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Wine Storage

February 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Storage Is Key For Your Wine Collection

Storage is absolutely key to the success of any wine collection. Anyone who enjoys collecting fine wines will want to look for the best available wine storage options. There are many different ways to properly store wine, but regardless of which wine storage solution is ultimately chosen it will critical to keep the storage conditions constant.

A constant temperature of  50-60 degrees Fahrenheit must be maintained within any wine storage space. The wine storage should be as far away from the main area of the house as possible, and there must also be plenty of ventilation in the selected area. The wine collection must not suffer too much vibration and any light sources should be kept to a minimum. Absolutely no sunlight should be permitted to reach the wine storage area.

Of course a wine cellar can be used for wine storage or a special cooler can be built. Wine racks are, predictably, a necessary part of any wine storage solution. Wine racks can be made of metal or wood, and the wine storage chosen is primarily a matter of personal taste. While both kinds of rack building material are attractive to look at, the metal racks tend to be more flamboyant and stylish while the wood racks are often considered more classic and traditional in style.

It may be preferable to choose racks in order to have them match the rest the chosen wine storage solution. These final choices will be influenced to a certain degree by whether or not the wine cellar is intended to be shown off to friends and colleagues. If it is, then the wine storage solutions will need to appear more coordinated.

Either way it’s not a bad idea to look into wine racks and other wine storage options that will all look good together. This helps to create a wine storage area that looks like it belongs to a professional wine collector. It’s not difficult to accomplish, but it can cost a bit of cash.

Temporary wine storage options are, customarily, a little simpler. Immediately prior to serving a wine it will probably need to be chilled, depending of course on what kind of wine it is. In order to store wine for chilling, look into cool wine storage solutions. Available in many department stores or wine stores, wine coolers are easy to find. Even the Internet is an excellent resource for finding these types of wine storage options.

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Avanti Wine Cooler

February 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment

An Avanti Wine Cooler To Keep Your Wine Cold

Avanti Wine Cooler
Wine is a great beverage whether you are sitting down to a full course meal or you are just enjoying a leisurely conversation with a friend. It’s not as heavy as beer or other spirits, yet it taste wonderful. Many people enjoy a glass of wine at home as well as when they are socializing. If you are a fan of this beverage drawn from grapes, consider an Avanti Wine Cooler as part of your home’s décor. It’s not only functional but it’s a great addition to any rec room or even dining area.

Not all wine needs to be chilled, but there’s no mistaking that some wine only tastes good when it’s sat in a cooler for some time. Most of us are accustomed to putting the wine in the refrigerator. This works well but if you want to have more than a couple of bottles of vino on hand at anytime it’s not a good solution. It’s much more convenient to use an Avanti wine cooler. The temperature settings are designed specifically for storing wine, and its price makes it even more attractive.

They come in several different sizes and the one you ultimately decide on should reflect your love of this delicious beverage. If you only drink a few bottles of wine a year, you’ll want a smaller Avanti Wine Cooler. For those who do a great deal of entertaining one of the larger models will be better suited for them. It’s also a nice touch to choose one that has a see-through door. This only adds to the appeal as it allows you the chance to showcase your favorite bottles of wine.

You can always store a few extra treats inside the cooler if you don’t happen to have too much wine at your disposal. The temperature inside is optimal for cigars as well. Anyone with a sweet tooth will appreciate some dark chocolate in the freezer that is waiting to be enjoyed with a chilled bottle of dessert wine.

Finding a spot for one of these unique storage devices isn’t hard at all. Since they are small, they can be kept in the corner of just about any space. They work especially well in homes where there is already a wet bar in place. It ensures that all your cocktails will be in one area, which makes it much easier the next time you have a dinner party. Adding an Avanti Wine Cooler to a home ensures that the residents will never run out of great tasting perfectly chilled wine.

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How to Choose Wine

November 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment

How to Choose a Wine

 

There is nothing like a glass of wine for just about any occasion. Some would even decant a bottle for no apparent reason other than to simply enjoy a quiet evening with a glass of vino that others fondly call “the sweet nectar of Zeus.”

A lot of people today are beginning to discover the joys of wine drinking. And this number is set to increase…because that’s just how the cork pops!

So whether you are drinking for health reasons or simply because you want to savor the sensual and cerebral bliss of downing a glass of your favorite red, white or even blush, rest assured that you are never alone in this endeavor.

But first, let’s talk wine.

Know Thy Wine

“Wine is the most civilized thing in the world,” according to Ernest Hemingway.

The great American novelist also wrote in one of his best works, A Moveable Feast, that “in Europe, we thought of wine as something as healthy and normal as food and also a great giver of happiness and well-being and delight. Drinking wine was not a snobbism nor a sign of sophistication nor a cult; it was as natural as eating and to me as necessary.”

These two quotes pretty much cap it (or shall we say “cork” it?). Wine is so much a part of human history it is difficult to think of a world without this viniferous drink.

Why, the drink could even trace its history way back to the Neolithic Period in 8500-4000 B.C. in Iran where excavator, Mary M. Voigt discovered 6 wine jars at the site of Hajji Firuz Tepe in the northern Zagros Mountains. The relics are the oldest known signs of our ancestor’s enthusiasm for wine and serve as an attestation to our present and very real love for the ‘Drink of the Gods.’

Wine is great as a standalone drink, as something to go with dessert or the main dish, or as something you add to your cooking for that extra “punch.”

Whether you are looking for wine to pair up with food or drink alone, or you are merely out for a bit of culinary adventure, choosing the right wine to do all those things is an important task that needs a closer look.

But before we begin, take note of the following necessities:

  • Make sure there is a local wine store, or at least a wine shop that is a short drive from your neighborhood. It should be one that carries something besides jug wines.

  • A cork pull. But, of course, how else are you going to take that first spectacular sip if you haven’t even popped the cork?

  • A notebook. This one is merely optional but advisable if you are serious about wine hunting. Taking down notes as you browse through wine racks will help you remember your preferences.

While these three things won’t make a wine snob (sorry, we meant “wine aficionado”) out of you, they do give you a good foothold when it comes to choosing the right wine.

And now for the all important question…

How Do You Choose a Wine?

 

Three words. And they all start with the letter “p.”

1. Price

 

This is one of the first concerns people have about choosing a wine. It may have something to do with the myths surrounding wine, the most popular of which is that wine is a drink for the elite.

But this is just that – a myth. There is no truth to it. In fact, many good wines are at prices that us po’ folks can afford. And while some of the most expensive wines are high quality, it does not mean that you would have to mortgage your car just so you can enjoy a bottle of great Cabaret Sauvignon. With today’s market, you can find a great number of good wines for as little as $15 and even lower.

Here’s a tip: Try setting a budget before going wine hunting. The wine merchant should be able to give you some good suggestions for the price range you’re after.

2. Preference

 

But, of course, preferences are an all important factor when selecting good bottles. Certainly, we all have preferences and they can vary from person to person so it does not necessarily mean that what is good for some people will also suit your fancy or what you think is right is right for other people. It depends on personality, on style, and your eccentric taste, not on what some wine magazine is saying.

But note that preferences in choosing the right kind of wine also do not necessarily mean personal preferences.

Think: what are you planning to do with the wine? Are you having a dinner party? Pizza night? Or just a quiet evening with no one but family and a few close friends?

