Why Decant Wine?

Seeing a wine steward decanting a bottle of wine in a restaurant can look 'showy' or a bit pretentious.  And a wine decanter can be a beautiful thing to display, with or without wine in it. So why decant a wine?

The simple answer is that decanting a wine allows it to 'breath' much like the previous discussion on swirling a wine glass.  By pouring a bottle of wine into a decanter (or any glass vessel), the wine gets an opportunity to quickly release any volatile compounds that have built up in the bottle and  get exposed to air. And this really can make a difference in wine.

If you haven't tried decanting its well worth it.  Immediately after opening a bottle of wine (particularly a red wine), pour yourself a small taste in a glass so that you experience the wine right out of the bottle.  And most good wines will be fine right out of the bottle. But then give the wine in the decanter thirty minutes to an hour before going back and trying it again.  Most often, you will find that the wine has smoothed out and is a bit softer, not quite so sharp as that initial taste from the bottle. And, you are more likely to detect some of the subtile flavors in the wine.

Decanting is particularly effective with young red wines. Exposure to air in a decanter for one to two hours can make a significant improvement. But, with an older bottle, decanting my not be necessary at all, and it can even degrade some of the delicate nuances of a fine wine. 

Decanting was especially effective after recently opening a rather young bottle of red wine.  After the first taste right out of the bottle, I immediately said 'no' this isn't a very good bottle of wine.  So, I poured it in a decanter and left it for a couple of hours.  Upon returning to the almost forgotten decanter, I poured another small glass and noticed a significant improvement. Gone was the sharp bitter and highly tannic (dry) taste.  The wine had calmed down, smoothed out and was then quite enjoyable with a meal.

Another item to consider along with a wine decanter is a small wire-mesh filter designed specifically to be used for wine. These can be very effective in removing any sediment that might have remained with the wine in the bottle. Just pour the bottle of wine through the filter as you decant it.

One of my favorite lines about wine also applies to decanting.  It's said that a wine cellar is not a wine hospital; it won't make a bad wine better.  So too, decanting will not magically turn a bad bottle of wine into a good one.  But, you may be surprized how decanting can make a nice wine even better.

So, if you don't have a fancy wine decanter, don't worry. Any wide glass vessel that will give the wine exposure to air will work. Just don't choose a plastic or metal vessel that can impart other flavors into the wine.  And, don't decant too long.  A wine can go flat and loose much of its flavors if left exposed to air for too long.  Just try a sip right out of the bottle to establish a starting point, then decant and periodically re-visit it.  You should notice an improvement. Cheers! 

Why Do People Swirl Their Wine Glass?

Ever wonder why people swirl their glass of wine?  Is this just something that wine snobs do? Or is it a kind of nervous habit?  Are they doing it so they can examine the 'legs' of the wine?  Or, are they doing it just to look cool? What's the point?

Well, there are two basic reasons to swirl a glass of wine; aeration and aromas.

First, aeration.  This is simply adding air to the wine.  This seem odd at first. Why does wine need air? After all, it's been intentionally stored in an air-tight bottle for some time. Well, with most red wines (typically the younger wines), adding air helps improve the flavor of the wine. Some of the improvement is due to the fact that evaporation occurs when you swirl which releases some of the stronger, less appealing compounds in the wine. But, overall, swirling allows the wine to get exposure to air which helps improve the flavor.  The act of swirling the wine in the glass allows the wine to coat the inside of the glass, giving the wine more surface area and hence, more exposure to air.

Second, while you are swirling the wine and coating the inside of the glass, you are filling your glass with the wine's aromas - all those wonderful scents associated with the particular wine.  This allows you to sniff the wine and to fully enjoy the wine experience on your tongue and in your nose.  Both of which are very important to enjoying any flavorful food or drink.

But you don't want to swirl all wines.  Sparkling wines (or 'Champagne') should not be swirled. This will quickly release all those wonderful bubbles and lead to a less-sparkling experience.  

As to swirling a glass of wine to examine its legs (those tear drops that slide down the inside of a wine glass), it may be fun to watch, but it really doesn't tell you anything about the quality of the wine, just that it has alcohol in it.

So, go ahead and carefully swirl your wine.  Yes, it may look cool, but it is actually helping the wine and improving your experience of the wine.  Cheers!

Making Wine is Hard. Right?

While doing some wine tasting, I had the opportunity to chat with the Winemaker. As I was complimenting him on making some outstanding wine, I commented "Making wine must be really hard."  He laughed and shook his head. "No," he replied "Making wine is easy. Anyone can do it. But, making good wine is really hard."  

