Beyond the 5 S's of Wine Tasting

Drinking wine is a pleasurable experience that is quite simple. And, as winemaker Charles Smith puts it "It's just wine. Drink it." But for many people, wine tasting can be a very intimidating experience. But it shouldn't be.

In the past, I've written about how to visit wineries and how to have a great experience tasting wines. And whether it be at a winery, a restaurant, wine bar, or at home, there are simple things that you can do to enhance the simple enjoyment of a glass of wine.

The Five S's of wine have been written about many times by others but here's a quick review:

1. See - Look at the wine in your glass and note the color and clarity. White wines can range from nearly clear to pale yellow, straw color, or golden. Red wines can be maroon, purple, ruby, garnet, or deep red. Both white and red wines can take on a brown hue with age.  All wines should be free of sediment.

2. Swirl - By swirling the wine within the glass you give it an opportunity to gain further contact with air and release its aromas.  A wine right out of a bottle may need a little exposure to air. This exposure will quickly take away any sharp odors and can help soften or mellow the wine.

3. Sniff - Stick your nose into the wine glass and take a sniff. You can get a very quick idea of what the wine will taste like and you may even detect some of the fruit aromas. Try sniffing with each individual nostril. You may find a real difference. And, by the way, there is no need to sniff the cork from the bottle. A wine server may present it to you, but you only need to take a brief look at it to ensure it doesn't show any obvious signs of leakage.

4. Sip - Take a small sip, drawing in some air as you sip, and let it stay in your mouth for a while. You can even swish it around a bit in your mouth. This will give you an opportunity to really get all the flavors that the wine has to offer.

5. Swallow - By allowing the wine to go through the back of your mouth and down your throat you will finally get the complete wine experience from your mouth and nasal passages.

But, in addition to these classic five S's, there are a few other things that can enhance your enjoyment of wine.  The glass itself is important. It should be clean and clear with a bowl large enough to hold a nice pour of wine (around 5 ounces) and still have plenty of room left. A wine glass should only be filled about one-third of the way. The remaining 'empty' space in the glass is left to capture the wine's aromas.

The wine also needs to be at the right temperature. Reds should not be served room temperature and whites should not come straight out of the kitchen refrigerator. A red should be served at cellar temperature, 58-62 degree F, and a white should be 45-50 degrees F.  These optimal temperatures allow you to best enjoy the wine's full flavors. I recently had a friend tell me he didn't like Chardonnay until a recent visit to a winery. What he learned was that his only experience with Chardonnay was drinking it at refrigerator temperature. When the winery served their Chardonnay at 48-50 F, it was an entirely different and better experience, allowing him to actually taste all the flavors in the wine.

Decanting a red wine can also make a big difference. It doesn't need to be a fancy decanter, just one that can hold an entire bottle of wine and give the wine lots of surface area exposed to air.  Filling a decanter up to the neck does little for the wine so find a vessel that has a broad bottom such that you are only filling it about halfway. Once you've poured the wine into the decanter, pour yourself a sip right away and note the wine's character.  Give it thirty minutes in the decanter and try it again. It should smooth out and soften. You can continue decanting for an hour our two, but beyond that the wine can become over oxidized and start to become a bit stale.

Once again you may be asking yourself "Why bother?"  Well, if you follow these simple steps you'll find that you will quickly start to understand the differences in wines and better determine your real wine preferences.

But, above all else, keep it simple, take wine tasting slowly, and enjoy! Cheers!

2015 Year in Review

EverWonderWine was started just a year ago.  I had no experience with blogging or managing and maintain a website. But, I had an overflowing passion for the world of wine along with a burning curiosity of wine-related information. I had thoughts of sharing what I had learned to-date as well as what I would surely continue to learn and experience in the future.  So, with the encouragement and support of my family, I set off to pass along my love of all things having to do with wine. EverWonderWine was born!

EverWonderWine was started with no particular direction or strategy other than to share basic information on wine.  Throughout the year I randomly touched on topics that included "How to Choose a Wine" and "What Wines Should I Try?"  I briefly discussed flavors and textures in wine, along with how to serve wines, how to visit wineries, and how to do wine tasting. Finally, I wrapped up the year with a brief series on fortified wines and dessert and Late Harvest wines.  And, there were many other topics sprinkled in along the way.

