Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.mindspring.net.MISMATCH!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!bradb From: [e-mail] (Brad) Newsgroups: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine,rec.answers,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: Wine (the beverage) FAQ, part1 of 10 [LONG] Followup-To: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine Date: 30 Sep 2000 17:18:58 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Lines: 780 Approved: [e-mail] Message-ID: <8r57a2$dei$[e-mail]> NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.b7.09.74 Summary: A 10 part FAQ on the beverage wine with various asides Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.food.drink:47101 alt.food.wine:64079 rec.answers:61450 alt.answers:51500 news.answers:192797 Archive-name: drink/wine-faq/part1 Posting-Frequency: monthly Copyright: (c) 1995-2000 Bradford S. Brown (Notices/Disclaimers in pt. 10) Last-modified: 2000/06/01 U.S. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq [newest] U.K. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- INTERNET GUIDE TO WINE FAQ for alt.food.wine rec.food.drink (Frequently Asked Questions and More) By Brad and Dri Brown ------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 1995-2000 Bradford S. Brown PLEASE READ THE COPYRIGHT INFORMATION AND DISCLAIMERS AT THE END OF THIS GUIDE. This version is date 26 July 1997, though it has been updated to include more recent versions of Dean Tudor's List (see Appendix), up through April, 2000. To all who have sent me suggestions, please note many are not yet contained in this version. There's a lot more to come. Thanks for your help. If I have included your work and forgotten to give you credit, please send me a note. Posted updates occur approximately every four months or so. This is because there is a lot more involved in creating this document beyond the sheer typing. In order to create the Index and Table of Contents in a way which is suitable for use on the Internet, as opposed to being printed by page in a book, it must undergo some homegrown programs which produce those items. Also, the HTML version gets created in the same way. All of that isn't as easy as I would like it to be (maybe someday when there is time). Fortunately, at this point, a LOT of the "frequently asked questions" are already in the FAQ and I'm working on the finer details now. The authors may currently be reached at [e-mail] A complete copy of this FAQ can be obtained by dropping us a note or through the WWW at: (US) http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq (UK) http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction --------------------------------------------------------------------------- _ Drinking wine is an experience. To drink for the purposes of becoming drunk is not what drinking wine as an experience is all about. Wine is food. Just like the delight which comes from eating your most favorite food, wine, as food can provide similar enchantment. But drinking wine has somehow also entered into the realm of snobbery. This is a shame for it can (and does) prevent many from getting in on the enjoyment of this marvelous product of nature. For that reason, I have undertaken to prepare this guide, not as a wine expert (which I am most assuredly _not_), but as an average drinker of relatively good wine. My aim here is to try and explain about wine in a way that is understandable but, I hope, not forbidding. With this intent, I may offend some sensibilities or make some outright mistakes. Remember, I am relying on a little bit of knowledge, and everyone knows what happens with a little bit of knowledge. If I'm wrong about the facts, please let me know. If I get carried away and the tone gets too pompous, pretentious, or downright haughty, also let me know. Some *have* let me know that they think this thing I call a FAQ is a wee-bit, shall we say, "wordy.". Perhaps, but I'd rather err on the side of length. As with anything else in this world, you don't have to look at it! To the correspondent who let me know that I clearly personally knew nothing about wine and was merely copying the work of others, I think he missed the point. First, except where stated, so far as I know, I have copied nothing. Any new book or article contains the ideas of author, especially if he or she comes to the subject with enthusiasm. While I am no expert, I definely have some ideas about the subject, especially when it comes to breaking down the mystery and mystique that some seem to want to bring to the subject. Wine is food. People like to eat--and drink. If you choose to drink wine, do it to enjoy, not to be part of a cult. Second, this was and is still meant to be a FAQ for "Frequently Asked Questions." To cut down on the repetition of questions and answers in Usenet, we started this project. The Internet is a marvelous way of sharing information. See us here as a repository of that information (notice we don't necessarily say "knowledge" here). Because of the sheer volume of information, I am not following the question and answer FAQ format. A Table of Contents and a comprehensive Index are provided instead. The choice of what to include was made up from the questions I have had about wine, suggestions from others, and from watching the Usenet groups on the subject. Suggestions, comments, criticism and whatever are welcome. While this already seems like a book to me, I've actually tried to cut down on the verbiage. It will probably get even longer through time. The discussion about the University of Davis (especially given the global reach of the internet) is a case in point. However, this being in nature a FAQ, topics which generate repeated questions or a great amount of replies deserve, in my humble opinion, more attention. Electronic "paper" is relatively cheap. In any event, I have take a great deal of time to try to make the index and table of contents broad enough to let the reader find just about anything--quickly! Living in Southern California means that I get to enjoy the huge diversity of the West Coast of the United States at, perhaps, a somewhat reduced cost. It also means that I can visit the wineries and winemakers that produce these wines from time to time. That is good. Unfortunately it also means that I have virtually no knowledge of the wonderful (and to me, much more expensive) wines of Europe and most of the rest of the world. This guide is a compilation of information, and can grow, through time, through the assistance of the Internet Community. Please send me comments, information, or anything else you think belongs here. I don't expect early versions to be earthshaking, merely distributed worldwide. What all this means is that if I have the chutzpah to prepare a wine guide as a relative novice, newcomers to wine can realize that they need not be put off by the sometimes arcane world of wine and can join it without fear! Since the making, drinking and enjoyment of wine is a huge subject (and I certainly don't know all the answers), I've been necessarily superficial in my answers (though perhaps longer, than in many FAQS!). This can lead to argument about the validity of what I have had to say. Since this isn't meant to be an encyclopedia, some sort of brevity is important. As I've said, I have received comments that say some of the portions are too long. Many feel that specific great wines of the world have been overlooked. This is true, not just because this--so far--isn't a book, but because I have made a conscious decision to not go too far out on a limb in incorporating information about things about which I truly know _nothing_ and can't adequately satisfy for myself that the information sent to me is correct. They say that more information is published on the Internet in one week than is set to paper in a year. They don't say how much of it (including, of course, this FAQ) is correct. With this as with everything, caveat emptor--"Let the buyer beware." I stand in the position of chronicler first, wine enthusiast second. Why do I say this? I received a somewhat unfriendly note telling me that it was clear from the FAQ that I knew very little about wine and that I was merely repeating the thoughts of others. My response was that everything I wrote (unless I said otherwise) was made up by me, but very well may have been a distillation of information from elsewhere. On a subject upon which there has been written so much, it is almost foolhardy to think that one can contribute anything new in what is merely a primer on a subject, but my intent here was to at least give out some information in non-stuffy way, with my own views on the subject. Furthermore, as several have mentioned, this is a rather wordy document for a FAQ. Nevertheless, it tries to remain true to the concept of a FAQ, that is, to answer Frequently Asked Questions in the hopes that it won't be necessary for the friendly folks in the world, especially those who chat amongst themselves using Usenet, to keep repeating the same answers over and over and over and.... To that end, I am quite happy to try to distill the thoughts of others and repeat them here. Ere what's a FAQ for? In any event, everyone is urged to buy a book or two on the subject and read away. More importantly, drink away and have a good time. _PLEASE NOTE_ This is a _work-in-progress_. Some, but not all, of the mistakes pointed out to me have been incorporated in this version. I'm still working on fixing the errors and will then move on to incorporating new sections that have clearly been areas of discussion in the Usenet groups I have monitored One final note on the drinking of wine vis-a-vis the information in this Guide. What _you_ like is the best rule of thumb. The experiences of others are a handy guide but these experiences often get shrouded in the myths, mysteries and ritual. This is off-putting and shouldn't be. In some parts of the world, wine is drunk daily as a part of the meal. There's no big conundrum about what glass to serve it in or how long to age the wine (since most is drunk young). In other parts of the world, the United States, for example, wine often is a restaurant's marked-up profit center and the "rituals" of wine are haggled over incessantly. Since this Guide is somewhat of a rulebook by virtue of its existence, I would like to lay to rest the idea that this is what I have in mind in creating it. Use this Guide to get into wine, if that is your goal. After that, just have fun. Special thanks to the people listed in the Acknowlegment section! The most current copy of the FAQ is available in text format by e-mail from us at [e-mail]. The most current WWW copies are found at: (U.S.) http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq (newest) (U.K.) http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html We hope you get some use and enjoyment out of our project. Cheers! Bradford Brown July , 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I would like to acknowledge those who have provided special assistance, and please forgive me (and e-mail me) for anyone I have forgotten! A lot of mail has been received and not all of it has been sifted through, yet. So far, thanks to John Bailin, Mike Christensen, Peter Curran, Thomas Hill, Mark Levesque, Jim Karegeannes, Sandra Kidd, Daniel Harris Lapin, Jason Brandt Lewis (who was kind enough to send me an entire f.a.q. on port--which hasn't been included yet--as well as detailed information used in "Fine Print, U.S. Style", Gloria Mercado-Martin, Matthew Mitchell, David Murphy, Marcelo Portnoy, Bill Rohwer, David Tan, John Thorngate, Roy Wilkinson. Some asked not to have their names included, our anonymous thanks are given. Some merely sent small notes with little additions, others provided large amounts of material. All of it was necessary and appreciated! A very special thanks to Paul S. Winalski who clearly spent a great deal of time pointing out and providing changes for a number of specific areas of the FAQ. His knowledge of wine and willingness to consistently help out the Internet community is appreciated and I thank him for myself and on behalf of all those who have learned from him. Also special thanks to Jarrett Paschel who first made the FAQ available on the World Wide Web. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- FAQ HISTORY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here's where we'll try to keep up with changes/additions to the FAQ. *July 1997* Various additions have been made. Usenet ASCII version updated to reflect WWW HTML version. *November, 1996* FAQ re-designed for the World Wide Web, including hyper-text links and graphics. Some re-writes and corrections made. Many additions waiting in the wings, so we wouldn't suggest re-reading the thing for a while if you have already been through it! _*Pre-History*_ FAQ written solely for Usenet and text archival purposes, starting in 1994. Table of Contents --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction Acknowledgements FAQ History Table of Contents I. What is Wine? II. How Wine is Made + Growing Grapes + Phylloxera vastratrix + University of California at Davis + Harvest + Initial Processing of the Grape Juice + Turning Juice into Alcohol + Brettanomyces + From Fermentation to Bottle: Malolactic, Filtering and Fining, Barrel Aging and Blending + Bottling Wine III. Aging Wine IV. Storing Wine + Cellar Software V. Drinking Wine + Temperature to Drink + Opening the Bottle + Corks & Capsules + Corkscrews + Dealing with the Open Bottle + A Light Touch + Smelling the Cork + Decanting + Letting the Wine Breathe + Getting the Label Off + Flaws + Describing Wine + The Ritualisitic Art of Wine in Restaurants and other Quibbles + Restaurant Pricing + Glassware + Storing Wine After It's Opened VI. Buying Wine + What Wine To Buy? + Where To Buy Wine + What is Wine Worth?" + "My Signficant Other Doesn't Like Red Wine" VII. Wines + Red Wine Grapes + White Wine Grapes + What's In A Name? + Meritage + The Fine Print, U.S. Style + Champagne + Port + Dessert Wines + Botrytis + Eiswein a.k.a. Icewine + Other Sweet Wines VIII. Wines Around the World + Argentina IX. Food and Wine X. Learning about Wine + Starting Out + Cyberbia + The Internet + Internet Resources + Miscellaneous Electronic Stuff + Printed Materials + Books + Mazagines and Newsletters + Miscellaneous + Courses on Wine + Wineries + Wine Tastings + Critics XI. Physiologic Notes on Wine + Allergic Reactions + Calories + Pregnancy + Wine as a Sleeping Aid + Lead in Wine XII. Touring the Wine Country + California + Canada + France XIII. Miscellany + Importing + Kosher Wine + Making Your Own Wine + Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster + Recipes + Shipping Appendix A. An HTML Wine Bookmark Page Legals Word List The following represents a key word list for the Wine FAQ. If you have obtained the FAQ in parts, you should reassemble the parts and then you may use your favorite software to search for the words as they appear throughout the document. If you have access to the WWW, the HTML version of the Wine FAQ contains the following index with hypertext links to the appropriate place in the FAQ where they appear. Supported web site are located at: (U.S.) http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq (U.K.) http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html 4-ethylphenol 75% Varietal Rule A.O.C. AVA Accessible Acetic bacteria Aging Wine "Aging" wine by shaking Ah-So Air Conditioners and Storing Wine Alcohol Content Allergic Reactions All-in-One Page alt.food.wine American oak Appellation Appellation d'Origine Controlee Approved Viticultural Areas Argentina Austere AxR #1 Baby Icewine Bacteria Balance Balthazar Barbera Barrel Fermentation Beaujolais Nouveau Beerenauslese Bentonite Beverage Media Big Bleaching corks Blend Blind Tastings Blush Bookmark Page Books Bordeaux Bordeaux (Meritage) Botrytis cinerea Breathe Brandy (and Port) Brettanomyces Brettanomyces (as a flaw) Brix Buttery (fermenting wine) Buttery (desribing wine) Cabernet Franc Cabernet Sauvignon California and Touring Calories Canada Cap Capsules Carbon Dioxide (Champagne) Carbon Dioxide (Fermentation) Case Cellaring Cellars Central Coast of California Champagne (Champagne) Champagne (What is Wine?) Chardonnay Chateauneuf-du-Pape Chateau d'Yquem Chenin Blanc Chlorine Chocolate and Wine Cholesterol as affected by Wine Clarification Clay Closed Complex Corkage Corked Corks Corkage, fair Corkscrews Cotes du Rhone Courses on Wine Critics Crud in the bottle Cryoextraction Dean Tudor's Wines, Beers and Spirits of the Net Decanting Decanting Port Declared Year Dekkera Dessert Wines Deuxiemes Crus Disgorgement Distillation Distilled Liquor Double Magnum Dry Duck and Wine Dumb Duouro Egg whites Eiswein a.k.a. Icewine Electronic Stuff, Miscellaneous Enology FAQ Design Fermentation: What is Wine? Fermentation: Juice into Alcohol Fillette Filtering Fining Flabby Flaws Foil Food Combinations Food and Wine Fortified Wine (and Port) Fortified Wine (What is Wine?) France and Touring French Oak Freezing wine Fume Blanc Gamay Garnacha Gelatin Generic Wine Gewurtztraminer Glasses, storing Glasses, washing Glassware Gold Country of California Gopher Graft Grand Premier Cru Grapes Grape Skins and Color of Wine Grassy Grenache Grey Rot Half Bottle Hard Herbaceous Humidity and Storing Wine Hybrid Icewine a.k.a. Eiswein Imperial Importing International Standards Organization (ISO) Inert Gas Internet, The Internet Resources Jails, Wine Jeroboam Kosher Wine Labels, Removing from Bottle Lactic acid Laying Down Lead as a health hazard Lead Contamination from Foils Lead Poisoning Learning about Wine Lees Leverpull (tm) Light Light and Storing Wine Liqueur de Tirage Listservs Louse Madeira Madeirized Magazines and Newsletters Magnum Making Your Own Wine Malaga Malic acid Malolactic fermentation Marbles in the bottle Marsala Mature Marie-Jeanne Medical Notes Menodocino Mercaptan (and bottling) Mercaptan (as a flaw) Meritage Merlot Methode Champenoise Methuselah Microsoft Wine Guide Mold Mold (and Dessert Wine) Moldy Corks Muscatel Must Napa Nebbiolo Nebuchadnezzar Newsletters and Magazines Nigara Peninsula Nitrogen Noble Grapes Noble Rot Nose Odors and Storing Wine Okanagan Valley Oporto Opus One Oxidize Oxygen Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster Parker, Robert Paso Robles Petite Sirah Phylloxera vastratrix Pinot Noir Plastic Corks Pint Port Port (Dessert Wine) Porto Pregnancy Premier Cru Proprietary Wine Quinta Quinta do Noval rec.food.drink Recipes Refrigerators and Storing Wine Rehoboam Reidel Remuage Returning a flawed bottle Reserve Restaurant Pricing Riddling Riesling Room Temperature Rose Rot Ruby Port Saccharomyces Salmanazar Sauterne Sauternes (aging wine) Sauternes (Dessert Wine) Sauternes (grapes) Sauvignon Blanc Second fermentation Sediment in Champagne Sediment Sediment (and Port) Semillon Semi-Generic Wine Sherry (Dessert Wine) Shipping Wine Shiraz Signficant Others Who Don't Like Red Wine Single-Quinta Vintage Port Smelling the cork Sonoma Sparkling Wine (What is Wine?) Sparkling Wine (Champagne) Split Stainless steel Starting Out in Wine Still Wines Storing Wine Storing wine after the bottle is opened Sugar Sulfites Sulfites and allergies Sulfite "free" wines Sulfur Sulfur Dioxide Sweaty socks Sweet Wines of the Loire Valley Sweet Wines of the Valpolicella District Syrah Table Wine Tannins Tastings Tawny Port Temecula Temperature and Drinking Wine Temperature and Storing Wine Thin (and harvest) Thin (describing wine) Torrontes Touring the Wine Country Trichloranisol (TCA) 2,4,6 Trockenbeerenauslese Unfiltered Universal Disenfectant University of California at Davis University of California at Davis: A Graduate's Opinion University of California at Davis: Brett University of California at Davis: Courses on Wine Unfiltered Usenet Vacu-Vin (tm) Varietals Varieties Varietal Varietal Wine Variety Vertical Tastings Vibration and Storing Wine Vinegar Vines Vins Delimites de Qualite Vins de pays Vins doux naturels Vins ordinaires Vintage Vintage Date Vintage Port Viticulture Vitis vinifera Volatile Acidity Weather White Port Wild yeast fermentation: Juice into Alcohol Wild Yeast Fermentation: UC Davis Wine and Spirit Education Trust Diploma Wine Cellars, Building Your Own Wineries and Learning about Wine Wineries On-Line Winery Tastings, Charging For Wines of the World CD-ROM Wives who don't like red wine Wood Wood Port World Wide Web Yahoo.com Yeast Zinfandel -- Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.mindspring.net.MISMATCH!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!bradb From: [e-mail] (Brad) Newsgroups: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine,rec.answers,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: Wine (the beverage) FAQ, part2 of 10 [LONG] Followup-To: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine Date: 30 Sep 2000 17:19:40 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Lines: 491 Approved: [e-mail] Message-ID: <8r57bc$vco$[e-mail]> NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.b7.09.74 Summary: A 10 part FAQ on the beverage wine with various asides Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.food.drink:47106 alt.food.wine:64084 rec.answers:61455 alt.answers:51505 news.answers:192802 Archive-name: drink/wine-faq/part2 Posting-Frequency: monthly Copyright: (c) 1995-2000 Bradford S. Brown (Notices/Disclaimers in pt. 10) Last-modified: 2000/06/01 U.S. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq [newest] U.K. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html Note: This ASCII version was created by "washing" the WWW HTML version through WEB2TEXT. This freeware is available from Damien Burke at http://www.jetman.demon.co.uk/software/index.html This might lead to some interesting or odd formatting, since it has to figure out just what was being done in the HTML version. For example, bold text usually comes out with an underscore on either side, e.g., _this is bold_ . There may be other things, but generally speaking, it does a good job! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. WHAT IS WINE? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wine is fermented grape juice. That's the standard answer. Actually, wine can be made from all sorts of common and not so common foods. Things like fruits, herbs and flowers. Most wine, though, is made from grapes. And no matter what the wine is made from, there must be fermentation, that is, that sugar be transformed into alcohol. If the amount of alcohol is relatively low, the result is wine. If it is high, the result is a "distilled liquor," something like gin or vodka. Or perhaps the ever popular 151 rum ("flammable, use with caution"). By the way, as fermentation cannot increase alcohol content past about 16%, for at that level the yeast dies and ends fermentation. Higher alcohol levels are archived through "distillation" (that is a lower alcohol beverage is heated. Alcohol, evaporating first, is collected and the vapor re-condensed). There are red wines, pink wines (also known as "rose" or sometimes "blush") and white wines. Since the inside of a grape is more or less "white," red grapes can make white wine. The color comes from letting the juice mix with the skins during the early wine-making process. A good example of this is White Zinfandel. The Zinfandel grape is very red on the outside. So, red grapes can make white wine, but white grapes can't make red wine. Wines might be "fortified," "sparkling," or "table." In fortified wines, brandy is added to make the alcohol content higher (around 16 to 23 percent). Sparkling wines are the ones with bubbles, like Champagne. Table wine (which can also be called "still wine") are the most "natural." Both table and sparkling wines tend to have alcohol contents between 7 and 15 percent. _ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- II. HOW WINE IS MADE --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Growing Grapes --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grapes grow on vines. There are many different types of grapes, but the best wine grape is the European Vitis vinifera. It is considered optimal because it has the right balance of sugar and acid to create a good fermented wine without the addition of sugar or water. It has been said that the wine is only as good as the grape; a poor winemaker can ruin good grapes, but a good winemaker isn't going to make great wine from inferior grapes. Now before I say anything else about grapes, let me point out an error I have made in drafts of this document (and for all I know it may persist--proofreading is an art). That is the difference between "varieties" of grapes and "varietals." The word "varietal" means "of or pertaining to a variety." Types of grapes are "varieties." Wines made from a single variety are varietal wines. So, for example, a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wine is a varietal. The cabernet sauvignon grape, zinfandel grape and merlot grape are varieties of grapes. (Of course, don't be confused that, for example, United States law allows a wine to be labeled Cabernet Sauvignon so long as it has at least 75% of that variety of grape. Now, is that clear?) Vines start producing grapes about three years after planting; a useable crop after five years. They reach their prime in terms of crop yield between ages ten and thirty. Vines can grow for a hundred years, though production is reduced as they get older. However, reduced production (which is also caused in other ways--growing in poor soil, lack of irrigation, pruning the vines, climate, etc., the so-called "stressing the vines") can lead to "better" wine. So some very good wines come from "old vines." Growing Grapes: Phylloxera vastratrix --------------------------------------------------------------------------- _ Wine has been around for thousands of years, but in 1863, catastrophe struck. French vineyards were infested by Phylloxera. Phylloxera is a louse that attacks the roots of the grape, causing the leaves to fall off and eventual death of the plant. The bug had come from America where the grapes were resistant to the creature. Phylloxera spread quickly through much of Europe and would have been completely devastating, except that a "cure" was found. It was possible to take Vitis vinifera and "graft" it to American rootstock. The American rootstock was not affected by phylloxera and the grafted grapes were the European variety. French grapes grow well in soil rich in lime. Native American grapes don't (and the wine they make is derogatorily described as "earthy" or "foxy"). American grapes were resistant to Phylloxera, the French grapes were not. Why not create a "hybrid" that has the best qualities of both? (You could grow the grapes from the hybrid, and this is done is some parts of the world, however most the desired variety of European grape onto the hybrid rootstock.) There are many hybrids, but for California wineries, one particular hybrid rootstock seemed to stand out among all the rest: AxR #1. During the 1960's, wine grape planting in California took off. (Some farmers in the Napa valley saw their relatively inexpensive land soar to US $50,000 or so an acre. It's interesting to see the old farmhouses with the shiny new Mercedes parked in front of the homes of the luckier farmers--and no, I don't think all the Mercedes belong to transplanted doctors and lawyers.) AxR #1 was planted all over the place. Unfortunately, it turned out that there were at least two types of Phylloxera, known as Biotype A and Biotype B. AxR #1 was resistant to the first, but not the second. Type B is now spreading like crazy throughout the state. While there are other rootstocks to chose from, many producers may not be able to withstand the cost of replanting and will close. (It takes five to seven years for new vines to produce grapes--too long to wait for many.) The grower makes the decision on what stock to plant, but there are those who have heaped a fair amount of blame on the people at the University of California at Davis (UCD) for supposedly "pushing" AxR #1. It had been known by the French for at least 50 years that AxR #1 was not perfectly resistant. It would fail after 10 or 20 years in the ground. While AxR #1 has many good qualities, whether UCD did not make enough of AxR #1's shortcomings remains a controversial topic. Growing Grapes: University of California at Davis_ To some, scientific saviours, to others, an institution that caused severe problems in the California wine industry. To all, it is clear that the University of California at Davis (UCD) runs a highly-regarded enological program which has brought modern science and technology into the process of making wine. Find their excellent web site [http://wineserver.ucdavis.edu/] at http://wineserver.ucdavis.edu/. The school, as was explained to me by a graduate of the program, provides higher education in enology (wine chemistry) and viticulture (grape horticulture) and not, specifically, in the art of winemaking. Most students opt to pursue careers in the wine industry and take "Planned Educational Leave" to obtain first hand experience with a winery. Nevertheless, some criticize that the wines created by UCD graduates are all the