And then think: With such an evening in mind, who are you going to spend it with?

And finally, think: Will the wine you’ve chosen suit their tastes?

You can then work from there and choose a wine that speaks not only to your preferences but those with whom you are planning to drink the wine with.

3. Pairing

 

Most people looking for the perfect bottle of wine are actually looking for wine that specifically goes well with a particular food. If you are one of these people, then you must know that the ingredients are the key.

The golden rule of thumb when it comes to pairing wine with food is: balance the weight and body of a wine with the delicacy or richness of a particular dish.
Or more simply: red with meat, white with fish or fowl.

Follow this rule and the right kind of wine will bring out the flavor and richness of the food you are serving.

So you have learned the answer to the all important question of how to choose a wine. They should not be hard to remember. Just think of the 3-P factors – Price, Preferences, and Pairing.

And now for the step by step guide to choosing a wine:

 

 

 

Step 1: Classify Them by Regions

 

There are as many kinds of wines as there are people who love to drink them. To start with, classify them by regions. The regions are the areas where the grapes, where wine comes from, are cultivated.

 

France in a Glass

France is one of the old world countries that mass produced wine and many of the wines we know today still bear the name of the French wine regions.

France’s long standing history with wine making dates back to the Ancient Roman times when the empire spread across Gaul, the old name for France. Then the Dark Ages came. As the Roman legions withdrew back to Italy, the clergymen were left to cultivate and tend to the vine gardens for their supply of sacramental wines. And from these pious beginnings, French wine was born.

There are nine major wine regions in France: Alsace, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Corsica, Cotes du Rhone, Languedoc-Rousillon, Loire Valley, Provence, and the South West.

The region of Bordeaux is home to the “noble” variety of vine, the Cavernet Sauvignon, which produces such famous French wines as the Petrus in Pomerol, a favorite of the Kennedys, and the Margaux in Medoc district. Another famous French wine is the Chateau d’Yquem, a luminous white wine fermented from Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon grapes in Sauternes.

The red wine, Pinot Noir, and the white, Chardonnay, are produced from the grapes in the small region of Burgundy. The best of the French red wines come from Cote d’Or which is a tiny hilly district running along the narrow strip of the Saone River. Cote d’Or is traditionally separated into the stronger type of red wines, the Cote de Nuites, from which the French wine Nuits-Saint-Georges arose, and the lighter, more delicate type, the Cote de Baune, which is made famous by the Pommard French wine and the Volnay. French wines of equal repute are the dry white Burgundies like the Chablis from the northern region and the Meursults from the southern part of Cote d’Or.

The finest sparkling wine in the world unquestionably comes from Champagne, France. Champagne is fermented from Chardonnay grapes or sometimes called the “Blanc de Blanc.”  Thick and delicately dry, chardonnay can be aged for several years, depending on its source. Other good sources of sparkling French wines of lesser stature are Burgundy, Savoie, and Loire, which incidentally produces practically all styles of French wines from fruity reds to flinty whites.

The Loire Valley produces three famous dessert wines, namely, Bonnezeaux, Coteaux du Layon, and Quarts de Chaume. These exquisitely sweet French wines are made entirely from Chenin grapes which are left in the vine until they become overripe and begin to acquire that so-called “noble rot.”

Countless other French wines are mass-produced in the country every harvest season.

California Dreamin’ and Winin’

 

Many countries besides France produce fine quality wines. Among these countries is the United States, specifically the State of California. While Washington and Oregon states are also gaining popularity in terms of fine quality wines produced from their vineyards, California has long had a strong foothold in worldwide wine production.

A single bottle of California wine recounts the Golden State story: The lush of spring in a vineyard. A  European who risks a fortune on a dream. The ancient study of cultivating flavor from soil. And then, the rejoicing when the vision became a successful reality embodied in a California wine bottle.

“California can produce as noble and generous a wine as any in Europe, more in quantity to the acre and without repeated failures through frosts, summer rains, hailstorms, or other causes,” Count Agoston Haraszthy de Mokcsa, the “father of California wine,” affirmed after an extensive tour of Europe and the Americas in search for the perfect land to plant his dream vineyard.

This declaration was spurred when the Count saw the warm days and breezy nights of the temperate valley of Sonoma, the state’s premier producer of California wine, and found in it a dormant resource for planting excellent vineyards.

In 1975, Napa Valley, a close neighbor to Sonoma, had about 20 California wine-making industries. Today, it has well over 200 and that’s only counting the California wine industry giants like Hess, Pepperwood Grove, and Beringer. Development in Sonoma County has the cool Carneros region carpeted with several vineyards. These wineries produce some of the best of California wines: Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Zinfandel.

Wines from Down Under

 

Unlike the traditional wineries of France and Spain, Australian wine names are not based on the regions from which they are produced. So no “Champagne wine” for Champagne, France in Australia. Australian wines are named after the actual grapes.

The delicate art of wine-making was first introduced in Australia in 1788 by Captain Phillip of Her English Majesty’s First Fleet. It is understood that the first vines were planted in Farm Cove, which is now called the Sidney Botanical Gardens, thus setting the foundation of a long and interesting tradition of Australian wine and wine-making.

In the following years, many others followed in the steps of the British ship captain and soon, the first of Australian wines emerged. Because of its quality and better market price, the fledgling Australian wine industry got great reception overseas.

The country’s best known Australian wine region is in Barossa Valley. Located in the southeast and just north of Adelaide, Barossa is one of the older regions for Australian wine growing and is recognized for its fine reds like the Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. It is also home to a varied mix of winemakers, from the industry heavyweights like Penfolds to one-person ventures.

Near Barossa is Clare Valley, another of Australia’s oldest wine regions and also one of the most scenic.  With its hilly landscape, dry climate, and low irrigation, Clare Valley produces strongly flavored Australian wines, like the famous white wine, Reisling, as well as other red varieties.

Just a one-hour drive from Adelaide is Coonawarra, considered the center of the Australian wine growing industry of the South East region what with its total of 21 wineries just along the road to Penola. This red strip of land is best known for its Cabernet Sauvignon, indeed the commonest of Australian wines.

The most visited of Australian wine regions in the country, Hunter Valley is found just two hours away from cosmopolitan Sydney. It was originally recognized as the leading producer of Shiraz, but later on, it was known for producing the best kinds of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

In McLaren Vale, south of Adelaide, the main wineries can be found in Langhorne, Reynella, incidentally, also home to the first winery in 1838. Because it spreads across a territory of varied soil types, McLaren Vale can produce an infinite variety of Australian wines from full reds, sweet dessert wines, to delicate whites, like the Sauvignon Blanc.

Australian wines tend to have a fruitier, more prominently sweet flavor which lends charm to even the lesser wines. Aussie winemakers are also shrewd in blending wines from various regions and carefully applying cellar treatments to create a more personal stamp on their products.

Of course, there are several other regions where vineyards thrive with most of them in Europe (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, to name a few). Browse through your local wine shop for some good selections and don’t hesitate to ask the merchant for some good advice.

Step 2: Identify the Grape Variety

Another way of knowing your wine is to identify the grape variety. As you probably know, wine is a type of fermented drink made from crushing grape fruits together.

