Everybody everywhere craves the taste of a well home brew beer every once in a while. If you drink responsibly, there is nothing wrong with celebrating life while drinking a great beer. The sensation, the way it quenches your thirst on a hot day, the feeling you get when drinking and watching your favorite sports team. Beer appreciation?’s what we love.
In the case of beer, everyone likes something different. There are certain brands we search for in the grocery store, liquor store, or bar. Why? We look for “that” brand because there is just something we like about it. Perhaps it’s the flavor, the texture, or maybe it’s the strength. No matter what it might be, there is something about the wide range of choices when brewing beer at home.
Making beer at home allows you to take control of the creation process. When you buy home brewing supplies in the store, street, or internet, you can create beer with the taste and texture you want. Through much time and work, you can create a beer brew with a certain quality that will have you reaching for a glass time and again.
There are tons of items to choose from when selecting home brew supplies. The fermenting storage utensils and the ingredient mixing tools; this all goes into making the perfect beer that suits your tastes exactly. We are all aware that the right beer plays a large part in making the evening after the work day more relaxing. And, when you drink home brew beer you created, it can make your evening that much better.
Drinking a great home brew beer is comparable to eating a delicious meal you cooked yourself. The feeling of drinking beer you made is indescribable. Now, when you start looking for home brew supplies online, you can spend quite a lot of time searching. But, if you find the right supplies needed for your home brew beer, you will be able to do three things. First, save tons of cash. Second, take your beer brew to a brand new level. And third, have beer the way you want it, when you want it.
No matter what it takes, you should spend the time to search for the right home brew supplies. You will get an awful lot from brewing beer at home in order for you and other people to partake in. The more you practice, the more adept you will become. And, when your friends get a load of your home brew beer, they will want to learn how to make it themselves too. With one sample, they could become willing and eager helpers.
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In order to appreciate wine, it’s essential to understand the characteristics different grapes offer and how those characteristics should be expressed in wines. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Zinfandel are all red grapes, but as wines their personalities are quite different. Even when grown in different appellations and vinified using different techniques, a varietal wine always displays certain qualities, which are inherent in the grape’s personality. Muscat should always be spicy, Sauvignon Blanc a touch herbal. Zinfandel is zesty, with pepper and wild berry flavors. Cabernet Sauvignon is marked by plum, currant and black cherry flavors and firm tannins. Understanding what a grape should be as a wine is fundamental, and knowing what a grape can achieve at its greatest is the essence of fine-wine appreciation.
In Europe, the finest wines are known primarily by geographic appellation (although this is changing; witness the occasional French and Italian varietals). Elsewhere, however-as in America, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand-most wines are labeled by their varietal names; even, sometimes, by grape combinations (Cabernet-Shiraz, for example). To a large extent, this is because in the United States, the process of sorting out which grapes grow best in which appellations is ongoing and Americans were first introduced to fine wine by varietal name. In Europe, with a longer history for matching grape types to soil and climate, the research is more conclusive: Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, for instance, are the major grapes of Burgundy. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petite Verdot are the red grapes of Bordeaux. Syrah dominates northern Rhône reds. Barolo and Barbaresco are both made of Nebbiolo, but the different appellations produce different styles of wine. In Tuscany, Sangiovese provides the backbone of Chianti. A different clone of Sangiovese is used for Brunello di Montalcino.Brunello di Montalcino is regarded as the best ex[ression of the sangiovese grape grown on specific parcels of land.
For more information see Wine glasses designed and priced for everyday lifestyle Handmade wine glasses for the discerning wine lover
Pinot Noir, the great grape of Burgundy, is a touchy variety. The best examples offer the classic black cherry, spice, raspberry and currant flavors, and an aroma that can resemble wilted roses, along with earth, tar, herb and cola notes. It can also be rather ordinary, light, simple, herbal, vegetal and occasionally weedy. It can even be downright funky, with pungent barnyard aromas. In fact, Pinot Noir is the most fickle of all grapes to grow: It reacts strongly to environmental changes such as heat and cold spells, and is notoriously fussy to work with once picked, since its thin skins are easily bruised and broken, setting the juice free. Even after fermentation, Pinot Noir can hide its weaknesses and strengths, making it a most difficult wine to evaluate out of barrel. In the bottle, too, it is often a chameleon, showing poorly one day, brilliantly the next.
