What makes a wine red vs. white?
Except for the skin, most grapes are white. If you remove the skins before crushing and processing, you will end up with white juice and of course white wine. To make a red wine, the vintner will let the juice mix with the skins. A grape with red skin, for example Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, etc., will produce a red wine if the skins are retained during the wine making process. This is generally at the wine maker’s discretion. The vintner may choose to leave the skins on entirely, remove them entirely or something in-between. The resulting wine may be a white, rose' or red.
What gives Champagne it's bubbles?
The word "Champagne" refers literally to the area of Champagne in France where the original method was pioneered, just as a "Bordeaux Wine" refers to a wine from the area of Bordeaux. The "Champagne Method" or "methode champenoise" in producing those romantic tiny little bubbles requires a "second fermentation" of a still wine. After a "still" wine is produced a small amount of the fruit's natural sugar is added back to the bottle. This is called the "dosage" and causes a second fermentation whereby carbon dioxide is trapped in the bottle and produces the that magic effervescent quality. There are other methods of producing a similar quality and the best of them result magnificent wines. Let your palate be the final judge. While the term "methode champenoise" is usually found on good French Champagne, some unscrupulous mass producers in the US have taken liberty with the term. Do not be fooled into thinking it is synonymous "excellent wine".
Why do I always get headaches drinking wine, what can I do ?
Your doctor is the most
qualified person to answer this one, because a number of factors come into play. Very
often however people may think they experience an uncomfortable reaction to wine when in
fact they are feeling ill effects from additives in the wine. This seems most common with
the consumption of "bulk produced" or "jug" wines. It has been said
that drinking top quality German Wines can reduce, if not eliminate any negative
"side effects". This may include "headaches and hangovers". The reason
is the purity in the wine making. Germany has the strictest wine laws in the world. At the
"Predikate" level, i.e. Kabinett, Spaetlese, Auslese, etc., you're drinking the
nectar of Mother Nature in just about the purest form you can find. Germany's wine laws
date back hundreds of years and have remained virtually unchanged since their inception.
There are winemaker's in other parts of the world that take it upon themselves to match
the high standards of Germany. But there is simply no country in the world that uniformly
enforces such strict codes of purity.
How do I know I'll like a wine before I taste it?
The truth is what our parents
told us years ago: "You'll never know unless you try it." There are a couple of
hints that can help however:
First, look at the level of dryness. If you find that most wines make you
"pucker," have a "horrible afterbite," leave "dirt on the
roof" of your mouth, or tastes "like vinegar," look for wines that are less
dry (more fruity).
One of the greatest fallacies among wine novices is that "Dry is better."
Nothing could be further from the truth. Very often the world's most renowned, sought
after, and expensive wines are loaded with fruit.
If you've found California Chardonnays taste sour to you, then try a German
Riesling. If Cabernet Sauvignon turns your mouth into a "wool sweater," try a
Hungarian Ausbruch.
How long will an open bottle of wine keep?
"A good bottle will keep a
day or two.. but a GREAT bottle will be gone within the hour" W.C.Fields
In truth each wine is different and there are no absolutes. The more life the wine has
before it's opened, the more it will have after. But in almost all instances it should
keep a minimum of a few days and be quite enjoyable. If properly refrigerated most of the
premium wines will keep for an extended period (a week or more). There are couple of thing
you can do to maximize the life of the opened bottle:
Put the cork back in the bottle when you know you have finished with the wine for the
evening. The longer it sits open the shorter the keeping power it will have.
A good rule of thumb is to store the opened bottle at the same temperature you would serve
the wine. After opening white wine, it is generally best to store it chilled and on its
side. With most red wines, there is really no need to refrigerate provided you plan to
finish it within a few days or so. Simply putting the cork back in the bottle should be
sufficient. If you plan to keep it for an extended period, say a week or two you would be
best to refrigerate the reds as well.
As always, let your palate be your guide. If an opened wine still tastes good, then it is
still good.
If you have kept a bottle a little too long, you can still most likely use it when
cooking. That "sour" taste will burn away and you will find it to be one of the
best natural flavorings ever.
What Temperature Should I Drink Wine At ?
Room temperature. Well, that's what you always hear. The problem is that, at the very least, it is a bit inaccurate, and at the worst (as demonstrated by a whole lot of restaurants) you wouldn't want to drink it at 80 degrees Fahrenheit ("it's the room temperature, isn't it?")
As cool wine warms, vapors rise off the wine. Since your sense of smell is a very big part of what things taste like, getting those vapors into your nose is very important. Try drinking a bottle of wine that has been heavily refrigerated. In some ways, it will taste a lot like water, or at least tasteless alcohol. On the other hand, if you serve a little below room temperature, you'll get the benefit of the vaporizing effect. So one rule of thumb is to serve the wine 1 or 2 degrees below room temperature.
But, there IS a limit to the warmth. To some extent, you can use the following:
--The BEST red wines; "big" red wines: 59 to 61 degrees Fahrenheit, 14 to 16 degrees Centigrade.
--Lesser reds, rose, and "complex" white wines: 50 to 54 degrees Fahrenheit, 10 to 12 degrees Centigrade.
--Less complex white wines: 46 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, 8 to 10 degrees Centigrade.
--Sweet white wines, Champagne: 43 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit, 6 to 8 degrees Centigrade.
How Do You Describe Wine ?
Lots of terms have grown up on how to describe wine. When you hear them tossed about and you don't know anything about them, you can feel lost AND the people using them may sound more than a bit lofty. But after a while you'll find that you'll start using the terms too!
--Austere : The wine is kind of stiff or tight, sort of hard. Hard to tell other traits.
--Balance : Describing the relationship between tannin, acid and alcohol. You want to drink a "well-balanced" wine.
--Big: A strong, perhaps alcoholic wine. It is a good wine that can get better.
--Buttery: A sort of smooth feel and taste, like butter. Most often seen in white wines which have undergone malolactic fermentation.
--Dry: If sugar remains in the wine it is sweet. When it isn't sweet, its dry.
--Flabby: A bland tasting wine that isn't going to get any better.
--Hard: A wine that has a lot of tannin still in it, like a young fine red. The tannin keeps you from tasting the other qualities of the wine which will come out through maturation.
--Grassy (or herbaceous): Smells like grass. Often seen in Sauvignon Blanc.
--Nose: The totality of what you smell.
--Thin: A watery sort of wine.