Wine making is, in practice, easy.  You grow a bunch of grapes, wait for them to ripen, and then harvest them.  You will usually de-stem the grapes and remove leaves and any bad grapes.  Next you crush the grapes to extract the juice.  If you are making white wine, the skin are removed from the juice; for reds the skins are left in with the juice.  Next, yeast turns the natural sugar in the grape juice into alcohol.  With white wines, some residual sugar usually remains in the wine, while reds are usually fermented until all the sugar is turned to alcohol.  Now you transfer the wine into storage containers; either stainless steel tanks or oak barrels.  White wines may or may not spend time in oak depending on the winemakers preference.  Red wines will age for as little as 4 months to several years. Wines are then filtered and bottled.  So, there you go. Easy, right?

Well, as we have all experienced, some wines are better than others. And some are just plain not drinkable. I know of people who have taken part in a local winery's winemaking experience.  They got to pick the grapes, do the crush, ferment the juice and bottle it, compete with a custom label!  It was a very exciting and educational experience. Unfortunately, the wine wasn't any good.

So, if you think wine making is hard, it's not.  But making good wine is hard.  Next time you get to thinking that maybe you'll try your hand at wine making, open a good bottle, pour yourself a glass and do some serious thinking.  Cheers!

Leather in Your Wine?

You may have read about a wine, or checked the back label, or heard people speak of wines with flavors of apple, grapefruit, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries.  Or, leather, tobacco, chocolate, and coffee. Or my all-time favorite, from the back label of a bottle of red wine, "fresh road tar."  

So, you may be asking yourself "Do they really put those things in my wine?"  The answer is simple -- No.  Wine is made from grapes and grapes alone.  But how can a wine have a flavor like leather?  Well, it comes from many things including the type of grape used to make the wine, the soil the grapes were grown in, and the type of vessel the wine is aged in.

The growing environment for wine grapes is often referred to as the 'terrior' (pronounced Te-war) which is a term describing the interaction of soil, climate, topography and grape variety in a specific site. The word is derived from the French word for earth, "terre."  As the grape grows on the vine, it is drawing up minerals from the soil that it's growing in. And, these minerals can give wines distinctive flavors.

Also, the type of vessel that wine is aged in can significantly contribute to additional flavors. French oak is used in both white wines and red wines. Along with the natural flavors that come from the wood, the oak barrels are 'toasted' by literally heating the inside of the barrel with an open flame to a generate the desired level of char on the wood.

In white wines, an oak barrel can impart flavors of vanilla, butterscotch, caramel or burnt sugar. In reds, the oak gives flavors of smoke, tobacco, leather and chocolate.  On the other hand, stainless steel tanks allow the fruit flavors to shine through without adding additional flavors that come along with oak barrels. And, concrete tanks are also being used. The concrete actually “breathes” much like oak, but leaves no flavor behind.

So, rest assured that your bottle of wine does not have leather, tobacco or fresh road tar added to it.  But, these subtile flavors that come from the grapes, the soils and the aging vessels certainly add wonderful nuances to a bottle of wine.  Cheers!

Rosé for Valentines Day

Ah, pink wine.  Yes, it has gotten a bad reputation from the past. You may remember Mateus, Lancers, Cold Duck and White Zinfandel.  Unfortunately rosé wines have been considered second class wines. But, that's all changed!

Rosé is made from red wine grapes, but the grape juice has had very little exposure to the dark grape skins during the wine making process.  So, a white Zinfandel is made from the same grape that produces a bottle of red wine Zinfandel, but the Zinfandel grape's juice was quickly separated from the red (or purple) grape skins, resulting in a pink colored wine.

In the past, rosé wines have been synonymous with sweet wines.  That can still be true.  But there are a lot more dry rosé wines available today.  And, a key to finding the dryer, less sweet, wines is by looking at the wine's alcohol content.  All wines labels are required to show the percent alcohol of the wine. If it's down around 8 or 9 percent, it's going to be sweet.  In the 11 to 12 percent range it will be mid-range between sweet and dry. And, above 12 percent it's going to be a dry rosé.

And, today you'll find rosé wines that are not just blends of red grapes, but produced from specific grape types.  So, you may find rosés made from Pinot Noir, Grenache, Sangiovese, Syrah and even from the Cabernet Sauvignon grape. These are wonderful wines to enjoy lightly chilled on a warm day, but should be considered for anytime that a lighter wine is desired.

So, there is no shame in drinking a 'pink' wine. It's not just for girls anymore. And the great part is that rosé wines are a lot more affordable. You don't need to pay more than $15 to find a great bottle of rosé.  Here's to lifting a glass of rosé for Valentine's Day, or any day of the year. Cheers!