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This section provides a list of frequently asked questions, and the answers of course.
Q.
What wines should be aged?
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Its up to you!
Wine does not improve with bottle age, it simply changes.
All wine changes from the moment it is bottled, and continues to change until ultimately it will turn into water. One of the great things about wine is that you can take part in the winemaking process by keeping a wine in your cellar until you find it to your taste.
Always work to the rule that you decide when to drink it - but the following pointers can help.
Wine should have enough flavour and aroma for the changes process to work on - young bad wine will not become better, it will just turn into old bad wine.
Wine changes through the process of oxydation, and it is the anti-oxydants in wine which slow down this process, allowing good wine to soften and develop nutty subtleties and more complex flavours.
The most important anti-oxydants in wine are:
acid
alcohol
tannin (tannic acid)
Wine suitable for long aging is something like Vintage Port, which has a huge amount of swett, rip fruit flavours for the oxydation process to work on, and plenty of tannin and alcohol to slow the process down so that the subtle flavours develop.
Other wines suitable for aging include the Vouvray's of the Loire Valley, made from high acid chenin blanc, and similar high acid Rieslings from the Saar in Germany.
Reds like the great Chateaux wines of Bordeaux also develop well, as cabernet sauvignon gives them plenty of tannin and acid.
The point of it all is that the amount of age you give any of these is up to you.
Some people like their Chateau Margaux when it is in the purple of its youth and full of vigour, others prefer to drink it when it is so old that only a bloodhound has the nose for its delicate bouquet, while most chose to drinik it somewhere in between, when the fruit is still juicy, but the flavour details have turned its silk to lace.
Back to TOP | Q.
What is the best way to cellar wine?
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Don't get to carried away, cellaring wine is simple, and while there are those who would suggest that there a number of careful rules, remember that the classic European cellar is simply a place under the house.
In general, cool, stable conditions slow down the aging of your wine, warmth will accelerate it, and light will change the colour rather dramatically
So. Cool is best, stable is better, dark is excellent. Cool, stable and dark is perfect.
But remember, the conditions in your cellar will be unique, and so 6 years in your cellar may be the equivalent of 4 years in an expert's, or 7. You don't know until you drink the wine.
Another very important thing is a stacking system (racks, cases, bins, whatever) which allows you to find bottles easily, and take them out without performing gymnasitics or bringing the whole cellar crashing down.
A favourite of mine is a 10 cm layer of small river shingle pebbles on the floor of your cellar. It helps stabalise the temperature and it feels just right.
Fanatics well tell you the following- in which there is a modicum of truth, but I would rather spend my enthusiasm on the drinking, rather than the storing, of wine.
Temperature should be around 12 degrees Celcius, anything up to 20 is fine.
Humidity. Short of buying an humidifier, humidity is what you have, not what you change. There is a risk corks will dry out in extreme conditions, , but with a whole bottle of wine resting on their bottoms this is not a major risk.
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What temperature should you drink wine?
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Whatever tastes best for you. There are plenty of rules for wine snobs, but if you happen to like your Grange Hermitage with ice cubes, that's entirely your call.
One thing to remember, however, is that the cooler wine is, the less fragrance, aroma and fine flavour you will get from it. So if you just spent $200 on wine just top get these details, it seems a waste to frezze them back out of it.
For those who do like a few rules to drink by, try these.
Premium red wines: bring them up from the cellar into the dining area about 3 hours before you drink them.
Premium white wines: straight from the cellar, or if that is a little warm, try half an hour in the refrigerator, 15 minutes in an ice bucket.
Rose, sparkling and all other whites: 40 minutes in the refrigerator, half an hour in an ice bucket.
Back to TOP | Q.
Why do you smell the cork?
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If the person you are dining with is impressed by such pretension. Other than that, there is no reason. You are about to taste the wine anyway, and the cork's smell will give very little indication of what the wine will taste like.
In a career of serving wine to restaurant guests, I have never had a wine rejected on the basis of its smelly cork, and in years of drawing corks and tasting wine have rarely found any direct link between a smelly cork and a faulty wine.
Back to TOP | Q.
Why do you decant wine?
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Old wines tend to throw a sediment of colouring matter, tannins, and other solid elements. These need to be separated from the wine because they have an acrid flavour and gritty texture. Decanting can be done by pouring the wine off the sediment or through a filter into a decanter, leaving the sediment behind and keeping the wine clear.