Ever seen a Latin movie or at least one that features a scene in rural Mexico or Spain where a bunch of peasant women dance barefoot on a huge wooden basin while the men stand outside, likely ogling as they strummed their guitars or clap their hands in accompaniment? One such scene was featured in the movie, A Walk in the Clouds with Keanu Reeves on it.

Anyway, the point is that while the whole scene looks like an expression of childish fun, you are actually looking at a fine example of wine making in progress. Not all wineries follow the same procedure, of course, but you get the drift – that wine comes from grapes and the wine varies according to the variety of grapes used.

Note that wine grape varieties represent a very small portion of the more than 600 kinds of grapes around. With each variety, the characteristics of wine may include a unique combination of the following distinctions: color, size, skin thickness, acidity, yield per vine, and flavors. Generally, wine grape varieties are classified under two broad categories:

  • White grapes which yields Muscat, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Riesling, Semillon, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, among others

  • Red grapes which yields Merlot, Petit Sirah, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, to name a few.

Naturally the white category yields white and sparkling wines like champagne while the red ones produce the heavier-bodied, more flavorful red wines.

Now, you might ask: What about these so-called “pink” wines? Sometimes called rosé, pink wines are actually made from red grapes but because the grape skin was removed before all the color could set in, the resulting wine has only a dusky pink color like blush.

Not many wine lovers like pink wines but they may turn to be nice treats for the summer.

 

Step 3: Recognize the Vintage

Lastly, know which wines are good and which are ones are better by recognizing their vintage.

Vintage, in wine lingo, means the yield of wine or grapes from a vineyard or district during one season. Or simply stated, it is the overall condition of the grape harvest of the specified region in any given year.

There are good years and bad years for wines. “Off” season generally means that the wines are so bad they don’t even deserve mention from sophisticated wine lovers.

Before the 1950s, wine makers were completely at the mercy of Nature. Climate changes like if it rains too hard or too little could result in subtle variations to the grapes, affecting the taste, flavor, aroma, and body of the wines they yield. So a knowledge about vintage might just be your ticket to picking up the good bottles from the local wine shop.

And these are the steps to choosing a wine that is just perfect, whether it is for a dinner party, pizza night with your friends, or a quiet evening alone.

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Wine Characteristics

November 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Wine Characteristics Around the World

 

             Desirable characteristics of fine wines depend on a combination of soil, climate, variety of grape and the methods of cultivation used in the vineyard. Wine growers are constantly striving to produce award-winning wines by utilizing new and proven growing methods to get the best characteristics.

Some important characteristics that are considered during wine judging include bouquet, acidity, body, crispness and sweetness.  Wines with the most desirable characteristics are usually those from the most advantageous location.

Italy tops the list of wines with the most highly appreciated characteristics. The region of Tuscany is especially renowned as producing excellent wines. A combination of location and the ancient culture used to produce the wine is thought to be the key to their quality of excellence.

France is also known worldwide for producing consistently excellent wines. A few of the top regions for growing wines in France are Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne and Provence.

Each region has its own style of wine and each bases its reputation on the style and quality of their wines. The quality of French wines is determined by the methods of production used to ensure the quality characteristics that have made French wines distinguishable from others.

A surge in production of quality wines in countries such as Australia, Argentina and the USA has been built largely by the countries investing highly in the study of all aspects of wine making – from growing to bottling.

While judging the desirable characteristics of wine is complex and confusing, most wine aficionados agree that the variety of the grape is a key factor. Labeled by wine judges as “varietal character,” the flavor of the grape used in a specific wine is a considered to be a positive characteristic.

There is an entire language of wine used to describe a wine’s characteristics. When heard for the first time, the language seems to have a poetic quality about it, but in reality it helps wine lovers, judges and growers communicate with each other.

Words such as robust, aromatic and full-bodied are as elementary to a wine enthusiast as bundt, confection and crème frache are to a chef.  The fun in discovering the various wine characteristics is to sample wines from around the world and see if you can match the characteristics to the wine.

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Wine Tasting

November 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Taste Wine like an Expert

 

Lots of people today are fond of drinking wine, for whatever reason. You may be one of these people. But here’s a question for you: Do you simply drink wine? Or do you take the time to actually taste it?

Yes, there is a difference.

While anyone can drink wine (even straight from the bottle), it takes practice and a glassful of knowledge (some would call it ‘snobbism) to be able to recognize and distinguish the many subtle characteristics of wine.

Wine tasting is an art. Well, sure you are not required to do everything that wine “snobs” do, but if you really want to fully appreciate the sensual and cerebral pleasure that wine offers, then you have come to the right place.

Here you will learn how to eyeball the liquid through a wineglass, swirl it around your tongue, and swish it down without swallowing too soon and everything else that you want to know about wine tasting.

You might ask: “Why so many things when you’re only supposed to taste the wine?” The answer is: Don’t let the phrase “wine tasting” fool you. While tasting is the real goal, the whole process actually involves each of your senses – sight, smell, and hearing.

Hearing? Why, of course! Why do you think people clink their glasses together before drinking? The old folks say that it’s to ward the spirits away but that’s just old wives’ tale. The real reason is to complete the whole wine experience by adding hearing to sight, smell, and taste.

Follow What Experts Do

 

It does not take a connoisseur to properly appreciate wine. Believe it or not, wine tasting is not some mysterious initiation stage to the world of oenology. On the contrary, it is as ordinary as eating dinner but with profound connotations.

It is an art, after all. And because of that it is purely subjective.

Tasting wine is about enjoyment and preferences, much like choosing a wine bottle from a gazillion of them lined up in the shop.

But the great thing about it is that instead of just looking at labels and examining the vintage and asking questions from that cheerful faced guy who works at the store ,you actually get to experience the wine in all its viniferous glory.

There are no rules but if you are looking for at least some guidelines, then follow what the experts do, performing the following steps:

Looks are Everything

 

Ever seen a wine expert stare at a glass of wine for a very, very, very long  time? And they do it for every glass of wine, too, as they mouth fancy talk about oaks and butter (hey, it’s wine!) before they tip the glass down, pinky extended, eyes closed….

It might look like nothing but snobbery to you but really it only makes sense that the individual tasting the wine does all of this. (Well, except the extended pinky maybe.) As for the “oak” and “butter” comment, that is just the wine talking – as in, wine jargon, which you will learn later on.

The reason wine experts look at the glass before tasting is not that there is some buried treasure somewhere in there. Nor is it a way for them to decipher the ways of the world, although a glass of wine could contain a drop of history, agriculture, botany, geography, religion, psychology, anthropology and more.

However, the real reason is COLOR.

You will be surprised at how much you can learn about the wine just by examining its color. In fact, color assessment is so important to the “look stage” of wine tasting that there is even a sort of ritual for it:

  • Use a white tabletop.

  • Tilt the glass against the white background.

  • Look at the wine.

White wine should be anywhere from almost water white to a deep straw yellow, depending on style and age. More color means more flavors and more maturity. Red wine should be light cherry red, deep ruby, or even darker to the point of almost mahogany brown.

Note the contrast between whites and reds:

  • Age ruins white wines so the fresher a white wine is the better. Brown colored white wines often mean the wine is tainted.

  • Age improves red wines. Red wines become lighter in color as they age. The older the red wine, the better.

If you notice that the color changes between the core or center and the rim, this is an indication of age. A purplish tinge near the rim indicates youth while orange to brown indicates maturity.