It's hard to believe that a year flew by; it was a lot of fun. But I feel that I've just begun to scratch the surface of wines. There are so many topics that I can't wait to share and even more that I'm sure I discover along this wonderful exploration of wines.

So, for those who have supported me, I say a genuine "Thank you."  I've truly enjoying this journey and am looking forward to the year ahead, wherever the path may lead.

Cheers!

Dessert Wines

In past entries we've explored fortified wines that are just one major category of dessert wines. While the list of dessert wines is too expansive to cover in one posting, we'll touch briefly on the categories of sparkling wines and the various types of Late Harvest wines.

As discussed in prior posting, sparkling wines can range from dry to sweet. Typically a wine labeled "Dry" will have little to no residual sugar (RS). But that's not true in sparkling wines. Sparkling wines on the sweeter side are called:

• Extra Dry has 12-20% residual sugar

• Dry has 17-35% residual sugar

• Demi Sec will have 35-50% residual sugar

• Doux (meaning 'sweet' in French) will have greater than 50% residual sugar

A few of the sweeter sparkling wines include Moscato d'Asti, Asti Spumante, Sparkling Gewürztraminer, Demi Sec, and Sparkling Rosé. Sparkling wines are fun and festive and will go well with most dessert courses.

The other major category of dessert wines is Late Harvest wines.  These wines can be broken down by the following production methods:

• Late Harvest of the Grapes: Simply put, the longer the grapes stays on the vine the more ripe they become and the more natural sugar they produce. During the fermentation process, the yeast is not able to convert all the natural sugar to alcohol thus resulting in a sweeter wine. Nearly any grape varietal can be used to produce a Late Harvest dessert wine. These tend to be very rich and fruity with notes of honey.

• Using Dried Grapes: A dried grape, or raisin, just tastes sweeter than a grape because the sugar is not diluted in water. Thus, using dried grapes can result in more sugar, less water. Here again, the yeast used to ferment the wine doesn't consume all the sugar before dying off resulting in a sweet wine. Grapes may be dried on the vine, on straw mats or while hanging on racks.

  • Greek Straw Wines

    • Vinsanto is made with high-acid white Assyrtiko grapes

    • Samos is a sweet wine made from Muscat grapes

    • Commandaria is a sweet wine from the Mavro grape

  • German Strohwein/Austrian Schilfwein - These are sweet wines made from Muscat and Zweigelt grapes in Austria and Germany.

  • French Vin de Paille - From the Jura region of France, these wines are produced using Chardonnay and the ancient white wine grape Savagnin.

  • Italian Passito - These wines are made with several different kinds of grapes, both white and red, but notably from the Moscato grape. These have a fruity bouquet and flavors of apricot and raisins.

  • Vin Santo - From Italy, this wine is produced from Trebbiano and Malvasia grapes. Includes nutty and date-like flavors. Commonly served with biscotti that may be dipped in the wine or eaten separately.

• Noble Rot:  The awful sounding name of this method occurs naturally in climates where there are cool damp mornings and warm dry afternoons.  This environment is where naturally occurring fungus, Botrytis, causes the grapes to shrivel on the vine, losing much of the water and leaving behind the extra concentrated sweet fruit. The 'rot' is entirely harmless and results in a highly sought-after style of wine. In Bordeaux, France, the Sauternes region is famous for its Noble Rot wines produced mostly from the Semillon grape.

• Ice Wine: This method allows the grapes to freeze on the vine, converting all the water within the grape to ice. When the grapes are immediately picked and crushed, the ice remains behind and only the sugary juice of the grape is collected. Only a fraction of this sweet juice is converted to alcohol during the fermentation process, thus creating a sweet wine.

So whether it is a fortified wine, a sparkling wine or a Late Harvest wine, there are many choices for dessert wines. A general rule for a dessert wine is that it should be sweeter than the food being served and slightly chilled. So keep these options in mind when choosing a dessert wine to go with your favorite dessert options.  But, as always, drink what you like and enjoy! Cheers!

Fortified Wines: Sherry and Vermouth

In recent posting we've addressed fortified wines including Port, Madeira and Marsala. All these wines are produced by adding either Brandy or neutral grape spirit to wines during the fermentation process or after fermentation is complete.

