Understanding Wine 101
There’s something involved in wine that’s greater than we are. You can break it down to science and yeasts, but there’s something magical in it.
Hardy Wallace, Dirty and Rowdy Family Winery
So, what is wine exactly? This seems like a rather simple question, but upon reflection it turns out to be more complicated than at first glance. Wine is first and foremost a beverage, a liquid entity that humans consume. It is an agricultural product. It is made with grapes that are grown by farmers and fermented into wine through the interactions of yeasts and sugars. It is also a commercial commodity that is sold throughout the world and subject to all the economic forces of the open marketplace. It is a cultural product, playing a role in rituals and ceremonies throughout history. Wine is also traded across national boundaries, so the importation, exportation, and other commercial aspects of wine have political implications. Finally, certain types of wine are often associated with a range of lifestyles. All kinds of people, from all around the world and throughout history, drink wine in many different settings, for many different purposes. Wine can play a role in how people act, dress, entertain, and most importantly for this book, how people talk and write.
This chapter will provide a brief overview of some the basic properties of wine, the various types of wine available today, some of the basic processes of wine making, and how to select, serve, and store wine. I have also included many of my favorite resources for going further into each of these topics at the end of the chapter.
A Very, Very Brief History of Wine
Archaeologists, anthropologists, and wine historians have discovered evidence that the history of wine goes back over 6,000 years to the regions now known as Macedonia and the Republic of Georgia in Eastern Europe. It was made in very different ways than it is today and tasted unlike anything we know as wine in the modern era. The production of wine emerged in various regions of the globe across unique styles of wine, methods of production, and vessels for storing and serving wine.
As Greek and Roman civilizations expanded across Africa and Europe, they brought with them grapes and viticultural practices for making wine. These practices blended with the local practices to create unique wines in various places in the world. Religious organizations, sects, and monastic groups played an important role in the exploration and cultivation of grapes throughout Europe.
Throughout history, wine has reflected the land where it is grown and produced, and the people that have worked for centuries to improve the techniques and practices associated with winemaking. Wine has played an important role in the rituals and ceremonies associated with religions and other cultural practices. Wine is mentioned throughout the Christian Bible, Greek, Persian, and Roman Mythology, and other ancient texts. Oz Clarke’s informative book, The History of Wine in 100 Bottles is a must read for anyone interested in the history of wine.
Making Wine
Basically, wine is made by fermenting the juice from crushed grapes. The naturally occurring yeasts in a vineyard or winery, or cultured yeasts introduced by the winemaker, convert the sugars in the grape juice to alcohol and carbon dioxide. Grapes are grown in vineyards and harvested in the fall of the year (in Southern Hemisphere, harvest is in the spring), pressed or crushed into juice, collected in large vats, and processed in many different ways. The juice is often filtered or cleaned up in some way, then aged in oak barrels, stainless steel tanks, or cement eggs for a specified amount of time, bottled and sold to the public through wine clubs, tasting rooms, distributors, wine stores, and restaurants. The whole process of growing, harvesting, and producing wine is so complicated that many full-length books have been written about every step in the process.
For our purposes, it is best to remember wine is, first and foremost, an agricultural product. Grapes are grown by farmers and sold to wine makers who work their magic in a myriad of different ways. Some winemakers also grow their own grapes, while others buy grapes from farmers. Some farmers sell to just one winery, while others sell grapes to many different wineries. The influence of the flavor profiles of the grapes being fermented and the level of intervention of the wine maker during the winemaking process is an important tension that plays a significant role in how a wine eventually tastes.
Characteristics of Wine
In general, wine is made up of mostly water, less than 20% alcohol, and different flavor compounds extracted from the skins, seeds, stems, and pulp from the pressed grapes. Wine comes in white, red, orange, and rose varieties, and are fermented as dry wines, off-dry wines (slightly sweet), sweet-dessert wines, sparkling wines, fortified wines (usually mixed with some type of spirit) or distilled into spirits like brandy and cognac. If it can be done to a grape, it probably has been done some time in history. Most dry wines (meaning less residual sugar than can be detected by our senses) range from 8% - 16% alcohol. They are usually served slightly chilled in glasses that have stems to keep the wine cool from the heat of our hands. Dry wines make up the bulk of the over 36 billion bottles of wine made throughout the world each year.