Next to color, another important consideration at this stage of wine tasting is the CLARITY and HAZINESS.

Wines should be clear with no obvious haze in them. If the wine you are tasting looks a bit cloudy, then chances are it is a tainted one and will probably taste bad.

Sniff out the Differences

 

If you have been to a wine tasting event, then you may have been taken aback when some wine wannabe came up and promptly launched into a lengthy discussion about a wine’s nose.

What! What? Wines have noses?

Errr, not really, but they do have scent.

What wine people really mean when they talk about a “nose” is the aroma or smell. Much of the stuff that we perceive as tastes of wines is actually aromas.

We are only capable of tasting four different flavors: salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. But when it comes to smell, our nose sensors can detect 200 different scents, still lower than that of our dogs, but good enough to appreciate the different intricate aromas of wine.

The key to smelling wine is to swirl it. This is the reason why you never fill your glass to the brim when tasting a wine. Swirling as opposed to stirring will activate the ingredients in the wine, causing it to release a scent.

Sniff out that scent and try to describe.

Is it woody? Fruity? Floral? Vegetal? Earthy? Nutty? Buttery? Citrus? Spicy?

Huh?

They may all sound intimidating to you but these are the general classifications of wine scents and it will help you in the long run , the sooner you familiarize yourself with these.

And when you have mastered the scents, then feel free to express your own scent observation, like trying some exotic tropical fruit to describe a particular smell.

Also, some wines have naturally complex smells so fusing floral with fruity or with some other smell is expected.

Here are the common scents of wine:

  • WOODY wines can be anything from cedar to pine needles, oak, or coconut. The perfect examples would be Cabernet Sauvignon, the Big Daddy of Red Wines, and Merlot, which is a closely related grape varietal, with hints of fruity currant smell.

  • VEGETAL wines smell like green olives or green peppers. But some may also carry a hint of tobacco leaves or grass.

  • Vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, and almonds make up the scents of NUTTY wines. The smell is a result of aging the wine in oak. Some wines (those that have gone through extended bottle aging) have a certain toasty quality to them reminiscent of EARTHY scents: mushrooms, old leather, roses and wildflowers.

  • FRUITY. Certain grape varietals have trademark aromas. Zinfandel, for instance, often evokes berries. Pinot Noir, on the other hand, may recall the famous violets and spice of its wine region, Burgundy. Syrah, the French Rhone grape, brings about the pungently floral quality of freshly ground black pepper.

  • COMPLEX. Chardonnay is a white wine that recalls crisp, ripe apples though some styles may contain notes of butter, coconut, and figs. If aged in oak, Chardonnay may also carry some hints of tropical fruits.

  • SPICY. Sauvignon Blanc is grassy and sometimes grapefruit while Chenin Blanc is melon and on occasion, orange blossoms. Muscat and Gewurztraminer smell like peaches with a dash of the elusive spice.

After distinguishing the smell of a particular wine, you have two options available:

  • Take another deeper whiff; or

  • Take a sip.

The first sniff serves only to give you an initial impression of what the wine smells like. If you feel you are ready for the next step (tasting), then by all means go ahead. However, if you have yet to get down real good with the complex smell, then take another whiff, bigger this time.

It might help if you jot down notes of the aromas to a certain label. That way, the next time you go to a wine shop and recognize the label, you don’t have to smell or taste it again to know if it suits your taste..

Tasting 1, 2, 3

 

As mentioned earlier, we are only capable of tasting four different flavors – salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. Or at least, that’s what science says. In any case, wine tasting is an art so it does not have to be as exact.

Besides, taste has always been more than just what we feel with our taste buds. We taste the sweetness of victory and the bitterness of defeat, don’t we? And we savor life and sample the different flavors of experience.

Indeed, taste is far more complex than a mere recognition of the four distinct flavors. It a complex sensory experience that combines taste, smell, and touch.

There are three steps involved when you get to this final stage of wine tasting:

  • INITIAL TASTE – We call it first impression. Wine snobs call it the stage where the wine awakens your senses. Actually, this is just the part where you take your first actual sip of the wine and allow your taste buds to respond to the sensation.

The first thing you are going to notice is the dryness or sweetness of the wine. Dry means that the sugar has been transformed during fermentation to alcohol and sweet means, well, sweet. Dry taste somehow is sour when there could be spoilage in the wine.

  • TASTE – This is the part where you do the actual tasting. Slosh the wine around with your mouth closed (of course) and then, draw in some air. You are probably going to look a bit ridiculous in front of your dinner guests, but hey, small price to pay to look like a real expert. Now, sit back and try to assimilate both smell and taste of the wine.

Acidity is the next discernable factor that you should look out for. It is important, acidity, as it is that aspect that gives wine that “bite” to the tongue, that briskness, caused by the presence of tannins. If the wine lacks acidity, it is going to taste flat and uninspiring.

Also another factor is the weight so the “touch” part of wine tasting should come in handy. You will know if the wine is light bodied because the liquid is going to feel like watery thin. On the other hand, if the wine is heavy bodied, it’s going to have the semblance of a viscous fluid.

  • AFTERTASTE – This is the taste that remains in your mouth after you have swallowed the wine. We have mentioned tannins in the previous step. What you don’t know yet is that these vital components that are numerous in red wines stick to the roof of your mouth and have a drying effect. How long did the taste last? Is it pleasant?

When wine tasting some wine experts like to assign a number score to the wine and this is then added to the accumulated points that the wine has, representing its quality. This method is useful if you are writing for a wine magazine, a wine forum, or a wine newsletter. However, if you are just an average Joe with a taste for wine, the scores won’t make much sense.

If you really want to become like an expert at tasting wines, then taste as many as you can. The more variations, the better you’ll get in differentiating the unique but subtle characteristics of wine.

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Touring the Wine Regions

October 19, 2011 by Leave a Comment

WINE ON THE GO:
Touring the Wine Regions

 

Traveling these days has become the norm rather than the exception.

Beaches? Sun, sand, and surf can become boring if you have been doing it for every vacation time you get.

Yes, you can always change the venue. Hey, instead of the Caribbean, let’s go to Kauai this year! Then Mexico next year! And India in the next! And so on and so forth.

But sand is sand no matter which part of the world you are in and after a while you lose your taste for grit between your toes and the sight of “gently rolling waves.” You want to try out something new.

But what else is there? Hiking? Mountain climbing? Spelunking? While all these things may sound exciting at first, but even the most extreme kind of sports lose their novelty after some time has passed.

So what else is there?

The Great Grape Escape

 

It’s a mouthful alright but that is exactly what a vineyard tour means – a chance to sip and stay in the most scenic places of the world and at the same time exalt in the face of a fine bottle of excellent wine.

If you are up for a relaxing vacation where nothing is required of you besides to enjoy the grand view of the rural landscape and a glass of your favorite bubbly or red, then a tour of the wine regions of the world might just be what you are looking for.

With areas that are located away from the hectic urban life, vineyards present you with the ideal escape, whether you are in the mood for a simple but enjoyable walk through rows and rows of grape vines or a quiet evening over an excellent dinner, and wine, of course.

A vineyard tour is a great way for you to sample the authentic vineyard life. Many tour operators offer demonstrations of how wine is made – from the time the grapes are handpicked (to avoid crushing the fruit and squashing the inner part against the purply red pigment of the skin) to when they are actually crushed and finally bottled.