The emphasis on cooler climates coincides with more rigorous clonal selection, eliminating those clones suited for sparkling wine, which have even thinner skins. These days there is also a greater understanding of and appreciation for different styles of Pinot Noir wine, even if there is less agreement about those styles-should it be rich, concentrated and loaded with flavor, or a wine of elegance, finesse and delicacy? Or can it, in classic Pinot Noir sense, be both? Even varietal character remains subject to debate. Pinot Noir can certainly be tannic, especially when it is fermented with some of its stems, a practice that many vintners around the world believe contributes to the wine’s backbone and longevity. Pinot Noir can also be long-lived, but predicting with any precision which wines or vintages will age is often the ultimate challenge in forecasting.
Pinot Noir is the classic grape of Burgundy and also of Champagne, where it is pressed immediately after picking in order to yield white juice. It is just about the only red grown in Alsace. In California, it excelled in the late 1980s and early 1990s and seems poised for further progress. Once producers stopped vinifying it as if it were Cabernet, planted vineyards in cooler climates and paid closer attention to tonnage, quality increased substantially. It’s fair to say that California and Oregon have a legitimate claim to producing world-class Pinot Noir.
For more information see Handmade wine glasses for the discerning wine lover
It was 2:30 in the morning at the Wine Library Lounge and the last guests have bid their farewells. Sam sat down on a small corner table to fill out the sales report. With him was a half-empty bottle of 1979 Chateau Fonplegade, a lovely Grand Cru Classe from St. Emilion. This one was from a collector’s series featuring Van Gogh’s “Route aux Cypress” on the label. Earlier in one of the private rooms of the Wine Library Lounge a party of three had polished off three delicious Burgundy 1er Crus from vintages in the 70s. Prudently, they decided to quit after finishing half of the fourth and last for the night. The host was a compellingly elegant woman in a slender red business suit. In a stylish gesture of generosity, she said to Sam. “Please remove the bottle at once before I force my guests to help me finish it.”
Life as a sommelier is full of perks when the guests you serve have the style and the finesse. Sam gets a kick out of serving guests who know how enjoy the game. They get to enjoy the evening so much more than the others.
The Ch. Fonplegade was exactly the kind of company Sam needed after a hard-working evening. Wine guys – sommeliers to students of the old school – are frequently regarded as necessary evils. It is unfortunate but often true that a sommelier is perceived by customers as an obstacle to overcome because they can get what they want.
C’mon, tell me one, please?” She asked with the desperate charm of a whinchat.
Sam’s good side completely dominated the man tonight. “There was this gentleman the other evening. He came in very late with a lovely lady as his date. He opened doors for her, removed her coat and pulled her chair – the works. It’s the game – one of those things that make it fun to be a woman. He did it so well and she was soaking it up. You can see it in her eyes trying to hide her adoration of the man. Then I presented him with the wine menu.” Sam paused for a sip.
“What?” She exploded grabbing his hands with a fierce squeeze. Sam went on to explain.
There aren’t any logical explanations to why some customers feel intimidated about wine. Dining out is a game. Wine makes it more fun to play the game. As a paying customer, you want to get the most out of your money. That should include the full treatment which we don’t get if we don’t learn how to play the game.
Selecting the playground
Ordering the wine
Inspecting a bottle
Giving serving instructions
Tasting and approving the wine
Drinking and conversing
Corkage, tipping and BYO etiquettes
Let’s look into these components one at a time.
The Ch. Fonplegade was exactly the kind of company Sam needed after a hard-working evening. Wine guys – sommeliers to students of the old school – are frequently regarded as necessary evils. It is unfortunate but often true that a sommelier is perceived by customers as an obstacle to overcome because they can get what they want.