same, "text-book chemistry" wines. They claim the UCD learning experience produces predictable, "inoffensive" wine (and, for example, shies away from wild yeast fermentation, a way to make wines, it is said, with "more character"). All I can say is that I have had truly magnificent wines from UCD graduates _and_ from people who started making wine in a garage without any formal training at all. Wine making is an art, not an exact science. In the end, it will be the _skills, taste_ and _artistic expression_ of the winemaker that is crucial. As told to me by the Davis graduate, it is ironic that a great number of the Davis "bashers" are quite willing to contact the school whenever they have a problem their "art instinct" can't solve. All the arguing hardly matters, if you don't like a particular wine, vote with your pocketbook! Why did the debate about Davis come about and why it is so volatile? What follows is a rough summary of _one_ person's opinion (not my own, as I have no true knowledge at all, at this point). Other people in the know, feel free to contact me with their views! ------------------------- A Graduate's Opinion of Davis From the Repeal of Prohibition through the 1960's "Davis excelled at bringing modern science and technology into the process of making wine. For example, Davis promoted the use of stainless steel tanks, proper sanitation. controlled temperature fermentations, and provided a better understanding of malolactic fermentation. In short, along with the University of Bordeaux, UCD led the world in improving wine making and answering all the straightforward questions. At the same time the wine boom came to Napa, bringing a number of new persons (into a formerly family oriented industry) who wanted answers to the harder questions. Davis-trained enologists were trained in a more food-processing approach to winemaking. No doubt some of them also went out into their profession with a 'superiority' complex for having 'gone to university' when the apprentice approach had previously been the standard. It is probably no surprise that Davis began to get a reputation for sending out young bucks who didn't know the first thing about the practical aspects of winemaking. The result was a backlash against the University. Whereas once a Davis degree was a ticket to success (and certainly Davis graduates occasionally got positions solely due to their degree, not their abilities) as the industry slowed and jobs got more difficult to find the Davis degree didn't work the same magic. Some winemakers then discovered that they could make a name by Davis bashing (_their_ wines weren't just _cookbook_ science, so to speak). About the same time the continuing crisis involving AxR #1 began. Davis bashers would point to the European traditions and enjoy reveling in the grand reputation of that tradition and tossing off names of certain selected great wines from certain selected great years (and ignoring the fact that the bulk of European wine tends to be plonk--like U.S. jug wines--and not first growth Bordeaux). Some winemakers had great success with the so-called 'wild' fermentations and accused (with some accuracy) Davis of resisting this method. However, for every successful 'wild' fermentation which gained notoriety there probably was a poorly produced wine. In the end, the science that Davis contributes to the field is a vital and important factor in the growth of the wine industry. It can smooth out the rough edges foisted on the winemaker by variables which are all or part out of his or her control (weather, pests, soil depletion, etc.). Innate intuition may make good or even great wine, but science isn't going to hurt, especially when the winemaker is open to _all_ ideas. As has been oft stated, a consumers pocket book should make the judgment. UCD makes recommendations based upon the best scientific evidence it can accumulate. This might run counter to the anecdotal results of a single winemaker's recollection or to the idea that a winemaker is an independent iconoclast, unfettered by 'rules.' Free spirits may make good wine, so can science. The chemistry of wine is extremely complex and a great deal of ego is involved on both sides of the Davis debate. One thing is, however, certain. Davis does not dictate winemaking. Davis is merely a tool to be used by people who want to make wine. How they use that tool is up to them and to their abilities." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Harvest Weather is a major factor is determining whether a year is going to be a "good vintage" (or "year"). For example, was there enough heat during the growing season to lead to enough sugar? At harvest time, the short term effects of weather are quite important. To produce great wine, the fruit should be ripe (but not overripe), and have a high (but not overly high) sugar content ("brix"; typically about a 22 brix for table wine). Think of raisins. As the fruit dries, the water evaporates. What is left is the sugary fruit. If it rains just at the point the wine grapes are ready, and before the grapes can be harvested, the additional water will cause the water level to increase, and the brix will go down. Not good. (You might ask, why not just add some sugar in the wine-making process? Some do. Also considered "not good.") Every year the wine grape grower plays a game of chance and must decide when to harvest. Simplistically, if you knew it wasn't going to rain, you would just test the brix until it was just right, then harvest. If you harvest too soon, you will probably end up getting a wine too low in alcohol content (there won't have been enough sugar to convert to alcohol). These wines will be "thin." If you delay harvest, there may be too much sugar, which leads to too low acid content. This also affects the taste (and the aging possibilities) of the wine. During the harvest of 1989 I was in the Napa/Sonoma areas of California, where there was scattered rain. Winemakers in the area were not a happy bunch. As it turned out, this turned out to not be a great year "overall." But, it depends. In some areas not 20 miles away, rain was not a factor, in others it was. So you can't make a blanket statement that for _all_ wines it was a poor year. Initial Processing of the Grape Juice --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grapes can (and might still) be crushed by stomping on them with your feet in a big vat. But a more practical way is to use a machine which does the job (and at the same time, removes the stems). What you get may or may not get immediately separated. Skin and seeds might immediately be removed from the juice. Separation may not immediately occur (especially for red wines), since skins and stems are an important source of "tannins" which affect wine's taste and maturity through aging. The skins also determine the color of the wine (see What is Wine). Maceration (the time spent while skins and seeds are left with the juice) will go on for a few hours or a few weeks. Pressing will then occur. One way to press the grapes is to use a "bladder press," a large cylindrical container that contains bags that are inflated and deflated several times, each time gently squeezing the grapes until all the juice has run free, leaving behind the rest of the grapes. You can also separate solids from juice through the use of a centrifuge. Aside: When I first started drinking Chardonnay, my tastes ran to wines with heavy flavors of oak (introduced in the barrel aging process by storing in wood barrels). Then I was lucky enough to be at the Acacia winery in Sonoma during harvest. The friendly people there had me take a wine glass and hold it under the device that was extracting juice from the grapes. Fending off the bees, which were very attracted to the sweet fluid, I got a taste of absolutely fresh unfermented Chardonnay grape juice. It was wonderful. I then knew what Chardonnay actually tasted like! From that point on my tastes have run to a different balance of oak and fruit flavors in the wine. The best way to learn about wine is to drink it. Sometimes it even helps if it isn't even wine yet . . . . Turning Grape Juice Into Alcohol --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grape juice is turned into alcohol by the process of "fermentation." Grapes on the vine are covered with yeast, mold and bacteria. By putting grape juice into a container at the right temperature, yeast will turn the sugar in the juice into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The grape juice will have fermented. Yeast gives flavor to wine. However things on the outside of a grape are not necessarily so good for the production of good wine (for example, acetic bacteria on the grapes can cause the wine to turn to vinegar). The winemaker commonly eliminates unwanted contaminants by using the "universal disinfectant," sulfur dioxide. Unfortunately, the sulfiteswhich remain in the wine may cause a lot of discomfort to some wine drinkers (see the section on _Allergic Reactions to Wine_). Some winemakers prefer _not _to do this, and purposely create wines that are subject to the vagaries (and different flavors) of yeast that is "wild," that is not a commercial yeast strain used by the winemaker ("wild yeast fermentation"). By the way, some have said that these wild yeasts are found on the grape, but a number of people have commented that there is no documentation that any wild yeast living on the skins of grapes leads to alcoholic fermentation. They propose that these "spontaneous" fermentations occur due to commercial yeast populations that live in the winery and have become "wild" over several generations--and have not been cleaned away or otherwise eradicated. The winemaker has many different yeast strains to choose from (and can use different strains at different times during the process). The most common wine yeast is Saccharomyces. This is a good place to mention "Brett" or the Brettanomyces strain of yeast. But since it is a side-light and this is written as a hyper-text document, you can check it out now. Otherwise, you will find the discussion as the next section. As yeast works, it causes grape juice ("must") to get hot. But if there's too much heat, the yeast won't work. One modern way to deal with this is to put the juice into large stainless steelcontainers that have refrigeration systems built around the sides. The winemaker can regulate temperature precisely. A less modern, but still wide widely used way to ferment wine is to place it in small oak barrels. "Barrel fermentation" is usually done at a lower temperature in temperature controlled rooms and takes longer, perhaps around 6 weeks. The longer fermentation and use of wood contributes to the flavor (and usually expense) of the wine. The skins and pulp which remain in a red wine vat will rise to and float on top of the juice. This causes problems (if it dries out, it's a perfect breeding ground for injurious bacteria), so the winemaker will push this "cap" back down into the juice, usually at least twice a day. In large vats, this is accomplished by pumping juice from the bottom of the vat over the top of the cap. Some winemakers use a screen to keep the cap submerged at all times. Eventually the yeast is no longer changing sugar to alcohol (though different strains of yeast, which can survive in higher and higher levels of alcohol, can take over and contribute their own flavor to the wine--as well as converting a bit more sugar to alcohol). After all this is completed, what you have left is the wine, "dead" yeast cells, known as "lees" and various other substances. From Fermentation to Bottle: Malolactic, Filtering and Fining, Barrel Aging and Blending --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The winemaker may choose to allow a wine to undergo a second fermentation which occurs due to malic acid in the grape juice. When malic acid is allowed to break down into carbon dioxide and lactic acid (thanks to bacteria in the wine), it is known as "malolactic fermentation," which can impart additional flavor to the wine. A "buttery" flavor in some whites is due to this process. Since malic acid is perceived as more sour than lactic acid, the process also reduces the perceived acidity of the wine. Malolactic fermentation is much more prevalent in red wines than in whites, with the smell of apples in white wine denoting the presaging the presence of malic acid. After fermentation, there still may be a lot of stuff floating around in the wine which some winemakers want to remove. There are various ways for the wine to undergo this "clarification" (for example, strain the wine through something like cheese-cloth, called "filtering"), but the most common way is called "fining." When you make jellies, the recipes may sometimes call for adding egg whites. The materials that cloud the jelly are captured by the egg and you get a nice, bright result that looks really good in glass jars. It's the same with wine, even down to using egg whites. Except that the most common materials used for fining are gelatinor bentonite (a type of clay). When and where to use heavy filtering and fining is highly controversial, since removing these substances prevents the wine from obtaining flavors from them, affecting the character of the wine. You are certain to hear complaints about "over fined and filtered wine." The implication is that such wines will have less flavor. For this reason some wines will say on the bottle that they are "unfiltered." The winery may then keep the wine so that there can be additional clarification and, in some wines, to give it a more complex flavor. Flavor can come from wood (or more correctly from the chemicals that make up the wood and are taken up into the wine). When wood aging is used, wines are stored most commonly in oak barrels. It it is considered by many that French oak barrels give the best flavor and that they must be replaced after several years of use. American oak is used by some producers and you can usually tell the difference. Other producers will buy the older, used French oak barrels and create wines that some feel are inferior (but they probably _are_ less expensive). Some wines may never see anything but stainless steel and the glass that they are bottled in. In any event, using oak barrels puts an "oakiness" characteristic in wine. The wine may be barrel aged for several months to several years. Ignoring any additional processing that might be used, you could empty the barrels into bottles and sell your wine. However, during the barrel aging, the smaller containers may develop differences. So the winemaker will probably "blend" wine from different barrels, to achieve a uniform result. Also, the winemaker may blend together different grape varieties to achieve desire characteristics. For example, blending a little Merlot into a Cabernet Sauvignon can give is a more "mellow" taste. This process also temporarily creates very purple stained teeth in the red wine maker. Other blends may seem unusual. Recently I had a blend of 50% each Chardonnay and Viognier. (I liked it.) Bottling Wine --------------------------------------------------------------------------- At some point the wine will be placed in bottles. Producers often use different shaped bottles to denote different types of wine. Colored bottles help to reduce damage by light. (Light assists in oxidation and breakdown of the wine into chemicals, such as mercaptan, which are undesirable.) Bottle sizes can also vary: _Applying generally to wines other than Champagne_ Split ------------------------------------------- 187.5 ml Half bottle ------------------------------------- 375 ml aka Fillette) Bottle ----------------------------------------- 750 ml Magnum ----------------------------------------- 1.5 liter (2 bottles) Marie-Jeanne -------------------- 2.25 liters (3 bottles) (Red Bordeaux) Double Magnum ----------------------------------- 3 liters (4 bottles) Jeroboam ---------------------------------------- 4.5 liters (6 bottles) Imperial ---------------------------------------- 6 liters (8 bottles) _Applying to Champagne bottles_ Split --------------------------------------------------- 200 ml Half bottle --------------------------------------------- 375 ml Pint ---------------------------------------------------- 400 ml Bottle -------------------------------------------------- 800 ml Magnum ------------------------------------- 1.5 liter (2 bottles) Jeroboam ------------------------- 3 liters (4 bottles) (& Burgundy) Rehoboam ------------------------- 4.5 liters (6 bottles) (& Burgundy) Methuselah ----------------------- 6 liters (8 bottles) (& Burgundy) Salmanazar ----------------------- 9 liters (12 bottles) Balthazar ------------------------ 12 liters (16 bottles) Nebuchadnezzar ------------------- 15 liters (20 bottles) _And also:_ A _case_ is 12 bottles or 24 "half" bottles. Just prior to filling the bottle, the producer may insert nitrogen, which will sit above the liquid preventing contamination by oxygen. A capsule will be placed over the top of the bottle. Originally made from lead foil, fears of lead poisoning (and U.S. law) have brought about the use of other metals, plastic, or even nothing at all. -- Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.mindspring.net.MISMATCH!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!bradb From: [e-mail] (Brad) Newsgroups: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine,rec.answers,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: Wine (the beverage) FAQ, part3 of 10 [LONG] Followup-To: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine Date: 30 Sep 2000 17:19:01 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Lines: 495 Approved: [e-mail] Message-ID: <8r57a5$cbd$[e-mail]> NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.b7.09.74 Summary: A 10 part FAQ on the beverage wine with various asides Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.food.drink:47103 alt.food.wine:64081 rec.answers:61452 alt.answers:51502 news.answers:192799 Archive-name: drink/wine-faq/part3 Posting-Frequency: monthly Copyright: (c) 1995-2000 Bradford S. Brown (Notices/Disclaimers in pt. 10) Last-modified: 2000/06/01 U.S. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq [newest] U.K. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html III. AGING WINE --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Most people assume that the longer that you keep a wine, the better it will get. So probably the most commonly asked question you hear is, how long do I keep the wine before drinking? (Since its best to store wine under certain conditions, like in a cool damp underground cellar, this is known as "cellaring" wine.) It is a _misconception_ that you _must_ age wine. The fact is, throughout the world, most wine is drunk "young" (that is relatively soon after it is produced, perhaps 12 to 18 months), even wines that are "better" if aged. While some wines will "mature" and become better over time, others will not and should be drunk immediately, or within a few years. Eventually _all_ wine will "go over the hill," so even the wines meant to be kept for many, many years should be drunk before its too late. Wines which are expected to be matured in the bottle before drinking can go over the hill faster if not properly stored. If someone is giving you a very good deal on an old red wine that you would otherwise expect to be great, start to wonder how it was kept! And a famous name on the label is no guarantee whether a wine will age well (sometimes they make mistakes, or the grapes that year ("vintage") just won't produce wines suitable for extended aging ("cellaring"). Tannin is a substance that comes from the seeds, stems and skins of grapes. (For a taste of heavy-duty tannin, try a strong cup of tea.) Additional tannin can come from the wood during barrel aging in the winery. It is an acidic preservative and is important to the long term maturing of wine. Through time, tannin (which has a bitter flavor--"mouth shattering"?) will precipitate out of the wine (becoming sediment in the bottle) and the complexity of the wine's flavor from fruit, acid and all the myriad other substances that make up the wine's character will come into greater balance. Generally, it is red wines that are the ones that _can_ (but do not have to be) produced with a fair amount of tannin with an eye towards long term storing and maturation. The bad news is that you shouldn't drink it young since it will taste too harsh (and probably cost too much, besides). The good news is that (with a little luck) after a number of years, what you get is a prized, complex and balanced wine. Remember that red wines get their color from the stems and skins of the grape. This gives the wine tannin and aging capacity. White wines may have no contact with the stems and skins and will have little tannin (though some can be added, again, through barrel aging). Therefore most white wines don't age well. Even the ones which do get better through time will not last nearly as long as their red cousins. A fair average for many "ageable" whites would be about 5 to 7 years (some might go 10). On the other hand, really "ageable" reds can easily be kept for 30 years and longer. So, how do you figure out how long to keep a wine before drinking it? We'll get to a summary, but it _is_ just a summary. Check out other sources for the particulars! The Internet provides a wonderful medium through which people who may have the wine you are thinking about drinking might already have done so. They usually are willing to share their opinions. There are several Usenet groups to this end. Two wineries, side by side, producing the same grapes and the "same" wine. One ages considerably longer than the other. Why? While they are the "same" grapes, perhaps the soil or microclimate (small variations in the local weather due to terrain; what the French call "terroir") is just a bit different. Maybe the vines are older. The winery may have processed the wines differently (for example, heavy filtering). (In fact, even the size of the bottle matters--a half bottle ages faster than larger bottles.) There are lots of reasons, so general rules are just that--general. In any event, the red French Beaujolais Nouveau is meant to be drunk within days. Its a light, fruity wine. White wine is the next least aged wine. But here there is a range from a light wine like Sauvignon Blanc or a light Chardonnay, to more ageable "complex" Chardonnay of good White Burgundies. Probably drink the former within a few years (aging isn't needed, and the latter from 3 to 7 years). Dessert wines like Sauternes or other late harvest wines (Riesling, Gewurztraminer, etc.) should be aged. Sauternes get better over a _very_ long time: 10, 20, 30, 40 or more years! Then come the reds. While the vast majority of wines produced today _can_ be drunk immediately, a good number of red wines will benefit by SOME aging and some will benefit from a _lot_ of aging. The ones that you open now that taste like road tar may very well be fantastic in 5 or 10 or 20 years. Look to some French Bordeaux (maybe up to 30 years) or Cabernet Sauvignon. Getting more specific about some red grapes, rules of thumb *might* be for the very best wines: Cabernet, 10 to 15 years; Merlot, 4 to 7 years for many; Nebbiolo, 10 years or more; Pinot Noir, about 5 years to start. Some people contend that while California wine won't "go bad" in the bottle, it doesn't get any better--unlike French wines that mature (get better) with cellaring. Don't ask me to explain this controversy as I have had plenty of California wine that seemed to me to be better after aging (but then, I said I wasn't an expert. On the other hand, I know I like it when I drink it.) So much for the summary. Didn't help much, did it? As you learn more and more about wine, you get a feel for which wines are produced to be aged. That doesn't mean that you still know when it is the _best_ time to drink the wine. You need to check around. Ask fellow wine drinkers (and, any unbiased wine merchant with whom you can establish a relationship). Get a book that gives opinions. Read the magazines. Ask around on the 'net. These resources have the ability to tell you what happened when _they_ drank the wine. Was it still good, is it starting to go over the hill, is it gone? At least one correspondent tells me that Australian wines seem to mature faster in Australia than in Europe, even if kept at similar temperatures and humidities. Just one more reason why it is best to _ask_ (and taste) about individual wines. Lucky ones (like wine critics or friends of expansive people with big cellars) can get to be part of "vertical tastings." A "vintage" is the year in which a wine is produced. Line up a particular wine on a table with a bottle from each vintage, say, 1971 through 1992 and what you get is a "vertical" of that wine. A young wine, designed to age, can taste harsh (from the tannin). As you sample older and older bottles, the wine will mellow. Flavors come into balance. The oldest wines will lose their tannin and their fruitiness and eventually have a flat taste. Somewhere in there is the vintage which tastes the way _you_ like it. That part is up to you, not to the pundits. But their comments can help. There are lots of resources (see Learning About Wine) which can help you get an idea which wines should be drunk when. When *we* first started learning about wine, we bought way too much white wine, which somehow we still have. Some of it--which was wonderful when purchased--can now *best* be described as awful. Since you'll hear the old cliche that you should cook only with wines you would drink, that wine isn't even good for cooking. I plan on trying to turn it into vinegar. Aside: One of the first really "good" wines we had was a 1984 Acacia Winery Lake Chardonnay. We bought a case of it and drank it slowly (like I said, we've got a lot of white left over). A few years back we asked the winemaker how it would be. His answer was "never open it . . . just remember the way it was, you'll be happier." We're glad to say he was wrong. As this is being written, that bottle was opened last night (it was 10 years old). Past its prime but still pretty good! So even the winemaker may not always know, either. When you are just starting out, it probably doesn't pay to buy many wines for aging ("laying down"). First off, you are going to want to drink some of them, and the ones that are "good" won't be so good this young, and they'll cost too much besides. There are plenty of wines that are good _now_. As you drink these wines, you'll get an idea of what types of wine you like. With a little learning, you'll get an idea of the style of wine you want to put away. And you may not make the mistakes we did, besides. (On the other hand, we did manage to get a few wines that did age well and we are just drinking now. So much for rules.) Don't forget, how you store the wine will affect how long it lasts as well. Even the size of the bottle will change its life. Getting good advice about particular wine is the only good idea here. IV. STORING WINE --------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is the best way to cellar wine? If it is a wine that is meant to be drunk within a year or so, you probably don't have to keep it in any really special place (like an expensive refrigerator style wine cellar--check the ads in the back of wine magazines for examples), other than it should be relatively cool and out of the light. Some _do_ say, "panic at 70 degrees" Fahrenheit. For wines that should be aged, a cellar should have proper: _Temperature_which does not have rapid fluctuation. 