Wanted: Wine Education

Cafe Society
1

My wife really enjoys drinking wine, but knows little about types, brands, descriptions, etc.

I don’t mind a glass on occasion either, and we recently happened on a new wine store close by. We stopped in and fell in love with the place right away. However, when the owner asked us what we wanted to try, we really didn’t know what to say. He helped us narrow it down with some very basic questions and was extremely patient with our ingnorance.

Not a problem, right? Except for the fact that I just can’t stand not being able to intelligently discuss something when I want to.

So please tell me everything there is to know, starting with the most basic information possible if you don’t mind. I will ask questions if I need clarification or more details.

Thanks!

2

Waaaay back when, I worked in a high-end wine story. It was owned by a master sommelier (a thing you have to study for and pass a very rigorous test). At the time, he was one of 12 in the entire US.

Anyway, them’re my credentials. On to the basics:

When it comes to buying wines, there’s two main factors: where it comes from, and what grapes its made from.

European wine is most often named after the region it comes from. Thus, you get names like Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne, etc. These are each actual regions in the country of France.

They’re each broken down further into sub-regions. Bordeaux encompasses the regions of Margaux, St. Julian, etc.

French wines, regardless of region, are typically made from a variety of grapes (as opposed to new world wines which tend to be predominantly one grape.) Red Burgundies are primarily Pinot Noir, but often are mixed with Gamay or other grapes. Likewise Bordeaux is most often Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, but may include Cabernet Franc or others.

On to the new world. It’s much simpler here.

In the US, Australia, New Zealand, and South America, wines are most often named after the grapes they’re made out of. Thus, the big words on the label aren’t the region, they’re the grape. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, Chardonney, those are all grapes.

If you’re in the US, you’ll probably want to start learning with these types of wines. Not only are they typically easier to get your head around, with the current exchange rate they’re much cheaper, and the average US wine shop carries a lot more American wines than any other area of the world.

One really easy way to start learning about wine is once you find a grape you like, buy a few bottles and compare them. This involves opening several bottles at once, but no worries - red wine will last a few days if you cork it back up, or you can invite some friends over.

Pour a glass of the first, and smell it. What do you smell? Try to give it a name. I know that the things people say about wines may be hard to understand at first, but remember this: all you’re looking for is similarities and differences between the wines. If you smell something in one wine that you also smell in another, the important thing is that you recognize that. Putting a name on it just makes it easier.

Next, taste the wine. What does it taste like when it first hits the tongue? How about if you swirl it in your mouth? What does the aftertaste do for you?

Go on to the next wines, and do the same with each. Try to go beyond just “Oh, I like this one, and I don’t like that one.” Describe what you like or dislike. Try to give it a name. Jot down notes if you want.

That enough to get you going?

3

I’ not much of a wine sophisticate either, and I look forward to advice from real oenophiles. However, I don’t think it’s necessary to try to bluff and try to use terms like “tannins” and “terroir” if you’re not that hardcore. I’ll just say stuff like, “I’m looking for a nice red to serve with lamb this weekend, what do you recommend?” Or, “I had a malbec I really liked last week. What do you have that’s good in the ten-dollar range?”

4

I’ve found it’s good to decide if you like sweeter wines, or dryer. I prefer sweet, myself. Then you can narrow it down by pairing red wine with meat, tomato-based sauces, and so forth, and white wine with fish and lighter chicken dishes. I’m no expert, but I’ve found that I like shiraz (typically Australian), particularly a shiraz-cabernet blend by Rosemont Estates, and riesling, which is a sweet German white wine that’s more of a “dessert wine.” Once you try a few, just remember what you liked and what you didn’t, and that will help a great deal.

5

I’m still learning the finer points about wine myself. I can tell you pretty much anything you want to know about labels and packaging, however. :wink: There are tons of great websites out there to skim through and learn the basics.

http://www.winepros.org/wine101/wine101.htm

http://www.winedefinitions.com/index.htm

http://www.winelearningcenter.com/main.html (I scored a not-too-shabby 118 on their “Ultimate Wine IQ Test.” It was a fun time-waster.)

