed.  Visit a fruit wine making website for some recipes.

How many of us can say we really know anything about wine? Most people are probably familiar with that feeling you get when you’re standing there looking at the endless rows of bottles, and have no idea what it is you’re actually supposed to be looking for. We assume that expensive wines cost more because they’re better and cheap wines should probably be avoided, but is there really any truth to this? I have tried both cheap wines that have tasted fine, and expensive ones that have been horrible – that’s not always the case but they do exist and how are we supposed to know which ones to choose?

It’s like the theory that crystal wine glasses make wine taste better than regular glasses. It’s true that it is definitely nicer to drink out of a crystal glass, they do feel nice to hold and they make that lovely sound when you tap them, but I’ve yet to see any evidence that it actually affects the flavour of the drink. A nasty wine will taste nasty whatever you drink it from – just think of the familiar grimace on people’s faces when they take a sip from their posh celebratory Champagne flutes, only to be reminded that they’ve always hated Champagne and are only drinking it because it’s what you’re supposed to do.

A real wine buff would tell you they can tell the vintage of a good wine and where it was bottled purely from tasting it. But in the opening episode of BBC4’s recent mini-documentary series entitled (rather inventively, I thought!) Wine, an interesting scenario arose. A group of professional wine experts were given a taste from a mystery bottle and asked to guess the vintage. Most of them guessed at somewhere around the 1980s, with the exception of one French expert who claimed 1928. It turned out to be from 1870, proving that they really didn’t have a clue.

So do factors like the age and vintage of a wine really make any difference in terms of the quality of wine? If even the world’s most knowledgeable experts can’t tell the difference then it would seem that no, probably not. Older wines are likely to be more rare, which might explain why they cost more, but I bet those experts could have bought a whole crate of good 1980s wines for the same price as that one bottle from the 1800s would have cost. And in these times of the credit crunch do people really want to be paying so much more for fancy wines when it’s entirely possible they could get one just as good – or maybe even nicer – in Threshers for under a tenner?