And if this is not included in the package, many vineyards are more than willing to show you an impromptu display of how grapes travel a long way from vines to the wine glass.

Wine tasting is yet another perk to touring the wine regions. It is a whole new experience tasting wines with you standing in a relaxed atmosphere on the very soil where the vine was cultivated and with the very people who helped grow these vines.

Certainly, it is different from tasting wine in some hotel in some part of the city with strangers all around, wine snobs and wine wannabes included. In a vineyard tour, you get to savor the wine and the place where it was born.

In many wine region vacations, vineyards usually offer guided tours of their facilities, lasting anywhere from an hour to half a day, before concluding with a wine tasting.

Traditionally, vineyards offer wine tasting only as a complimentary, but as more and more people begin to appreciate the subtleties of wine and oenology in general, wineries are also beginning to charge a small fee for a broader range of wines to taste.

Going on a tour through the wine regions of the world gives you a chance to learn about the wine making process. As a result, wineries benefit from the publicity. Offset the two and you get a guided tour with tremendous value.

Vine and Wine for an Excellent Time

 

The best time to visit the wine regions for a vineyard tour is, of course, during harvest season. This is when the vineyards are most alive as workers start picking the grapes and loading them in waiting trucks to be brought to the winery.

However, most wineries are open year-round, giving you more leeway in terms of when to leave home for a sip and a taste.

Visiting vineyards during off seasons is a good idea. There are fewer people so you won’t feel cramped and have a real good time relaxing in the quiet scenery of rolling hills and valleys.

As an added benefit, off season is also the time to take advantage of lower airfares, reduced room rates, and other bargains one can find at low peak.

Top Wine Regions to Visit

 

From the elegance of France’s classic castle scenes and Tuscany’s sun-kissed vineyards to Western US soils where America’s marvelous wine regions stretch from California to Oregon and finally to Canada’s Niagara region, a lesser known wine producing area but touting scenic wonders to rival many of European sherry and port centers.

And if that is not enough to satisfy your appetite for more wine regions to visit, head on to the Southern Hemisphere where the coveted harvest season springs forth as the winter in the north draws to a close.

Here are the top wine regions to visit when you go on your next vineyard tour:

Andalucía

The sun is not the only thing that sizzles during Spain’s summer season. Andalucía, Spain’s most famous wine region, also sizzles, in the way glorious sunset does, as the prime tourist season draws to a close and bottles of the finest sherries are uncorked to cap the season off.

 

The vinicultural tradition of Spain owes much to this southwestern province and its best product – sherry. Sure, the English may be credited for making this drink such a success overseas, but Andalucía is the birthplace of this much revered drink. Its official name? D.O. Jerez-Xérès-Sherry-Manzanilla de Sanlúcar de Barrameda. A mouthful to pronounce but its moniker, Jerez, is thankfully short.

But Sherry is not the only wine that you can find here. With more vineyard acreage than anywhere in the world, Andalucía offers you some of the most diverse wine region tours in Europe and the finest arrays of wines.

 

So where do you start?

 

Most Andalucía vineyard tours start off in Seville and head to Jerez de Frontera, the Sherry capital of the world. Traveling through the snaking mountains offers you a unique chance to experience Spain’s warm Mediterranean transform into the frozen north. And at the end of the road, you find the famous Andalucían Pueblo Blanco (White Village), appearing like great white apparitions nestled against a backdrop of black mountains.

Wine tours in Spain are virtually untouched by tourists so if you want  a hassle-free, tourist-free Andalucían vineyard tour, this is it.

 

 

California

 

Known for its wine tasting tourism and sublimely flavored vintages, California is the largest wine producing area in the United States.

Its prime wine regions, Sonoma and Napa Valley, are internationally recognized not only for their excellent bottles but for their explosive wine tourism, a fact that is bolstered yet again by the release of the popular film Sideways (2004), showcasing the state’s Santa Barbara wineries.

So why do people love to visit California’s wine regions?

 

Once you see the place, the answer is obvious. Many of California’s wineries are family-owned and small enough to give that quaint country appeal. Neatly tucked away in the scenic rolling vineyards, the word to aptly describe the whole atmosphere is: cozy.

Most visitors discover these wineries only by stumbling over them as they tour the whole region, looking to sample many of California’s excellent vintages.

Loire Valley

 

This is arguably the most beautiful wine region in the world – France’s Loire Valley that is famous for its regal chateaux and excellent choices of white and red wines. The great Loire River sinuously makes its way through the famed fertile valley seeped in rich history and viticulture and more than seventy appellations.

 

But for the best vineyards in the Loire, head on to the almost exclusively south-facing slopes where the vines get a chance to capture the last glimpse of the sun’s rays.

Vouvray and Savennières are the first two locales that come to mind but there are also many great vineyards found on the left bank of the Loire, such as the ones at Coteaux du Layon, Passavant-sur-Layon down Chalonnes, and Sèvre-et-Maine.

People used to consider the Loire Valley as the “northern limit of wine” but with global warming, that may no longer be true.

Today, the Loire continues to produce excellent wines, throwing forth a vibrant plethora of whites in all styles – crisp, refreshing, rich, oak-influenced, fine, mineral, sweet, hedonistic, and botrytised – and many fine reds.

Hunter Valley

 

Spring comes to the Down Under state as the northerly winter closes. As such, this is often the best season to visit some of Australia’s great wine regions. Hunter Valley is located in the South Wales Valley just two hours north of Sydney.

With first-rate vintages and over 60 wineries, this wine region also offers fantastic views of verdant vineyards and their shops and restaurants.

Most of the wineries in Hunter Valley offer free wine tasting, boutique-style, and guided strolls through the vineyard.

But if you feel like you want to sit back and let someone else take the reins, then you are also going to enjoy the horse drawn carriages offered. And at the end of it all, a picnic lunch served with authentic Australian wine.

Champagne in the early morning while on a hot air balloon is a great way to take in the sunrise. You will get a view of this scenic wine region like no other and even spot kangaroos hopping about as you soar over their sleeping area.

There are also mini coaches, mini buses, vintage cars, limousines, bicycles, or even double decker buses, all available for you to explore this beautiful location and enjoy the fruit of Australia’s vines.

There are, of course, several more wine regions dotting the whole world that if we were to create a multi-colored map of them, the result would be a fine mesh of colors and lines. So for the unforgettable scenic route to discovering the bounties of the world’s wine regions – take a wine tour now!

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Wine and Food: Rules of Engagement

October 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Wine and Food: Rules of Engagement 101

 

Wine and food have been paired for so long that it takes a downright Herculean effort to think of one without the other. The two are practically an old married couple. They bring out the best in each other, and the worst if the pairing is a complete mismatch. But that is something you should not worry about because you will rarely find a bad pairing if the wine you choose suits your preference.

 

The Golden Rule

 

If we were to talk of the old days, the golden rule is: Red goes with meat; White with fish. To some extent, this rule still applies but gone is the rigidity of yesteryears. Today, people are more flexible in how they choose to enjoy their wines and foods and rules may ignored.

You are, of course, the sole determiner of what wine you would like to have with what food. After all, though both wine and food can offer civility, pleasure, and life giving properties, this unique combination of human experience is ultimately personal.

