Lesson 2: Wines, Beers, & Malt Beverages
Red & White Wine
Basics
First, I should note that there is an enormous amount of information on the Web about wine. My two favorite sites are Wine Lover’s Page, and the Wine Spectator. You’ll find a myriad of advice about wine there – from tasting to ratings to storage to buying. However, there may be a little too much information for someone just looking to buy good wine for either casual drinking or for a party. This section will concentrate on those basics.
Wine, as probably most people know, is created from crushing grapes and leaving the juice to ferment. Fermentation happens naturally, as the yeasts in the air digest the sugar in the grape juice and convert it to carbon dioxide and alcohol. The taste of the wine is derived from the grape variety and later decisions regarding fermentation and aging. Knowledge of some of these basics will give you a clue what a wine will taste like when you look at the label on a bottle of wine.
Basic wine knowledge starts with the grapes - if you know the underlying grape, you’ll have a pretty good hint how the wine will taste. Except for some of Europe, including France, Italy, and Spain, most of the world labels their wines based on grape varietals. This is especially helpful when you're looking at a bottle in the store.
Given France’s and Italy’s importance, however, I have attached a chart of the wine regions of France and Italy, see European Wine Names which lists the grapes they use to make their wines. If you particularly like a varietal such as merlot or chardonnay, use this chart to see what French or Italian wine might be similar.
White Wine
White wine is lighter and less complex in flavor than red wine. This makes it a good choice for sipping as a pre-dinner drink, serving in hot weather, or pairing with light foods. The biggest misconception about white wine is that it has to be served well chilled. Chilling diminishes flavors and white wines already are light. To maximize the flavor of white wine, cool briefly and serve at a “basement” temperature, i.e. about 60 degrees.
White wines are generally grouped in four categories:
- Dry and Crisp: These are very light and lack any sweetness –“dry” in liquor terms always means without sweetness. “Crisp” in wine-talk is associated with a pleasurable acidity.
- Dry and Full: These are white wines without any sweetness, but with some fullness (less acidity) due to aging in oak barrels.
- Off-dry: These whites have some degree of sweetness. This can be due to cheapness – most very inexpensive bottles of wine are sweet to mask the lack of flavor otherwise. But some off-dry wines, especially the German ones, are very flavorful and attractive to many palates.
- Rosés and/or Blush wines: Rosés are pink wines, i.e. they are pressed from red grapes, but the skins are left in the juice for only a few hours, so they are more similar in taste to white than red wines. Rosés should be treated as white wine, e.g. chill them briefly and drink as cocktails or with lighter foods.
During the 60’s rosés developed a bad reputation as a cheap, sweet wine and American producers began selling them under the name “blush.” Blush wines usually have a tinge of sweetness; White Zinfandel is a classic blush wine. European rosés, however, can be dry.Rosés can be a great compromise wine for those who only want to open one bottle, but can’t decide between red and wine. They can also be a good introductory wine, as the slight sweetness and lightness makes them quite palatable to a wide variety of tastes.
When you pick up a bottle of white wine, the grape variety will help you decide which of the above categories the wine is like to fall into. Here are the most popular grapes; the ones you are most likely to find producing affordable, tasty, characteristic wines:
- Chardonnay: This grape is exceedingly popular and wide spread. French white burgundy is a chardonnay wine, as is much champagne. While dry, these wines are full-bodied, often because they are aged in oak. Proper oak aging gives a wonderful flavor element; improper oak aging can overcome the fruit flavor and become the dominant flavor – a problem with many inexpensive chardonnays.
You can tell over-oaked wines as one of the following flavors will be predominant: smoke, toast, vanilla, or butterscotch. Good chardonnay should be very flavorful and well-bodied, not too acidic, with the fruit flavor well balanced with the oaky flavor.
- Riesling: This is the prominent grape in Germany. Riesling whites are light and somewhat acidic; they can be either sweet or not. Dry rieslings are usually labeled ‘dry’ or “trocken”.