An eager young waitress sat down timidly in front of Sam. Ordinarily she and her little dimple on her left cheek would have been woofed away. Tonight, she even got a small glass of the wine. She took that as a cue for permission to speak.
“Sam, you’ve been a wine guy for a number of years. I’m sure you have some stories cellared in that wisdom chest inside your head. C’mon, tell me one, please?” She asked with the desperate charm of a whinchat.
Sam’s good side completely dominated the man tonight. “There was this gentleman the other evening. He came in very late with a lovely lady as his date. He opened doors for her, removed her coat and pulled her chair – the works. It’s the game – one of those things that make it fun to be a woman. He did it so well and she was soaking it up. You can see it in her eyes trying to hide her adoration of the man. Then I presented him with the wine menu.” Sam paused for a sip.
“Our suave Cary Grant froze into a bronze statue. He just sat there forever staring at the menu without so much as a word or a hint that he was still breathing. Now what could cause someone like that to stop dead on his tracks?” Sam paused and looked into those big young shinny eyes.
“What?” She exploded grabbing his hands with a fierce squeeze. Sam went on to explain.
There aren’t any logical explanations to why some customers feel intimidated about wine. Dining out is a game. Wine makes it more fun to play the game. As a paying customer, you want to get the most out of your money. That should include the full treatment which we don’t get if we don’t learn how to play the game.
Learning the game is a lot simpler than most beginners might think. But let’s get one hang-up out of the way right now. You don’t need to learn French. Whew! And this game is definitely easier than singing or dancing. Every component of a little game is an opportunity for the player to have fun. Once you know the game, they won’t be obstacles anymore.
Selecting the playground
Ordering the wine
Inspecting a bottle
Giving serving instructions
Tasting and approving the wine
Drinking and conversing
Corkage, tipping and BYO etiquettes
Let’s look into these components one at a time.
Selecting the playground
Divers and skiers are just as zealous when it comes to choosing a venue to satisfy their thirst for thrills and discoveries.
Wine enthusiasts shouldn’t settle for anything less either. The fun and thrill of dining out is to experience something that we don’t get at home. If the wines served in a restaurant are stuff that you find in the neighborhood wine store, you have probably picked the wrong restaurant. Good food can take you half way there at best.
A good restaurant always offers wines that are not readily available on retail. They do so by investing in and maintaining a cellar to collect and age many bottles of the wine.
Reading the restaurant’s wine menu may not be as engaging as reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but it shouldn’t feel like re-reading The Goblet of Fire (book 4 for those who is one generation behind) for the 18th time. A great restaurant is obliged to offer a wine selection so wide and deep that it will keep you intrigued for endless return visits.
Word of Advice
Make an extra effort when choosing a dining venue. Not all are tuned in to the wine culture. Call up ahead to ask. If you stumble into a wrong one, don’t be shy to walk out. There are better places for you to spend your money.
Ordering your wine
Reading, for many of us is a pleasure best savored in privacy. Reading a wine menu is a pleasure to wine lovers. Poorly trained wine staff tends to crowd the scene with unwanted attention and worse, importunate suggestions.
Feel free to firmly fend off the “Would you like red or white?” and the “We have wine by the glass also.” A simple “Please check back in 10 minutes” would do nicely. Occasionally, that doesn’t work. Then it calls for a “Please bring me some water chilled to 15 degrees. Then add a twist of lime without the peel.” This will buy you 10 minutes of private reading pleasure, I hope.
Many restaurants are pressured by wine merchants to sell their wine. That’s why we often get these lines from even the bus boys: “We highly recommend this great Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile” or “This Napa Valley Zinfandel is the most popular wine in town today.”
It is perfectly acceptable to ask questions about any wine on the menu, as long as your line of questioning leads to the deliverance of a verdict in the foreseeable future.
Advice to the prudent
Spend 5 minutes to browse the wine menu and get a general feel for what kinds of wines the venue has to offer. Then turn to the food menu and decide what you will eat. After that, let the sommelier return to discuss wine and food pairing before ordering your wine.