Wine Education Resources. Download lists of wine tasting terms by wine type, variety and winemaking method. (The aroma wheel and mouthfeel wheel on that site are pretty helpful.)

That’s just a few for starters.

I’d recommend the book The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil. It’s loaded with information. The most comprehensive book I’ve read so far, but still easy enough for someone new to wine to get through.

6

This is a subject that is difficult if not impossible to generalize. For example, Athena’s comments are generally true but, wines from most Burgundy AOC’s are single varietal. Red Burgundies are Pinot Noir except those from Beaujolais which are Gamay. White Burgundies are Chardonnay.

What may be more valuable to you in learning about wine is to obtain one of the excellent books covering all aspects of wine (grapes, terroir, winemaking, white vs. red, etc.). One that I have found to be very useful is New Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia - 3rd Edition written by Tom Stevenson and published by DK Books in 2001. While organized by countries and districts within countries there are other chapters providing basic descriptions of the grapes commonly used for making wine and other chapters covering many other general topics. This book will also provide answers to what is an AOC (in France), DOCG (in Italy), etc.

7

:smack: Whoops!

I missed probably one of the best sites out there.

wineanswers.com

It’s *loaded *with links to other great sites.

8

My favorite intro-to-wine book is Great Wine Made Simple, by Andrea Immer. When I first discovered the wonderful world of squished grapes, this is the book that helped me find my way.

9

Here’s one thing worth knowing. Sweetness and alcohol content are inversely related. That is, they’re a see-saw. For any given bunch of grapes, the vintner can ferment them for a long time, making a very boozy, dry wine, or he can ferment them a short time, making a very sweet but light wine. Or he can try for a balance of the two. That’s because fermentation is the process by which yeast feeds on sugar and creates alcohol as a by-product. So the longer the yeast feeds, the less sugar and the more booze.

This means that once you get to know a grape, you can in general figure how sweet it’s going to be by reading what % alcohol it is on the label.

–Cliffy

10

Though I watched Wine for the Confused primarily to see host John Cleese, I found some good rudimentary information on the topic. It was interesting to learn how the grapes leeched some of their flavor from the organic composition of the vineyard, for example. It also took a swipe at some of the common wine snobbery. Quite amusing to see a tasting where people were waxing poetic about the subtleties of a pacticular vintage, only to find later that they could not correctly identify red wine from white.

The show ran several times on the food network, I think it is out on DVD now.

11

Thanks everyone for the incredible amount of information already presented. I have a lot to learn–more than I realized, but that is alright with me. Looks like I have plenty of resources at this point, so I will check back if I have any questions.

RYBTP

12

Ha!

Here’s a unique way to learn about wine:

Jelly Belly Wine Flavors

13

Riesling is just the grape. you can get Rieslings ranging from “pucker up, because that’s drier than vinegar” to “mmmm…sugar rush”. If the Riesling you had was sweet it was most probably a “Spätlese” or “Auslese”. In German wines, the labels also note when the grapes were picked, thus, how much sugar they contain. A “Kabinett” is drier than an “Auslese”, which is drier than a “Spätlese”. For a real dessert wine, try an “Eiswein” once (although they are expensive). For an “Eiswein”, the grapes are picked after the first frost, and look more like raisins than grapes.

And don’t just limit yourself to Rieslings if you like German white wines. I personally love Gewürztraminer and Morio-Muskat. Also, try not to buy any “Zeller Schwarze Katz” or “Liebfrauenmilch”. This is just a mixture of the wine the Germans decided to throw away (or sell to the foreigners).

14

I’m not trying to be condescending here, so if I come across as such, please forgive me.

I get the impression (though it might be wrong) that drinking wine and enjoying it, in much the same way you do with a beer, a mixed drink or a cocktail, is relatively new in the U.S. - at least outside the very large metro areas. Maybe the reason is that the U.S. wine industry have got so much better in the past 25 years or so, leading to good and affordable domestic wines (though I think you still have some way to go). I remember my first visit to the U.S. some 20 years ago and people would order vodka tonic (or even worse - coffee) to go with their meals in nice restaurants.