- Sauvignon Blanc: This grape produces a crisp, dry white wine. These wines come in two styles – one emphasizing fruit flavor, the other herbal flavors. There are some great wines made from sauvignon blanc. Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume from the Loire Valley in France are sauvignons. New Zealand sauvignons are always worth a try. Chile is also developing a strong reputation for sauvignon blanc.
- Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio: Same grape, different language. More like a chardonnay than a sauvignon blanc, wines made from this grape are light to medium bodied, with low acidity. Look for pinots from Northern Italy and from Oregon.
- Gewürztraminer: Associated with Germany and the Alsace region of France, this can be a full-bodied, flavored, dry white wine. California gewürztraminers, however, are usually light-bodied and sweet.
Red Wine:
One key concept in red wines is tannin. Tannin is a chemical compound derived from the skin of the grape. Tannin is what makes your mouth pucker and feel dry when you first drink a red wine. Basically, light-bodied or soft red wines have low tannin, medium bodied reds have moderate tannin, and full-bodied reds have a lot of tannic. When chilled, tannin becomes bitter, so red wine should not be chilled. However, it should be served so that the bottle is cool to the touch.
The quantity of tannin also drives the need to aerate or allow the wine to “breathe.” Tannins mellow in the air, so high tannic wines should be poured into a glass or decanter at least an hour before serving. Merely removing the cork accomplishes little as there is minimal surface exposure to air.
Tannin also mellows with time, so high tannic wines are often aged. Formerly, many producers would sell a high tannic wine expecting the purchaser to allow it to age. Barolos in Italy are considered a great red wine by connoisseurs, but never really achieved popularity as they were sold still needing up to 10 years of aging. However, most wine (including many Barolos) is now balanced and/or aged by the producers, and they don’t really require a lot of aging. The labels on the back of the wines will often give you direction regarding aging.
Here are some of the most popular grapes for red wines, and the likely styles they produce:
- Merlot produces a full bodied, but low in tannin wine. Since tannin can be an acquired taste, merlot is considered a user friendly red wine and applicable for a wide audience. Merlot is also a grape that is grown world wide.
- Cabernet Sauvignon grapes produce a full-bodied, high in tannin wine. It is the Napa Valley wine that put California on parity with France as a producer of great wines. Because of the tannin, you can hold these wines for many years.
- Pinot Noir grapes make a medium body, medium-to-low tannin wine. The wine can be very fruity, but also acidic. Pinot noir is a very fussy grape to grow, so it is not as popular with growers as cabernet or merlot. However, it can make great wines - this is the primary grape behind red Burgundy from France. For less expensive but still excellent possibilities, look for bottles from Oregon and Washington.
- Syrah/Shiraz is the same grape under two different names. The Australians launched their world wide wine industry with Shiraz, and have really increased its popularity. Resulting wines are full bodied with medium tannin. Shiraz is often blended with Cabernet or Merlot grapes. Shiraz makes a great affordable, everyday wine.
- Zinfandel produces wines that are rich and often spicy; they can be quite high in tannin. Red zinfandel is becoming popular again after a lot of zinfandel grapes were diverted to making the blush wine, "white zinfandel", which doesn’t have the tannin and is somewhat sweet.
- Nebbiolo is the grape behind the Barolo and Barbaresco wines of Piedmont in Italy. These make full bodied and high tannin, high acid wines that, when properly aged, are considered among the best in the world.
- Sangiovese is the prominent grape of the Tuscany region of Italy, where it is used in producing Chianti. Chiantis can be found in a wide range of styles, from light to full-bodied. It is medium in tannin, but can be high in acidity. Californian wineries are beginning to use sangiovese grapes as well – try a bottle from the Monterey or Carmel Valley, CA regions.
Quality Labeling:
As noted above, European labels often do not list the variety of grape in the wine, so if you don’t recognize the label and are mulling over choosing a wine at the store, here’s another way to help you choose a wine.
European labels include quality ratings determined by government officials. These ratings are called the QWPSR or “Quality Wines Produced in a Specific Region.” I’ve included in an attachment a table in the book, Wine for Dummies that shows the rankings used for each country, European Quality Designations. There are three ratings categories, the left category is the highest, the middle category the second highest, and the right category the lower ranking.