Inspecting a Bottle
The process of inspecting a bottle of wine serves an indispensable purpose – to allow the customer one last chance to change his mind before the restaurant puts the wine on the bill.
The procedure is simple and quite standard.
Wine waiter: presents you with a bottle of the wine that you ordered, showing you the label with a few words, not of praises, but of the pertinent details of the wine. The words are to assert that the wine is indeed the one that you ordered.
Guest: examines the details of the wine mainly for purpose of authentication. Things to look for are (1) name of the wine, (2) name of the producer/shipper in the case of wines from Burgundy and Rhone for example, and (3) vintage year. You only have to nod your head to signify your approval, not of the wine but of the bottle only.
Wine waiter: thanks you for your acceptance and asks you for permission to uncork the wine.
There. No pain at all. More to follow so please read on.
Advice to the novice
Giving Serving Instructions
This paragraph is optional. Those readers taking the beginners’ course are welcome to jump to the next section.
Are you still here? Welcome.
Selecting a wine is just half of the ordering process. Most people give up their basic rights of ordering the way they prefer their wine to be prepared and served. Leaving it up to the sommelier is acceptable if you know them well. Otherwise, go the extra yard and give specific instructions.
Here are the fundamental parameters to wine preparation and services on which you can base your instructions.
Temperature at which you want the wine to be served
Do you wish the wine to be kept in an ice bucket or a wine cooler?
Decant, double decant or serve straight from the bottle
Types of wine glasses you prefer
Sequence of services when you order more than one bottle
Help yourself or let the waiter do the pouring
How much wine (e.g. less than half full) to pour into your glass
Any decent restaurant will be wiling and able to accommodate requests within those parameters. If you are unlucky meet with stiff resistance on this front, it will only be poetic justice for you to walk out or at least, reject the wine. Why should you pay for inadequate facilities and a complacent service attitude?
Advice to the discerning wine lover
Do not assume that your instructions are followed. More often than not they are not. Don’t be shy to complain or even threaten to reject the wine if your instructions are not followed.
Selecting the playground
Golfers travel around the world just to play courses that catch their fancy. Divers and skiers are just as zealous when it comes to choosing a venue to satisfy their thirst for thrills and discoveries.
Wine enthusiasts shouldn’t settle for anything less either. The fun and thrill of dining out is to experience something that we don’t get at home. If the wines served in a restaurant are stuff that you find in the neighborhood wine store, you have probably picked the wrong restaurant. Good food can take you half way there at best.
A good restaurant always offers wines that are not readily available on retail. They do so by investing in and maintaining a cellar to collect and age many bottles of the wine.
Reading the restaurant’s wine menu may not be as engaging as reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but it shouldn’t feel like re-reading The Goblet of Fire (book 4 for those who is one generation behind) for the 18th time. A great restaurant is obliged to offer a wine selection so wide and deep that it will keep you intrigued for endless return visits.
Word of Advice
Make an extra effort when choosing a dining venue. Not all are tuned in to the wine culture. Call up ahead to ask. If you stumble into a wrong one, don’t be shy to walk out. There are better places for you to spend your money.
Ordering your wine
Reading, for many of us is a pleasure best savored in privacy. Reading a wine menu is a pleasure to wine lovers. Poorly trained wine staff tends to crowd the scene with unwanted attention and worse, importunate suggestions.
Feel free to firmly fend off the “Would you like red or white?” and the “We have wine by the glass also.” A simple “Please check back in 10 minutes” would do nicely. Occasionally, that doesn’t work. Then it calls for a “Please bring me some water chilled to 15 degrees. Then add a twist of lime without the peel.” This will buy you 10 minutes of private reading pleasure, I hope.
Many restaurants are pressured by wine merchants to sell their wine. That’s why we often get these lines from even the bus boys: “We highly recommend this great Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile” or “This Napa Valley Zinfandel is the most popular wine in town today.”
It is perfectly acceptable to ask questions about any wine on the menu, as long as your line of questioning leads to the deliverance of a verdict in the foreseeable future.
