Earlier this month, Michelle took us through the wonderful world of wine, from global wine varietals to tasting techniques. Wine beginners and enthusiasts alike learned something new from this introductory program! There is so much to explore with wine, but Michelle covered the basics to get us started.
WHAT IS WINE?
Wine is, at its core, fermented and aged juice. Grape wine is the most well-known wine, though other wines– such as apple wine, pear wine, and even dandelion wine– do exist. The same yeast that ferments ale, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is used for wine brewing. Making wine consists of harvesting grapes, pressing them for their juice, fermenting the juice (and other fruit material, such as skins in red wine), clarifying, aging (though not all wines are aged), and bottling. Wine is an extremely complex topic, but for our crash course, Michelle broke down three basic categories of wine: table wine, sparkling wine, and fortified wine. Table wine is usually 8-15% alcohol by volume. Sparkling wine features additional fermentable sugar added before bottling, creating additional carbon dioxide in the bottle and resulting in carbonation. Fortified wines are fortified by means such as freezing or aging in a spirit– they can be anywhere from 17-22% ABV.
GRAPES
Of course, grapes are the most important component of a good wine. Wine grapes are smaller, seedier, and more bitter than the sweet, juicy table grapes we’re familiar with. There are more than ten thousand wine grape varieties around the world, but all of them tend to be selected by winemakers for environmental durability/resilience, skin composition, seed amount, color, sugar content, tannins, and more. Experienced wine tasters can even indicate how certain environmental factors, such as heat, drought, or excessive precipitation can affect the flavor of the wine! Wine grapes are harvested once a year, and the year of harvest and wine production is the ‘vintage’ of the wine.
Did you know that the “punt” at the bottom of a wine bottle is meant to trap sediment? As the wine settles after being opened, sediment gathers in the punt, preventing it from ending up in your glass. This is why full bodied red wines tend to have a deeper punt than a white wine, which isn’t meant to age and should not have too much sediment.
WINE TASTING
As Michelle says, there’s no wrong way to drink wine– however you like to drink it is the right way for you! But if you’re looking to detect more flavors from your wine, she has a few tips. After pouring, first take a look at the wine: pay attention to color, clarity, and rim variation (described below). Holding the glass up to a white background may help you detect any sediment in the wine or discoloration. A slight darkening or browning of your wine can indicate oxidation and/or age.
Next, swirl the wine to help oxidize it and release those beautiful aromas. And as you bring the glass to your gaping maw, first smell the wine– smell is the most important component to tasting! While we can detect about four flavors through taste, we can detect about two thousand different aromas with our noses. Michelle recommends alternating between short and long breaths as you smell, and personally thinks that the third smell will give you the most complex aromas. A few things that you may detect include citrus, peach, berry, prune, and other aromas; a few things you don’t want to smell are vinegar and strong alcohol, which indicate off flavors.
After you’ve smelled the wine, give it a taste! Pay attention to not only the flavor hitting your tongue, but the mouthfeel as well. Mouthfeel refers to the texture of the wine. Does it feel dry? Warming? Tingly? Coating? Let the wine sit on your palate for three to five seconds to get a good feel for how it tastes and feels in your mouth. If you want, you can pull air in through your teeth as the wine sits on your palate, to further oxidize it and release flavor. Be sure to pay attention to aftertaste as well– you can pay attention to warming effects in the back of the throat, or less desired characteristics like off flavors or rancidity.
WHAT THE HECK IS RIM VARIATION?
Checking for rim variation in your wine can tell you quite a bit about it, such as the age and acidity level. If you pour a glass of wine and tilt it away from you, you may notice a faint translucence, or color variation, between the wine and the edge of the glass: this is rim variation! A red wine, for example, may hold its deep, dark color towards the center of the glass, but at the edges there may be lighter colors like brown, orange, or brick red. This color variation indicated an older vintage. Also, a slight blue tinge at the rim of a red wine may indicate higher acidity. To learn more about rim variation, visit Ever Wonder Wine or Wine Folly.
A young wine on the left has “tight” rim variation, while the older wine on the right shows more obvious signs of rim variation that come with aging– a lighter, browner color towards the edge of the glass. It is also slightly more opaque on the right side, without the deep, rich red of the younger wine on the left.
WHITE WINE
White wine is made with either light-colored grapes or red grapes without the skins. They are not meant to be aged– typically, white wine should be drunk within one to five years of bottling, depending on the variety. Some wonderful aromas and flavors you may enjoy from white wines include fruity (apple, pear, peach, melon), citrus (lime, orange, grapefruit), floral (flower bouquet, grass, herb), buttery (crème brulee), or even nutty. White wine goes especially well with cheese, dried sweet fruit, vegetables, grains, fish, chicken, pie, and other foods. Some of the major white grapes include Riesling, sauvignon blanc, and chardonnay, but there are many (many!) other wonderful white varieties out there to try.
We sampled a Gewürztraminer, which originates from Germany and France. It’s similar to a Moscato, fermented with pink/rose grapes. It’s a pale golden color with sweet, light flavors of peach, apricot, melon, citrus, and ginger. The wine we tried was B. Lovely 2021, from Washington state, US.
Next, we tried Pedro Ximénez grapes in Mayu PX 2020 from Huanta, Chile. Pedro Ximénez grapes originate from Southern Spain and the warm valley regions of South America. They can be made into a white or red wine, and in this case we tried them as a white wine. This dry, light wine had fruity notes with a mineral presence with citrus, floral aromas.
RED WINE
Red wine is made with red or black grapes, and in most cases can be aged for many years. Aromas and flavors you may come across in red wine include stone fruit (cherries, plum, currants), vanilla/spice, tobacco, and even wood (oak barrel). Red wines, being richer and fuller bodied than whites, pair wonderfully with other rich foods like cheese, chocolate, fatty meats, red meat, pasta, mushrooms, and other foods. Some major red grapes include pinot noir, tempranillo/garnacha, merlot/sangiovese, and zinfandel/cabernet sauvignon/syrah…. But, like with white wines, there are many red varieties to try!
Michelle shared a Bordeaux with us, which is made in the Bordeaux region of France. Bordeaux can range in flavor, but common ones include aromas of stone fruit and blackberries with flavors of black currant, plum, “soft” tannins, and slight oak flavors. The Bordeaux we tried was a Mouton Cadet 2018 from, of course, Bordeaux, France.
We also sampled Castillo Clavijo, a Tempranillo from Alberite, Spain. This wine was dark, rich, and dry, with flavors of stone fruit (cherry, plum, fig), cedar, tobacco, and clove.
To learn more about wine, check out Wine Folly: The Master Guide for an inventive but easy-to-digest approach to learning about wine. To learn more about cooking and pairing with wine, be sure to read Wine Food: New Adventures in Drinking and Cooking by Dana Frank. How To Drink Wine: The Easiest Way to Learn What You Like by Grant Reynolds is a great read for those looking to learn more about tasting, and From Vines to Wines by Jeff Cox is a fun book to peruse for those interested in the winemaking process.
Be sure to also explore the many wine videos available on Kanopy, a free streaming service to Cromaine cardholders. The Everyday Guide to Wine is a video series that is sure to peak your interest whether you’re a novice, an enthusiast, or something in-between!
Cheers!