55 degrees Fahrenheit is a good, but you can live with 50 to 57 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 14 degrees Centigrade). Wide swings in temperature will harm the wine. Having too high a temperature will age the wine faster so it won't get as complex as it might have. Having too low a temperature will slow the wine's maturation. _Humidity._ About 60 percent is right. This helps keep the cork moist. The wine will oxidize if the air (and its oxygen) gets to it. If the cork drys out, it can shrink and let air in. This is another reason to keep the bottles on their sides. The wine itself will help keep the cork moist. _Lack of light_. _Lack of vibration_. _Lack of strong odors_. Whatever it is that is causing the odor stands a good chance of getting through the cork and into the wine. If you live in or have a cave, you probably are all set. For the less fortunate, you can buy (or even build) a wine cellar. Also, in some places, commercial storage cellars exist. Every once in a while you can go visit your wine. There are also "wine jails," wrought iron wine storage cages that can be locked for people, I guess, who live in caves? You should know that some people have not followed the temperature rules and it is their opinion that the wines have not suffered. They have found that _slow temperature swings_ from relatively cold to relatively warm (but not really hot) have not drastically affected the wine. Nevertheless, consistently storing wine at warm temperatures is going to age it faster and breaking the other rules probably isn't going to help. Many people ask whether or not their can gimmick an old refrigeratoror air conditioner to store wine. This is not considered to be a very good idea. To start, refrigerators are too cold. Though this can probably be remedied by a new thermostat, there still are other problems. Wines prefer humidity, but refrigerators are designed not to be humid. If you get around this challenge, there still is the fact that refrigerators take no effort to dampen the effect of the compressor turning on and off. The vibrations throughout the appliance are not considered a good thing for long term storage. Air conditioners aren't really meant to run at the lower temperature needed by wine. If you manage to get the unit set to such temperatures, the coils may "ice up." You also need to deal with the humidity (get a humidifier). With enough home ingenuity, some common sense and knowledge, and some homework, you can convert an entire room into a wine cellar. If you have the time, space, inclinationa and ability, you might want to try buildingyour own wine cellar. See the BOOKS section for assistance. Can this be done? Sure. The biggest hint is that you should build _big_. There is the natural tendency to buy wine at a faster rate than you can drink or store it. So while you're already at it, build for the future. IV. STORING WINE --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cellar Software -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Large amount of wines tend to get lost around my house so the computer comes in handy. Personally, I use a standard database program which I have tailored to my needs. It only took about five minutes to set up the database. There are wine specific software programs available (some even including descriptions and lists of particular wines). I have not seen any of them, but will list (in alphabetical order) those mentioned. Cellar! Program http://www.collectware.com Elixir Data (CD-ROM) http://www.generation.net/~elixir Fuji Publishing Group Freeware Wines Online for Windows ftp://ftp.netins.net/showcase/fujisoft/wow.zip (FTP download) Robert Parker's Wine Advisor and Cellar Manager software http://www.winetech.com WineBase for Windows From Ken Tripp [[e-mail]] : [e-mail]) http://www.winebase.com.au V. DRINKING WINE --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Temperature --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Room temperature. Well, that's what you always hear. The problem is that, at the very least, it is a bit inaccurate, and at the worst (as demonstrated by a whole lot of restaurants around where I live) you wouldn't want to drink it at 80 degrees Fahrenheit ("it's the room temperature, isn't it?") As cool wine warms, vapors rise off the wine. Since your sense of smell is a very big part of what things taste like, getting those vapors into your nose is important. Try drinking a bottle of wine that has been heavily refrigerated. In some ways, it will taste a lot like water, or at least tasteless alcohol. On the other hand, if you serve a little below room temperature, you'll get the benefit of the vaporizing effect. So one rule of thumb is to serve the wine 1 or 2 degrees below room temperature. But, there _is_ a limit to the warmth. To some extent, you can use the following hints for: + _Best red wines; "big" red wines:_ 59 to 61 degrees Fahrenheit, 14 to 16 degrees Centigrade. + _Lesser reds, rose, and "complex" white wines:_ 50 to 54 degrees Fahrenheit, 10 to 12 degrees Centigrade. + _Less complex white wines:_ 46 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, 8 to 10 degrees Centigrade. + _Sweet white wines, Champagne:_ 43 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit, 6 to 8 degrees Centigrade. If the wine is too cold, can you warm it in the microwave? I wouldn't think so, but one correspondent tells me that he saw (they call this hearsay, don't they) a notable wine expert do it with an old and expensive bottle, so . . . . Personally, I find that holding the glass with my hands usually gets it warmed up pretty quickly. Call it scandalous, but I am quick to ask a restaurant to chill a red wine (gasp!) which comes to me way above a proper drinking temperature. V. DRINKING WINE --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Opening the Bottle --------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can tell a little about the wine even without opening it. Besides a moldy cork (see below), perhaps the "bottle fill level" known as ullage, is lower than you expect. If the bottle was low to begin with (I'm told not uncommon in some Italian wines), you don't have to worry about it. But there are other causes. If the wine has been subjected to high heat, the wine can expand and liquid may be forced out through the cork. Since heat isn't good for wine, this can be an indicator of problems to come. On the other hand, increase in ullage is natural over a long period of time and even can be a selling point at auctions. Other problems that could cause bottle leakage would be damaged corks or storage in a very low humidity environment, which can cause the corks to dry out. _Corks and Capsules_ Most corks are made from cork. Since cork is expensive, some wineries are experimenting with making corks from plastic or other high-tech materials. Since the idea of the cork is to keep what's inside the bottle inside, and what's outside the bottle outside, it doesn't seem to matter what the cork is made of. It is questioned by some, however, whether a non-cork cork might allow the material it is made out of to leech into the wine with harmful side effects to the wine and to humans. A screwcap (gasp!) probably is better than a cork since it does the same job and can't "cork" the wine. Screwcaps are now coming on the market in somewhat more upscale wines (they've been on jugs for years--and don't forget that a lot of wine comes out of "milk carton" type cardboard containers that certainly don't have corks). When you remove the "capsule" (the thing that covers the top of the bottle around about where the cork is, which may or may not be made from some sort of metal foil), you may find a cork which is discolored or even has a lush growth of moldgrowing on top. If whatever it is hasn't gotten into the wine (also check the "fill level"--if wine has leaked out it is a further indication of trouble), then all you need do is wipe the cork off with a damp rag, towel dry it a bit and remove the cork. Wipe off the top of the bottle. Also check out the article on "corked" wine. People also wipe off the top of the bottle in the hopes of removing anylead contamination from the foil on older bottles of wine. To the best of my knowledge, lead foil is no longer used. Since foil is merely decorative, some producers are dropping the foil altogether. Sometimes you may see something that looks likeglass crystals on the bottom of the cork (or sometimes in the wine). Assuming no true contamination from the winery, these crystals are probably the result of tartaric acid in the form of potassium bitartrate(cream of tartar). While I don't vouch for accuracy of the information is this guide, I'm told that this is tasteless and harmless. By the way, a handy use for leftover corks is to clean knives. Keeps your fingers away from the blade, but lets you exert enough pressure to get the blade clean. _Corkscrews_ There are lots of different types of devices which will remove a cork. Some are a lot easier than others. To me, one of the harder types is the one that is invariably used by the waiter in a restaurant. I once asked a waiter why he didn't use something easier and he told me that the manager thought it made the place look more "professional." The only benefit I can see from those sorts of corkscrews is that they are useful when pulling a cork from a bottle of wine that is sitting in a cradle (and they have a built in knife for cutting the capsule). Some people don't like putting a hole into their cork (I guess they figure they're going to use it again?) and use a cork puller known as an "Ah-So". The device is made of two metal prongs which you wriggle back and forth so that the prongs move down the side of the cork (sometimes pushing the cork into the wine). When you hit bottom the tension lets you pull the cork back up. I don't find these types very effective. There are _expensive_ corkscrews, like the US $100+ Leverpull (tm) which works, as many times as I have seen it in operation (mostly in winery tasting rooms), quite well. (It is the sort of thing you would bolt to a countertop.) But I don't actually see why you need to spend the money on it (unless, of course, you are tasting room!). I've gotten pretty good at using the Napa motel free giveaway corkscrew (you can get them for about US $1). At home we like to use the approximately US $20 Leverpull (tm) which has a Teflon coated screw and a nice long mechanism that extends at a 180 degree angle at the top which you can push around with your finger when the mechanism is extended (to distinguish from a slightly less expensive model that you twist with your hand). Some people say "don't let the screw go through the bottom of the cork." It does with the Leverpull, but it does it so neatly there never are any particles that come loose (at least so far!). Dealing with the Open Bottle --------------------------------------------------------------------------- _A Light Touch?_ The first real rule is that you don't want shake up the wine (well, most wines) very much. Get something that lets you get the cork out easily and smoothly. Its a nice idea to find something that doesn't break the cork off in mid-pull (there _are_ little hooks that will help you fish out a cork you've been forced to push down into the bottle). On the other hand, I knew one "wine expert" who swore that he could "age" fine young red wines as if they were laid down for a decade, merely by vigorously shaking the wine up and down and pouring them back and forth between containers. I've done it. It "seems" to work. Assuming you find the practice acceptable (there are those who will tell you this "bruises" the wine) _and_ you think you can do it somewhat unobtrusively, it is one way to deal with high wine list prices. Buy something young and shake it up! With fancy old red wines, it can get a bit more complicated. As wines mature, sediment(which is tannic), described by some as "crud in the bottle" will come out of the wine. If the wine is laying on its side, the sediment will be along the lower edge of the bottle. The best thing to do is stand the bottle upright a day or two before you plan to drink it. Then the sediment can fall to the bottom of the bottle. Handle the bottle very carefully. You don't want to mix the sediment back through all the bottle. When you pour, stop before any sediment comes out. If you haven't managed to get the bottle upright in advance, you can serve the wine from a cradlewhich inclines the wine at about a 45 degree angle. If you carefully open and carefully pour, the sediment will stay along the bottom edge and out of your glass. _Smelling the Cork_ Just because there was no discoloration or growth along the top of the cork does not mean that is isn't possible that the cork hasn't caused a problem with the wine, or that there isn't some other problem. It is useful to smell the wet end of the cork before drinking the wine. Sometimes it will give you advance notice that there is something wildly off about the wine, including that the wine may be "corked." See the section on What to Do In a Restaurant for more about this practice. _Decanting_ This is where you pour the wine out of the bottle into another container (a "decanter"). Properly decanting a bottle lets you get rid of sediment. Use a candle behind the neck of the bottle to see when sediment gets to the neck (I'm repeating the standard line here---Assuming you don't get it close enough to heat up the wine, is there some reason you can't use a light bulb?). Stop pouring as soon as you see the sediment. Not all wines have sediment, but old vintage Port does and is always decanted for this reason. Some people will decant through cheesecloth, wire mesh placed in a funnel or even coffee filters. Some wines will say on their label that they are "unfiltered." (See the section on fining and filtering.) If you find that there is sediment in such wine, go ahead and decant, but just because a wine is unfiltered doesn't necessarily mean that there will be sediment. There are other reasons to decant wine. For example, some young white wines may be have a sulfurous quality which can be removed by spirited decanting. Decanting also lets red wine "breathe," giving any bad but very volatile chemical compounds in the wine a chance to evaporate ("blow off") so they're not there when you serve it. _Letting the Wine Breathe_ Some wines (for examples some Burgundies and Bordeaux) when young are "accessible," meaning that you can detect the bouquet and flavors that are and will be in the wine. But then chemical reactions take place and the wine closes up (becomes "closed"). What was there before is harder to perceive. The wine gets, as they say, "dumb." Aging the wine causes the wine to again open up (tannin, a bitter flavor, turns to sediment and won't be tasted--if it isn't poured into the glass!), and is more "complex." Since letting oxygen in the air get to wine can help to open it up, decanting will help this process along, though not as much as aging it would. Be forewarned, however. Not all wines benefit from this airing (known as "letting the wine breathe"), for example, fine Burgundies. Also, you can allow a wine to breathe too much. While oxygen helps to open up the wine, it alsooxidizes the wine, which will eventually ruin it. Finally, a wine that is "over the hill" isn't going to get anything from breathing, since it is already "gone." Experience is important here. In any event, if you don't know, don't decant. While there are those who advocate letting wine breathe, most don't, or when they do, advise a relatively short period of time (an hour for young reds, 2 to 3 hours for older fine reds; and some say don't decant until just before drinking). Some people will let a wine breathe by opening up the bottle, but not decanting it. This really isn't of much use since not much oxygen is going to get down that small neck. The trick of shaking the wine so that it forms like soda pop is certainly an extreme example of getting oxygen into wine; but if it works.... -- Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.mindspring.net.MISMATCH!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!bradb From: [e-mail] (Brad) Newsgroups: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine,rec.answers,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: Wine (the beverage) FAQ, part4 of 10 [LONG] Followup-To: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine Date: 30 Sep 2000 17:19:26 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Lines: 409 Approved: [e-mail] Message-ID: <8r57au$7ro$[e-mail]> NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.b7.09.74 Summary: A 10 part FAQ on the beverage wine with various asides Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.food.drink:47108 alt.food.wine:64086 rec.answers:61457 alt.answers:51507 news.answers:192804 Archive-name: drink/wine-faq/part4 Posting-Frequency: monthly Copyright: (c) 1995-2000 Bradford S. Brown (Notices/Disclaimers in pt. 10) Last-modified: 2000/06/01 U.S. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq [newest] U.K. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html Flaws --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Due to improper production, handling or storage, there are a fair amount of things that can go wrong with wine--most of which should be cause to return a wine if ordering in a restaurant. Some wine merchants will also take back a flawed wine, though I suspect only for their best customers. How often a wine is flawed turns out to be a controversial questions. Some people feel that 1 out of every 12 wines they consume is flawed. Personally, I don't find anywhere near that many wines to be a problem (but then I don't have the wherewithall to consume a lot of _really_ old wine). A good number of people, when faced with a bottle that doesn't seem right (or is just plain awful) will say that it is "corked." They have come to use the term as a catch-all for all flaws. So just what is a corked wine? _Corked Wine_ To me corked wine has the flavor of wet, musty cardboard. Once you have really tasted a corked wine, you'll know what it is--it is not subtle. It is caused by trichloranisol [(TCA) 2,4,6], a compound released by molds that can infest the bark from which corks are made. One theory: you can't get TCA without chlorine, which is used to bleach corks (for aesthetic reasons). If corks aren't properly rinsed and dried this problem can occur. If you haven't been "lucky" enough to experience a corked wine (at least for educational purposes), apparently you can buy the odor of the stuff from enterprising entrepreneurs. One advertised business is: The Wine Trader, attn: "Corky," P.O. Box 1598, Carson City, Nevada 89702. _Other Flaws_ While some people attribute all flawed bottles to being corked, there are a number of other things that can go wrong. A non-exhaustive list follows. + _Brettanomeyces(Brett)_. Earthy and/or manure type smells caused by the Brettanomeyces strain of yeast. Liked by some (for example particular French wines), disliked by many California vintners. In small amounts, can add "character" to a wine. Too much, and forget it. + _Dekkera._ Another wild-yeast caused flavor of fresh dirt or cement. Liked by some (for example in some Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone and Italian red wines), disliked by many California vintners. Dekkera can also come from contaminated equipment and barrels. + _Madeirized. _Wine subjected to oxygen or heat through poor storage which ends up tasting like Madeira or Sherry. No fruit flavor left. Off-color. + _Mercaptan._ Smells of garlic or onion or even of skunk. I'm told that this is much of the cause of the "foxy" flavor produced by grapes native to North America. It is said that the term "foxy" came about because there wines were often made from the Fox grape, where the flavor was first seen. + _Sulfur._ Burnt match smell caused by too much sulfur dioxide (used in the winemaking process) and rotten egg smells caused by hydrogen sulfide from bacterial contamination. Depending on what it is, it might go away if you air the wine for a while. + _Volatile Acidity._ Smells of vinegar. May go away if you air the wine for a while. There are long lists of flaws and descriptions in _*How to Test and Improve Your Wine Judging Ability*_ (see BOOKS section), and _*Elements of Wine Tasting*_ (American Wine Society Manual #11). Something that probably _isn't_ a flaw are tiny glass like crystals on the bottom of the cork (or sometimes in the wine). Assuming they really aren't glass from the winery, they probably the result of tartaric acid in the form of potassium bitartrate (cream of tartar). I'm told that this is tasteless and harmless. I've seem them and they haven't hurt me! A final note about flawed wines. If you are on good terms with the store or winery from whom you purchased the wine, they will often replace a bottle which is flawed. No harm in trying! Describing Wine -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lots of terms have come about on how to describe wine. When you hear them tossed about and you don't know anything about them, you can feel lost _and_ the people using them may sound more than a bit lofty. But after a while you'll find that you'll start using the terms too! I think I was just a little bit amazed the first time I said the wine I was drinking had a nice "nose!" And I used it correctly, too. The biggest point I wasn to make here is that you shouldn't let yourself get bogged down in the terms. Drink the wine. Enjoy it. Eventually you may search for a way to describe it and you might then find that these words are close to what you want to say! There are a lot more terms than what follows, but here's a sample to start: + Austere: The wine is kind of stiff or tight, sort of hard. Hard to tell other traits. + Balance: Describing the relationship between tannin, acid and alcohol. You want to drink a "well-balanced" wine. + Big: A strong, perhaps alcoholic wine. It is a good wine that can get better. + Buttery: A sort of smooth feel and taste, like butter. Most often seen in white wines which have undergone malolactic fermentation. + Dry: If sugar remains in the wine it is sweet. When it isn't sweet, its dry. + Flabby: A bland tasting wine that isn't going to get any bet-ter. + Grassy (or herbaceous): Smells like grass. Often seen in Sauvignon Blanc. + Hard: A wine that has a lot of tannin still in it, like a young fine red. The tannin keeps you from tasting the other qualities of the wine which will come out through maturation. + Nose: The totality of what you smell. + Thin: A watery sort of wine. I have been told that the book "Masterglass" by Jancis Robinson contains an excellent, unpretentious list of terms. There is a very large WWW glossary of wine terms at: http://metcon.met.co.nz/nwfc/beard/www/wine_glossary.html. The Ritualistic Art of Wine in a Restaurant and other Quibbles -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Its one thing to learn about wine, buy it and drink it. Ah, but then comes the restaurant. There's all those _rules!_ Who do you talk to? How do you do it? What do you do when they stick the cork down in front of you. (And what happens when you're sure you want to drink a [geh-vertz-tra-MEEner], but can't pronounce it let alone, spell it?) The evening's fun starts with the wine list. If you're lucky they've brought it to you. If you're _very_ lucky, they've brought _all_ of them to you. [I can recall eating in one of the "best" restaurants in a capitol city of one of the United States. The waiter never mentioned that they had a "special" wine list with the "better" wines on it. He had only brought the short, less-expensive list of decent but not as fine wine. One wonders if they didn't intend to sell the good stuff? Maybe it was how I looked.] An informative wine list will tell you the type of wine, the producer of the wine, where it was grown (though with some wines, that is inherent in the name), and the vintage (year) that it was grown. Since there can be considerable variation in vintages (or the wine may be just too young), this is an important piece of information. If the wine list doesn't say, ask! If they won't tell you, have them bring the bottle and reject it if it doesn't suit your wants. Do not be seduced by the process. If they bring a much younger wine than is listed, odds are it isn't worth the price on the menu. Ask for a price reduction. If they won't, tell them to forget it. The best ammunition is to not buy any wine at all--most restaurants use it as a profit center. [OK, so I'll admit it. When we first started drinking wine in restaurants, we brought along a little pocketbook guide that told us what were good wines. We'd sneak a look at the guide, then confidently and boldly order--hoping that we got the pronunciation right.] Now lets say you don't know about the wines on the list (and haven't sneaked in your handy guide). Once again, ask. In a good restaurant, the waiters will have a good working knowledge of the "wine list." And in some restaurants (more in Europe than in the United States), there will be an individual (the wine steward or Sommelier) who's only job is to work with the wine. Often this person can be invaluable in choosing a wine for you that perfectly matches the food. A word of warning: Sometimes their job is to point out the most costly wine they think they can get you to pay for. I'm not saying this is the norm, but caveat emptor always applies. Personally, we decide on what we are having for dinner before we order the wine. This seems to perturb most waiters and wine stewards who always seem in a rush to have us order. While they _might_ be trying to do the right thing by getting the bottle opened as soon as possible, we're usually more interested in the food to start. The waiter can wait. If you have come to drink wine first and food second, then by all means, order the wine and then match the food to it. Frankly, however, we eat at restaurants for food. Wine is cheaper at home, _especially_ once you have started collecting it. When your wine comes, look at it. Make sure it's the bottle (and vintage) you ordered. Busy staff can and _do_ make mistakes. The server will remove the capsule (the wrapper on the top of the wine, which traditionally was made of lead foil but is giving way to supposedly less toxic materials like aluminum or even plastic--or least toxic--nothing at all). The top of the cork should be wiped off (it can be moldy or have other contaminants), then removed. The cork is usually then given to the person who ordered the wine. Why? What do you do? This is where some people start to squirm. Don't worry, there is a reason for this. And it even makes sense. Once you know the reason, you know what to do. So what's the reason? Alright, actually I've heard two equally plausible stories. Both sound correct, or at least useful. The first is that if you take the cork and sniff it you may note some off-smells. This can be your first indication that the wine has problems. If it is corked or has turned to vinegar, you'll not likely want to keep the wine. (There are other, sometimes more subtle things that can go wrong.) The second is the idea that someone between the winery and the consumer may figure that unknowing wine neophytes couldn't tell or wouldn't complain about a wine no matter what. So they _switch_ the wine by opening the bottle, replacing the good stuff with something cheaper and then re-cork it (I guess with a different cork). So the cork is shown to you so that you can see that it has the marking of the winery that produces the wine you ordered. Certainly you can check the cork to see if it is moldy (though usually you can spot this from a block away, and it doesn't necessarily mean that the wine is bad). You can see if it is moist. If it isn't it might mean the wine wasn't stored properly (but doesn't mean the wine isn't bad, so I don't know how this may help at this point). One wag recommends that as the cork is placed before you, you pull a cork out of your pocket and hand it to the server. The point being, I guess, that there is little usefulness in the cork ritual. Most people are going to sip it anyway. Some revel in the standoff of leaving the cork completely ignored and deciding if the server thinks you either imbecile or expert. Another wag relates the story of dining with a friend in an elegant restaurant. When the friend was presented with the cork, he ate it. A lot of people have written me to say they think the whole cork ritual is useless. The person who ordered will then be poured a small amount of the wine for tasting before drinking. If you smelled the cork, you may have a good idea if there is something wrong. Give it a small sip. If the wine is bad, there is no reason for you to drink it. Send it back. Most restaurants will accept back a bad wine gracefully. But . . . , one should not be hyper-critical. Many people will tell you that only 1 in a 1000 bottles is bad, others place it at 1 in 50. Some go so far as to say 1 in 12. Our personal experience is that it has been a *fairly* rare occurrence. _Do not_ send back a wine that "is good" but you don't like. You ordered it. The same applies to particularly older wines that you know darn well might not have survived. Though you _can_ distinguish this last by recognizing the difference between a bottle that has gone "over the hill" and one which is corked, oxidized or otherwise bad. You shouldn't have to pay a restaurant for something that is bad for reasons beyond your control. You probably have seen people "swirl" wine around in their glass. Is that another part of arcane ritual? Sure, but it also has a very good reason. Swirling releases the smells of the wine, which are very important to enjoying the full experience of drinking it. You can swirl the wine around, stick your nose in it, even suck it through your teeth. All these things "bring out" the wine. I _like_ to swirl, then sniff, then sip. Sometimes I manage not to swirl it onto the tablecloth, too. (See the section on glasses.) An interesting point was sent to me by a correspondent which I think is worthy of reproduction (almost) in full: "Incidentally, you don't usually need to taste a wine to tell it is off. The nose is enough. Just give the glass to the server and ask him what he thinks if you're not sure. Most aren't confident enough to assert that the wine _is_ OK to your face." And whether they are knowledgeable enough or not, "turning the initial tasting from confrontation to discussion will probably improve your chances of getting good wine." Check out the discussion on what temperature a wine should be when served. There's nothing that should keep you from insisting that a restaurant do the same for you what you would do at home. That's what ice buckets are for. I've been in plenty of "fancy" restaurants that have brought out a fine red wine at 70 degrees or