Advice to the prudent
Spend 5 minutes to browse the wine menu and get a general feel for what kinds of wines the venue has to offer. Then turn to the food menu and decide what you will eat. After that, let the sommelier return to discuss wine and food pairing before ordering your wine.
Inspecting a Bottle
The process of inspecting a bottle of wine serves an indispensable purpose – to allow the customer one last chance to change his mind before the restaurant puts the wine on the bill.
The procedure is simple and quite standard.
Wine waiter: presents you with a bottle of the wine that you ordered, showing you the label with a few words, not of praises, but of the pertinent details of the wine. The words are to assert that the wine is indeed the one that you ordered.
Guest: examines the details of the wine mainly for purpose of authentication. Things to look for are (1) name of the wine, (2) name of the producer/shipper in the case of wines from Burgundy and Rhone for example, and (3) vintage year. You only have to nod your head to signify your approval, not of the wine but of the bottle only.
Wine waiter: thanks you for your acceptance and asks you for permission to uncork the wine.
There. No pain at all. More to follow so please read on.
Advice to the novice
More frequently than we might think, waiters fail to bring you exactly the wine you ordered. Ask for the wine list when the bottle is presented. Compare what you see on the label to the data on the wine list to make sure what you see is indeed what you have ordered.
Giving Serving Instructions
This paragraph is optional. Those readers taking the beginners’ course are welcome to jump to the next section.
Are you still here? Welcome.
Selecting a wine is just half of the ordering process. Most people give up their basic rights of ordering the way they prefer their wine to be prepared and served. Leaving it up to the sommelier is acceptable if you know them well. Otherwise, go the extra yard and give specific instructions.
Here are the fundamental parameters to wine preparation and services on which you can base your instructions.
Temperature at which you want the wine to be served
Do you wish the wine to be kept in an ice bucket or a wine cooler?
Decant, double decant or serve straight from the bottle
Types of wine glasses you prefer
Sequence of services when you order more than one bottle
Help yourself or let the waiter do the pouring
How much wine (e.g. less than half full) to pour into your glass
Any decent restaurant will be wiling and able to accommodate requests within those parameters. If you are unlucky meet with stiff resistance on this front, it will only be poetic justice for you to walk out or at least, reject the wine. Why should you pay for inadequate facilities and a complacent service attitude?
Advice to the discerning wine lover
Do not assume that your instructions are followed. More often than not they are not. Don’t be shy to complain or even threaten to reject the wine if your instructions are not followed.
Tasting and approving the wine
Armed with your permission, the sommelier will proceed to uncork your bottle of wine. This should be performed in your presence as a rule. It shows that the bottle you approved is the same one that is being opened.
You are then given the right to taste and then decide to approve or reject the wine. Here is the protocol.
Wine waiter: asks for permission to uncork the wine. He opens the bottle (see Giving Serving Instructions) and sets the cork down in front of you.
Guest: Examine the cork or simply wave the waiter to pour the wine. Some corks have a stamp of the wine’s name on it. This will make it easier to authenticate the wine. Most of us just skip this step but there are those who like to pick up the cork and smell it. Don’t.
Wine waiter: pours a little bit – about 1/10 of your glass – for your tasting.
Guest: examine the color, twirls the glass a bit and drinks the wine. Now come crunch time. You make the all important decision – to accept or to reject. Let’s say you accept. A nod would do.
Wine waiter: thanks you and asks you if he may be allowed to serve now or let the wine breathe for a while first.
Guest: if you want it to be served, indicate to whom the wine should be served first, usually the guest of honor – your date, not the hunk seated at the adjacent table!
Wine will then be served as per your serving instructions. In the absence of specific instructions, house rules prevail. That’s pot luck. It’s not too late to double back to the previous section on Giving Service Instructions now.
Under what circumstances can a guest reject a bottle of wine?
Bottom-line is you can say “take it away” if the wine is bad. This means one of the following conditions applies:
. Wine is in poor health – disgusting odor, color completely faded
. Wine tastes like vinegar – wine is oxidized
. Wine is a fake – not the kind you ordered.
