Enjoying Wines

Archive for July, 2009

Wine serving temperatures are the subject of this part of our wine 101 guide…

The temperature at which a wine is served is all-important, so you should take the time to at least study the basics. It’s commonly said that whites should be served chilled and red wines at room temperature, but that’s not entirely true.

Most domestic refrigerators keep their internal environment at around 5 degrees, which is much too cold for most white wines. Champagne and dry white wines of a high quality should be served at a temperature of about 7 degrees and 11 degress (sometimes even a little higher). Putting white wine in the fridge for an hour prior to serving it will let it to reach the right temperature, though it can be served right away if it’s been stored in a cellar. Cheaper sparkling wines, sweet white wines and inexpensive white wines are best a little colder, maybe 5 degrees to 9 degrees, so two hours or so should bring the wine down to a reasonable temperature.

As with white wines, red wines also need to be chilled. The centrally heated houses of today are too warm for red wines to be served at ‘room temperature’. The ideal serving temperature for most fine red wines is maybe 13 degrees to 17 degrees, considerably cooler than modern houses, though this was a normal temperature a century ago. So, many reds, unless stored somewhere suitably cool, will benefit from being placed in a fridge for around 30 minutes.

If not done with care, wine can be damaged when it’s temperature is changed. Gentle cooling in the fridge is best, with cooling in a bucket of water and ice also being a good option. It will have the effect of bringing the wine down to 0 degrees, this is far too cold to appreciate the wine, so you’ll need to remove the bottle before it gets that cold. The risk of damaging wine is more significant when trying too warm a bottle that is too cool. Warm the wine gently, ideally by looking forward and bringing the wine from its cool storage area, be it wine cellar or fridge, several hours earlier.

If you’re not sure about the serving temperature, it’s best to go for colder rather than warmer. Wines like that will quickly warm up in the glass, probably releasing nice aromas as it does so. You can cup your hand around the body of a glass to encourage the wine to warm, however, there’s no easy way of cooling a wine served too warm.

Wine tasting is the focus of this part of our wine 101 guide…

Aroma, taste, and finish are the three stages of tasting wine. We’ll look at each of those individually.

To smell a wine, you should steadily swirl the glass to throw the wine up onto the side of the glass (thus increasing the surface area of wine in contact with the air) as this causes the wines aromas to be released. To swirl effectively, don’t fill the glass too full – in fact less than half full is recommended. Put the wine glass up to your nose as you’re swirling and think about the aromas that are being released. Young wines will have primary aromas, relating to the grape variety (such smells are often fruit related). As wines age more secondary aromas develop, which may be more earthy or animalistic. Remember that a wines aromas can take on many different forms, and very rarely will it simply smell of grapes.

When you taste wine, it’s important to realize that little of the flavor that can be sensed actually involves the tongue. In fact, its your nose that does the tasting, even when wine is in your mouth; this is because the aromas of the wine seep into your nasal passages from your mouth. So, breathe in and out through your nose whilst the wine is in your mouth; paying attention to the way the wine changes as you hold it there. Your first impressions on taking the wine into your mouth may be referred to as the fore-palate, which are followed by the mid-palate and the end-palate. Each palate sensation will be different, and you’ll be able to sense these changes if you pay close attention.

The finish describes the sensations derived from swallowing the wine. It will often be different to how the wine came across on the palate. The flavors may linger for a while on the palate after the wine has been swallowed, and this is referred to as the length. The more length a wine has, the more time you have to enjoy it, and it’s probably true to say that such wines are generally of better quality.

Reading wine labels is the focus of this part of our wine 101 guide…

Reading a wine label is a useful skill to have as it lets you go into a wine store and make informed choices on new purchases. By knowing what to look for and what to ignore you’ll be able to sort through the multitude of choices and the find ones that best match your personal choices. So, lets look at each aspect of a wine label individually.

The first thing to look for is the vintage, or the year the wine was produced; most wines are meant to be drunk immediately, so choose a bottle from a recent year. This particularly applies if youre looking for a fresh, lively, fruity wine at a reasonable price. Whilst some vintages are famous for certain wines, they tend to be quite expensive and, if you do want to buy such a wine, research on the internet or in magazines will be required.

Secondly, the geography; there are lots of famous regions and vineyards around the world (too many to list here) so this can be a bit of a lottery and unless you do prior research. However, as a general rule, the more specific a wine label is about its source (i.e. by stating a particular vineyard or town rather than a region or a country), the better it’s likely to be. This is because many bad wineries will try to benefit from the name of the large region where they are located, even if their vineyards are in undesirable parts of the area.

Thirdly, the alcohol content; it’s recommended that you look for one at around 14% or less.You may think that the higher the alcohol content, the more value you’ll get from it, but wines with higher levels of alcohol than that tend to be unbalanced and, if drinking for pleasure rather than to get drunk, wont be very enjoyable.

Lastly, the fine details; including information such as the dates the grapes were harvested and the wine was bottled, whether the grapes were grown and fermented at the same place (called estate-bottling), and the phone number of the winery are all positive signs. Details such as these add to a wines authenticity and indicate that the wine producer cares about and has faith in their product.