The structure of wine consists primarily of five basic elements, including 1) the percentage of alcohol, 2) the acidity of the wine, 3) its sweetness or the amount of residual sugars, 4) whether it is a light, medium or full-bodied wine, and 5) the amount of tannins (red wines only). When a wine is said to be balanced it is an appropriate blending of these five elements that is being suggested.
Wine regions
Pretty much all the grapes in the world used for wine-making are grown between the 30th and 50th parallels of latitude. It is commonplace to divide the wine regions of the world into Old World wines, primarily Europe, and New World wines, primarily United States, Australia, New Zealand, and South America. Some regions contain many countries, and some regions are within a single country. Each region has its own climate, soil types, terrains, and weather patterns. These characteristics make up a particular locations terrior (pronounced tare-wha). Terrior may or may not be a scientific reality, but many wine-makers think it plays a vital role in how wines are produced, how they taste, and how they age. A later chapter is dedicated to exploring the tensions and possibilities of the concept of terrior.
Selecting Wine
When people choose wines, they usually base their decisions on the occasion for which they are drinking it, the company with whom they will share the wine, their own personal tastes in wine, the food (if any) they are eating with the wine, the setting and time of year, what wines are available, and, of course, the price. All of these variables play a role in determining what wines are selected, purchased, and eventually opened. Some people think any bottle over $20 is a waste of money, and others regularly spend $100 on a bottle, or much more.
Historically, fine wines have never been cheap, but that may be an understatement nowadays given the fact that many First Growth Bordeaux and Grand Cru Burgundies are selling for well over a thousand dollars a bottle. Michael Broadbent, a famous wine writer from London suggested, “only a real wine snob or hypocrite (often the same person) and perhaps the carelessly rich, need not heed the price factor…price is the final arbiter.” For the average wine drinker, the relationship between the price of the wine and its perceived quality often plays the most important role in their buying decisions.
Other than price, another important consideration should be what food is being served with the wine. When I was traveling in the Chianti region of Italy, I asked a restaurant owner what wine he recommended for my wife and I to drink. He told me he had no idea what to suggest because I had not decided on my meal yet. He offered me an Aperol Spritz to keep me happy as I looked at his wine list and said when I had made my decision about what to eat, he would be back to talk about the wines to drink. The pairing of wine with food, as it has come to be known, is so important to me that I have dedicated a later chapter to these decisions.
I also think we decide which wines we buy and open based on whom we are drinking the wine. I rarely open my best wines for people who don’t appreciate the wines I open. I serve expensive wines to my guests that I know will appreciate the gesture or know the wines I am pouring. Serve the rest of your guests, possibly your in-laws or people you don’t like, the plonk you have been storing in the back of the closet since they won’t know the difference. I keep two refrigerators in my house; one for the good shit and one for the novice drinkers that happen to stop by. One exception may be your boss who may know more than he or she is letting on about wine. Always put your good foot, or glass, forward when it is appreciated.
Dealing with wine store salespeople, sommeliers, and waiters is also an important aspect of navigating the world of wine. Reading through a restaurant’s wine list, perusing the shelves of a large department-style wine store, and reading the labels of the wines on display are other important considerations, and I have dedicated chapters later in the book to these ideas as well.
Wine Labels
In general, wines are labelled by, 1) grape varietal, like Riesling, Chardonnay, or Pinot Noir, 2) region – where the grapes are grown and the wine is made, like Napa Valley, Bordeaux, or Rioja, and 3) producer – who makes the wine, like Robert Mondavi, Chateau Margaux, or Penfolds. Many wine labels are required to display certain information about the grapes used in the making of wine, the location of the vineyards, the alcohol level, the producer and so forth. This information is generally displayed on the back of the bottle.
The front label on wine bottles are designed to get consumers to notice them, pick them up, and buy them. They sometimes include beautiful drawings, paintings, and photographs, and feature special geographical features like valleys, hills, rivers, mountains, or pictures of famous wine chateaus. Lots of research has been done on what should be featured on wine labels. I will share some of these findings in my section on advertising later in the book.