You cannot reject a wine just because you don’t like it.
Drinking and Conversing
Drinking is a rather personal thing. Some like to drink in large gulps between long intervals. Others like to take tiny sips incessantly. I know many who get the best of both worlds – large gulps in hardly detectable intervals.
Myths surrounding drinking are plenty and free. Bash them. Smoking is one of those. Unless you are paid in high six figures for tasting wines as a profession, you puff away while consuming a simple New World merlot. Food and wine pairing, on the other hand is serious business and should not be brushed off quite so quickly. A wrong decision here can mean the difference between lust and disgust.
An integral part of wine appreciation is talking about the wine. Sharing opinions and impressions about the stuff you drink is more than acceptable. It is expected and notoriously fun.
Feel free to step into the shoes of a Robert Parker and plagiarize about body, concentration, extract, length and depth if you are in that mood. Be more illusive if you like and whip up a soufflé of obscurities with words like character, distinction and finesse. You can even stretch the imagination with phrases like “a gallantly pathetic effort”. But would you go so far as one woman did? “This wine attacks the palate like a gust of cold ocean breeze against a freshly shaven leg”.
It is perfectly acceptable and indeed a chic gesture to beckon the sommelier for an earful of your comments. I have served wine in more than one occasion and I tell you that nothing gave me more pleasure than to listen to the comments of the guests. The efforts made to articulate their ecstasies were most flattering. Of course, I am a much better listener when offered a glass of the wine that caused all that excitement in the first place.
I remember one time when I was confronted by an attractive lady with a direct question. “Denny, what are the qualities of a good wine?” I could have answered that in two dozen ways involving a balanced mixture of bad poetry and overused jargons. Instead, what came out of my mouth was a mere “Big and long”. So much for poetry but that answer was exactly what was pictured in my mind.
Advice to the timid
Don’t hold back. This is the time for the poet in you to surface. Nothing you say can possibly be wrong, as long as you don’t break the golden rule – don’t short change yourself with anything not original. You are the only connoisseur that matters.
Corkage, Tipping and BYO etiquettes
We’ve all been held hostage by a custom called “corkage” which of course means that restaurant has the right to charge you a fee for bringing in your own drinks (can also apply to food). Is it fair? Certainly, but only as long as it is a consistent policy and the restaurant has a wine collection robust enough to satisfy our appetites for discoveries. Otherwise, they should quietly put up with bottles marching through their doors.
But let’s look at it from another angle. If we dine out, why burden ourselves with unnecessary chores like bringing a bottle of wine? Isn’t it more rewarding to hold the hand of your date rather than the neck of a cold hard bottle of Vega Sicilia?
BYO (Bring Your Own) etiquettes start and end with one basic rule. If you have to bring wine into a restaurant, the bottle should be in one or two classes above those that the restaurant has to offer. Don’t even think about bringing something that is readily available in retail shops. Putting it in another way, your BYO wine should be something that would cause the sommelier to misbehave all evening long hoping to get a sip of your wine.
Tipping is a matter of style and character. It transcends the basic obligation of rewarding the serving staff. It touches on the realm of a self-expression of satisfaction, a sigh of relief that the best has just transpired.
When in doubt tip profusely. When you do that, don’t forget to let the establishment hear all your constructive complaints. Nothing beats two-way communications even in a one-night relationship like this.
Advice to the frequent diners
Dining out is a just another form of shopping. First rule of shopping – when in doubt, ask, ask and ask again. One thing you shouldn’t do is to take a chance on anything that might ruin your evening. The average person has less than 50 memorable evenings in a year. Sadly more than half of them will turn out to be false alarms. A few great evenings will make it into your hall of fame. This might be one of them.
So there you have it.
Wine appreciation is much, much more than satisfying our cravings for good fermented grape juice. The interactions with the wait staff, the painful struggle to decide what to order for the night, the stories of mistakes and the occasional rare finds to share with wine friends are all part of the wine lifestyle.
We make an effort to learn the game not because we play to win. There are no scores in this game and there are no winners or losers. But beware. Don’t get to be too good at it. You might just wake up one day and find yourself with a new hobby for life.