so, Fahrenheit. Yuck. I have learned not to have any compunctions about making it quite clear how I want to drink wine in a restaurant. It is a fact, of course, that I'm paying for it. One particularly expensive San Francisco establishment that supposedly prides itself on its wine list sent out a red wine that was clearly too warm. As I mentioned above, there are way to deal with this, if you want to. When the waiter was informed that we wanted the wine cooled, he looked at us like we were the idiots we apparently were, told us that he certainly wouldn't want the wine to "close up" and was generally nasty. When I asked him just what temperature the wine had been stored at, he came up with 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Now this is about 5 degrees too cold (on average) of what the "perfect" cellar temperature would be (and I would expect perfection from this place.) Since it was clearly not that cold and was, in fact, too warm, we decided that we besides believing in the strength of our convictions, we would never again visit this establishment. We insisted on what we wanted and made sure his tip represented our displeasure. Another poor restaurant practice is the one of overfilling the glass. I haven't yet figured out if the majority of these errors are due to unskilled servers or from training designed to move a greater volume of wine through the cash register. Perhaps they don't want me to pour the wine since I'll probably stain the tablecloth with drops of red wine (and I do). Maitre d's and servers scurry to my table in horror when I pick up the bottle. I have found, however, that there are very few restaurants that know how to keep a perfect fill level in a glass and that I am willing to risk their wrath and insist that I pour my own. Just by way of contrast to the prior restaurant horror story, I can say that there are some places that do know what they are doing. A very good restaurant, associated with a winery, in California's Napa Valley not only kept the fill level at just exactly the right level throughout my meal, they did it without my even noticing. A rare treat, in my experience. Restaurant Pricing --------------------------------------------------------------------------- For many years and in many places, the cost of wine has been a standard mark-up of the retail cost, say two to three times retail. But in many cases a restaurant probably isn't paying retail--in fact, the price to them is often less to much less than what it would cost you at the winery. The huge mark-ups paid by the customer are an incredible amount to pay for wine and often means that there is more profit in the wine than in all the other food combined. Certainly if the restaurant can get customers to pay such inflated prices (and perhaps by doing so subsidize their otherwise perhaps fine cuisine), then so be it. But personally I think that it is time to not give in. There are several ways to go about this: + _Learn the better buys._ For example, where I live, (Red) Zinfandel is not nearly in as much demand as Cabernet Sauvignon. The bargains are better (and I like it anyhow). Lesser known wines may be just as good or better than the more expensive "name" brands. + _Some restaurants_ (as limited by local law) who are not allowed to sell wine may allow you to bring your own. It would be a good idea to ask for details before showing up, however. + Some restaurants (as limited by local law) will allow you to bring your own (even if they have a wine list) and charge you a "_corkage_" charge for the privilege. If you have some special wines at home, the corkage charge is rarely going to come close to the cost of the same wine, were it on the wine list. Note that it is bad form to bring a wine that is on the wine list. At least one Internet poster claimed that there was not a "single true gourmet restaurant in New York, Boston, or Washington" which allows customers to bring their own wine. While I'm willing to doubt the statement, I know for a fact that this just plain not true in Southern California. In any event, it would be a good idea to ask for details before showing up, however. + _Boycott the restaurant _(or boycott buying wine in the restaurant). When doing this is probably will have a much better effect if you let the restaurant know what you are doing. Some restauranteurs are truly devoted to a fine evening at prices that are not horrendous mark-ups. The meal may not be inexpensive for fine ingredients are expensive, but the mark-up over cost is certainly not fixed. There is something to be said for the cost of cellaring the wine (and keeping good glassware--which breaks--to serve it in). Also, local laws may mean that the restaurant isn't necessarily paying anything less than retail. However, there are enough fine restaurants in this world that one should seek out and promote the ones who are willing to present a fine meal without gouging. In so doing, they will do even more business and will "make up," at least to some degree, profits "lost" from not over-charging on the wine. Some will ask: "how much is gouging?" I don't have an answer for that. But I can tell you that one local restauranteur (in one of the best restaurants in California) would rarely add more than a fixed amount (say $8 for the more expensive wines) over what he paid. Not a fixed percentage, merely an amount that was about the same as his corkage fee (and less for the less expensive wines). It seemed fair to me. And speaking of gouging, what is a fair corkage? Well, just what is the corkage for, anyhow? I said above that perhaps corkage covers the cost of serving since the glass gets dirty or can break. But then, everything else gets dirty including the spoons I don't use because I don't order dessert or coffee. Well, alright, glassware *might* be more expensive. Persuasive? Then there is the cost of storing wine. If people kept bringing their own wine, storage costs would go up, since you would have less room. But then you wouldn't need to buy more wine if you had a good idea of how much you needed, and the wine you stored would go up in value as it aged (except for wines that eventually go bad). Knowing how much to buy and how much of what is the key. Pesuasive? Corkage can be the way the restaurant makes the profit it isn't getting when you don't but their marked-up wine. But you don't have to drink any wine. Persuasive? Finally, perhaps corkage is the way the restaurant discourages you from bring you own wine. I've noted the price of corkage going up of late. At least one restaurant raised its corkage because it was trying to bring them in-line with the more expensive, fancier places. Does this tell you anything about what corkage is about? There is nothing that says you can't negotiate with a restaurant. If you are a good customer and you make it clear that you will either take your business elsewhere (or perhaps worse for them), come and not buy wine, then their idea of what they want to charge may change. It is all business and you as the customer may, in at least some situations, have more control than you think. There are those that like to bring up the mark-up on carbonated beverages (where it is oft stated that the cost of the container is higher than the cost of the liquid itself--and in any event can be measured in pennies). It is said that if you don't complain about that outrageous mark-up you have no right to complain about wine mark-ups. Personally, I won't order carbonated drinks for that reason. In any event, I don't buy the argument, however. $1 is a lot more affordable than $50. While restaurants are in business (and it can be a very risky business) to make money, some restaurants are willing to charge less. There are those who make cogent arguments that high prices for wine are merely the way that a restaurant can stay in business--and they are entitled to make as much as then can. But I am friendly with enough restauranteurs (and good ones, for that matter) who feel that a more reasonably priced wine list is part of the way that they want to do business. For that reason, I spend more in such places overall. I'll usually leave the over-priced places to those who are willing to pay. Supply and demand is controlled by the buyer. A restaurant which puts emphasis on a good and fairly-priced wine list may find that it will attract a great deal more customers. We, the wine-buying public, should seek out such establishments and prove it. One interesting sidelight to this discussion: It has nothing to do with those restaurants who cater to people who have all the money in the world--and act like it. I doubt I would be comfortable in such a place. Well, I know I'm not, having tried a few--and I don't think wanted me there, either. -- Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.mindspring.net.MISMATCH!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!bradb From: [e-mail] (Brad) Newsgroups: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine,rec.answers,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: Wine (the beverage) FAQ, part5 of 10 [LONG] Followup-To: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine Date: 30 Sep 2000 17:19:27 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Lines: 404 Approved: [e-mail] Message-ID: <8r57av$5ab$[e-mail]> NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.b7.09.74 Summary: A 10 part FAQ on the beverage wine with various asides Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.food.drink:47109 alt.food.wine:64087 rec.answers:61458 alt.answers:51508 news.answers:192805 Archive-name: drink/wine-faq/part5 Posting-Frequency: monthly Copyright: (c) 1995-2000 Bradford S. Brown (Notices/Disclaimers in pt. 10) Last-modified: 2000/06/01 U.S. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq [newest] U.K. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html Glassware --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The size and shape of the glass can contribute to the enjoyment of drinking wine. Whether you need to spend a fortune on your glasses (which I tend to break a lot of when cleaning up) is another story altogether. Generally speaking a glass with a long stem lets you swirl the wine more easily (swirling helps bring out the smells of the wine, which is very important to the tasting process). The long stem also keeps the heat of your hand away from the wine. (Of course, with the way I've been served some wines, you have to grasp the bowl of the glass firmly and often just to warm it up!) In order to capture the scents, its nice to have a glass that is more narrow at the top than the area below (in other words, a large bowl). In this way there is a larger surface area of wine in the bottom and the bouquet of the wine can get trapped by the narrowing of the glass. (Which reminds me how often I have to stop restaurant servers from filling my glass of wine--even in places where there is very nice stemware, many servers just don't know how to pour.) Riedel produces (web site [http://www.riedelcrystal.co.at] : http://www.riedelcrystal.co.at) an expensive line of glasses, none of which I own. Supposedly each glass (and there are different shapes for different types of wines) is designed to maximize taste and aroma by delivering the wine to the right part of the mouth, as well as being shaped properly to catch and concentrate the scents of the wine. How you may ask, can this be? In terms of acidity, tannins, fruit flavors, aromatic components, and the like, different types of wine have different palate profiles. These are sensed by different parts of the tongue, nose and throat. Supposedly, wine glasses can be designed to channel the wine as you sip it to the parts of the mouth where you will get the optimal tasting experience. It is said that there is a different place in the mouth for each wine, hence the different shapes for the glasses, based on centuries-old concepts. But whether you really need five sets of wine glasses (or for some even one set of really expensive glasses) is left to your own sensibilities. A non-statistical, admittedly unscientific sample size of public postings tells me that some swear that these Riedel glasses make a large difference, especially after side-by-side tastings between Riedel and non-Riedel glasses, and others don't. Decide for yourself! The International Standards Organization (ISO) in the United Kingdom sets forth a design for a wine glass which can be inexpensive but very useful. They are smaller and less exciting than the fancy, expensive glasses, but are a lot cheaper to replace when smashed by host, guest or dishwasher. Many people find them to be perfectly adequate, however do admit to liking glasses with somewhat larger bowls. Personally, I like the latter, but haven't found it necessary to get really expensive stemware. Wine drinking is an adventure. Think about it. If you had an especially good wine experience, was it just the wine? Or was it also the events surrounding the drinking of the wine? Two _identical_ wines could seem different merely by the activities that surround its consumption. A romantic dinner? While the glass you use may or may not have an impact, I suggest that other peripheral items may be much more significant. Washing glasses somehow has gotten controversial. Seems some people object to the dishwasher (and I've found some truth to this). Probably one should merely watch out (whether washing by hand or machine) about using too much soap or detergent which might leave a residue that will affect the wine. Storing glasses is also something to think about. I tend to break them (no, not drunk, just clumsy the next day). The cost of expensive wine glasses is going to add up if you are ungraceful, so there may be the temptation to store them in the cardboard box that they probably came in. If you do this, wash the glasses before use. If the cardboard has gotten at all damp, it may get moldy and contribute off flavors to the glass and to the wine. Storing Wine After It's Opened --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wine deteriorates in the presence of oxygen. The most practical thing to do is finish the wine. When this isn't sensible, the idea of buying smaller bottles (or taking home unfinished bottles when drunk in a restaurant--you don't _have_ to leave them--though in California, make sure you take it home in the trunk of your car), when available, can be a better solution. You can cook with leftover wine, or even turn it to vinegar (why buy when you can have homemade?). Also note that some young, tannic wines might actually taste better the next day. But, there is always the time when you want to try to preserve the quality of the wine for as long as you can. To do this, you want to prevent as much oxygen as you can from getting to it. One of the better ways is to fill the bottle with an inert gas. There are several different systems which do this, but they tend to be relatively to extremely expensive. Nevertheless, for the serious aficionado, this is probably the best solution. Another product, the Vacu-vin (tm) is a small pump device that comes with rubber stoppers and a small hole in the middle of the stopper. The idea is that you can suck a fair amount of air from the bottle, thus reducing the effect of oxygen. Some, but not all, people feel that it might add 2 or 3 days to the life of the bottle. Other cheap and interesting ideas: Get a bunch of glass marbles. Clean them, then put them in the bottle until the liquid is to the top, then cork. Or, just transfer the wine to a smaller bottle. Or both. Refrigerating the wine is an option, the theory being that a cooler wine will oxidize less quickly (and for the ultimate in this thoery, see freezing, below). There are those they try this trick and claim success. In fact, now that I think of it, that's what I do. _Freezing Wine?_ Initially I wrote "one economical wine lover suggests freezing as a means of longer term storage. I haven't tried this and probably won't; freezing should alter the character of the wine. Cooking with leftovers is probably a better bet." However, there have been a fair number of people who claim positive results with the process--not only with freezing, but even by nuking the wine (gently) in a microwave to thaw it (at least part of the way). These people very happy with the results. A few have noted that in some wines there are radically increased precipitates, mostly potassium tartrate. (Increased precipitates result because the water freezes at higher temperatures, therefore the concentration of alcohol and soluble items--such as potassium tartrate--are higher in the liquid portion [the water turning to ice]. Things which will precipitate out easily, will do so, and probably won't dissolve back into the wine so quickly. Now, one possible effect of this is that a wine will taste less acidic--which may or may not be a desirable effect. Another effect is that the constituents of the wine which make up taste and color can be affected. But then, if it works for you . . . . I think I'll still stand by my original statement that "generally speaking, most stored wine, no matter what you do to it, won't be as good as when you opened it." Nevertheless, those who like the idea of freezing wine seem to think it works better than most of the other storage methods. VI. BUYING WINE --------------------------------------------------------------------------- _What Wine to Buy?_ Nobody can tell you what wine to buy, since what _you_ like is the best test. The more you taste different wines, the more you will come to know what you like, etc. But . . . If you are just starting out, here's some hints that we and others seem to ignore completely a lot of the time: Don't buy too much of a wine you haven't tasted (just because it got a good rating or is something you liked in earlier vintages). Don't buy a bunch of wine that you won't drink until after it goes bad. (I don't want to tell you how much white wine I have aged to extinction from my earlier days in buying wine.) _Where to Buy Wine_ Depends on what you're drinking. Fortified wines to be carried and drunk while wrapped in a brown bag can be gotten pretty cheaply at the local market or liquor store. And, in _some_ of the United States, wine can only be purchased in state run establishments (often closed on Sundays). If you are drinking a wine that is meant to be drunk young, you can pretty much buy your wine at the best price you can find. When it comes to wines to cellar, more care should be exercised. You want to learn a bit about your wine merchant. Since wines can be stored improperly or may have been subjected to heat and other improper handling, you could find that after keeping an expensive red wine for ten years, what you have to drink is worthless. Furthermore, a respectable merchant will often be willing to take back flawed bottles (see the definition of "flawed" elsewhere). Wines can often be purchased at wineries (what an odd place to find wine). The good news here is that you may get wines that are never available anywhere else (you don't mass market 20 cases of wine). The sort of bad news is that you might find that the wine you bought could have been found less expensively elsewhere (though one hopes that the storage conditions at the winery are better?). Wineries will ship wine, depending on where they are and where you are. Various laws come into play about the shipping of wine from one place to another (though I heard that one wine merchant--I wasn't told who--merely labels the box "guns" and has no trouble at all; there _are_ ways). Some wineries sell virtually all of their wine by mail. Other wine merchants (sometimes calling themselves wine "clubs") will ship wine. Several people have positively mentioned the following (but I don' have any independent knowledge and guarantee nothing!). There are so many places selling wine on the World Wide Web, that there is no point in trying to keep up with listing them in a FAQ. Best use one of the dozen or so search engines for that task. Interestingly enough, since there are so many laws about the shipment of wine within the United States, or between countries, that it will be a fascinating sidelight to see which falls first, Internet sales or those laws. _What is Wine Worth?_ A correspondent sent me this quote: "I think that the best way to learn about wine is to drink the cheapest wine you can find. If you can't find any cheap wine you like, then spend a few more dollars. And then a few more, and more, and more . . . . " Depending on what you can afford to pay for wine, the unfortunate truth is that generally, better wine costs more, however it isn't necessarily true that wine that costs more is better. The real fact is that you shouldn't be swayed by the opinions of others. If you like it, fine, if you don't, don't buy it. If it is inexpensive and suits your taste, great! I once bought a couple of bottles of wine for a couple of dollars each because the name of the winery was the same as the street I lived on. It wasn't wonderful (so far as we remember) and we stuck it away in a closet. Five years later the stuff was absolutely great. For wholesale wine (and other liquor) prices, you might find a copy of "Beverage Media", (from Beverage Media Ltd., 161 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10013) which calls itself "The largest compilation of alcoholic beverage price brand information in America." Some wines may be very good but their prices could be considered out of line with similar quality wines. Why, then, do they cost so much? My guess is snob appeal and/or the marketing skills of the winery. A number of people have commented that they consider _*Opus One*_ to fall into this category. Recently, while dining, out I overheard another table (clearly owners of a wine shop) being asked by the restaurant manager whether the establishment should purchase some _*Opus One*_. They hemmed and hawed and politely noted that it was a "high end" item and perhaps there were other wines that would be just as good for lesser price. That sums up a lot of what I have heard of this wine, a joint production between Robert Mondavi and the late Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Bordeaux attempting to produce French style wine with California grapes. The consensus of opinion in the Usenet posts that I have followed relate that _*Opus One*_ is a generally well made wine that is overpriced but will be reliable to people ordering in restaurants who don't know much about better (or just as good) less expensive wines. I've never tasted it, so try some, if you can (and want to make up your own mind). And we've spent so much time talking about this one wine because it is a very frequently asked question! _My Significant Other Doesn't Like Red Wine_ First off, nobody is advocating that it is important to get people to start drinking wine. If water is what a person wants, leave them alone! In any event, a question that seems to keep coming up is "my wife doesn't like red wine." So what? Why should she? That being said, it seems that the natural progression when learning about and drinking wine is to move from light fruity white wine to light fruity red wine, then to the more hearty and more aged red wines. As to _what_ wines, here's a generic sampling culled from Usenet, designed for the novice red wine drinker (and already I have letters that the list is completely wrong!): Bardolino. Beaujolais. Bergerac. Cotes du Frontonnais. Dolcetto. Gamay. Grenache Rose. Lighter Pinot Noirs. Rioja Gran Reserva. Rose. Valpolicella VII. WINES Grapes --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before you talk about specific wines (like Pinot Noir or Merlot, as opposed to specific producers), you really have to start with a discussion of grapes. While there are lots of grapes in the world (travel up and down the "Central Valley" of California and see all the "table" grapes), there are a select few which are used for making the best wines. These are known as "noble grapes.". A note--I know that there are a _lot_ of grapes missing. As time permits, they'll get added. Here are some: _Red Wine_ _*Cabernet Sauvignon.*_ One of the components of French Bordeaux, it is also the major (if not sometimes only) grape in the most popularly drunk American red wines in what might be called, for lack of a better term, the "snob appeal" class. (For in fact there is probably more American jug wine that never sees the cabernet grape drunk each year in the United States than all the cabernet sauvignon from all the wineries in the world put together. Prestige and/or quality are not always equal to popularity.) Cabernet Sauvignon contains a lot of tannins that lead to the long aged, "better" red wines. Depending on where it is grown it may smell of cassis and black currants or black cherry and red currants. Some people may notice a cigar box smell. Bell peppers, asparagus, and rhubarb are common tasting notes for cabernet produced from grapes that are not quite ripe. A bit of this sort of character is considered, by some, to be pleasing (the wine is called "herbaceous"), too much of this flavor is unappealing--and the wine will be described as "vegetal". Out tasting at a "fancy" winery I tasted a wine that smelled and tasted so overwhelmingly of asparagus (which I don't like) that I couldn't drink anything else the entire day. The winery people admitted that while some people loved that particular wine, others had the same reaction as myself. I think I turned about as green as the asparagus I imagined. _*Barbera.*_ A major Italian variety with a "tarry" smell and medium body. _*Cabernet Franc.*_ Also a component of Bordeaux, a little is often blended with Cabernet Sauvignon to add bouquet. Some don't think much of it when drunk all by itself. _*Gamay.*_ Produces a fruity wine such as French Beaujolais. (The California Gamay Beaujolais is not the same grape, but makes a wine that comes close.) _*Grenache.*_ Often used to make rose wine, it is a component of French Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Cotes du Rhone and most other appellations from the south of France. There are also many tasty grenache-based wines from Spain (where it is called garnacha) and from California. _*Merlot.*_ One of the major components of most French Bordeaux, also with less tannin that makes for a smoother characteristic in the wine. Alone (or practically alone), it makes another of the more popular U.S. wines. Though it is like Cabernet, it is usually "rounder". It is often blended with Cabernet Sauvignon. _*Nebbiolo.*_ Can be found in California, but is really a grape of the Piedmont area of Northern Italy. Found in Barbaresco and Barolo wines, which can be aged with great success. _*Syrah.*_ "True Syrah" and Petite Sirah are not the same, the former a relative of Durif from the Rhone in France (and a major variety in its own right), the latter a variety grown relatively widely in California and said to be genetically the same as the obscure French Durif variety. Both produce more or less deeply-red-colored, tannic, long lived wines, the latter being a bit more "peppery." You might also see Australian Shiraz, which is the same grape variety as the "true" French syrah, but because of differences in growing conditions between the two countries, much of it ends up tasting more like the California petite sirah, perhaps with more of a chocolate note. _*Pinot Noir.*_ The only grape in the famous French Red Burgundy appellations of the Cotes de Beaune, Cotes de Nuit and Cote d'or.. Some U.S. winemakers will make Pinot Noir "in the French style." Or not. Interestingly, they are lighter in color (but not flavor) than Bordeaux/Cabernet. _*Zinfandel.*_ Mostly from California, it has a great deal of fruit like characteristics. Some young Zinfandels are also "spicy." Good red Zinfandel is often a bargain in restaurants, being less expensive than other wines, but still very drinkable. (Huge quantities of Zinfandel are made into "White Zin," a sweet, uncomplicated (and usually inexpensive) wine that is favored by people who do not drink much wine. A decent White Zinfandel can make a nice "picnic wine." We especially like zin from "old vines" (pictured). _White Wine_ _*Chardonnay.*_ Produces French white Burgundy and perhaps the most popular (once again "snob" class--see Cabernet Sauvignon, above) wines in the U.S. "Give me a glass of white wine" will probably get you Chardonnay at "better" restaurants. (In fact, a lot of jug wine--which is to say, a vast amount of wine--in the United States is made from what are "lesser" grape varieties like French colombard or sultana.) _*Chenin Blanc.*_ The major grape planted in the French Loire valley. In the U.S., often used to make a light, fruity wine. _*Gewurztraminer.*_ Some confusion abounds this wine, partly because non-German speaking persons may not order it in a restaurant because they can't pronounce it and partly because of the way in which parts of the word can be translated. I'm told the German word "wuerz" literally means "spice", but "gewuerz" is better translated as "aromatic" or "fragrant." Wine from this grape has a floral smell and the wine itself is often drunk with spicy foods. Gewurztraminer also makes a good "late harvest" sweet dessert wine. It is more common in Alsace, Italy, and the United States than in Germany and many "experts" say Alsace makes the best. _*Riesling.