Without getting too much into the details of distilled spirits, Brandy (derived from the word brandywine, or burnt wine) and grape spirit are produced by heating wine to the point where the alcohol evaporates and is collected separately. Fortified winemakers then use these distilled alcohols to increase the alcohol levels in fermented wines.

While grape spirit is simply neutral-flavored grape alcohol, Brandy takes this grape alcohol one step further by aging it in wooden casks to smooth out the flavor of this otherwise harsh alcohol and give it its unique flavor.

Other popular fortified wines include Sherry and Vermouth.  Sherry, from Spain, is typically fortified with Brandy after fermentation is complete to produce a dry fortified wine. There are sweet styles of Sherry but the finer ones, from Spain, are dry.  The Spanish Sherries are made in multiple styles:

Dry Sherry: Made predominately from the Palomino grape:

• Fino & Manzanilla - Very light in flavor. Can have salty fruit flavors.

• Amontillado - A bit bolder with nutty flavors.

• Palo Cortado - This is much richer with roasted flavors of molasses and coffee.

• Oloroso - This style is intentionally exposed to oxygen during aging resulting its dark appearance and nutty flavors.

Sweet Sherry: Made from Pedro Ximénez or Moscatel grapes:

• Pedro Ximéniz (PX) - This is the sweetest style with flavors dates and figs.

• Moscatel - This has sweet caramel flavors.

• Sweet Sherry: A blend of Oloroso and PX Sherry.

Vermouth is another fortified wine originally from Italy. Vermouth is produced from neutral grape wine or unfermented wine must. Producers then add additional alcohol and their own mixture of botanical products including fruits, herbs, spices and roots. After the wine is aromatized and fortified, the Vermouth may be bottled dry, or sweeteners such as sugar may be added to create the sweet style of Vermouth.

So during the past few entries we've made a quick pass through the most popular fortified wines. Next, we'll investigate dessert wines.  Cheers!

Fortified Wine: Marsala

Previously we've established that fortified wine is wine that has grape spirit added. While typical wines have between 10 to 15% alcohol by volume (ABV), fortified wines end up with 15 to 20% ABV.  Early on, this proved to be quite beneficial, as the high alcohol levels would preserve the wine when making long journeys across oceans.  These fortified wines became known by the city or region where the wine originated; Port from Oporto in Portugal and Madeira wine from the Portuguese Islands of Madeira. This time we'll focus on Marsala wine from the town of Marsala on the west coast of Sicily.

True Marsala still only comes from Sicily and is produced from Sicilian indigenous grapes. And much like Madeira, Marsala is most often thought of as a cooking wine.  But, there are actually five quality levels:

• Fine - Aged for 1 year and commonly used in cooking

• Superior - Aged for 2 years and used most commonly in cooking

• Superior Reserve - Aged 4 years

• Virgin or Solera - Aged 5 years

• Virgin Stravecchio/Virgin Reserve - Aged for 10 or more years

Marsala has three levels of sweetness:

• Secco - Dry (little to no residual sugar). This wine completes fermentation before it is fortified.

• Semisecco - Semi sweet. This wine is fortified near the end of fermentation so as to leave a small amount of residual sugar.

• Dolce - Sweet. This wine is fortified during fermentation. The higher level of the fortifying alcohol kills the yeast before fermentation is complete, hence sugar remains in the wine.

There are also three styles of Marsala wine:

• Gold - Produced with white grapes (Grillo, Catarratto, Inzolia, Domaschino and Grecanico)

• Amber - Also produced with white grapes but the grape must (unfortified grape juice) is cooked to the point where the natural sugars caramelize, giving the wine the amber color

  • Flavors of Gold and Amber Marsala include apricot, brown sugar, and vanilla

• Ruby - Produced with red grapes (Pignatello, Nero d'Avola, Nerello Mascalese, and Frappato)

  • Flavors of Ruby Marsala include cherry, dried fruit, honey, walnut and licorice. 

High-end Marsala wines are produced by a system called 'Soleras' where new and old wines are blended. This will be the subject of a future posting.

A glass of Marsala wine should be served at approximately 55 degrees F and is wonderful when paired with Parmesan, Gorgonzola, Roquefort and other bold cheese. Cheers!