Storing wine
Wine is stored in large and small wooden or metallic vessels until it is bottled and made available for purchase. The most frequently used vessels are oak barrels, which may impart some flavor to the wine, and stainless-steel tanks that are designed to control the temperature during the fermenting and storage processes and does not interact with the flavor of the wine. Most wine is sold in a 750ml bottle, which holds about 5 regular size glasses of wine. There are magnums (2 bottles), jeroboams (4 bottles) on up to bottles that hold 20 standard size bottles, but the most common is the 750ml bottle. There are lots of theories and historical factors that have influenced why 750ml bottles have become the industry standard size and why they are shaped the way they are. One thing for sure, the fact that four or five glasses of wine comes in each standard bottle is an invitation to share a bottle of wine with friends, which may be the most important factor.
The wine caves of the Europe (and around the world) are naturally around 56 degrees with approximately 70% humidity, year-round. Because the caves in the Old World (Europe) became the standard for storing and aging, most wine cellars and storage devices (wine fridges, warehouses) try and emulate these conditions. I have a wine fridge that holds about 200 bottles and allows me to keep on hand as much wine as I need and allows me to “lay some bottles down” for aging into the future. It cost about a thousand dollars and has worked well for a few years now. I would love to have a refrigerated wine cellar that holds hundreds of bottles in hand-made wooden cubbyholes, but my current income, size of my house, and my lovely wife, have suggested it isn’t going to happen soon.
Once a bottle is opened, it is best to finish it in one sitting. That said, I have recorked and stored a bottle of wine upright in the door of my refrigerator for a couple of days and have found the wine relatively unharmed. My suggestion is, if after a few days in the fridge it tastes like crap, throw it out, you were already going to do that anyways, so nothing is lost. If it tastes fine, bonus! Sparkling wines will go flat pretty quickly and I usually open and finish them in one sitting, usually with my wife because she loves sparkling wine. There are systems (Coravin, and others) that pump inert gasses into the bottle to save wine indefinitely, but for most wines, open them with friends and enjoy.
Serving wine
The Court of Master Sommeliers have detailed specifications for how wines should be served. Sparkling wines and white wines should be served more chilled (@ 48-52 degrees F) than red wines (@ 55-62 degrees F). The service portion of their certificate exam requires hopeful sommeliers to know the precise ways champagne should be opened (basically with a towel over the cork and pointed away from guests), how it should be poured (fill just above half), in what direction one should walk around the table (clockwise), from what side it should be poured (right side of guest using the right hand), and how and where the glasses should be placed (right side above knife). If this is too much to take in, don’t worry. In fine dining establishments you should expect this level of service. At home, be careful not to pop a cork at anyone’s eye and pour away! believe me there are even more detailed specifications as one moves up the sommelier certification chain, but this is not the place for further elaboration.
Tasting Wine
Basically, get a wine glass with a stem, to keep from warming up the wine too quickly, with a large bowl that allows oxygen to mix with the wine and improves the aromas of the wine, pour an inch or two of wine in there at the appropriate temperature, and take a sniff, then a sip, then a taste. Be forewarned that wines that are too warm often taste like crap, even good ones, so at least chill your bottle a bit before opening it, even red wines. Use as large a glass as you have and stick your nose in and take a few quick breaths. Enjoy the bouquet and the aromas. Think about what you are smelling for a bit, then take a small sip. Swish the wine around in your mouth and chew it up a bit so you can really taste it. Consider the sensations on all parts of your mouth. What do you taste? I will share more ideas on tasting wine in a later section of the book. For now, get some wine and enjoy!
Wine and Food
Wine is a beverage that offers refreshment and can be shared with others over the course of a meal. It also can be used as a topic for discussion and debate, as so many of my meals with fellow wine enthusiasts would testify. For many people around the world, in particular Europeans, it is a necessary component of the meal. A good meal without food is, like Jean Brillat-Savarin, in The Physiology of Taste stated, a day without sunshine.
Most people think about what they want to eat first, plan their meal and then go to the wine cabinet to find a wine to pair with the meal. Having oysters? Select a nice bottle of champagne or Muscadet. Goat cheese? Open up a crisp Sancerre. Rib-eye steak? Find yourself a premium cabernet sauvignon, syrah, or a merlot. These are examples of classic parings that are listed in a chapter in many wine books or on a number of websites. Most of these resources begin by designing the menu, then look to the wine list for suitable pairings
Or, many critics talk about wine as if we don’t drink it with food, and then almost as an afterthought they realize, oh shit, we are probably going to drink this wine with some food. The traditional pairing procedure places a premium on food selection and often subverts wine to a secondary role. What if we said, “I have selected a great bottle of French Chardonnay from Burgundy. What should we cook to go along with this fabulous wine?” Would that make things more interesting? Heading to the seafood store to find food to go with the wine you have selected might be just as much fun as the other way around. There are many so-called rules for pairing wine with food, and each rule can be broken or followed when looking for unique ways to enjoy wine and food together.