*_ Also, to me, producing a floral smelling sort of wine, it also makes a sort of light, fresh type of wine. Makes a great "late harvest" sweet dessert wine (for which it is especially known in Germany). Another viewpoint, it isn't so much floral as "minerally" with accents of fuel oil--not light and fresh, instead, lots of depth and complexity in something like a good German Riesling Spatlese or Alsatian Grand Cru. _*Sauvignon Blanc*_ (sometimes called _*Fume Blanc*_, at least in California). In the U.S., makes a crisp, light wine (sometimes with a "grassy" or "herbaceous" characteristic). It is a component (along with Semillon ) of the French dessert wine, Sauternes and the white wines of Bordeaux. _*Semillon*_. As with many grapes, while grown elsewhere (such as California), Semillon is one of the major varieties grown in Bordeaux. Like Sauvignon Blanc is can often have a grassy (or herbaceous) note, but also may have notes of ripe figs. It may be drunk "dry", or "sweet", and as such, it is a component (along with Sauvignon Blanc ) of the French dessert wine, Sauternes and the white wines of Bordeaux. Because I am neither an expert or a global traveler, nor independently wealthy, you may notice a lack of discussion about other grapes from around the world. I'm always open for opinions, though! Anybody want to tell me a lot of good things about, for example, Germany, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain (these are things people have written to me about) and you name the list of other countries, wines, etc. that I've missed! -- Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.mindspring.net.MISMATCH!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!bradb From: [e-mail] (Brad) Newsgroups: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine,rec.answers,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: Wine (the beverage) FAQ, part6 of 10 [LONG] Followup-To: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine Date: 30 Sep 2000 17:19:28 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Lines: 494 Approved: [e-mail] Message-ID: <8r57b0$7sc$[e-mail]> NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.b7.09.74 Summary: A 10 part FAQ on the beverage wine with various asides Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.food.drink:47104 alt.food.wine:64082 rec.answers:61453 alt.answers:51503 news.answers:192800 Archive-name: drink/wine-faq/part6 Posting-Frequency: monthly Copyright: (c) 1995-2000 Bradford S. Brown (Notices/Disclaimers in pt. 10) Last-modified: 2000/06/01 U.S. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq [newest] U.K. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html What's In a Name? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A "variety" is just a grape, and a "varietal" is a wine made up of 100% of a particular variety of grape. However, United States law allows that a wine may be labeled in the manner of a varietal if it contains 75% of that variety of grape. So, the next time your bottle says Cabernet Sauvignon, check the label. Perhaps your "Cab" also contains something like Merlot, Cabernet Franc or some other grape. (This isn't a bad idea, since you can give a Cabernet a "smoother" quality by blending in "smoother" grapes.) French wines follow labeling rules which are a bit different. A red Burgundy is made of 100% Pinot Noir, grown in the Burgundy area of France. A French Bordeaux is made with different grapes (see "Meritage," below), but again is grown in the Bordeaux area of France. So your rule for French wines is that they are known by the geographical area of origin (also known as "appellation"), not by grape. Another example is Chablis (which happens to be an area in Burgundy), which is made of 100% Chardonnay. Also, the vintner must follow certain standards and practices in the production of the wine, set out by the Appellation d'Origine Controlee (A.O.C.). The A.O.C. also sets out standards for the quality of wine which range from Vins Delimites de Qualite Superieure (VDQS--the best quality) to Vins de pays ("county wines") to Vins ordinaires (ordinary wine). The A.O.C. system is used throughout Europe. One note about the A.O.C. Like just about all laws, there are those who must feel that they must be broken. There are the oft repeated rumors that unethical producers will dilute their wine with grapes not in accord with the law. It has been said that much of the impetus to give the southern Rhone communes their own appellations was to put a stop to the practice of illegally blending those wines into Burgundy. The final word, as always, is that vigilance is required on the part of the government and the consumer. So a quick summary of these rules are that United States wines are characterized by what goes into them while French wines are characterized by where the grapes are grown. Winemakers may also put a very specific area from which their grapes are harvested on the label. For example, there are excellent U.S. Pinot Noirs that come from the "Rochiolli vineyard" in Sonoma. A single producer thus might have a line of 4 or 5 Pinot Noirs, perhaps all from Sonoma, but not all from the same vineyard. Often (but _not_ always--to each their own), "better" (or at least more expensive) wine comes form a "better" vineyard. In the United States there are places called "Approved Viticultural Areas" or AVA. If 75% of the wine is grown in that AVA the AVA may be placed on the label. Other terms may be placed on the bottle which the winemaker used to denote a "better" wine (perhaps based on the style of production, aging, grapes, etc.). One such term is "reserve." You may feel, however, that a non-reserve wine (usually less expensive) tastes better to _you_ than what the winemaker has labeled "reserve." _Meritage_ French Bordeaux is made from a blend of grapes. It might contain, for example, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. The amounts differ (for example, in the Bordeaux appellations St. Emilion and Pomerol, Merlot tends to be the dominant grape, while in the Medoc (Paulliac, St. Esteph, Margaux, and St. Julien), Cabernet Sauvignon is dominant. The important point, is that no matter what the grapes, it is a "blend" of grapes, though it might be that something like Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon will be a very large percentage of the wine. In the United States, a wine cannot be called by its varietal name unless that grape is at least 75% of the wine. As a merchandising tool, a new name has reached the marketplace. Producers in the United States creating blend wines (usually with less than 75% of any particular grape) have agreed to use the term Meritage to designate a high quality wine using Bordeaux style blends of grape varieties. While "Meritage" is a blend that is often used to denote an upscale wine, blends (not labeled Meritage) as such can represent a very good value in the purchase of wine. Look for, example, wines denoted "Table Wine" instead of with any particular grape. _The Fine Print, U.S. Style_ We've mentioned some definitions previously, but there are those who like to get into the nitty gritty--especially the United States Treasury Department which is the agency that runs the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobaco and Firearms (now there's quite a mix!). Here are some more definitions more or less specific to the U.S.: A _*varietal wine*_ is named for the grape variety or varieties from which it is produced. In order to be named after that one grape, the wine must contain not less than 75% of that specific variety. If two or more grapes are named, the total for each must be printed on the label and the total must equal 100%. The rule follows for Vitis vinifera wines and French-American hybrids only. On the other hand, Vitis labrusca can be labeled as a varietal with only 51%. Of course you might want to know about the State of Oregon which requires that varietals must be 100% of the specific variety. A _*propriety wine*_ is a uniquely named wine whose name is the property of the producer. Examples include wines like _*Insignia*_ from Joseph Phelps Winery or _*Le Cigare Volant*_ from Bonny Doon Vineyard. A _*semi-generic wine*_, is a wine named for and made in the style of a European geographic district. Wines like _*"California Chablis,"*_ or _*"American Burgundy."*_ Since the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) has never defined what "in the style of" means, wineries can make up anything they want. A _*generic wine*_ might be something like _*"Red Table Wine,"*_ _*"White Table Wine"*_ or the like. The _*Appelation*_ of a wine says tells you where the grapes are from: If the appellation is the nation or a state, 100% of the grapes which go into the wine must come from the United States or the specific state. Now a winery which gets grapes from a neighboring state (for example, a California vintner getting Pinot Noir from Oregon), may label the wine "Oregon." But, if the state is not a neighboring one (for example, a California vintner getting Cabernet from Washington State), the only permitted appellation is "American." That makes sense, doesn't it? If the appellation is a _political_ designation within a state (say a county such as Napa, Sonoma or Mendocino), not less than 75% of the grapes in the wine must originate from within that political boundary, and it must be tied into the varietal minimum. If the appellation is a _geographic_ designation (for example, an American Viticultural Appellation, such as the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Stag's Leap District, Carneros or the North Fork of Long Island), then not less than 85% of the grapes must originate from within the boundary, and it must be tied into the varietal minimum. The_* vintage date*_ is _not_ the year in which the grapes were grown. Rather, it is the year in which the grapes were harvested. So, if you harvest Gamay grapes from Monterey on January 2nd, the vintage is the brand-new, two-day-old year. 95% of the grapes must be from this year. For an _*alcohol content*_ of less than 14%, wine may be labeled "Table Wine," or it may give a percentage of alcohol content that is accurate within 1.5% either way. So a wine labeled "12.5% Alcohol by Volume" may legally be anywhere from 11-14%. A wine labeled "13.5% Alcohol" may be as low as 12% but not more than 14%. However, if the wine is 14.01% or greater in alcohol, the precise number must appear on the label and it must be accurate--no leeway. The tax rate on alcohol contents 14% and above changes and the government wants the extra money! Champagne --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Champagne is a "sparkling wine" that comes (of course) from the Champagne area of France. Three grapes can be used to make Champagne: Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir. It is produced by a technique known as Methode Champenoise. In Methode Champenoise, there is more than one major fermentation. The first fermentation takes two to three weeks. The wine is then placed in very sturdy bottles (to withstand the internal pressure that will be part of the process) along with sugar and yeast (Liqueur de Tirage). A temporary cap (just like the type you find on a bottle of beer or a very old bottle of soda) is placed on the bottle. The sugar and yeast cause a new fermentation to occur. Since fermentation produces carbon dioxide (the same gas that makes the bubbles in soda), which can't escape from bottle, what you get is carbonated wine. This fermentation also creates new sediment, which must be removed. This is done by placing the wines on their sides on racks at about a 45 degree down facing angle. Then every day the bottles are turned a bit (called "riddling" or "remuage"), and eventually also tilted farther down. After about 6 or 8 weeks, the sediment has now moved to the neck of the bottle, which the vintner then freezes. The bottle is opened and the force of the pressurized wine pushes the frozen sediment out of the bottle (this is called "disgorgement". Since the bottle is now no longer full, wine and sugar (depending on what sweetness desired) is added. The bottle is then given its permanent cork. Some say Champagne does not mature in the bottle, so you needn't bother cellaring it. Others argue that you may enjoy a little aging on some vintage Champagnes. Mostly, I think they're drunk quick. The French discourage (to put it mildly) the use of the word "Champagne" for sparkling wines made (even in the same manner) elsewhere in the world. Also know that not all sparkling wines are made using the Methode Champenoise. For example, instead of carbonating the wine in the bottle and hand turning the bottles every day, you _could_ put the wine into huge stainless steel tanks for the second fermentation. This will get you much cheaper carbonated--or sparkling--wine. [For the Future: how to open a bottle of Champagne; styles of Champagne, Naturel, Brut, semi-dry (demi-sec), etc.] Port ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Port is a "fortified wine." Brandy is added to the wine to stop fermentation before the yeasts eat all the grape sugar, thus yielding a sweeter wine and higher alcohol content. True Port comes from Portugal (the Duouro region, to be exact). But since winemakers in other countries have taken to producing "Port," Duouro Port makers have started to call _their_ Port, "Porto," or "Oporto" (from the city in Duouro). There are two main categories of Port: Vintage Port and Wood Port. _Vintage Port_ Wineries will decide ("declared year") that the harvest in a some particular year (or "vintage") is worthy of producing this port, which is aged for two years in wood from grapes of that harvest year only. It will also continue to mature once bottled. Not only are not all years declared to be vintage years, but not all wineries may decide within a particular year that _their_ wine is a vintage year, and even in a declared year (which may occur two or three times in a decade) perhaps only 10% of the grapes will go into vintage port (with the balance going to wood ports). So in most years there just is no vintage Port at all! Vintage Ports get much better with age. Generally don't drink them before they've aged fifteen years. Some can keep getting better for a long time after that--even one-hundred years. Like most good wine, a vintage port shouldn't be left around undrunk once opened. _*Single-Quinta Vintage Port.*_ Single-Quinta Vintage Port is true vintage Port--wine from one harvest year bottled unblended after two years in cask. When a shipper "declares a vintage," the vintage Port from that year usually comes from wines produced by grapes from various vineyards (quintas). It is said that no one vineyard has all the characteristics to make the best vintage Port--it needs to be blended with other vineyards to be the most complete and complex wine. However, sometimes a producer's single best vineyard will yield grapes fine enough to warrant bottling on their own, while the rest of the vineyards that would normally contribute to a vintage Port weren't as successful. The producer may then choose to vinify this wine from that single vineyard, or "quinta". This is called "single-quinta vintage Port" and the quinta name will appear on the label. So, whereas a Port labelled "Graham's 1991 Vintage Porto" is a vintage Port from a declared year, "Graham's Malvedos 1988 Vintage Porto" is a single-quinta vintage Port from the Quinta dos Malvedos, the best vineyard that Graham's owns. The one exception to this nomenclature is the Quinta do Noval, which is actually a producer, not a single quinta. (Noval's best vineyard is called Nacional, and its single-quinta Port is the rarest, most expensive, and reportedly best of all.) _Wood Port_ There are three sub-categories of Wood Port, based on color: Ruby Port, Tawny Port and White Port. _*Ruby Port. *_A dark red, somewhat sweet "full-bodied" wine which has probably been aged in wood for several years. _*Tawny Port. *_Not such a deep color, it is a "smoother," less sweet wine which may have been aged in wood for 20 years. The difference between tawny Port and ruby Port is simply the amount of time that the wine spends in the wood cask before it is blended and bottled. As the wine ages, the ruby-red color of the young wine becomes paler and browner. Top tawny Ports from the best producers are just as complex and fine (and expensive) as vintage Port, though they will have a different character. (If you find something labeled tawny Port which seems inexpensive--or shall we say, "cheap?," you may have found something produced by blending "tawny" Port with "white" Port. Needless to say, you'll tell the difference and Port connoisseurs will tell you that they aren't worthy of the name "Port" at all.) _*White Port. *_A sweet white wine made from white grapes grown in the Oporto region of Portugal. As with red Port, fermentation is stopped by adding brandy to the partly fermented wine. Not really like the other (red) Ports, which are usually drunk after a meal, this is usually drunk before a meal. Wood Ports will not get any better by cellaring, so you can drink them as you buy. _Decanting Port_ As you age your good Port it is going to "throw off" a good amount of sediment which is going to end up in your glass if you don't decant. So, get into the habit of decanting. Unless you like to eat sediment, of course. _For Further Information on Port_ I have no knowledge of, but repeat posted information that there is a a quarterly newsletter called Re: Port. P.O. Box 981, Cherry Hill, New Jersey 09003. Said to list availability and best retail prices for vintage port in the U.S. Apparently a sample copy is available. [For the Future: Expanded discussion of Port. I've got forty pages of notes!] Dessert Wines --------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are number of different wines which come under this category. Often very sweet, you don't really want to drink a lot of it at one time. For this reason you'll see dessert wines sold in the smaller 375ml bottles (as well as in larger bottles). At a recent picnic, the smaller bottle did quite well for eight of us. _Botrytis_ While the classification of "dessert" wines can include any number of things, this is where we'll deal with those wines that are affected by "the rot." Not just any rot, however, but the "noble rot,"Botrytis cinerea, a mold which causes the vine disease called grey rot. Some years (but not all), when conditions are exactly right, with warm, sunny afternoons and damp, foggy mornings, the mold doesn't rot the fruit, but affects it in a different way. About 90% of the water in the grape disappears and the grapes shrivel up. Since relatively little of the sugar is lost, you get extremely concentrated and sweet grape juice. These grapes can be harvested and treated specially. Noble Botrytis adds a honeyed, aromatic flavor characteristic of its own to the wine. In the end, what you get is a sweet and, when lucky, an incredibly complex and flavorful liquid that, as it ages, turns from pale yellow to dark gold, maturing and concentrating the flavors. The most famous of these wines is the French Sauternes, and the most famous French Sauternes is Chateau d'Yquem. It may take an entire vine to produce one glass of this precious liquid which is barrel aged for 3 1/2 years before bottling. But even then, it should not be drunk for at least 20 years! It merely gets better and better and could be drunk after 100 years. One can go on and on, gushing over this, but there is nothing quite like the myriad of intense flavors that come from an aged bottle of this rich, sweet, complicated wine. Chateau d'Yquem is so good that it stands alone, classified "Grand Premier Cru" (first great growth). Other Sauternes will be classified "premier crus" (first growth) and "deuxiemes crus" (second growth). Sauternes are often comprised of 80% Semillon and 20% Sauvigon Blanc. Since what is normally lousy weather contributes to the attack of Botrytis, harvesting grapes can continue past the normal end of season, perhaps into December. Many wineries will produce a "late harvest" wine in the manner of the French Sauternes. So while you will find Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon grapes in Sauternes, you can also find, for example, late harvest Riesling or Gewurztraminer. (I drank a late harvest Chardonnay once. Not great, but interesting. And a good way to get rid of essentially what was "rotten" grapes.) The U.S. wines I have seen do not age nearly as long as Sauternes, but will undergo maturation in the bottle for some time. Other truly great (you decide if they are "better" than Sauternes) sweet dessert wines produced from late-harvest, Botrytis affected grapes include (but certainly aren't necessarily limited to): _*German Beerenauslese*_ (BA) and _*Trockenbeerenauslese *_(TBA) from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer and Rheingau regions. They are made from nobly-rotted Riesling grapes. TBA is made from the most highly raisined grapes only and is outrageously sweet. Some say these are every bit as good as any Sauternes (including d'Yquem), and they are a lot rarer, since noble rot strikes Germany far less often than Sauternes. _*Sweet wines of the Loire valley*_ in France such as Anjou moulleux, sweet Vouvray, Quarts du Chaume, Rochefort, and Bonnezeaux. These are made from Botrytis-affected chenin blanc grapes. _*Wines of the Valpolicella district in Italy.*_ When fermenting raisined grapes fully dry, the result is the very rich-tasting, alcoholic, and long-lasting dry wine, Amarone. If they leave some residual sugar, the wine is called Recioto di Valpolicella. As we will see, you don't necessarily need Botrytis to create a concentrated wine. This can also be done by freezing the grapes or by letting them dry in the sun to some extent. Such wines won't have the Botrytis flavor which itself is a wonderful component of Botrytis affected wines--so long as you don't take it to an extreme, for wines overly affected by Botrytis can taste like shoe polish in early stages. It could take ten or twenty years to get rid of this problem. _Eiswein a.k.a. Icewine _ Another popular category of dessert wine is Eiswein (a.k.a. Icewine, although strictly speaking that is, I'm told, a trademark of the Vintners' Quality Association, Ontario, Canada). Eiswein is produced by leaving the grapes on the vine until start to become raisins and until they freeze (technically known as "cryoextraction"). Temperatures of -7C (20F) or below are required. The wine is then pressed, and the shards of (water) ice are removed. The combination of extremely overripe grapes with the concentration resulting from removing the excess water produces an extremely sweet, intense, luscious wine. Eiswein was originally developed in Germany in the 18th century, and is now produced in several areas along the northern and southern fringes of the world's wine-producing areas, including northern Germany, the northern United States, and New Zealand. However, the biggest production now comes from Ontario, Canada, where Eiswein has become a dominant (and to some, overpriced) part of the wine industry. In Germany and elsewhere, most Eiswein is made from Reisling, and a few other varieties. In Ontario, most is made from Vidal, a thick-skinned hybrid grape well-suited to the purpose. The result is a thick, fruity wine, with flavors ranging from apricot to fruit salad and tropical fruits. Ontario Eiswein is typically produced with juice at a level of 45 brix (as compared to 22 brix for a table wine). Often a "second pressing" of icewine grapes, with somewhat lower brix levels, is used to make a "Select Late Harvest" wine. The flavors of these "baby icewines" are similar to icewine, but with lower intensity and much lower prices. Some attempts have been made, in areas not "blessed" with a cold winter, to produce Eiswein artificially, by putting grapes in a freezer. The results are typically described as "good but not great." One reason is that the grapes are usually not left to overripen as much as they are when the "natural" process is used. On the other hand, it is usually a lot cheaper. A particular example of this (so far as the technique, at least) would be "Vin de Glacier" from Bonny Doon Winery in California; literally "Refrigerator Wine" (from a winemaker with a sense of humor). While an "ice wine" produces concentrated flavors, it does not, of course, have any of the flavors due to Botrytis, so it certainly is a different type of product. _Other Sweet Wines _ There are other ways to get sweet wines: _*Add sugar to dry wine.*_ This is the method used to produce the "Sauterne" and "Muscatel" that skid row winos drink. No serious, quality sweet wine is made this way. _*Stop the fermentation process *_before the yeasts have consumed all the grape sugars and produced a dry wine. This can be done in at least two ways: + Add a big dose of sulfites to anesthesize/kill the yeasts, or centrifuge and sterile filter the wine to remove the yeasts. This gives better results than adding sugar to dry wine, but it doesn't give you the same quality as starting with "Botrytisized" or dried grapes. + Add brandy to the fermenting grape must. When the alcohol level gets to 18% or more, the yeasts die and you're left with a sweet wine. This is how the fortified sweet wines such as Port, sweet Sherry, Malaga, Madeira, Marsala, and the "vins doux naturels" (naturally sweet wines) of the south of France are made. These are all potentially top-quality wines of great interest and complexity, which in addition to being very sweet have a fiery quality to them due to the added brandy. _ VIII. WINES AROUND THE WORLD --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a hopeless cause for a Wine FAQ, since you can't win in what you include and don't include. I've gotten a lot of correspondence about the "bias" of the FAQ towards California. Any such partiality is unintentional and is a result of the fact that I know more about California and can use references to California for my examples. And France! Since there are hundreds (thousands?) of books about French wine, it is absurd to try to recreate that information in this FAQ. On the other hand, there are other areas of the world that have thriving wine industries. Some have lots of books written about them, and perhaps some don't. So I'm going to use this space to refer to wine growing areas that (to my limited, inexpert knowledge) have had less attention. All this material has been sent to me from various correspondents and it is important for me to note that I have not verified this material and can't even say that the information has been sent to me from wine growers or promoters who might wish to use this FAQ as a means of advertising. I've tried to eliminate any of that, but who knows! For those areas which are missing, I'm open to anyone who wants to send me more. Thanks to those who already have. _ARGENTINA _ Although Argentina is the fifth worldwide wine producer, only a little amount of it is considered high quality. In contrast with Chile, wine producers have historically gone for volume over quality, though from the 1970's one this has begun to change. Some red wines have now been noted for their quality. Wine is grown in Argentina all along the Andes Mountains, which acts as a border between Chile and Argentina. Production is concentrated in the warmer northerly provinces of Mendoza, San Juan, La Rioja, Salta and the cooler southerly provinces of Rio Negro and Neuquen. Many varieties ("cepages") are grown. Predominant red grapes include Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Italian varieties, including Barbera, introduced by Italian monks in the 1700's. Common white grapes include Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc, as well as the local variety of "Torrontes" which is similar to Gewurztraminer. -- Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.mindspring.net.MISMATCH!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!bradb From: [e-mail] (Brad) Newsgroups: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine,rec.answers,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: Wine (the beverage) FAQ, part7 of 10 [LONG] Followup-To: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine Date: 30 Sep 2000 17:19:47 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Lines: 475 Approved: [e-mail] Message-ID: <8r57bj$t2$[e-mail]> NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.b7.09.74 Summary: A 10 part FAQ on the beverage wine with various asides Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.food.drink:47105 alt.food.wine:64083 rec.answers:61454 alt.answers:51504 news.answers:192801 Archive-name: drink/wine-faq/part7 Posting-Frequency: monthly Copyright: (c) 1995-2000 Bradford S. Brown (Notices/Disclaimers in pt. 10) Last-modified: 2000/06/01 U.S. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq [newest] U.K. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html IX. FOOD AND WINE ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This subject is enormous. Perhaps as time goes by I'll develop a listing, but we'll start with some basics: *"Drink red wines with meat, white wines with fish."