You are the one eating the food and drinking the wine, not that magazine wine writer, so you should have the last say in matters pertaining to wine and food pairings.

It is true that there are no right and wrong answers but there are certain combinations that most people find more enjoyable than the others. As such, certain basic considerations need some remembering.

 

Pairing Basics

 

  • Light wine with light food. Heavy wine with heavy food. This is actually the principle on which the shorthand rule of “red to meat and white to fish” is based.

If the weight of wine and food complement rather than fight with each other, then you’re set for a fabulous dinner. After all, it only makes sense that when you serve a very special, delicate dish, its flavor should not be overwhelmed by a full-bodied, highly flavorful wine.

Relatively, if you are planning to serve a fine, well-aged bottle of wine, bring out its rare complexities with a simple, unspiced, and neutral dish that will not interfere nor overpower the spirit.

  • How food is prepared. The questions to ask are: What key ingredients are used to prepare the food? How was it prepared? Is it grilled, roasted, or fried? What sauce was used? Spices or fruits? Dry or fresh herbs? White or red meat?

The answers to all these questions will help you determine what bottle of wine would go well with your food. But for a better illustration, consider the nice contrast between smoky barbecued ribs and sweet, fruity white wine like the California brand of Chenin Blanc.

Sweet wines like Riesling or Pinot Noir go well with spicy foods – Mexican, Thai, Chinese, or Cajun, while cream sauces and cheesy dishes call for an equally creamy wine. A bottle of Chardonnay, Zinfandel, or Merlot is worth a try.

  • Food Action, Wine Reaction. It’s a basic rule in physics: for every action, there is a reaction. And so cars move, birds fly, and fishes swim. According to Sir Isaac Newton, this simply means that forces come in pairs – action and reaction. The same thing happens with a wine and food pairing.

The taste of wine with food is different from its taste when you drink it by itself. Think of wine as a type of spice. There are elements found in wine that interact with certain elements in the food. And this interaction results in a different taste sensation each time.

Italian tomato sauce, honey-mustard glazes, and Japanese teriyaki are sweet foods that react by making your wine taste drier. Balance the flavor by opting for off-dry or slightly sweet wines like Chenin Blanc, White Zifandel, or Riesling.

Salads with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, fish served with a squeeze of lemon, or soy sauce are high acid foods so they would go well with higher acid wines as well, such as Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, or Pinot Noir. But if you’re looking for something slightly less acidic, White Zifandel will provide you with a nice complement with its relatively low acid content.

Full flavored wines like Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot go well with bitter and astringent foods. Their forward, fruity tastes will provide a nice pleasant contrast to foods like mixed green salad, Greek kalamata olives, or charboiled meats.

And those are the basic rules of wine and food pairings. But you probably heard of the saying “rules are made to be broken.” Well, that goes for wine and food pairing rules, too.

Again, the main determining factor of what wine goes with what food is your personal preference and the rules…aren’t really rigid rules. More like loose guidelines.

 

Tasting the Wine

 

But knowing the basic rules of pairing wine with food is not enough to help you buy the best wine to go with dinner. If this is your first time in the world of winos, you might find it a bit hard finding your preference if you haven’t even tasted the wine in the first place.

Speaking of taste, there are actually only three kinds of wine taste:

  • Sweet

  • Bitter

  • Sour (or dry)

**NOTE: Salty is not a wine taste. That salty taste in your mouth when you drink wine over dinner actually comes from the food.

The rest, which most of us perceive as tastes, are actually aromas: floral, fruit, nuts, vegetables, spice, herb, roasted flavors, animal odors, alcohol, wood, etc.

Every person possesses four kinds of taste and over 200 different aromas. A combination of both taste and aroma helps elevate your wine experience into a whole new level.

The best way to go about finding the right combination of wine and food is to conduct a taste test. Taste as many wines as you could get your hands into.

How do you think all those wine experts (or “snobs” to some people) got so knowledgeable about wine tastes? It is not because they have some kind of secret text containing codes for wine tastes. Neither is it because they possess an oenological database of all the different kinds of wines from all over the world.

No, what they did was to sit down for a few days and taste the food with dozens of different wines until they hit on the jackpot – a combination that is the perfect synergy.

Synergy, one where neither the food nor the wine upstages the other, is what you should aim for when pairing wine with food. And the only way to do that is through wine tasting with food, applying all the basic rules of pairing, of course to enhance your taste on their combination.

Selecting Wines for Hard-to-Match Choices

 

In wine and food pairing, there are no hard rules to follow. It seems the right attitude to adopt is: whatever goes with your unique style.

And the basic rules available are only guidelines which you can bypass any time you hit on a better combination. Finding a good pairing is not difficult to accomplish, especially if the food contains easy to match ingredients like chicken and risotto.

But how about if you stumble on a few hard-to-match choices? What do you do then?

Rule of thumb is to choose a wine that comes from the same region.

Some foods that are difficult to match are asparagus, artichokes, and strong cheese. Chilies and eggs can also be difficult as other spicy foods. Eggs, particularly the yolk part, can mask the taste of wine so you need to tread around this carefully.

Vinegars and pickles can also rob a wine of its flavor. Some wines even react by becoming more astringent. However, if you use balsamic vinegar in moderation, that can be an exception as are capers and pickled gingers, both of which work well with white wine.

The development of regional cuisines depends on two salient factors: regional cultures and regional wines. Countries like France, Italy, and Germany are heavily geared towards regional diversion so if you encounter hard-to-match foods that come from any of these regions, your best option is to match them with wines of the same region.

However, this rule is only good if you are dealing with regional cuisines from wine producing countries. What about if you encounter a food selection from countries that are not well known for producing wine? What steps can you take?

Below are some basic tips to deal with this particular problem:

  • Chinese – Cuisine is highly spicy with seasonings ranging from ginger to garlic, soy sauce and oyster sauce. In addition, their sauces are further divided to sweet and sour, peanut, ginger, and oyster.

The dominant taste is sweet although salty comes at a close second. Therefore, the perfect match would be a sweet, spicy, fruity white wine. If not, a low tannin red wine is also possible, especially for dishes like duck.

  • Japanese – Japanese are fond of bitter and sour tasting foods with a few exceptions like teriyaki. To balance the taste, avoid acidic wines. Instead, utilize dry, fruity white or sparkling wines. For heavier dishes like tempura, match them up with the fuller, fruitier wines like red Chinon, Sancere, or Brut Champagne.

  • Thai – Aromatic and spicy, Thai cuisine is best paired with a crisp, dry white wines. Slightly sweet wines like Sauvignon Blanc, Marsanne, and Chardonnay also provide great combinations as do robust reds. Shiraz, a robust red, goes best with beef dishes.

  • Mexican – Another highly spicy cuisine with chili as the dominant taste. Chili is known to numb the palate so it would be difficult for you to acquire a real taste for the wine when the food is too spicy. The only way for you to overcome the effects of chili is to opt for a wine with taste that could match the spiciness. Spice wines with a touch of residual sugar are best although chilled, fruity white, or a Beaujolais Cru (low tannin red) may also work well.

  • Indian – The common ingredients found in Indian cuisine are curry, coconut, cumin, creamy or milk based sauces, all of which combine well with low tannin, fruity wines with little oak, like Merlot, Zinfandel or Syrah.

