5 More Frequently Asked Wine Questions

Wine Expert — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 23:14:24 +0000

Why do some wines get better with age while others turn to vinegar?

Well, wines only turn to vinegar when they are fermented by acetic acid bacteria known as mycoderma aceti. Many wines have a bit of acetic acid in them, usually below the threshold of detection but not always.

What usually happens to wines as they age poorly is that they cook. This is not the fault of the wine, but rather the results of poor storage, say in a cupboard somewhere or a fancy rack in your kitchen. Sound familiar? OK, it may not be your fault, since a lot of wine retailers have equally crappy, if not crappier, storage but you get the idea.

That doesn’t explain why some wines get better with age. In general, that’s due to the wine’s structure: acid, tannins, and sugar, as well as the quality of fruit in the wine.

It’s a result of many factors, such as the grape variety (some age well, others not so much), the terroir (some regions make more structured, and therefore more ageworthy, wines) and, of course, the winemaker. Some winemakers aim for an easy-to-drink, lush style of wine that may not improve in the bottle, while others may want a brutally tannic young wine that can last, and evolve for ages.

How long does wine last?

This is a very interesting question and one that deserves a more in-depth answer. The question is interesting not because of what it asks, but rather what it implies. Wine will last until the seal is broken and the wine is consumed or evaporates, but I assume that the question really is: How long does wine improve and then remain at that “plateau or maturity,” as it can be called?

The answer is tricky, since virtually each wine has its own maturation curve, but the short answer is that most wine is ready to drink when it’s released, and may improve for a year or three.

The famous wines of collectors — Grand Bordeaux, Burgundy, Barolo and the like — tend to need time in the cellar, say 10 to 20 years, before hitting their plateaus. They then remain there, at or close to peak, for another 10 to 20 years. There are so many variables that it’s tough to supply a satisfactory answer, though when in doubt opt for drinking a wine younger, rather than older. If the wine seems too young, there is always the decanter.

What about the rights and wrongs about decanting wines?

Speaking about breathing, I received several questions that referred to the rights and wrongs of letting wine breathe, as well as the rights and wrongs of decanting, which are close to the same thing.

There are two reasons to decant a wine: removing off from its sediment, and allowing it to breathe by increasing the surface area of the wine exposed to air; not to mention adding air to the wine from the pouring process (the theory behind aerating funnels).

I decant older wines off their sediment since I don’t like my wines muddy and frequently have to bring them to a restaurant or friend’s house for dinner. As far as decanting for breathing, that is a tricky subject. There are several ways to decant a wine, each involving exposing the wine to more, or less, oxygen.

What are the benefits of allowing wine to breathe?

Fantastic things happen when a wine breathes, or is exposed to oxygen. Tannins can soften, aromatic volatize, and in general a wine can seem to blossom.

For reasons not exactly known to me, each grape variety seems to have its own ideal system of oxygenation. For example, the old Barolos I drink seem to benefit from what is known as slow oxygenation, or Slow O.

Slow O simply means pulling the cork, and perhaps pouring off a bit of wine to increase the surface area and then letting the wine oxygenate very slowly. If the wine is middle-aged, a decant off the sediment can frequently wake the wine up and reveal the benefits of the Slow O process. I’m going to follow this up with a broader article on allowing your wines to breathe, but as a general rule, young wines can only benefit from it, and it seems to help many older wines, though the window during which they drink well might be significantly compressed by decanting.

What wine will get me the most screwed-up the fastest?

I have gotten this question more often than you might think and the answer might be surprising. One’s first reaction is to answer “the wine with the highest alcohol content”, right? After all, it’s the alcohol that gets you drunk, so more would be better.

Well, actually it’s the rate at which your consumption of alcohol exceeds your body’s ability to metabolize it that makes you drunk. So, it stands to reason then that the combination of alcohol plus drinkability yields the answer. No matter what the alcohol, if a wine is tough to drink, you’re not going to get drunk quickly.

Of course, Champagne, or sparkling wine, is the best answer here. Not because it’s particularly high in alcohol (most average around 12.5%), nor because of its drinkability (I find the bubbles slow me down), but rather because of those bubbles! Studies have shown that the CO2 in sparkling wine speeds up the absorption of alcohol into one’s blood stream. Maybe it’s the pressure created in the stomach and intestines. I’m not sure, but repeated studies have verified this.

How to Buy Wine

Wine Expert — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:23:22 +0000

If you’re a wine lover and would like to get to know more about this complex and popular beverage, there’s no better way to broaden your horizons than by learning the fine art of wine tasting. For a richer experience, you’ll want to do more than simply pour wine into a glass and sip it. Although it may seem complicated and that you have to be an expert to understand wine tasting, with a little practice, you’ll deepen your appreciation for this multi-faceted beverage and the people who make it in no time.

Appearance
When learning about a wine, the first thing you want to assess is how it looks. To get started, look at the wine in the right light—anything but fluorescent should work—against a neutral-colored or white background.

Tilt your glass away from you until it’s at a 45-degree angle so you can see the width and hue of the wine’s ”rim.” Set the glass down and look at the wine from above to examine its clarity, brightness, and depth of color. Check to see if the wine has any bubbles or foreign bodies.
The wine should be bright and clear and not hazy or cloudy and its color should be rich and full. If the wine has a hazy or cloudy appearance, it could contain contamination or sediment that have been shaken up in the bottle. With older red wines, deposits do tend to accumulate over the years, but the sediment should stay in the bottle. Any sediment that shows up in the glass will obscure the taste, texture, and appearance of the wine. Sediment is less common in white wine, but it can still be there. This means that it has never been over-filtered. Small, colorless crystals at the bottom of a glass of white wine are harmless deposits, and are a sign that the wine has not been over-treated.

In Glass
When trying to discern the wine’s flavor “notes,” your nose knows best, which is why you’ll smell the wine before you taste it. There are even special glasses that many people use for wine tasting that have large bowls and a tapered opening. This helps to capture more of the aroma within the glass to enable the taster detect them. Wines served at a warmer temperature will reveal more of the aroma, and swirling (also called aerating) the wine helps to move the aroma up to the nose more quickly. However, it’s usually best to give the wine a small sniff before swirling in case there are stronger aromatics that could dominate the lighter notes once the wine is swirled.

Don’t be afraid to get your nose close to the wine, even getting it right inside the glass. This gives you the best opportunity to fully capture all the aromatics. Take a few short, quick sniffs rather than a long inhale. This also helps to better detect the various notes. Take a little break between sniffs because the human nose begins to tire after six seconds or so.

In Mouth
After the nasal inspection of the swirl, you’re ready to taste the wine. Begin with a small sip and let it roll around your tongue. Once you get that first mouthful, you want to think about the first impression you get from the wine.

Once you get yourself accustomed to the taste, you can start looking for all those hidden complexities. This is the time you should start looking for the actual flavor of the wine. In the case of red wines, you may begin to taste the type of fruit in the wine; sometimes, you may even detect the flavors of more than one fruit. You should also begin trying to see if you can detect any spices or woody notes such as oak or cedar. If you’re tasting a white wine, you should also begin to detect the flavors of fruit and you may even taste floral undertones. Some white wines also contain honey, butter, or herbs, so see if you can taste these flavors also.

Now that you’ve sniffed, swirled, and sipped, you might want to write down a few notes about your experience and what you learned. If you’re tasting with friends, compare notes with them. This will help you think of aspects of the tasting that you might have missed on your own, and make for a richer experience overall. Think about the kind of food this wine would taste best with and maybe you could host a wine-tasting party for your friends. Everyone could bring a different type of wine, and you could supply the cheese and bread.