* _Wrong!_ Drink whatever wine you like that _you_ think goes with whatever you are eating. There aren't any rules. The fact that there are some combinations that "many" people think best complement food and wine is a good guide, but if _you_ don't like it, or you like something else, do it! And red wine goes very well with a lot of fish, thank you. From a chemical standpoint, what you do when drinking wine can have an enormous impact on what you drink (or whether you should drink at all). Try an experiment. Dissolve 1/8th teaspoon salt in a gallon of water. Do the same with sugar and another gallon of water. Take a sip of one then taste a wine. Try it with the other. You may be very surprised. Since your taste buds are extremely sensitive, eating food radically changes the way a wine can taste. This is why tasting wine without eating the food you intend to eat it with may steer you wrong when it comes to what you really like. _FOOD COMBINATIONS PEOPLE HAVE LIKED _ I don't necessarily agree with or have tried the food and wine combinations that are related in this section. In fact, it is such an overwhelming area, I don't even know if it is a good idea to start. But since a FAQ should answer Frequently Asked Questions, here are some of the ones that have come up a lot. Wine and Chocolate_ Some will say this isn't possible. I think they're wrong. You'll find chocolate notes in Cabernet and this can make it a decent match. Also try Merlot or Zinfandel. A correspondent tells me that there is a chocolatier near the Musee D'Orsay in Paris that has a whole sheet of suggestions for wine with chocolate. Some of the best ideas are, he thinks: Vin Jaune, an "incredible, almost sherried wine" from the Jura; Chateau Chalon; fine solera Malaga; or an assertive young white port. _Wine and Duck_ Peking Duck (with sweet sauce): White Hermitage, Pinot Gris, Sancerre or Pouilly Fume Plain Roast Duck: Bordeaux, Cabernet, Australian Chardonnay, California Pinot Noir, Madiran, Cotes de Buzet Misc.: Spanish Rioja, preferably and Reserva or Gran Reserva X. LEARNING ABOUT WINE --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Starting Out --------------------------------------------------------------------------- In college what we drank was jug wine, Sangria, sloe gin fizzes, and the occasional 100% grain alcohol that the pre-med guy would get from the lab. Taste wasn't exactly the idea. For many years, we didn't exactly drink much in the way of any wine at all. Then we were introduced to "good" wine. This wasn't something that you just drank, it was another facet of the meal, food to be enjoyed just like the entree or dessert. About this time a local "fancy" market started doing "winemaker dinners." This being California, there was no lack of some of the best people in the state showing up. The market was trying to get business, so it was inexpensive and the 5-course meals were great. And so was a lot of the wine. While it was interesting to listen to the stories the winemakers, cellarmasters and producers would tell (and try to decipher some of the questions that the knowledgeable folk asked), the most important part was that this was a way to be introduced to a lot of different wines, alone, and with food. Dri, who has the memory between us, could remember what was good, or what she or I liked, and still can to this day. I'm a lot slower and my test (I thought I'd invented it, but then saw it in a magazine--later) was the "GDE" test. Did it "go down easy?" Matching wines was Dri's job and I knew I liked what I drank. I also started to know what I didn't like. Dri and I don't always agree. Neither will you. We bought a few books and started to visit wineries, mostly in California, some in Washington and Oregon. We went on the tours, some of which were big and crowded. As we gathered up our nerve about us, we found that we could make appointments at little wineries which would show just the two of us around (often it would be the owner/winemaker doing the tour), talk to us for hours about their operation and about wine, and let us taste some of the "good stuff." (Word of mouth is always good advertising.) It also turned out that some "big" wineries will do the same, just for the asking. After a while one tour looks like another, but we just like being in the usually cool winery and drinking in the scents of grape and wine and wood that jump out at you--and learning about the winemaker/owners. Even when there is no tour, many small wineries will, on appointment, let you taste. (Please, don't be pushy with them. They're doing you a favor, too. They have a business to run and lives to live. We always ask if they have time and when is best for them!) We didn't try to hit every place in Napa, we slowly picked a few places that we thought had good wine, and went and spent time. And bought some to keep. So now we drink more wine and we're still learning. We found, as most will tell you, that the best way to learn about wine is to drink it. So true. Lectures, books, magazines, this guide, other people, etc., will help you and maybe get you started along the right track. But what they have to say are just clues to the easily solved puzzle of what _you_ will like. Two interesting learning tools: restaurants that serve fine wines by the glass or have multi-course fixed price meals serving different wines for each course and wine tastings (often of verticals that will let you see just how a wine ages and when it is young, ready, or too old all at one sitting). Many restaurants have wine tastings as do wine clubs and associations. You can also do your own wine tastings (everybody brings a bottle of something, perhaps all reds, or all one varietal, etc.). Perhaps you host and have the guests chip in on the costs. This way you avoid duplication of bottles. Read Kevin Zraly's "Windows on the World Wine Course", a very easy to read book with lots of graphics. Take a wine appreciation class. These can usually be found through university extension, junior/community colleges or even large wine shops. These will introduce you to terminology, basic wine types, how to evaluate wines, etc. Find a tasting group, or a good wine shop that puts on tastings, preferably both. It is prohibitively expensive to taste a lot of wines if you have to buy a full bottle for each wine. Typically, a good wine shop should be able to point you to a few good tasting groups. There's used to be a "Les Amis Du Vin" chapter in most major cities, but I'm told the national organization has disappeared. A new organization called "Wine Lovers International" is trying to incorporate as many of the old Les Amis chapters as it can. Get copies of wine tasting newsletters, and try several wines recommended by each of them to see which ones most closely match your palate, then subscribe to the most appropriate ones. There's a listing of these resources elsewhere in this document. If all else fails, get some friends together (who at least enjoy wines--and maybe even if they don't) for wine tastings. It's also not a bad idea to make friends with people who have cellars full of wine (!). An important thing to do for any person who wants to start drinking better wine, is to find one or two wine merchants that you like, and to become recognized as a loyal customer, even if you don't initially spend a great deal. See which shops have tastings open to their customers. Tell the proprietor about your interests, taste, and budget. Many wine shop owners are enthusiasts who love to help (and talk) about wine. Try the offered wines then decide whether the wine is as the proprietor described it? Is it about what you asked for? If so, go back for more. A good merchant will repay your loyalty (and you'll repay theirs, and so on . . . ) X. LEARNING ABOUT WINE --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyberbia --------------------------------------------------------------------------- _ The extraordinary fast growth of the Internet and proliferation of multimedia personal computers makes it close to impossible to keep up with the changes available in electronic media. Here we'll offer some tips and perhaps a few definitions for people new to the electronic arena. Have a glass of wine while sifting through this one! _THE "INTERNET" _The "Internet" isn't exactly a thing. "Newbies" (people new to the Internet, generally considered to be unknowing of the conventions which have grown up to try to "civilize" its nature), often conceptualize the Internet like some giant America On Line or Prodigy or Microsoft Network. It isn't. The Internet is a system where a lot of people got together and agreed on rules by which lots of computers networks (and sometimes merely individual computers) could transfer information amongst themselves. When a computer or computer network "links" into the Internet, information is passed around using those rules. With a few semi-exceptions not worth explaining in a Wine FAQ, the Internet is really just one vast e-mail system where information ("data") can and may pass between and among any machine connected to the network. How you get to and/or view this electronic mail which is passed around on the Internet (sometimes called the "Network of networks") may take a number of different forms: for example, what we call "e-mail," World Wide Web pages, telnet, or Usenet. Since an ever increasing number of people are using a single tool, such as as a Web Browser to do all these things, there is a tendency to say that all these things _*are*_ the Internet. This isn't the place to argue the semantics of the 'net, but I mention these things to avoid the inevitable quibble that many of the things that I will refer to as part of the Internet are available in other ways or aren't _*technically*_ the "Internet." Fill your glass and don't worry about it. _Usenet_ A "bulletin board" system which uses the Internet to make available the public discussion of topics of interest. Where private e-mail goes (more or less) from one person to another, Usenet messages go from one person to everybody on the Internet who want to see them. There are about 15,000 "legitimate" (whatever that means) topics on Usenet as of this writing. Not all internet service providers (the method by which most individuals connect to Internet) give you access to every usenet topic. If the wine groups are not available to you, ask your site administrator to add them. There are currently two general Usenet groups that deal with wine: rec.food.drink [rec.food.drink] and alt.food.wine [alt.food.wine] . Depending on how you are reading this, your Internet connection, and your system, clicking on one of those names may take you directly to the group. For other more regionalized news groups, check out Usenet in Appendix A, The Wine Bookmark Page. Because rec.food.drink is more widely propagated (that means more sites make it available), time was when it carried most of the wine-related discussions. With the growth of the Internet it seems as if alt.food.wine has gained greater acceptance as the group of choice. Someone with time to spare might take the effort to establish a rec.food.wine. ("Rec" groups tend to be much more widely accepted than "alt" groups). If you think you would like to take these steps, more information is available on the process on Usenet in the news.answers [news.answers] group. (Many people post wine-related information to alt.bacchus. I have refrained from doing so as it is my understanding that the charter for that group is for other purposes.) Where "web pages" provide an excellent place for static information from single individuals or companies, Usenet is the place to get quick answers from the world. In fact, the FAQ is mostly an outgrowth of Usenet. After a group has seen (and maybe answered) a question for the 1000th time, it is a lot easier to tell newcomers to read the FAQ (for "Frequently Asked Questions") _before_ posing the question for the 1001th time. Usenet FAQs are usually prepared and maintained by volunteers who feel the urge to do so. _Listservs_ Where Usenet is totally public and e-mail is totally (sort of) private, a listserv falls somewhere in between. A listserv is like a private mailing list. A person sends mail to the listserv (a computer which is set up to deal with that mail). The listserv turns the mail around and sends it to every member of the list. When dealing with listservs, it is important to know that the mail address of the listserv for purposes of _*joining*_ the list as a member is invariably different than the address of the list for purposes of being part of the discussion. Usually you can get information on how to join a listserv group by sending a message to the joining listserv address with the word "help" in the subject line. For information on wine-related listservs, see the discussion on Internet Resources. _Gopher and the World Wide Web_ My how the 'net has grown. When I started this document, the Internet seemed a smaller world of private individuals using educational, corporate and military computers to connect to the world in a community minded way (I'm ignoring the true reasons that gave birth to the Internet, that's another book or twenty) Besides Usenet as a source of information, people would place informational pieces on their own computer systems which were also open to the Internet. The trick wasn't access but figuring out that they existed at all. While there were other systems that came before, one of the first really useful wide-spread methods of finding and retrieving material was by "gopher." Gopher software lets you visit a computer and view a listing (by text menu) of the documents which are being made publicly available. If you make a menu choice, the document is displayed for you. Still you had to guess what computer system had something you wanted. What if you got a computer to look at all the other computers and see what's there, keeping a list? Then you would have Veronica. The good news was that you could send a key word request using Veronica and get back a listing of files that might be useful. The bad news as that there were only five or eight or so computers in the world that would let you ask. Getting your request in got to be almost impossible. Just as things were getting pretty bleak, along came the World Wide Web. Still just a variation on the e-mail theme (you are really still sending a message to another computer which asks it to do something and sends back the information), the key here was that the software incorporated two major elements: graphics and hyper-text links. Now you could have something pretty to read and could skip around a document or from document to document around the world in an instant. Big Business got interested. Web Browsers became more and more sophisticated. Search engines (much like the Veronica idea, but enormously faster and ridiculously vast) came on line. While there are predictions that the system will again choke up, it hasn't happened yet. And just think, all this happened in about 18 months. Now, when surfing the web, I'm not sure whether what I read is truly informational or a blatant act of fiction promulgated overtly or covertly by commercial interests. For that matter, why believe anything *I* say? And even if not fictional, am I getting the *whole* story when the site I visit limits their "information" only to advertisers/supporters of the site? There seems no way to stop the rush to commercialization of the World Wide Web, but I can complain about it, can't I? More sites than not are commercial, others at least appear to be private. _Once again_, _*caveat emptor,*_ "Let the buyer beware." There is no way a FAQ came keep up with the proliferation of web sites that deal with wine. All we can do is point you to some useful Internet Resources, just below. _Internet Resources_ Internet Resources break down into two major divisions: search engines that sample the entire web and index it and sites that create lists (often from submissions). The beauty of the first is that you might find everything (if you phrase you question narrowly enough), the nice thing about the latter is that they may do the sifting for you in advance and you may get information that is not directly from a web site (listservs, for example). *Dean Tudor's Wines, Beers and Spirits of the Net [http://www.ryerson.ca/~journal/wine.html] . *_One of the best places to start looking for wine-related information without being inundated with every site on the web is Dean Tudor's list. It is posted monthly to Usenet groups dealing with alcholic beverages, as well as being available at http://www.ryerson.ca/~journal/wine.html. The list includes usenet groups, electronic mailing lists (listservs), gophers, FTP sites, WWW sites, IRC ("International Relay Chat") channels, Bulletin Board networks and systems, Commerical On-Line system forums and miscellaneous other information. With Mssr. Tudor's gracious permission, this FAQ provides a _Wine Bookmark Page _which is a sub-set of his list that is, more or less, limited to wine sites. You will, however, obtain the most current information by going directly to the original list. You can try the ubiquitous _yahoo.com [http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=wine] _for more in the style of compiled lists. Or go the keyword route using a search engine. A good listing of engines can be found at the _All-In-One_ Page at http://www.albany.net/allinone/. The _All-In-One whichh lists just about all the web search engines that exist is located at http://www.albany.net/allinone/all1www.html#WWW. MISCELLANEOUS ELECTRONIC STUFF I haven't seen either of these products, but they're out there! _*Microsoft Wine Guide CD-ROM*_ by Oz Clarke, whom many say a lot of good things about.. Reviewd by John Dvorak on C|NET Central as a "buy it." _*Wines of the World CD-ROM*_ on wine browsing, making wine, wine appreciation. On-line videos of wine regions, wine making processes, etc. Windows and Macintosh. _MAGAZINES AND NEWSLETTERS_ _*Best Bottles Wineletter*_. Box 21011 Stratford, Ontario Canada N5A 7V4. Written and produced by William Munnelly, who purchases and tastes all the wines reviewed. About 30 to 40 pages double-sided. The focus of the publication is wines around or under $10--the idea being you don't have to pay a fortune for a good bottle of wine. Published every other month, by subscription only. Annual subscription fee is Canadian $40 (including GST). _*The California Grapevine*_. 6 issues/yr. Approximately 20 pages per issue, U.S. $30/year. P.O. Box 22152, San Diego, CA 92192, [phone]. Focus on California wines, particularly Cabernet and Chardonnay. Some coverage of classified Bordeaux. Book reviews by Bob Foster. Articles by Dan Berger. Wines are evaluated by a panel of 10 to 12 on a modified Davis Scale (20 point scale). Due to the large panel size, the wines that are recommended tend to have wide appeal. [Note: Dan Berger is the wine writer for the Los Angeles Times. This household tends to agree with his palate and writings a great deal of the time!] _*Connoisseur's Guide to California Wine*_. Monthly, no advertising. Approximately 16 pages per issue, $42/yr. P.O. Box V, Alameda, CA 94501, [phone]. Focus is strictly on California and U.S. wines. Each issue reviews two to three classes of wine, with 20-40 wines per class. Wines are evaluated by a panel of two on a 5-point scale (0-3 Puffs + Pour it down the drain). Reviewers are said to have "California palates", which means they like big, intense, chewy wines. [Opposing comments welcome!] _*Decanter*_. Glossy British wine trade publication recommended by some. U.S. $75 to $80 per year. Available at some large bookstores and magazine racks in the U.S. _*The Fine Wine Review*_. Approximately 16 pages per issue. U.S. $28.93 per year. 2449 Jackson St., San Francisco, CA 94115-1324, [phone]. International in scope, each issue tends to focus on one wine type, for instance, Northern Rhones. An individual reviewer, Claude Kolm, evaluates on a 100 point scale ("objective, no context scale"), and also A/B/C/D/F ("how good the wine is compared to other wines of the same type"). Some feel Mr. Kolm is more reliable than some of the other wine critics. _*La Revue du Vin de France*_. 9 issues per year. 70p+8p per issue, 430FF per year. 18-20 rue Guynemer, 92441 Issy les Moulineaux Cedex, France; telephone: [phone]; fax: [phone]. Mainly French wines. Two special issues per year, one devoted to the new vintage (usually in June), and the last of the year called "les 500" which featuring the 500 best wines tasted during the year. Each issue contains 8 pages of tasting notes called "le cahier de degustation." Also articles about a special regions, a chateaus. Wines are either given a note (out of 10) or evaluated using a 5 stars notation for hard to judge wine. _*New York Wine Cellar*_. Tanzer Business Communications, Inc. P.O. Box 392, Prince Station, New York, New York 10012. Interviews, ratings. Bi-monthly US $48; foreign air mail US $60. _*The Quarterly Review of Wines*_. 4 issues per year. Approximately 70 pages per issue. U.S. $13.95 per year. P.O. Box 591, Winchester, MA 01890-9988. Glossy magazine. Mostly articles, few reviews. Doesn't give ratings. _*Underground Wine Journal*_. Wine Journal Enterprises, 1654 Amberwood Drive, Suite A., South Pasadena, California 91030. [phone]. U.S. $48/year. International in scope, with good coverage of German and French wines, vertical and horizontal tastings of individual wine producers. Wines are evaluated by two or three reviewers on a modified Davis scale (20 point scale). Some say "very reliable reviews." _*The Vine*_. British newsletter by Clive Coats. _*The Wine Advocate*_. From Robert Parker, Jr., an "independent consumer's guide to fine wines" published 6 times a year. The 1993 Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide says that The Wine Advocate costs $35.00 for delivery in the continental United States, $45.00 in Canada and $65.00 by air-mail delivery anywhere in the world (I'm assuming all prices in $US). For subscriptions or a sample copy write to The Wine Advocate, P.O. Box 311, Monkton, MD 21120, or fax to 410-357-4504. Mr. Parker is said not to be afraid to take a stand on a controversial wine, but some don't agree with his conclusions (why should they, to each their own!). _*Wine Enthusiast Magazine*_. 6 issues per year. Approximately 52 pages per issue. U.S. $17.70 per year. 800-356-8466 to subscribe. Published by Wine Enthusiast Companies which consists mainly of a wine gadgets store and the magazine. Mostly articles and a few reviews. Web site [http://www.2way.com/food/wine] at http://www.2way.com/food/wine. _*The Wine News*_. 6 issues per year, approximately 40 pages per issue. U.S $18 per year. 353 Alcazar Avenue, Suite 101-B Coral Gables, Florida 33134. Includes review magazine "Inside Wine" Said to be similar to "The Wine Spectator" with large format and the same coverage. _*The Wine Spectator*_. A large, glossy format with lots of pictures. While considered by some "serious" (too serious?) types to be a lot of fluff ("the National Enquirer of wine"), it can be fun to read and is every bit as informative as a handbook at least to someone with little experience, and to the experienced as well. Lots of wine buying guides, reports from vertical tastings, and even restaurant recipes. Some have speculated about the cause and effect of advertising on ratings. 1994--Cover price: Canada $3.95; US $2.95; UK Pounds 2.50. Subscription Price US $40/year, $75/2 years. Call 1-800-752-7799 or send to P.O. Box 50463, Boulder, CO. 80321-0463. Web site [http://www.winespectator.com] at http://www.winespectator.com. _*Wine Tidings*_. 8 issues per year. Approximately 30 pages per issue. U.S. $35 per year. 5165 Sherbrooke St West, Montreal QC H4A 9Z9. Mostly articles. Some reviewers felt that it was a bit expensive for what you get. -- Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.mindspring.net.MISMATCH!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!bradb From: [e-mail] (Brad) Newsgroups: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine,rec.answers,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: Wine (the beverage) FAQ, part8 of 10 [LONG] Followup-To: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine Date: 30 Sep 2000 17:19:08 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Lines: 416 Approved: [e-mail] Message-ID: <8r57ac$nad$[e-mail]> NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.b7.09.74 Summary: A 10 part FAQ on the beverage wine with various asides Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.food.drink:47107 alt.food.wine:64085 rec.answers:61456 alt.answers:51506 news.answers:192803 Archive-name: drink/wine-faq/part8 Posting-Frequency: monthly Copyright: (c) 1995-2000 Bradford S. Brown (Notices/Disclaimers in pt. 10) Last-modified: 2000/06/01 U.S. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq [newest] U.K. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html _Printed Materials_ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I don't have any affiliation with any of the following. I provide absolutely no representation about the value, worth or usefulness of any reference. Most of the information here is the opinion of others. Where known, I've provided price/publication information. Please feel free to send me information on these and any other publications. _BOOKS _ _*Adventures on the Wine Route*_ by Kermit Lynch. "Lively, somewhat nonconformist, and passionately devoted to good wine, full of fascinating characters and interesting insights. A great read, even if you aren't particularly interested in wine. Warning: Lynch, while American, does not look kindly on the American emphasis on rating wines and on favoring "big" wines. But even if you don't agree, it's good to hear a different point of view." _*American Wine Society Publications*_. Source for technical wine publications. In the U.S., call [phone]. _*California Wine Atlas*_ by Bob ???. "Considered by many to be the best reference for California wines." _*The Game of Wine *_by Forrest Roberts and Gilbert Cross. "Charming, witty and full of anecdotes, recipes and advice." Sounds like fun reading about the entire concept of drinking wine, not just another tomb about wine drinking. _*How and Why To Build a Wine Cellar*_, by Richard Gold. _*How To Test and Improve Your Judging Ability*_ by ? Marcus. 97 page booklet. Describes common wine flaws. _*Assorted books by Hugh Johnson*_. Several classic and well-regarded works, including the annual Pocket Guide containing varietals, terms, regions, producers and vineyards, vintages, wine and food, etc. One poster did mention about the pocket guide: "not recommended for the extremely myopic." Non-pocket version available at a higher price. "Hugh Johnson's Modern Encyclopedia of Wine" "is a excellent book talking about all wine regions around the world. It is very indepth and well written." Also, "Hugh Johnson's Atlas is a classic, with detailed maps of winemaking areas around the world." _*Kellgren's Wine Book Catalog*_, Specialty Books Company, P.O. Box 616, Croton-On-Hudson, New York, 10520-0616, 1-800-274-4816. Book store or service. Free catalog may be available at the phone number shown. _*Masterglass*_, Jancis Robinson. Contains (I'm told) an excellent, unpretentious list of wine terms. _*Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide*_, Robert M. Parker, Jr. (Simon and Schuster/Firestone): Notwithstanding negative comments one might hear about "Parker," this is an excellent reference. It lists 7500 wines from around the world and can give you a very good idea of what is good or bad (though, as always, _you_ may not agree with the tastes of the author). There is introductory information on, among other things, how to buy and store wine and aging of the wine. There is an overview of wine growing areas, ideas about the quality of the wine in recent years from those areas and commentaries about specific wines. A numerical rating system is used. Over 1000 pages, my latest copy (1993, 3rd edition) was US $21.00. _*Sotheby's World Wine Encyclopedia*_ by Tom Stevenson (1988, 480 pages.), US $40, Bulfinch Press, Little Brown & Company; 25 British Pounds, Dorling Kindersley UK. Glossy format with colored pictures. Wine regions, producers, maps, aging, varieties. Comprehensive wine reference. Probably dated if no new publication since 1988. _*The Wines of France*_ by Steven Spurrier, Steven. "Great addition to any library, and his section on the grapes used in wine is excellent, comprehensive and to be trusted." *_University of California at Davis Book Catalog_ *contains a number of books about wine. _*Vines, Grapes and Wines*_ by Jancis Robinson. Publisher Mitchell Beazly of London, England. "More concentrated information covering all major wine producing countries than anything else I have read." _*Vintage Time Charts*_ by Jancis Robinson. Descriptions of how long to age particular wines. Described as the "classic" work. _*Windows on the World Complete Wine Course*_ by Kevin Zaraly. Sterling Publishing Company. My copy printed 1993, marked at US $22.95. "Helpful for people getting started." _*Wine Appreciation Guild Catalog*_. Wine Appreciation Guild, 155 Connecticut Street, San Francisco, California 94107. Large selection of books; retail and wholesale orders. Catalog has blurb on each book and therefore is a good reference all by itself. _*The Wine Book *_by Oz Clarke. _*Wine Appreciation Guide Catalog*_. 