  • Middle Eastern – This is another difficult cuisine to pair with wine but there has been much success in combining the figs, raisin, nuts, and tumeric flavor of Middle Eastern cuisine with soft fruity reds and whites like Beaujolais or New World Pinot Noir.

  • Pacific Rim and Fusion – For bold dishes like Pacific Rim and Fusion cuisine, you need a confident, forward wine. The New World Cabernet Sauvignon fits the bill perfectly. But if you’re looking for a little dazzle, try Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc.

Pairing wine with food could be a tedious task if you are dead serious about discovering the newest classic combination. But for us ordinary folks, wine and food pairing is more like a game of horseshoe. “Close” counts and in the end, you always win.

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Start Your Own Wine Cellar

October 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

How to Start Your Own Cellar

 

Imagine coming home to the comfort of your own house and within reach is a bottle of good wine taken from your own cellar…. If that does not describe a wine lover’s paradise, then I don’t know what does.

Think of wine collecting as an adventure. Well, yes, there are a few considerations to think of, but when you come right down to it, it is as much about the thrill of the hunt as what bottle goes well with what recipe.

Starting your own cellar can be as simple as buying more wine than you can drink at one time. But always remember that your wine collection reflects your personality, not some magazine’s or some pompous wine connoisseur’s taste and preference.

So as long as you get your priorities straight, then you should be well on your way to creating an excellent wine collection.

Where to Start

 

It cannot be more stressed that wine collecting is all about what kind of person you are. The bottles you choose, when and where you pop the cork, and who you share them with are the things being considered when you start your own cellar. The rest of the stuff, such as storage, temperature, and years, are technicalities that you can put aside for later.

Having your own wine cellar gives you the extraordinary ability to share precious moments with friends, family, and loved ones. Whether those moments in your life are good, bad, boring, exciting, glamorous, sad – wine gives you the chance to relate all that with the people who are most important to you.

As such, having your own wine cellar is all about sharing wine, and certainly not about hoarding it. But remember that when you share wine, you are sharing more than just wine but a moment of your life, an hour of your time, a section of yourself. How can you share yourself with the ones you love through wine if your collection merely echoes the wine opinion of some expert from a magazine?

Thus when you want to have your own cellar you start with who you are.

The “You” in Wine

 

Choose those bottles that cater to your personal style. There can be no better way to start a wine collection that is truly you than this.

Are you a young free spirit? A recondite intellectual? A chef? An itinerant traveler?

For a wine cellar that totally screams YOU, make sure that your collection reflects the kind of personality you have.

For instance, if you are a free spirit or a New Age beatnik, you may find a big, over-the-top Shiraz from Australia is a great cellar item to have. However, if you are a recondite intellectual then a delicate bottle of Oregon Pinot Noir may be more suitable for your esoteric taste.

Of course, you are not always the same person all the time. Sometimes, different facets of your personality arise, depending on the situation or the kind of day you are having so getting ten bottles of Shiraz is probably not a very bright idea if you find yourself one day wanting to get the wheels of your mind turning. Sometimes, you may want a flute of sparkling champagne to bubble away the day’s worries, or a glass of the nutty, oaky flavor of Chardonnay to whet your appetite for dinner.

Either way, getting a bottle that represents each facet of your personality is a good idea for starting your own wine cellar.
 

Sharing with Friends

As mentioned, starting a wine collection is not about hoarding as many wines as you can, but about sharing it with the people who matter to you. You could be playing host for the night, having unexpected guests for dinner, or eating Chinese food alone at midnight. For each occasion, you need the right bottle from your wine cellar to help the evening go down smoothly.

In addition, you may have a diverse group of friends, as do lots of other people. The best way to show to them that they are important is to get items in your cellar that speak to their styles. Not only that, but choose wines that reflect the different dynamics that are created when you and your friends are in a room together.

Choosing the items that would go to your cellar is not just about you but about what interests you, including the ones with whom you will eventually share a bottle with. So getting a few bottles of relatively inexpensive wine that you truly enjoy deserves a “why not” while having a few big names in your hommage à vin might just be what you need for a truly knockout party.

And once you have all this figured out, it’s time for you put down that crystal glass, whip out a pen and paper, and starting making a list of the best wines that would suit your kind of cellar.

Where to Put it

 If you have been drinking wine for regular intervals, then you probably have enough idea to know where to store those few bottles you like to keep in reserve. However, if this is entirely your first time venturing into the vine world, then consider a cool corner in your house.

You might wonder why we are not recommending those good ol’ wine racks in your kitchen. That’s because most kitchen designers place these racks in the least cool area – above the stove, which would spell disaster for your mini cellar.

Wine is best if stored in temperatures from 58 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit with not more than 2 degrees fluctuation in a day. 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit with no more than 4 degrees fluctuation in a day is also considered acceptable temperature. However, if the temperature fluctuates at more than 10 degrees in a day, then the result could be disastrous.

The best choice you have for storage is often the basement. However, if you don’t have one, consider buying one of those small wine units with controls for temperature and humidity.

These babies can hold about 50 bottles each so unless you are planning to stack a warehouse full of wines, these wine units should suffice.

50 bottles is a decent number to start a collection. If you are starting with fewer bottles than that, there are also wine refrigerators with a 24 bottle storage capacity.

Next to temperature, another concern you may have in determining where to build your wine cellar is insulation.

The storage environment must be one that provides the basics of stable temperature, no light, and no vibration so that means an area that is well shaded, well insulated and with only the barest minimum when it comes to air movement both in and out.

Humidity is another issue that you will most likely deal with when it comes to choosing the right storage environment for your wine collection. Remember that dry atmosphere is an enemy of the natural cork seal.

If there is not enough humidity in the cellar, the cork of your wine bottles could dry and shrink, allowing the wine to move out of the bottle (called ullage) and air to naturally move in. This could ruin the taste of your wine.

And finally, pay attention to the amount of light that streams inside your cellar. As too little humidity could ruin the taste of your wine, so does too much light. Light can prematurely age a bottle of wine and ultraviolet light leave even dark colored bottles with unfavorable and irreversible changes.

This is because the ultraviolet rays can damage the organic compounds such as tannins found in wine that contribute to its aroma, flavor, and structure. If these organic compounds are damaged, your wine will never taste as it should.

Good Wines for Cellaring

 Now that you know where to start and where to store your wine collection, it is now time for you to get on to the best part of the adventure – selecting good wines for cellaring. Genuine oenophiles will find this portion of the wine hunt exciting, but beginners like you will probably find it perplexing. Not to worry though because becoming an oenophile is pretty easy.

The first thing that you are going to do is to read up, before you drink up.

Indulge yourself in wine reading. Read anything about wine that you can get your hands on – wine tasting reviews, ratings, articles on the different types of grapes, wine regions, etc.

You will notice that wine writers use a different kind of lingo which might take some getting used to. But that is the beauty of reading up before drinking up. Or better yet, reading up while drinking up. That way, you can taste the wine yourself and have a better experience reading as now you know exactly what the author means by saying that the wine is “oaky,” “fruity”, “heavy”, “thick”, or “smooth.”

Try nursing a glass while reading a copy of a popular wine magazine and describing the taste with your own words.