Wine Contraptions
There are literally thousands of accessories you can buy that are designed or marketed to enhance your wine drinking experience. From decanters and openers, to chilling and preservation systems, the number of contraptions for wine is staggering. A quick search on Amazon.com reveals hundreds of pages of recommended accessories that do things we may never have thought we needed to have done. Here are a few of my favorites that I can’t live without:
• Wine Opener – there are many different types of wine openers available, but my favorite is sometimes referred to as the waiter’s key. It has a short blade, a corkscrew, and a hinge that sets on the top of the bottle lip.
• Decanter – some wines just taste better if you pour them in an open vessel and let them interact with the air before drinking. You can use any open topped pitcher as a decanter, or you can buy one shaped like an hourglass for swirling the wine around a bit. There are numerous shapes of decanters, including new electric ones that are supposed to do the job in a fraction of the time. I like the old fashion glass ones. If I am in that big a hurry to drink wine, I need to rethink a lot more things than my decanter selections.
• Wine Chiller – there are some that you put in the freezer and then set the bottles in, or there are some you plug in and it keeps a single bottle chilled as you drink it. I have both and use them regularly.
• Wine stopper – for corking wine when you don’t finish it. Corks work fine, but I have a plastic set of three stoppers with fold-down latches that work great.
• Padded Wine Carry Bags – I have one padded bag / carrier that holds two bottles and I use it to carry bottles to various places. I also have padded “wine skins” that I use to pack several bottles in my suitcase when I return from a short, wine vacation.
• Wine Suitcase – when I was in Rioja, Spain it became abundantly clear that I wanted to bring home more wine than would fit in my suitcases. I bought a wine suitcase / padded box that hold 12 bottles. This is much cheaper than shipping wine. #fillthebox
• Coravin - this is the most sophisticated wine contraption I own. I did a lot of research on this before buying it, and I don’t use it as often as I could. This device allows you to take a glass of wine out of a bottle without opening the bottle. There is a needle that is inserted through the lead and cork of a wine bottle and an inert gas, usually argon, that is layered on top of the remaining wine so that no oxygen gets into the bottle. It allows me to sample expensive wines without opening the whole bottle. This contraption isn’t for everyone, but it works great.
• Tasting Journal – I have several different journals designed to write down tasting notes and collect the labels of my favorite wine bottles. I use clear plastic label removers that lift the label off wines and put them on a page in the journal then add notes on the wine – where it came from, the price, when and whom I drank it with, and what food went well with it. I don’t get overly wordy in these notes, but like to have a reference to go back to when I am looking for favorites to buy again.
• Wine Tags – I have a large assortment of stickies, and wine charms that are used to identify your glass at a party. I have colored grease pens you can write your name on the glass with and a variety of unique charms for hanging on the stem of the wine glass. These have helped everyone keep their glasses separate as more and more bottles are opened.
So What?
There you have it. This chapter represents the basics of wine that I have learned through my studies and experiences. This Wine 101 treatise may be redundant for some readers, and eye-opening for others. It was hard to begin this book without laying down some basic information before moving into more specific topics and ideas later. This quick overview may be used by wine enthusiasts to share with novices to get them up to speed quickly. One thing for sure, this opening chapter just skims the surface of the basic knowledge I have gained throughout my years of studying.
I have listed below a dozen of my favorite introductory wine books that have been helpful to me in learning about these basic ideas. These are also the books I give to my friends just beginning their journey into the world of wine.
1. Wine Folly (Magnum Edition) – Madeline Puckett
2. Windows on the World_ Complete Wine Course – Kevin Zraly
3. The 24 Hour Wine Expert – Jancis Robinson
4. How to Love Wine – Eric Asimov
5. The Wine Bible – Karen McNeil
6. Making Sense of Wine – Matt Kramer
7. Wine for Normal People – Elizabeth Schneider
8. The New Wine Rules – Jon Bonne
9. Wine: A No Snob Guide – Lori Stevens
10. Wine: Become a Wine Connoisseur – James Waldorf
11. The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Wine – Tara Thomas
12. 50 Ways to Love Wine More – Jim Laughren