155 Connecticut Street, San Francisco, California 94107. From a correspondent: The catalog lists (and describes) just about every English language book on wine published in the last 30 years. _*Wine Spectator's Ultimate Guide to Buying Wine*_, Wine Spectator Press, a division of M. Shanken Communications. [phone] or fax [phone]. US $19.95. _*Wine Tasting*_ by Michael Broadbent (Fireside/Simon and Schuster; my copy reprinted 1990, marked at US $10.95). This pocket sized book is very nice, small (with tiny print), yet in-depth. It isn't about particular producers, its about _WINE_. What it looks, smells and tastes like. How to taste. Color plates to show how wine changes. Nice section on how to put on a serious wine tasting. X. LEARNING ABOUT WINE --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Miscellaneous --------------------------------------------------------------------------- COURSES ON WINE _*The University of California at Davis*_ confers college degrees. Their web site is http://wineserver.ucdavis.edu/. _*The Wine and Spirit Education Trust Diploma*_ is recommended to UK students considering studying for the "Master of Wine" examination. However the Master of Wine is an international qualification with study courses and exams run in Boston, Sydney, Montpellier and London. It is open to any one in the trade who can demonstrate adequate experience and knowledge as it is a difficult exam to pass. It takes two years with a dissertation on an aspect of viticulture or vinification in year 1 with written and tasting exams in year 2. Potential candidates should contact the Institute of Masters of Wine. Five Kings House, 1 Queen Street Place, London EC4R 1QS, Great Britain; [phone], fax: + 44 171 329 0298. _WINERIES_ Many people have asked for an on-line compendium of every winery in existence. The best place to get this information is from a book. If you insist on using the Internet, then you are relying on the talents of some dedicated compilers or the commercial leanings of the wineries themselves. (I'm not saying they may not have altruistric motives, the Internet is cheap, but let's be real.) For some lists of wineries on the Internet, see the section on Internet Resources. As of this writing, more wine magazines are setting up web sites. They probably will provide a great deal of information (perhaps for a fee) on specific wines and wineries. Wineries are an excellent place to learn about wine when approached with the proper frame of mind: drunkeness is not a particularly good way to remember much about what you were drinking. Another very important point to remember about tasting at wineries is that you probably aren't tasting the wine the way you would at home. Besides the somewhat crowded, sometimes rushed situations you face in the winery, the bottle might have been open for hours or even days. In my mind, however, the most important thing is that you probably will drink the wine with food at home. The differences in the way a wine tastes when you are eating can be momumental. What might be a so-so wine in the winery might be wonderful at home, and vice-versa. Nevertheless you can usually get a good idea of the wines you like when tasting a various wineries in a particular area over a short period of time. Take notes, have a good time, and use the "dump bucket." While traveling through wine areas, you will find that many wineries let you come in and taste their wines free of charge. Since we aren't really out to get drunk on these trips, we find ourselves constantly asking the pourers to "go easy". Purists may say that you need more than we ask for in order to get enough wine in the glass to swirl and smell. We find that we get along just fine without a large pour. Makes us feel better about not "wasting" wine. Perhaps we are naive about the wasting part, since the wineries know what they are doing when it comes to the promotion and sale of their wine. But this brings us to the subject of charging for tasting. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch, so the saying goes, but free wine tastings seem to come awfully close. Once you're used to the concept, walking into a place and being charged for the "priviledge" of finding out whether you want to spend a lot of money on buying something you can't otherwise personally know anything about seems almost offensive! (Really, how much more subjective can any subject be than the choice of wine to drink?) Or course it all comes down to supply and demand. Wineries that find that people will pay may charge. Answer? There are still _lots_ of wineries making great wine that do not charge. If you are so inclined, tell the charging winery so and walk out. (We're not going to get into the argument that charging cuts down on drunkeness; there are enough people that will pay and get drunk anyhow.) A winery may not often be pouring their best wines, which, in many cases, are in short supply. However, if you look like you are somewhat knowledgeable about what you want to drink, know a bit about the particular winery's wine, and are genuinely interested in purchasing the more expensive wines (and show up when things aren't so busy), you may find that you will be allowed to taste them, for the asking. Sometimes a winery will charge for tasting the better wines. This seems a fair compromise (so maybe we'll support them on this one, though perhaps we're still naive). Some wineries, for a price (if not outrageous, certainly justified, this time), go all out and will pour much older "library" wines which they have stored and are now again releasing for sale. Such tastings are very informative, for even if you can't afford to buy the wine, you can get some idea of how more current wines will "age," or just what all the hoopla is about when people talk about drinking wines that have been around for a long time. For a more personal look at visiting wineries, check out the section on Learning About Wine: Starting Out. _WINE TASTINGS_ Horace Rumpole, aging Old Bailey hack (also known as a barrister practicing law in the criminal courts in London), attending what undoubtedly was his first wine tasting after many years consuming the less than stately Chateau Thames Embankment, given a somewhat more pleasing claret, found that it was a vintage "Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth, tasting of Flora and the country green." And while he reveled in drinking the "flavour of Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth, mixed with a dash of wild strawberries," he was bedeviled by a fellow taster who demanded: "can't you spit?" [For a fun time, read Rumpole and the Blind Tasting, in Rumpole's Last Case, by John Mortimer, Penguin Books. Or read any Rumpole story! Also a popular TV program. Also a popular audio series, especially when performed (not just read) by Leo McKern--doing all the voices. OK, so wine isn't the only thing I like....] Poor Rumpole. All he was trying to do was enjoy a decent wine and he is reproached for failing to use the expectoration area. Of course the idea is that you don't _drink_ the wine, you merely _taste_ it. Among other things, this means that you don't get drunk. The concept of spittoons, or sandboxes, properly placed, is real factor in "real" tastings. It should be OK to drink the wine when there aren't many being served and care is taken. But if there is a large number of wines to sample, drinking them all is going to become a problem. On the other hand, you don't have to be all uppity about tasting wine. Friends gathering to try out a number of wines (in moderation) is a good way to learn about wine. "Dumping" the glass eventually is a good idea just to avoid the drunkenness, which, among other things, will prevent you from learning anything at all. The really serious also get into "blind tastings" where the participants (often contestants) must identify not only the type of wine, but the vintage and producer. There are those who can do that; there are also those who think the only way you _can_ do that is to practice it 3 or 4 times a week. Having never participated in a blind tasting (and since I have an abysmal memory, I doubt that I ever will), I cannot attest to how much fun such a contest is. There are certainly those who take great pleasure in it. Many people seem to think that you add something to the wine tasting experience by injecting something like a contest into it. For many this can be intimidating. Of course, the best reason for tasting wine under blinded conditions (meaning where the identity of each wine isn't known until after the tasting is done) is so that the tasters can judge the wine on its own merits, uninfluenced by any prejudices or expectations based on where the wine is from or what year it is. Blind tastings often yield surprising results, such as when an obscure wine is strongly preferred by the tasters over the first growth Bordeaux that was also in the tasting. Most people who taste blind do so in order to evaluate the wine entirely by its taste, rather than by its label. A very knowledgeable wine person tells me: "What can be really amusing when you have a wine snob (not a knowledgeable connoisseur, but one of those who likes to put on airs and brag about how anything except first-growth Bordeaux is junk) over for dinner is to decant a bottle of something good bug cheap into a bottle with a posh label on it. Then, after the snob has gushed rhapsodic over the wine, show him or her the other bottle and explain what you did." I'm not necessarily a promoter of deception, but I certainly don't advocate snobbery; do this at your own risk! An interesting idea in any event is to taste a "first label" against the "second label" of a vintner. Some wineries will put out their best wine under their own name, and then use a different label for wine that they like but don't think is worthy of their normal production. Tasting between the two can give a good opportunity to see what the winemaker thinks about similar products. _WINE CRITICS_ Robert Parker, an attorney who was able to do something which suited his interests and perhaps to many is a whole lot more fun. He got to become the ultimate wine expert. Lots of people "don't like Robert Parker." They miss the point. Robert Parker, like all of us, has his own likes and dislikes. The fact that "Parker" likes a wine is completely of no consequence; if _you_ don't like the wine (or vice-versa). If you wish to follow Parker because you know nothing about a wine and want to know where to begin, that's certainly fine, and not a bad idea. If you like a wine and Parker doesn't and you change your mind about it because you believe Parker over your own palate, then I'll wonder about you. Taste is on the tongue of the beholder. The only _true_ problem with Parker is that if he _really likes_ a wine, don't wait around long trying to find it. It'll be gone before you get a chance to buy (or the price will increase out of your range). Fortunately there are quite a few wines that Parker doesn't like that many find absolutely wonderful and remain bargains. Since wine making is an annual event, you get to figure this out every year. Mr. Parker has been found on the Prodigy service at [e-mail]. (A note: Posts indicate that Mr. Parker has an investment in a winery (with his brother-in-law) in Oregon; that he does not review the wine, nor mention the name of the wine in his writings and reviews. Posts generally liked the Pinot.) XI. PHYSIOLOGIC NOTES ON WINE_ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alcohol can damage your liver. On the other hand, there has been much suggestion that the drinking of wine is somehow "good for you." While it might calm your nerves a bit, what many want to say is that, for whatever reason, it can protect you from heart disease, perhaps by lowering cholesterol. Some point to those parts of the world where people eat high fat diets, drink lots of wine, and live to a very old age. Some of the problems here are statistics. A good statistician can prove black is white, more or less. There may be other factors that are overlooked. The bottom line is that, at this stage of knowledge, it probably isn't a good idea to _start_ drinking to obtain hypothetical protective effects. Whether it helps you if you are drinking is controversial. Most people will agree that if you drink "too much," it is _not_ good for you (for a variety of reasons). _ALLERGIC REACTIONS TO WINE_ The biggest complaint here is that some people develop headaches from drinking wine. There are several proposed causes. One is that sulfites added by the producer (or can be naturally present in lesser amounts) cause the allergic reaction. Furthermore, it has been suggested that cheaper wines are likely to have more sulfites as a cheap substitute for careful grape selection and winemaking. Some people say that it is only red wine that causes them a problem. Sulfites are present in both red and white wines. Another possible cause is anthocyanin pigments which are what makes "red" grapes red. These are also present in blue cheese. If both cause you problems, maybe you've found a reason? While there are wines that claim to be sulfite free, most people will tell you that this is not possible, as sulfites exist in nature on the grape. However, the amount would be less if not artificially introduced. But since sulfur dioxide is used to control how the wine is produced (getting rid of unwanted yeasts, molds and bacteria), some feel that you may not get as good a wine. United States law requires that wine with over 10 parts per million of sulfites state that the wine "contains" sulfites. Solutions suggested by some (but not recommended or approved by me in any way) are: Drink lots of water before drinking the wine. Take a pain-killer first. The problem with this last one is that is known to enhance the alcoholic affect. The best answer is, if this is a problem, don't drink wine. Some suggest wines not made from grapes. I have received notes (and welcome more) from people indicating that the following wineries may produce wine that claim to be "sulfite free." If this is important to you, you should directly with these producers: + Organic Wine Works, Felton, California. Entire line of reds and whites + Chateau Le Barradis, Monbazillac, France. _CALORIES IN WINE_ Most of the calories in wine come from alcohol, though some additional calories come from the "food" that came from the fruit (proteins, carbohydrates [like sugar], etc.). Since some wines are more dry than sweet (that is, they have less sugar), those wines would have a little less calories. Also, wines vary in alcohol content, which would, of course, also affect the number of calories from alcohol. The United States Department of Agriculture says that 100 grams of "table wine" (12.2 percent alcohol by volume) has 85 calories while 100 grams of "dessert wine" (18.8 percent alcohol by volume) has 135 calories. In any event, a pretty good rule of thumb is that table wine has approximately 25 calories per ounce. When cooking with wine, you can end up boiling out the alcohol. The result is that the calorie impact from the wine is drastically reduced. _PREGNANCY AND WINE_ Heavy alcohol use in pregnancy can lead to birth defects. Some doctors feel that the safest course is not to drink any alcohol at all during pregnancy. Others feel that light, occasional drinking has not been shown to be harmful. Check with your doctor! _WINE AS A SLEEPING AID_ The general consensus is that alcohol might help you fall asleep immediately but that you'll be up in the middle of the night. A warm glass of milk seems to be a better idea. _LEAD IN WINE_ Some people are concerned about high levels of lead in wine. A possible reason is that the high acidity levels in wine help to cause lead to leach out of things that it touches. Lead "capsules" (the foil at the top of the bottle) have all but disappeared from new bottles of wine for this reason. You can wipe the top of a bottle with a damp cloth before pouring if you have an older bottle with a lead capsule. There is some reason to believe that lead can be leached out of lead crystal glasses. Whether this occurs in significant numbers in the short run I do not at this time know, but I have read some material that indicates it is not a good idea to store an alcoholic beverage in crystal decanters for long periods of time. -- Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.mindspring.net.MISMATCH!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!bradb From: [e-mail] (Brad) Newsgroups: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine,rec.answers,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: Wine (the beverage) FAQ, part9 of 10 [LONG] Followup-To: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine Date: 30 Sep 2000 17:19:09 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Lines: 276 Approved: [e-mail] Message-ID: <8r57ad$ud3$[e-mail]> NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.b7.09.74 Summary: A 10 part FAQ on the beverage wine with various asides Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.food.drink:47102 alt.food.wine:64080 rec.answers:61451 alt.answers:51501 news.answers:192798 Archive-name: drink/wine-faq/part9 Posting-Frequency: monthly Copyright: (c) 1995-2000 Bradford S. Brown (Notices/Disclaimers in pt. 10) Last-modified: 2000/06/01 U.S. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq [newest] U.K. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html XII. TOURING THE WINE COUNTRY ------------------------------------------------------------------------- We might give up before we start, but for now, we'll have a lot of reserved. Touring the wine country is a personal adventure. Everybody has their own impressions as to what they like and how they like to do it. Initially we provided WWW links to various tourist sites, but with the explosion of the WWW, there is no keeping up. Instead, check the Internet Resources section for hints on where to start in finding your particular interests. _CANADA_ _Niagara Peninsula_ You may wish to tour the wineries of the Niagara Peninsula in southern Ontario. After visiting the famous Falls, the Wine Route can provide an interesting summer afternoon drive. One end is on the Niagara Parkway, between Queenston Heights and Niagara-on-the-Lake, and it wanders through the vineyards and orchards to the Niagara Bench area and the town of Grimsby. It passes near about 25 wineries. The route, not counting stops, takes 2-3 hours to drive. Coach tours are available. Most of the wineries provide free tastings. However, if you want to try Ontario's famous Eiswein (icewine) you will probably have to pay a little - it's too expensive to give away. _Okanagan Valley_ Located west of the Canadian Rockies in the southeastern part of British Columbia, the Okanagan Similkameen area contains a number of wineries. The Okanagan Valley, similar in latitude to German wine growing regions has produced grapes since the 1800's, however in the 1970's a series of major replantings with the hopes of transforming the area into a world-class wine growing area, with over 25 wineries currently in operation. Fruit stands are frequent along the highways which pass by scenic lakes. Some wineries co-exist with new homes. The Similkameen high desert valley runs along the Similkameen River in the Cascade Mountains and is a much more recent addition the list of wine producing areas. A large number of wine related events take place throughout the year. A tourism guide is available from the Okanagan Similkameen Tourism Association of British Columbia, which you can also probably get from the British Columbia Tourism people by phone (check your local listings). _FRANCE_ Okay. We've never been to France. There are enough books and tourist guides to fill a library. But if anybody has anything specific they would like to add, let us know. So far we've heard: _UNITED STATES OF AMERICA_ _California_ _*Central Coast*_ Centered more or less between Solvang/Buellton and Santa Maria, the Central Coast has, in recent times, begun to produce a great deal of extremely good wine. Given that the Mondavi family of Napa has recently come in and bought up a lot of the best acreage, it is clear that what is coming from the area is not without some very large potential! Many people like to stay in either Santa Barbara (and drive the 45 minutes or so to the southern wine areas), or in and around Solvang, a town that tries to look a bit like (so I'm told) a small Danish town, down to a windmill on top of the most famous Danish pastry shop in town. Because there are a number of very small producers without tasting rooms, there are several wine tasting rooms which, for a small fee, will let you sample a large number of the area's wines that you could not otherwise taste. One such room is the _*Los Olivos Tasting Room *_in the center of the small town of Los Olivos (about 10 minutes north of Solvang). Another (run by a local wine writer), is the _*Los Olivos Wine and Spirits Emporium*_, located about a mile west of the center of Los Olivos (web site [http://www.sbwines.com] : http://www.sbwines.com). (Netizens may like the "wine glass stained" mouse pads offered there; we're using one "as we speak.") _*Gold Country*_ [Reserved.] _*Mendocino*_ [Reserved.] _*Napa*_ When most people first think of where the wine country in California is, they probaby first think of Napa. About an hour's drive (when you are lucky) north of San Francisco, the wine boom of the last 30 or so years has transformed the area's farms and farmers. World class fine wines are produced here by family farmers, wine barons and multi-national corporations, just to name a few. Wines to fit every taste and every pocketbook can be found at almost every turn. So far as touring the area, the first thing many people think of is "expensive." While a vacation in a wine area might not be as costly as some resort packages, the Napa area has experienced such a huge tourist influx that the cost of lodging and food (both of which can be extremely good) have risen rapidly. Our travels have shown us that a higher percentage of wineries charge for tasting in Napa than in any other area we have visited. In any event, you can be treated to some of the finest dining anywhere in establishments that, as often as not, provide reasonably priced wines from local producers. Many wineries have beautiful areas in which to picnic, and you can get food from some of the wineries (and, of course, if you want, wine), or provide your own from markets, bakeries and deli's in the area, especially along or just off of Highway 29. For those who are interested, there are also balloon rides, sail planes, resorts, mud baths, a wine "train" and even a gondola ride to get you to a winery (at a price). Of course another cost of all these tourist attractions is that there are a lot of tourists. The crowds can be a bit overwhelming at times. It is best to plan for off-peak periods and mid-week visits if you want to avoid some of the herds. _*Paso Robles*_ [Reserved.] _*Sonoma*_ North of San Francisco and west over the hills from Napa lies Sonoma County. Where Napa is glitz and glamor, Sonoma seems to be more "down home." Perhaps this is an illusion as big companies take over more and more acreage, but there are still lots of smaller wineries making world class wine in an agricultural setting. The area is bigger than Napa and since it is more spread out, it isn't quite the tourist attraction, nor does it have quite the "trendiness." There aren't as many "upscale" restaurants (but there are some; we've tried and liked, for example, _*Mixx*_ in Santa Rosa, _*John Ash & Co.*_ just north of Santa Rosa and the _*Willowside Cafe *_somewhat west of Santa Rosa._* *_There is wine that is just as good and the crowds are smaller. If you want a bit more of the tourist feeling, stay in and around the city of Sonoma, otherwise, the city of Santa Rosa is a good base. You can even cross over the hills and spend some time in Napa. If you think we're putting Sonoma down, don't. We don't want to let a good thing out of the bag. We spend much more time in Sonoma when we're up that way. _*Temecula*_ [Reserved.] XIII. MISCELLANY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTING WINE _*Into the United States*_ I've not checked the following information. Check with Customs! Posts indicate: You are allowed to bring into the U.S. some amount of liquor duty free. After that, 10% flat rate for the first $1000 above the $400 duty free limit (for most other items) allowed. You must carry the wine with you. Mailing/shipping it back requires an importer, and some say it will disappear in any event. _KOSHER WINE_ When I think of Kosher wine, I think of Mogan David. Most of those wines are sweetened and some use artificial flavors. Posts have spoken of other producers: + Carmel + Baron Herzog (California) + Gan Eden (California) + Galil (Israel) + Golan Heights (Golan Heights) + Royal Kedem (Israel) + Weinstock (California) _MAKING YOUR OWN WINE_ Definitely something that can be done, but far afield from our experience. Some of the best wine we've drunk is from home winemakers, and many commercial winemakers got their start making wine at home. There are a great number of cyberspace resources in this area, including a FAQ on winemaking and a FAQ on winemaking resources. Check out: _*Usenet*_: rec.crafts.wine-making _*World Wide Web:*_ Don Buchan's Wine Guide Page [http://www.cam.org/~malak/guide] at http://www.cam.org/~malak/guide with links to his FAQs on making wine and internet wine-making resources, as well as information on wine-making kits, recipes, etc. See additional sites as listed in the "Winemaking" section of Appendix A. _*E-mail*_: Don Buchan [[e-mail]] is at [e-mail]. _*FTP:*_ rtfm.mit.edu (all FAQs) _*Gopher:*_ gopher.physics.utoronto.ca (all FAQ's via rtfm.mit.edu) _PAN-GALACTIC GARGLE BLASTER_ While I wouldn't bet that there is any wine in a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, who knows? Check with Zaphod Beeblebrox. _RECIPES_ _*Wine Coolers*_ Two bottles red wine (don't spend a lot!). 1 container frozen orange juice concentrate. Several cinnamon sticks several whole cloves. (I've never made this....) Chill and serve in a punch bowl with strawberries on top. Add soda water for a weaker concoction. _SHIPPING_ If you are shipping wine, take note that many wineries will hold off shipment to accommodate either your schedule or the weather. You probably don't want your wine sitting around a very hot loading dock in the middle of summer. Check Appendix A for some URL's discussing legal aspects of wine and the shipping of wine. Some states do not allow shipping into their jurisdiction. Why? Alternate theories include morals and/or tax revenues. _ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- APPENDIX A. WINE BOOKMARK LIST (in HTML) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following is a sub-set of Dean Turdor's Wines, Beers and Spirits of the Net [http://www.acs.ryerson.ca/~journal/wine.html] , removing most of the non-wine links. Thanks to Mssr. Tudor for his permission to use his list. For a complete and current copy of his list, go to http://www.acs.ryerson.ca/~journal/wine.html. The following listing was created in November, 1997. For ease of use, the entire list will be included in part 10 -- Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!howland.erols.net!netnews.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!bradb From: [e-mail] (Brad) Newsgroups: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine,rec.answers,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: Wine (the beverage) FAQ, part10 of 10 [LONG] Followup-To: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine Date: 30 Sep 2000 17:20:10 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Lines: 2195 Approved: [e-mail] Message-ID: <8r57ca$rnm$[e-mail]> NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.b7.09.74 Summary: A 10 part FAQ on the beverage wine with various asides Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.food.drink:47110 alt.food.wine:64088 rec.answers:61459 alt.answers:51509 news.answers:192806 Archive-name: drink/wine-faq/part10 Posting-Frequency: monthly Copyright: (c) 1995-2000 Bradford S. Brown (Notices/Disclaimers in pt. 10) Last-modified: 2000/06/01 U.S. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq [newest] U.K. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html --------------------------------------------------------------------------- APPENDIX A. WINE BOOKMARK LIST (in HTML) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following is a sub-set of Dean Turdor's Wines, Beers and Spirits of the Net [http://www.acs.ryerson.ca/~journal/wine.html] , removing most of the non-wine links. Thanks to Mssr. Tudor for his permission to use his list. For a complete and current copy of his list, go to http://www.acs.ryerson.ca/~journal/wine.html. The following listing was created in November, 1997. For ease of use, the entire list will be included in part 10 Corrections/additions to [e-mail]