Given that the wine you are decanting is older, more delicate and finely detailed than young wine without sediment, you will need;
A sterile filter is essential: you don't want any off flavours in there, especially from a papery tasting coffee filters.
To make sure the decanter is clean and freshly rinsed, for the same reason.
A steady hand. When you take the bottle from the cellar, make sure you do not disturb the sediment in the bottom if you are going to freehand decant rather than filter the wine. If the you have decided at the last minute to open the wine, you will need a decanting cradle, a wine basket, or the help of a towel to keep the bottle as close to horizontal as possible while drawing the cork. If you plan to open a special old bottle, it is a good idea to take it from the cellar rack a week or so in advance, stand it upright and let the sediment settle to the bottom.
A double action corkscrew which allows you to apply gentle pressure to the cork without disturbing the sediment.
If decanting, a candle or other light source so that you can hold the bottle over it and watch to make sure you stop pouring as the sediment reaches the neck.
Decant as close to drinking time as possible. Old wine has done most of its oxydation, so you don't need to give it too much more to send it into retirement.
There are other reasons to decant:
To impress your guests or yourselves. There is nothing wrong with tarting up a simple red wine with a nice piece of cristal.
To give a stroppy young thing a burst of oxygen to calm it down. That is the theory. The jury is still out on whether it actually works.
Back to TOP | Q.
Why do you let wine breathe?
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Good question. It is part of the wine snob's ritual, and there are many people who actually believe that wine benefits from being roughly decanted to introduce oxygen to it and 'loosen' it up.
If you like ritual, give it a try. If not, it is hard to give you a good reason to bother.
Back to TOP | Q.
What glasses should be used for drinking wine?
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A glass is the clothing yopu put on a wine, and so much of the impression a wine gives will be in the glass, as it were. Fine cristal will enhance a fine wine, and elegance is never wasted on good wine or good company.
However, you can get carried away with the idea that wine quality is in the glass. Glass shape does influence the delivery of bouquet in particular, and taste to a lesser extent, but if you have glasses which perform all the basic wine glass functions most of any extra effect is primarily cosmetic.
These basic wineglass functions are:
The glass should be fine enough to accentaute the fact of drinking, and feel like you are eating a thick wadge of glass spread with wine.
The glass should be clear, b=not coloured or opaque, so that you can see the colour of the wine.
It should be stemmed, partly for elegance, and partly to allow you to drink it without unduly increasing the temperature.
The bowl should be large enough to contain one sixth of a bottle of wine at half fill, leaveing space for the bouquet to develop.
The top of the bowl should be slightly pinched son that the bouquet does not dissipate beforfe you get a chance to enjoy it.
Avoid straight sides, flared rims, and too much pedantry.
Back to TOP | Q.
What are the most common type of red grapes?
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Cabernet Sauvignon is the most commonly planted premium red grape variety throughout the Western world, where it gained fame as the principal variety in the outstanding red wines of the top producers in Bordeaux in France. This wine, known as claret to the British, is the archetyopal fine red wine of the twentieth century, and as winegrowing regions in old and new world countries strive for greater share of the premium wine market, ccabernet sauvginon has been extensively planted.
However, it is not the principal red variety even in Bordeaux, where it takes second place to merlot, and in most of the rest of the world it is an instantly recognisable premium name, rather than a common variety.
Carignan produces undistinguished wine, but it remains one of the largest producing varieties due to huge areas plated in the southern French regions.
Grenache is the World's second largest producing grape variety, being a major beverage wine variety throughout southern France, Spain and various other parts of the world.
Pinot Noir is a leading red variety, famous in Burgundy and Champagne, as well as gaining a reputation in small quantities throughout the New World, but it remains a small producer.
Merlot covers more land in Bordeaux than any other variety, and has become a significant red wine variety in many European, American and Oceanic vineyards in recent years.
Syrah is the largest producing red wine variety in Australia, and is the acknowledged aristocrat of the red varieties of the French Rhone region.
Sangiovese is the largest producing red variety in Italy, where it is the most important variety in the production of Chianti and plays a role in many other central Italian wines.
Back to TOP | Q.
What are the most common type of white grapes?
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Chardonnay is the most popular premium grape variety used for winemaking throughout the Western world, planted extensively in the United States, Australia, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa and in experimental vineyards in Italy, Spain, Germany and Eastern Europe, as well as its most famous home regions of Burgundy in France where it is responsible for Chablis, Puligny and Chassagne Montrachet, Meursault, Macon and Pouilly Fuisse. It is also extensively planted in Champagne.