The next to-do-thing is to decide on a budget and stick with it. Wine is supposed to be a form of indulgence on your part but it can still be an exciting whole adventure even with  such limitations as a budget.

Try setting a financial plan where you do not exceed $15 per bottle. From that budget, you can work on selecting the best wines to put in your cellar.

And finally, you need to make a list, based on wine preferences you may already have or on the information you got from reading up on wines.

Below is a sample list of good wines that are considered must-haves for any beginner to his/her wine collection:

Champagne

 When it comes to prestigious wines, champagne (or “sparkling wine” when outside France) certainly tops the list. No good host should go without a bottle or two stored in the cellar. Not only does it provide the perfect first sip of a great evening, its acidity whets your appetite for what is in store for you.

When you choose a bottle of champagne for your wine cellar, there are four factors you need to focus on: marque (brand), vintage, size of bottle, and dryness. The good news is that there is only a short list of famous champagne marques around – that is, if you do not count the sparkling wines from regions outside of France, including New Zealand, California, and Australia.

Below are some of the more familiar names:

  • Bollinger

  • Charles Heidsieck

  • Krug

  • Moet et Chandon

  • G.H. Mumm

  • Joseph Perrier

  • Ruinart

  • Taittinger

  • Veuve

  • Cliquot-Ponsardin

There is not much variety in terms of vantage when it comes to Champagne so that part you shouldn’t worry much about. As for size of the bottle, just remember that once a bottle is opened, you can’t save it for another day. So be sure to get only as much champagne as you are planning to drink. If it is a large party you are planning, then buy accordingly.

Dryness in champagne, on the other hand, is something that requires a bit more discrimination. If you are not entirely sure what the word means, it is simply the opposite of sweet. Doux champagne are used only as a dessert wine while Brut is more of an all-around type.

Sauvignon Blanc

 Popular among many oenophiles, sauvignon blanc is a wine you might want to consider for your wine cellar. Like chardonnay, its purest expression is found in France, particularly in the Loire Valley and Bordeaux although great quantities of it are also produced in New Zealand, California, Australia, South Africa, and Chile.

The distinctive, penetrating aroma and fruity flavor that can range from oaky (Bordeaux) to crisp (Loire) of sauvignon blanc makes it the perfect versatile, food friendly wine to have around, especially going well with seafood and herbal preparations.

Cabernet Sauvignon

 It is not called the “king of the red wines” for nothing. You can never have a decent wine cellar without at least a bottle or two of cabernet sauvignon.

Ranging from medium bodied to full bodied and characterized by their high tannin content (which gives them their structure and intrigue plus a rich, ripe berry, tobacco and sometimes green pepper flavor), cabernet sauvignons are ideal wines to have around when having red meats, flavorful and heartier pastas, lamb, strong flavored cheese, and chocolates.

Try to the following marques for producing the best type of Cabs:

  • Shafer Vineyards

  • Beaulieu Vineyard

  • Grgich Hils

  • Sterling Vineyards

  • Screaming Eagle

  • Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars

  • Chateau St. Jean

  • McManis

  • Hogue

  • Jardin

  • Montes

  • Columbia Crest

After you have made your own list of sample wines to add to your cellar, then you are all set to having your very own cellar that reflects your personality, speak to your loved ones, and makes your dreams of oenophile bliss a reality.

Now, you can finally come home to a good old bottle of wine from your own cellar.

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Wine Coolers

October 10, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Wine coolers to keep your wines chilled

The fine taste of wine roots not only from the amount of time it is being aged, yet as simple as how it is served also affects its aroma. Wines taste best when served at the precise temperature.

From the 7 degree Celsius for non-vintage sparkling beverages to 18 degree Celsius vintage port, different kinds of wines must be served at different levels of temperature. Wine coolers were invented mainly for the principle of chilling the wine at the right temperature.

Wine coolers are any types of equipment or utensil utilized in cooling wines. They are may be small top table units that quickly chill a single wine bottle or totes for holding chilled wines. Wine coolers can also be as sophisticated as large refrigerators or freezer units that keep loads of bottles at chosen temperatures. Wine coolers typically use vinyl, metal, plastic, double-walled glass, neoprene or some other insulated materials that helps in keeping the wines chilled.

The tabletop piece units are highly functional in obtaining correct wine serving temperature. This can also be useful for areas with warmer climates. Hand held totes meanwhile, are typical for keeping and carrying cold wine bottles that will be consumed for parties or picnics. Yet these only keep the wines chilled for a limited time of one to three hours. These types carry single bottles or a maximum of three wine containers.

The sophisticated, large units of wine coolers come in various styles, functions, sizes and types. These varieties of wine cooler equipment are practical for those having no access to wine cellars because humidity and temperature conditions may be replicated. This can also maintain a precise and selected level of temperature, as it is highly important to continually keep the wines chilled to the desired temperature.

With several technology developments at the present era, some old characteristics of wine coolers were enhanced. The modern day styles do not just control the circulation, cooling and temperature yet also carries the feature of reading the bar codes of bottles, thereby enabling accurate element controls.

Several modern wine coolers also possess separate chambers as well as different temperature control for the different wine types to be kept all in the same wine-cooling appliance.

Aside from the mentioned important features that a wine cooler must have, you must also check out features like capacity, energy consumption and dimension, efficiency, and volume.
There may have been a drastic evolution in wine cooler manufacturing yet its purpose remains all the same – and it has always been to keep the wines chilled and best tasting.

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Choosing the Right Wine Cooler

October 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Choosing the Right Wine Cooler for Your Wine Collection

Wine coolers are the best for the aging solutions of wines. Aside from sustaining the needed light exposure, temperature, and humidity, they are also very essential in the expansion of your wine collection.

There are many wine coolers available on the market. You may consider purchasing a large cooler or a refrigerator if you are into wine collecting. You may even set up a large cooler to ensure more space for your age-worthy wines.

Coolers come in different sizes. You may find coolers that can hold hundreds of bottles and cases. Manufacturers of coolers always think that there is the possibility that a casual collector may end up as a serious wine collector. For a serious collector, it is important to find the latest available wine coolers.

Countertop wine cellars are accessible in storing bulk wines. If you have enough space available in the kitchen or in your room, there are many wine shelving options you can choose from. You may customize your storing and aging room as well as your coolers with a variety of wine racks and accessories.

Space can be an issue for many collectors. They find it difficult to find the right coolers that will fit to the design and space of the storage place. It is advisable to purchase a stainless steel refrigerator if all your appliances in the kitchen are all stainless. They can provide the place with order and great fusion of styles and functions.

Wine refrigerators are very effective to special wine bottles that are used for aging wines. Collectors who live in places with hot and cold climates may find it hard to sustain the needed temperature. A wine refrigerator can take care of these problems. It is also capable of shielding your wines from light exposure and humidity swings.

Some wine fridges may be too expensive. Some are priced $300 at Costco. You may find cheaper wine coolers for $150, but it can only store 34 wine bottles. For those who would like to find a remedy for their problems with space and budget may convert their mini refrigerator to a wine cooler.

However, you may encounter problems of temperature sustainability because mini fridges tend to get too cold and are mostly used in freezing and not for cooling. Others adjust the setting of the thermostat to get the temperature just enough to cool the wines. You may use an appliance timer or a thermometer to create your own cycle of temperature on the refrigerator according to the desired cooling for the bottles.

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