This is an attempt to keep up with online resources devoted to wines, beers and spirits, largely from the Internet. Editions are posted bimonthly. Most wine merchants are no longer listed, due to space restrictions and the fact that Dean Tudor is not a commercial operation; instead, try Yahoo Wine Shops
 

USENET/NETNEWS GROUPS:

• alt.alcohol
• alt.bacchus
• alt.food.wine
• fr.rec.boissons.vins
• francom.biere-et-vins
• niagara.wine
• rec.crafts.winemaking
• rec.food.drink (covers all beverages, including non-alcoholic; archived at Grapevine (http://www.terra.net/grapevine)
• uk.food+drink.misc

---

MAILING LIST DISCUSSION GROUPS:

• CANWINE -- for Canadian wines
• CIDER DIGEST
• ENOLOGY -- science of enology
• GROWWINE -- discussion on wine production
• FOODWINE -- for mostly food and some wine
• GRAPEGROWERS DIGEST -- profesional grapegrowers list
• LAMBIC DIGEST
• MEAD-LOVER-DIGEST
• NW-WINE -- for Pacific Northwest wines
• NZWINE -- for New Zealand wines
• OZWINE -- for Australian and New Zealand wines
• UK-HOMEBREW -- emphasizing UK sources
• VITICULTURE -- science of viticulture
• WINE -- general discussion
• WINE-INFO
• WINEMAKERS EMPORIUM -- profesional grapegrowers list

---

WORLD-WIDE WEB (WWW) URLs:

Reference Materials:
• Yahoo Wine Links
• Yahoo Regional Wine Links
• Winetasting Glossary (Hawkins)
• BATF
• Open Directory Project: Wine
• Pictures of Grapes
• Mining Company: wine guides
• Beverage Testing Institute
• Alcohol: Problems and Solutions
• StratsPlace
• Wine Education Site
• Wonderful Wines of the World
• Vin Quebec
• Vitis Database
• Organic Grapes Into Wine Alliance
• Wine Aroma Wheel (Prof. Noble)
• American Wine Society
• Society of Wine Educators
• Wine Writers' Circle of Canada
• Brad's Wine FAQ
• Smart Wine Wine Review Database
• Wine & Spirit Education Trust (UK)
• Slow Food Guide to Wines of the World
• Robin Garr's Wine Lovers' Page
• WineLaw: US Legal and Compliance Information
• American Society for Enology & Viticulture
• Harvard-Smithsonian CfA Wine Page
• ENSTA Club Oenologie Francois Rabelais
• International Wine and Food Society, Helsinki Branch
• CSIRO Grapevine Server, Australia
• Charles Sturt Univ., Australia
• UC Davis Dept. of Viticulture & Enology
• Cornell/NYSAES Enology Research & Extension
• Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (Niagara, Canada)
• US Wine Stocks Summary Page
• Wine Regions of the World
• Vinexpo (Bordeaux)
• Wine Auction Analysis
• Wine Auctions: winebid.com
• Wine Auction World
• Artisans on Web -- Wine
• Beverage Network (news)
• Grape Pest Control (UCDavis)
• Wine Books
• List of Wineries on the Internet (alphabetical)
• RestaurantWine Newsletter
• TasteTour
• Lincoln University Viticulture & Oenology, NZ
• Australian Wine Society (Calgary Branch)
• IntoWine
• Eat and Drink
• Vinopolis exhibits
• Alcohol in Moderation
• Icewine
• Wine Searcher (catalogue prices)
• Virtual Vintage Chart
• Vintners.Com
• Dr.WineKnow (advice)

---

E-zines and Magazines:
• Yahoo Wine Magazines
• Wine Spectator
• WineToday.Com (NYTimes)
• Wine Advocate (Robert Parker)
• Decanter Magazine
• SmartWine
• Wine Enthusiast magazine
• Wine Access
• Quarterly Review of Wine
• Wine & Dine e-zine
• Wine Trader Magazine Online
• Mead on Wine
• Food & Wine
• Winestate Online (Australian)
• Winetitles, Australia (publication)
• Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research
• Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Journal
• VinNytt: Wine Newsletter
• Mark Squires' E-zine on Wine
• Wine Country Review Magazine
• Wine Authority (magazine)
• World Wine Watch Online
• Tokyo Wine News (ezine)
• WineDiary
• Tony Aspler, Wine Writer
• Justin Christoph, Philadelphia Sun
• James Halliday
• Happy Hours Ezine
• Wine Press Northwest
• Vine (Clive Coates)
• Gambero Rosso
• Spirit Journal Ezine
• WineDay
• Winemaker Magazine
• Brew Your Own Magazine
• Vintage Assessments
• Tasmanian Wine Journal

---

General Materials:
• Wine Clubs (via Yahoo)
• Wine Organizations (via Yahoo)
• More Wine Organizations (via Yahoo)
• Yahoo's Major Wine Links
• Wines on the Internet
• WineLady
• Wine Boob Reviews
• Falkenroth Wine Page
• Seismo-Zombie Wine Page
• WineWeb
• Intervin Wine Competition
• Liquor Licence Board of Ontario
• Winetasters Society of Toronto
• Society for American Wine, Ottawa Chapter
• Society for American Wines, Toronto Chapter
• Spanish Wine Society, Toronto
• GrapeNutz (tasting notes)
• Yak Shaya's Wine Pages
• Wine Anorak
• Uneducated Palate
• Grape Guru [ask questions]
• Grape Seek Search Engine
• Tom Cannavan's Wine Pages
• Bath Univ Students Wine Soc.
• Winelovers Page (Wincoop)
• Glen's Winery Page
• Orange County Wine Society
• Open-Air Museum, Trier, Germany
• Wine B.R.A.T.S
• Internet Wine Guide
• Wine.Com
• Wine Country Connection
• Interaxus Wine
• TableWine Home Page
• GangofPour Tasting Notes
• Origins and Ancient History of Wine
• PFV: Primum Familia Vini
• Rogov's Rambling's (wine writer)
• Beefsteak & Burgundy Club
• Travel Envoy Wine Guide
• TBM Menu of Wine Sites
• Vine2Wine
• WineFiles.Com
• Marcel's Wine Page
• Century Wine
• Martin Field, wine writer
• Wine and Grape Discussions (chat room)
• Joost's Wine World
• WineAlley
• WineChicago
• Compliance Service of America (alcohol beverage industry)
• Wine Society of Central Pennsylvania
• Wine TradeWinds Diary

---

Old World Wines (generally):

 Italy

 
• Nat.Italian Agricultural Institute (INEA)
• Italian Internet Winery
• VinItaly
• Premium Italian Wines and Spirits
• Agricola Monterinaldi Srl
• Italy Wines
• Vinomania
• Vinimar, Marche
• M.Marconi, Marche
• Bava Azienda Vitivincola
• Consorzio del Marchio Storico - Chianti Classico
• Sella & Mosca
• Masi
• Serego Alighieri
• Michele Chiarlo, Piedmont
• Vigneto Ai Casali
• Italian Wine Online
• Gruppo Italiano Vini
• Movimento Turismo del Vino (Italy)
• Prosecco Wines (Italy)
• Avignonesi (Tuscany)
• Marchesi Antinori
• Italian Veneto & Tuscan Wines
• Marco's Italian Wines
• Venturini Farmyard Estate, Italy
• Fontana Candida
• Marquis Alfieri wines (Piedmont)
• Rocca della Macie (Chianti)
• Castello Banfi
• F.Ili Giorgi

 

 

• Grandi Vini d'Italia
• Tenuta Torciano France

 

 

• Vitis Vinifera (France reference)
• Wines of France
• Champagne Wines Information Bureau
• Veuve Clicquot
• Piper Heidsieck
• Moet & Chandon Champagne
• Champagne Lecler-Briant
• Moulin & Assoc. Champagne Consultants
• Champagne Raymond Boulard
• Lanson Champagne
• Perrier Jouet
• Mumm
• Ch.Lafite
• Chateau Haut-Brion
• Ginestet
• Union des Grand Crus de Bordeaux
• Bordeaux Wines (CIVB)
• Bordeaux Wines
• Cordier
• Ch.Figeac
• Ch.La Mission Haut-Brion
• Ch.Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
• Ch.D'Yquem
• Andre Lurton
• Georges DuBoeuf
• Wines of Beaujolais
• Demessey Winery
• Hugel
• Domaine Paul Blanck (Alsace)
• Wines of Alsace
• Emile Beyer, Alsace
• Leon Beyer
• Josmeyer
• Perrin
• Food and Wines from France
• Quality French Wines (Vinternet)
• Bureau Interprofessional Des Vins de Bourgogne
• Leon Grivelet-Cusset
• Burgundy Wines
• Burgundy Cellar
• J. Drouhin
• Hospices de Beaune
• Louis Latour
• Hospice du Rhone
• P.Jaboulet Aine
• Cotes du Rhone Wines
• Chateauneuf-du-Pape
• Dom. de Beaurenard (Rhone)
• Wines of the French Riviera
• Gascony Wines
• Wines of Southwest France
• Languedoc Wines (Curries' Wine)
• Domaines Bunan, Provence


Spain
 
 

• Spanish Wine Page
• Interwines Guide to Spain
• El Celler Catala (Spain)
• Vinos de la Ribera del Duero
• Bod.Torremilanos
• Bod.Balbas
• Freixenet Cava
• La Rioja Alta
• Codorniu Cava
• Bodegas Torres
• Jumilla, Spain
• Bod.Fabregas, Spain
• Bod.Navarro Lopez, Spain
• Gonzalez Byass sherry
• Consejo Regulador DO Jerez-Sherry y Manzanilla
• E. Lustau Sherries


Portugal
 
 

• Portuguese Wine Pages
• Portuguese Wine
• Port Page
• Croft Port
• Port Wine


Germany
 
 

• German Wines
• Jordan and Jordan (German winery)
• Die Palz (German wines, in German)
• Gault Millau Weinguide Deutschland
• German Wine Guide
• German Wine
• Peter Ruhrberg's German Wine Page
• Weingut S.A.Pruem
• Weingut Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt (Mosel)
• Weingut Dr.Loosen (Bernkastel)
• German Wine Information Bureau
• German Wine Online
• German Wine Estates


Other Europe
 
 

• The Swiss Wine Page
• Swiss Wines (Obrist)
• Hungarian wines
• Tokaj Wine Region
• Vinpol, Poland
• Greek Wine Page
• Greek Wine
• Croatian wines
• Bulgarian Master Vintners
• Vinprom Svishtov (Bulgaria)
• Slovenian wines
• Slovenian Wines
• Austrian Wines
• English Wines
• Vineyards of England and Wales
• Guide to English & Welsh Vyds
• Georgia Wines


Other
 
 

• Chateau Musar
• Golan Heights Winery (Israel)
• Allied Domecq
• Export-Onlne European Wine Growers

---

New World Wines (generally):

United States
 
 

• US Wines
• American Vintners Association
• West Coast Wine Discussion Group
• California Wine Mall
• Consorzio Cal-Italia
• Clos Du Val
• ZOW: Zinfandel On the Web
• Massachusetts Winery Page
• Connecticut Winery Page
• Wineries of US East Coast
• Wine Institute of California
• California's Gold Medal Winners
• Family Winemakers of California
• Anderson Valley Winegrowers Association
• Calaveras County Winegrowers Association
• Edna Valley Arroyo Grande Vintners
• Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association
• Mendocino Winegrowers Alliance
• Napa Valley Vintners Association
• Napa Valley
• Santa Clara Valley Wine Growers Association
• Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association
• Silverado Trail
• Sonoma County Wineries Association
• SteveO's California Wine Touring Guides
• ZAP: Zinfandel Advocates Producers
• Carneros Creek Winery
• Fetzer Vineyards
• Kalin Cellars
• R.Mondavi Winery
• Beringer Wines
• Joseph Phelps Vineyards
• Sutter Home
• Guenoc Winery
• Storybook Mountain Vineyards (Napa)
• Domaine Chandon, CA
• Korbel
• S.Anderson Vineyards (Napa)
• V.Sattui, Napa
• Chappellet Winery
• Elliston Vineyards (Livermore)
• Retzlaff Vineyards (Livermore)
• Kenwood Winery, Sonoma
• Clos Du Bois, Sonoma
• Dry Creek Vineyard
• Santa Barbara Winery
• Matanzas Creek Winery
• Foppiano Winery
• Canyon Road
• Geyser Peak
• Kautz Ironstone Vineyards
• St.Supery
• Clos Pepe (Santa Barbara)
• Franciscan Vineyards
• Parducci
• Bayview Cellars
• Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards
• Melville Vineyards, Santa Barbara
• Amizetta Vineyards, CA
• Washington Wine Institute
• Rosedale Vyd, Maryland
• Perdido Winery, Alabama
• Lake Erie Quality Wine Alliance
• Ohio Wine Producers Association
• Georgetown Vineyards, Ohio
• Michigan wines
• Wine Country of Missouri
• Finger Lakes Wine Trails
• Hudson River, NY, Wineries
• Finger Lakes, NY, region and wines
• Long Island NY Wine Council
• Uncork New York: NY Wine & Grape Foundation
• Seneca Lake Wine Trail
• Fox Run Vineyards, NY
• Casa Larga, NY
• Glenora Wine Cellars, NY
• Lamoreaux Landing, NY
• Wagner, NY
• Standing Stone, NY
• Six Mile Creek Vineyard, NY
• Williamsburg Winery, VA
• Virginia Wine Country
• Tastes of Texas
• North Carolina Grapes and Wines
• Waldensian Wines and Cider, North Carolina
• (Pacific) Northwest Wine Coalition
• Wines Northwest
• Washington State Wineries
• Oregon Wine Advisory Board
• Oregon Pinot Noir Club
• Raptor Ridge Winery, OR
• Rex Hill Winery, OR
• Springhill Cellars, OR
• Argyle Winery, OR
• Beaux Freres, OR
• Pontchartrain Vineyards


Canada
 
 

• Wines of Canada
• Ontario Wines
• Canadian Wines, Wineries and Vineyards
• Canwine Home Page
• Vintners Quality Alliance (Canada)
• Archibald Orchards and Estate Winery
• Colio Winery
• Cilento Winery
• Viticultural Roundtable of Southwestern Ontario
• Pillitteri Estates
• Lakeview Cellars, Ont.
• Andres Wines
• Hillebrand Estates
• Chateau des Charmes
• Jackson-Triggs
• Wine Council of Ontario
• Vincor Wines & Stores
• Vineland Estates Winery, Ontario
• Kittling-Ridge Winery, Ontario
• EastDell Estates, Ontario
• Inniskillin Wines, Ontario
• Pelee Island Winery
• Stonechurch Winery
• Stoney Ridge, Ont.
• Reif Winery
• Konzelmann Wines, Ontario
• Thirty Bench Winery, Ontario
• Henry of Pelham Wines, Ontario
• Magnotta Winery, Ontario
• Southbrook Farms Winery, Ontario
• Hernder Estates
• Norfolk Estate Winery
• Mosquito Creek Vineyards, Ontario
• Malivoire Wine Company
• Wine Country Merchants
• Strewn Winery
• Bellamere Country Market Winery (fruit wines)
• DeSousa Wine Cellars
• Joseph's Estate Wines
• Norfolk Estate Winery
• Rush Creek Wines
• Sunnybrook Farm Estate Winery (fruit wines)
• Willow Heights Winery
• Vinoteca Winery
• Peller Estates
• Ontario Grape Grower's Marketing Board
• British Columbia Wines
• BC Wine Information Centre
• Gray Monk Estate Winery, BC
• Hawthorne Mountain Vineyards
• Inniskillin Okanagan Inkameep Vineyards
• Quail's Gate
• Hainle Winery, BC
• Sumac Ridge, BC
• Summerhill Wines, BC
• Larch Hills Winery, BC
• Cherry Point Vineyards, BC
• Hester Creek
• Hillside Estate
• St.Hubertus
• Tinhorn Creek
• Bella Vista Vineyards
• Burrowing Owl Vineyards
• Calona Vineyards
• Columbia Valley Classics
• Domaine de Chaberton Estate Winery
• Okanagan Wine Festivals Society
• Recline Ridge Winery
• Saturna Island Vineyard and Winery
• Vinophiles Quebecois
• Perkins Maplery, PQ (maple wine)
• Vignoble Angile, PQ
• Vignoble de l'Orpailleur, PQ
• Vignoble La Bauge, PQ
• Vignoble Morou, PQ
• Lunenburg County Winery, NS
• Telder Berry Wines, NS


New Zealand
 
 

• New Zealand Wines Online
• Voss Estate
• Nobilo, NZ
• Marlborough NZ Wine Trail
• Gisborne, NZ, Wines
• Palliser Estates NZ
• Grove Mill Wine, NZ
• Matua Valley Wines,NZ
• Corbans
• Sapich Brothers Winery, NZ
• Gibbston Valley Winery, NZ
• Central Otago Wine Trail
• Allan Scott Wines
• Nautilus Wines
• Felton Road Wines
• Central Otago, NZ
• Kemblefield Estate, NZ


Australia
 
 

• Australian National Wine Centre
• Australian Wine Centre
• Australian Wine Online
• Australian Vineyards
• Australian Wine in the News
• Australian Wine Research Institute
• Ron Potter Wine Centre
• Hunter Valley Wines
• Southcorp Wines
• Coldstream Hills
• De Bortoli
• Brown Brothers
• Seaview Wines
• BRL Hardy
• Lindeman's
• Yalumba
• Mildara Blass
• Cranswick Estate
• Redbank Winery
• Fox Creek Wine, McLaren Vale
• Capel Vale Wines
• Dionysus Australia
• Seppelts
• Wynns Coonawarra Estate
• Australian Winery Reviews
• St.Hallett Wines
• Chatsfield Wines
• Domaine A Stoney Vineyard
• Penfolds Wines, Australia
• Peter Lehmann Wines, Australia
• Tasmanian Vineyards and Wineries
• Tasmanian Wines
• Valley View Estates, Australia
• McWilliams, Australia
• Miranda Wines, Australia


South Africa
 
 

• South African Wine Pages
• South African Wines from RSA Wines Inc.
• Best Wines of South Africa
• Pinotage Club, South Africa
• South African Wine Society (Toronto)
• K.W.V. (Paarl)
• Bergkelder (South Africa)


Chile
 
 

• Wines of Chile
• Chilean Wine Guide
• Concha y Toro
• Vina Cono Sur
• Vina Santa Carolina
• Errazuriz, Chile


Argentina
 
 

• Nicolas Catena Wines, Argentina
• Argentine Wines

---

Wine Merchants (selective):
• Yahoo Wine Shops
• Yahoo Wine Distributors
• Liquor Control Board of Ontario
• LCBO Vintages Catalogues
• Lifford Agency
• EPNA Agencies, Ontario
• Halpern Enterprises, Ontario
• Lacey's International Wine Merchants
• Atlas Wine Merchants
• Boka Wine & Spirits Merchants
• Rubaiyat Wine & Spirits Merchants
• Churchill Cellars
• Eurovintage
• Societe des Alcools de Quebec (SAQ)
• Manitoba Liquor Control Commission
• Opimian Society, Canada
• Virtual Vineyards
• Sherry-Lehmann Inc., NYC
• FUJI Wine Page Index
• Chicago Wine Company
• Sam's Wine Warehouse
• Sainsbury Wine Direct
• Berry Brothers and Rudd, UK
• Brown-Forman Corp.
• Frederick Wildman (merchant)
• Premier Wines (Buffalo)
• Seagram's
• Argonaut Liquors, Denver

---

Winemaking:
• Yahoo's Winemaking Supplies
• Winemaking Website
• rec.crafts.winemaking FAQ
• Wine Art
• Kamil Juices, Ontario
• Wonderwine Home Kits
• Independent Stave Co. (coopers)
• Cellarmasters Home Winemaking Club
• Joy of Home Winemaking
• RJ Grape: Cru & Grand Cru Select Winemaking
• Fermentations (homebrew)
• WineMine
• Seven Bridges, California, organic homebrew
• Amateur Winemakers of Ontario
• Winemaking Home Page (Keller)
• Sacramento Home Winemakers
• Winemakers Emporium
Wine Software, Wine Furnishings, Other Vinous activities:
• Yahoo's Wine Accessories
• Yahoo's Wine Auctions
• Yahoo's Wine Software
• Yahoo's Wine Storage
• Yahoo's Wine Tours
• Yahoo's Corkscrews
• Yahoo's Wine Labels
• Corkscrew Pages
• Corkscrew Directory
• WineBase for Windows (cellar management software)
• Cellar! Program
• ViNDATA cellar management
• Elixir Data (CD-ROM)
• Wine Tours
• Labelware (customized printing)
• Robert Parker's Wine Advisor
• Wineglasses
• Riedel Crystal
• Sonoma Traveler
• WinePriceFile (book and software)
• Uncorked Software
• Wine Master Software
• Great Winecellars (design & build)
• Bacchus Tours
• DuVine Adventures (wine and food travel)
• Labels from the Heart (wine labels)
• Wine Cellar Software




---

IRC CHANNELS:

/JOIN #winemaker
• #IRCBar Home Page

BULLETIN BOARD NETWORKS:

• FidoNet: VIN_MAISON (Homewinemaking); ZYMURGY (Beer and Homebrewing)
• ILink: Wine & Beer
• SmartNet: Wines

PROPRIETARY ONLINE SERVICES (Forums)

• CompuServe: GO BACCHUS; GO WINEFORUM; GO BEER; Liquor By Wire
• America Online: Food & Drink Network; Single Malts

 
 

========================================================================== LEGALS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- All portions of this guide, whether contained in one document or in part are Copyright (c) 1995-1997 by Bradford S. Brown This guide, whether in whole or in part, may not be sold for profit, quoted in whole or in part, or incorporated in commercial or non-commercial documents or reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the copyright holder. The author does not consider nor intend that the placing of this guide on any computer system, computer network or network of computer networks, or any other distribution whatsoever, to be a release of the guide into the public domain. All rights are reserved. Permission may be expressly granted for this document to be made available for file transfer from installations offering unrestricted anonymous file transfer on the Internet, or other forms of file transfer currently known or to be invented in the future. Obtain permission from the copyright holder. If such permission is granted, such distribution shall be allowed only if this guide is distributed in its entirety and that all copyright notices and disclaimers are included. The guide is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. While some medical consultants indicate that there are positive benefits from drinking wine, alcoholic beverages are known to cause severe medical conditions in people. While all information in this guide is believed to be correct at the time of writing, this guide is for entertainment purposes only and does not purport to provide advice. If you require advice, look elsewhere. The authors of this guide cannot accept any liability for any consequences arising from the use of this guide or from the information contained in this guide. --