Sam finishes his 79 Ch. Fonplegade. Big eyed waitress with a tiny dimple gets the empty bottle with a Van Gogh label to decorate her apartment. Another day in the life of a sommelier fades away. In the background, the song echoes “There before the grace of you, go I.”
Comments and questions can be sent directly to the author at this email address Wine@Yats-International.com.
A “connoisseur” – according to Oxford – is an “expert judge in matter of taste”. For sure you know what you like and dislike, so already that makes you a judge. As for being an expert, you have “to have special knowledge of or skill in a subject”. OK, this might require a bit of work but I can assure you it is much easier than most connoisseurs would have you believe.
Realize first that the key to being an expert in wine is to know precisely what aspects to look for in any bottle you uncork. The average novice has a vague idea at best. Consequently, despite the fact that both persons have the same discerning abilities, no matter how much wine the novice drinks, it won’t improve his ability to judge properly.
So what we will do here is to spell out in plain English the basic but quintessential virtues that make for a good bottle of wine. I think this will help you evaluate every glass of wine and form an expert opinion with ease. I am going to take you through just three fundamental areas of appreciation, namely Typicity, Quality and Age-worthiness. Mastering them is all that stands between you – a wine novice – and you – a wine connoisseur.
Style and Typicity
The style of wine from Bordeaux will and should be different from Napa Valley or Chile, otherwise wine would be a terribly boring hobby. No one style rules supreme in the wine domain. Typicity which describes how accurate the rendition of the style that the wine is supposed to manifest, is very important quality.
An average wine connoisseur is familiar with about 30 styles of wine. It doesn’t take long for a novice to achieve that. All you need to do is to taste a lot. Your palates have excellent memory even if your mind struggles to find more Giga bytes to store a lot of facts and figures. Very soon, when you open a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino, all your senses will automatically receive a download of tasting expectations. And even if the wine tastes very good it would be a disappointment if it doesn’t reflect the quality of its roots. So questions like “Are Australian wines better than French?” are really missing the point.
Quality
With the topic of style down pat, we can take a look at quality of taste. It is actually quite easy. I just need your mind to zoom in on five key areas. Your senses will then render an expert opinion on whether the stuff is good, bad or ugly. The five areas are:
Consistency
Intensity
Vigor
Balance
Finish
Consistency is about tactile qualities that leave a rewarding palate impression, not about flavors. Wine writers like to use the term Body to describe the weight of a wine. Full-, medium- and light-body describe how heavy and light a wine feels on the tongue. But size isn’t everything so in addition to body, we’re also looking for texture of smoothness and silkiness. The great Burgundy wine of Chambertin is well known for its remarkable combination of a full body and a velvety texture.
The flavors of a wine might come in low, medium or high intensity, much like the volume of music played on a stereo. Great wine comes with an appropriate level of intensity just high enough to capture your undivided attention yet not excessively so as to drown out everything else. It is such deft touch that separates the great Australian wine – Grange (Hermitage) – from many expensive baubles out of the same region.
Vigor comes from acidity without which the wine would taste dull and flat if not downright boring. Great chefs often squeeze a splash of lemon juice to finish off a dish. The presence of the same kind of fresh acidity adds crispiness to a wine making it taste racy with a bit of welcomed levity. The great Italian Barolo from Piedmont are endowed with this quality and so are some of the lovely Sauvignon Blanc white wines from New Zealand.
Balance is the quintessential quality of a great wine. A wine is out of balance if one component sticks out like a sore thumb. Most frequently encountered flaws that throw a wine out of balance are excessively high alcohol which makes the wine taste overly dry and astringent (“hot” in wine jargon) and in white wines especially Chardonnays, excessively woody (“oaky” in wine jargon) and buttery which effaces the fruit flavors in the wine. The great Château Lafite-Rothschild is benchmark for balance par excellence.