Riesling is the most widely planted variety throughout central Europe, from the Rhine to the Balkans, although it is not usually the largest variety in any of these countries. This was once the only well known 'classic' grape variety as Europe's most famous wines were identified primarily by their region of origin, rather than their grape variety.
Muscat, in its various forms is used for aromatic wines in every style from light, crisp and dry in the French Alsace, to fabulously rich and sweet fortified wines in Australia's Rutherglen, and everything in between. In Northern Italy it is responsible for the deliciously grapey Asti Spumate sparkling wine, and in the South of France for intensely sweet, fiery vins doux naturel.
Muller Thurgau is a hybrid variety developed in Switzerland and Germany which has become hugely popular in Germany and other European countries for the light, fruity, easy drinking semi-dry wines it produces with ease.
Trebbiano, planted extensively in the beverage wine growing regions of France, Italy, Bulgaria, Russia and Argentina is probably the most productive white wine variety of all. Also called Ugni Blanc in France it is also an important brandy variety.
Thompson Seedless is the most widely planted rape variety in California and Australia, and although most of the production is usually committed to the dried and table grape market, a significant portion in each country is turned to winemaking.
Back to TOP | Q.
What is Champagne?
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Champagne is the bottle fermented sparkling wine grown and made in the Champagne district of north eastern France.
Back to TOP | Q.
What is Port?
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Port is sweet, red wine which has its sweetness due to the process of fortification, which has thwe winemaker adding brandy during fermentation. This sudden increase in alcohol reffectively kills the yeasts which turn grape juice into wine by transforming grape sugar into alcohol. With the yeasts out of the way, some of the sugar in the Port is left unfermented, making the wine sweet, and strong, due to the brandy.
Back to TOP | Q.
What makes wine taste dry?
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Lack of sweetness is the short answer. This can come about in two ways, the most common being the consumption of all natural sugar in the grapes during fermentation. Grapes, by weight, are one of the sweetest fruits known. When ripe they have a very high concentration of sugars called glucose and fructose, which are transformed into the alcohol known as ethanol by yeasts during the process of fermentation. When all the sugar is turned into ethanol, the wine is dry.
Dry wine can be also taste dry because other components in the wine give the sensation of dryness, although there may be some sugar in the wine. The most common of these components is tannin, which feels astringent in your mouth.
Back to TOP | Q.
Why is red wine red?
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Red wine almost always gets its colour from grape skins. A few, rare varieties of grape do have colour juice, but almost all other grapes, black, blue, purple or green, have colourless juice. White wine can be made from either black (red) or white (green or yellow) grapes.
The greatest difference between making red wine and white wine is that for white wine the grapes are crushed and the juice extracted from the skins and pulp by a process of filtration and pressing, while for red wine the skins are left in the juice throughout fermentation.
During fermentation the juice, skins and pulp (must) heats up, and alcohol gradually increases. Both heat and alcohol help to extract the colour from the skins, transforming the finished wine into red wine.
Back to TOP | Q.
How does the alcohol get into wine?
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Alcohol is made by tiny creatures known as yeasts. These occur naturally in the atmosphere, and colonies of them build up in wineries due to the regular supply of grape sugar which is their food. Each vintage, when the grapes arrive in the winery, yeasts hungrily attack the sugars in the ripe grapes, eating them up and excreting carbon dioxide and alcohol in a process called fermentation.
When all the sugar is gone, this process stops, or when the alcohol reaches such a high level it puts the yeasts to sleep.
The carbon dioxide mostly fizzes away during fermentation.
Back to TOP | Q.
Why do you taste a wine before you drink it in a restaurant?
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To make sure it is in good condition. A number of things can happen to a wine after it leaves the winery, destroying its character and quality.
The most common of these is cork taint, where a compound known as trichloranisol forms in the cork and produces a nasty smell and taste in the wine. This is easily identified at its worst, but even at low levels it can reduced the smell and taste of wines so they seem of considerably lesser quality than they should.
Damage can also be caused by a leaking or otherwise faulty cork allowing air into the wine, and making it soft and flabby, or by a wine being cooked through storage under hot conditions.
The taste test is to allow you to evaluate the condition of the wine, not to see whether you like it or not.
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