The reason I bring this up, is that being new to something, and feeling a little lost, means that you tend to go by the book. I got cured of that (and I had it when it came to wines) when I lived in Spain.
The Spanish, having had wine as the beverage of choice for longer than the U.S. has existed, don’t have a very complicated notion about wine, and nowadays I follow that notion. Red wine will go with anything. If you don’t like white wines (and I don’t), have red with the fish or the chicken - it doesn’t matter if people think you’re showing lack of culture, it’s your mouth.
Conversely (though I don’t understand it myself), if you don’t like red wine, then go ahead and have white with the cheese. If you like red, but think it’s to heavy for lunch during summer, do what the Spanish do: mix it with 7up or coke (yes, with red wine) - or throw in a couple of ice cubes.

I prefer heavy, very dry, very robust wines and my gripe with American winemakers is that even though they make very good wine in the mid and upper range, they still don’t do them in the lower range. I can get a very good red wine in Spain for about $3-5.

15

Gaspode, in my experience you are generally right. Wine appreciation is relatively new outside the priveleged class, so it tends to be associated with things outside the common experience. Thus, people feel there must be a “right” way to do things. Even people who have never had a glass “know” that you can’t serve red with fish or white with steak. Thus, you have many people asking questions such as what is the best wine. The answer, of course, is the wine that you like the most.

While I try to hold to that attitude I still get a little snobbish with wine, but that is mostly to do with the things people in marketing have done to attempt to make it more approachable to people, such as wine coolers and box wine. There is really no solid reason box wine can’t be good, it just never is.

You have to realize, too, that American culture is very much against ANY alcohol consumption by the young, so when they inevitably sneak something they tend to go for liquor and beer as they are cheaper and get you drunk easier. Thus, Americans who drink wine tend to discover it as an adult as something completely new rather than learning about it as they grow up. Shame really.

16

There are two general categories of rating German wines:

  1. QbA (Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete), and
  2. QmP (Qualitätswein mit Pradikät).

QbA wines are generally not found here in America as they represent the low end of the market and most are not exported out of Germany. Some are exported amid great confusion though QbA should be less expensive than any QmP wine.

QmP wines are further broken down in the following order of increasing levels of sugar in the grapes at the time they are harvested ). While these apply to all grape varietals in Germany they are most often seen in German rieslings since these are the most commonly exported wines. [ul]
[li]Qualistat[/li][li]Kabinett[/li][li]Spatlese[/li][li]Auslese[/li][li]Berenauslese[/li][li]Trockenberenauslese (TBA)[/li][li]Eiswein[/li][/ul]
Wines that are at the Qualistat level are usually simply designated as QmP on their lables without any further identification. All of the others will be labeled as QmP along with the added designation if applicable.

While these ratings or classifications are based on the level of sugar in the grapes at the time they are harvested (except for eiswein, which require that the grapes be harvested while they are frozen on the vines) this also generally speaking equates to increasing levels of sweetness since most German wine makers strive for relatively low alcohol levels. It is not uncommon to find these wines in the 8.0-8.5 % alcohol ranges (compared to 10% or more elsewhere).

If all of this seems confusing it 's one of the reasons why German wines do so poorly here in the US (and the rest of the world for that matter). While top notch rieslings, particularly from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer district, can be some of the best wines in the world few can decipher the German Wine label. I believe that German wine labels are in for some revisions.

17

Having a good reference book was helpful for me when I was first getting into wine. The European labels can be intimidating, but a little reading will go a long way toward understanding them. The Wine Bible is a book that did right by me.

The other thing that really helps is having someone you trust that already knows about wine. The first couple years I got serious about wine, I almost exclusively bought wine that was recommended to me by people I trusted. Eventually I started taking chances and found out that I really like Rhone wines. My friends hadn’t turned me on to those. There’s a lot of “research” to be done. Take it slow, it’s fun.

18

Yeah right.
You are just asking for trouble there.