The word “finish” refers to the length and quality of the aftertaste. In a long finish, flavors linger on for nearly a minute. But length isn’t everything if the aftertaste fails to maintain its balance. Some long finishes fall apart giving way to a distinctly sour or bitter impression. Length doesn’t always bring satisfaction.
Age-worthiness
To achieve greatness a wine must first undergo the arduous challenge of time. Most wines are not made with greatness in mind. For them, time is an insidious revelation of their mediocrity. For the best of breeds, age imbues in them depth and complexity of flavors. That distinguishes the wine from the merely good. Knowing this, fastidious connoisseurs relentlessly scour the town for old vintages pricey as some old bottles could (and should) be. Novices on the other hand go for brand names and sometimes settle for wines that are far too young to drink, rarely getting their money’s worth. After all, it is the ability of wine to improve with age that positions it above all the other beverages.
By now, you have endued yourself with more than enough knowledge to be your own expert judge on every bottle you drink. If you feel lacking a bit in exposure and experience, then just drink and drink and drink some more. But drinking the same stuff over and over again won’t help. Best advice is for you to refrain from ordering the same wine night in and night out. Your time is best spent with a new fancy every evening. Promiscuity is inextricably married to connoisseurship. Even if you can’t divorce yourself from the “usual” at least be adventurous with different vintages of the same wine. Every year produces a different version of the same wine. This too is part of the myriad of fascinations that the world of wine has to offer.
Whether you are an assiduous restaurateur, a gregarious hobbyist or just a raver with a penchant for the finer things, wine is certainly an affair worth pursuing. This is one relationship which allows you to define all the rules. It can be a languid sidekick or you can take it seriously with a lot of respect and understanding. Ultimately it probably won’t love you back and it certainly won’t stop demanding more of your time, attention and alas, money. If this sounds like a raw deal, then perhaps this is one affair you should sidestep.
But imagine if that’s not a problem for you, what else in life can offer an reward so prodigious as something different and exciting to look forward to every single night?
Tim Drake is resident wine journalist in Asia, contributing to magazines and broadsheet in wine and the lifestyle that this beverage has created for the modern world.
There are many ways that you can enjoy drinking wines and many places where you can learn how to taste these wines. The vast majority of wine tasting can be found in wineries that cater for these events. You will be able to find many of these places in different countries but before you start traveling the world over for wine tasting you might want to explore Orange County. While you may not be expecting it you can find good wine tasting Orange County vineyards.
These vineyards produce some stunning wines like Cabernet Blanc, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Mediterranean style varietals like Pinot Gris, Syrah and Viognier to name but a few. While you may have to find information about these wine producing places in Orange County, you will definitely find this period of time that you have spent looking for wine tasting Orange County places well worth it.
The best way to enjoy wine tasting Orange County will have limo services where you can have someone else drive you to the wineries. Since there is a designated driver – your chauffer – to take your party and back home, you and your party can enjoy the day by learning all about the different wines in these wineries. You will find that some of the best wine tasting Orange County has is in found in Temecula Wine Country.
The Temecula wines are very delicious and you will enjoy the chance of seeing how the different wineries make their great wines. When you visit one of these Temecula wineries you will have the chance of wine tasting Orange County award winning Temecula wines. Some of the best wines that you can buy from the various wineries in Temecula are the classics like Chardonnay, Merlot, Viognier and others.
To make your Temecula wine tasting tour complete you can buy a few bottles of fine wine and enjoy a picnic with delicious food, great wines and a terrific panoramic view of the many Temecula wineries. Wine tasting Orange County does not stop in Temecula. You will find Santa Barbara also has some great wine tasting opportunities for you. As you drive through the various vineyards you want to stop for a while and just enjoy the scenery before you plunge back into the fascinating world of wine tasting.
Wine tasting Orange County has so much to offer to you. From the Temecula wineries in Temecula Wine Country with their marvelous varietals to Santa Barbara vineyards full of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir an even Cabernet Sauvignon, you will find fantastic chances to improve your knowledge and appreciation of fine wines.
Muna wa Wanjiru is a web administrator and has been researching and reporting on internet marketing for years. For more information on wine tasting Orange County, visit his site at