WineWise

Contents

A question of style

Winemaking

Fermentation

Color

Sidebar: What Is That Name?

Bubbles in the bottle

The spirit in the bottle

Body

The price to pay

Costs of production

In the vineyard

Costs at the winery

Sidebar: Oak: What the Winemaker Wants

Xtreme wines, xtreme costs

Oh so sweet

Bubbling over

So why are some wines more expensive?

Availability versus scarcity

What the market will bear

The importance of place

Sidebar: Brands Versus Terroir Wines

How the appellation system works

Map: The Sonoma Appellations

Associating place with grape

Closures

Choosing wine

Tasting and enjoying wine

Appearance

Aromas

Taste

Glasses

T

oday in the United States wine has surpassed beer and spirits as the alcoholic beverage of choice for Americans who drink.

Not only that, but as of late 2011, the United States is the number-one consumer of wine in the world. Obviously, more people are enjoying wine than ever before in their homes, at parties and other social events, or when dining out. We have found that many wine drinkers want more information, both about the wines they enjoy drinking and about wines they haven’t tried yet. We’ve written this book with exactly these folks—you, our readers—in mind. In contemporary society, information can be power, so a heightened awareness about wines will make you a smarter wine consumer, a more wine-knowledgeable host or guest, and a wine-savvy restaurant customer. And with this new information comes the fun of wine, because you don’t have to indulge in an intellectual exercise every time you open a bottle. You will be WineWise!

In this chapter we concentrate on basic information that will help you to understand why wine comes in so many different styles and flavors, the different ways that people enjoy wine, why some wines cost more than others, and what the label on the bottle can tell you about the wine. Instead of a separate chapter on winemaking, we decided to weave winemaking comments into this and other chapters, concentrating on the effect of winemaking decisions on the style of the wine without spending too much time on technical details. Subsequent chapters will introduce you to some of our favorite wines from the prominent wine-producing areas of the world, help you to get a handle on pairing wine with a wide variety of foods, and give you some insider tips on what you need to know to enjoy wine at home or in a restaurant. The final section of WineWise includes a buying guide for specific wines at various price points. Equipped with all this information, you will be ready to enjoy all that the glorious world of wine has to offer.

A question of style

We’ve already suggested that there

are three key opportunities to enjoy wine: at home, in a social setting (such as a party), or in a restaurant. We could also add that there are three other fun/functional uses for wine:

as an aperitif—a drink before dinner

as a drink in a social group or intimate setting, as formal or informal as you like, outdoors or indoors

as an accompaniment to a meal

With just these considerations, you can easily see that the style of any chosen wine will vary according to its purpose. For example, we appreciate a drink before dinner if it is light and simple and relatively low in alcohol, something that excites the appetite, as opposed to something that is full, heavy, and immediately satisfying; save that wine for dinner.

So wine is made in many different styles to meet our various needs. To begin with, there are three basic styles of wine:

still—without bubbles

sparkling—with bubbles

fortified—with added alcohol

Winemaking

Fermentation

Strangely enough, both the bubbles and the alcohol in wine come from the same place—fermentation. The process of fermentation depends on the presence of yeasts. Some winemakers use yeasts that are naturally present on the skin of the grapes, while others add a specific type of purchased yeast that has been isolated in a laboratory. As soon as the yeasts meet the sugar in grape juice, they start converting that sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. If the carbon dioxide is allowed to drift off into the atmosphere, the wine will be still—without bubbles. If the carbon dioxide is retained, the wine will be sparkling (see Bubbles in the Bottle for how this is done).

The level of alcohol in a wine depends on how much sugar was originally present in the grape juice and on how much of the sugar is converted. If all of the sugar is converted, the wine will contain approximately 12% to 15% alcohol (in other words, 12% to 15% of the liquid contents of the bottle is alcohol). The wine will also be described as dry, meaning not sweet, without residual sugar. But not all wine regions are the same. Some have cool climates, others are warmer. In general, a cool-climate vineyard site will produce grapes with lower sugar levels, creating wines that will have lower alcohol (anywhere from about 8% to 12%). These wines will also have higher acidity, a distinctly crisp, clean feel, with a refreshing, pleasantly sour taste in the mouth (think lemon or grapefruit). In contrast, warmer places produce grapes with higher sugars and lower acidity, leaving the possibility of higher alcohol and a softer, smoother sensation in the mouth (think a blackberry-flavored milkshake).

If the winemaker chooses to stop the yeasts from completing their work, there will be residual sugar left in the wine, creating anything from a lightly sweet taste to a very sweet one. Within our three basic styles (still, sparkling, and fortified), then, there are three subcategories of dryness/sweetness:

dry—no or very little sweetness

lightly sweet—sometimes called off-dry

very sweet, dessert-like

Color

Different skin-contact time will result in lighter or darker degrees of pigmentation, as shown by these rosé wines.

To keep the pattern of threes going, it is well known that wine comes in three main colors:

white

red

rosé

We would have to add that there are many variations of color within those three, from very pale white to deep, inky purple.

You might think that the color of the grapes determines the color of the wine, but this is not always true. What is true is that red wine can only be made from red grapes, since the red color is extracted from the grape skins during the winemaking process. Similarly, white grapes can only produce white wine. But since almost all grapes have clear (or white) juice, it is possible to squeeze white juice out of red grapes to make white wine. This also means that the winemaker can control the rate of color extraction from red grapes to produce a wine with only a small amount of pink color—a rosé wine. Rosé can also be made by blending a lot of white wine with a little bit of red.

These are the basics of winemaking, at least for producing still wines. To visualize a matrix of possibilities that offers many permutations of wine style, from a pale white, lightly sweet still wine to a dry rosé sparkling wine to a deep purple, very sweet fortified wine, read on.

What Is That Name?

A typical varietal label showing Cabernet Sauvignon as the grape variety. Courtesy of Alexander Valley Vineyards.

Most wine labels include a name of the wine. Increasingly, for most consumers all around the globe, the most common name on the label is simply the grape variety. So, if Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were used to make the wine, Cabernet Sauvignon will be the name of the wine on the label. For many European wines, the traditional practice is to name the wine for its place, such as Chianti in Italy, or Bordeaux in France. When a European wine uses a place name, it means that by law and by tradition only certain grape types can be used to make the wine. Throughout our chapters on the wines of Europe, many of which use place-name labels, we will indicate which grape types are used in which places.

Bubbles in the bottle

Yeast sediment collects on the lower side of the horizontal bottle after the second fermentation. Frederic Handengue: CIVC.

The explosive nature of disgorging by hand.

The Champagne method, or methode champenoise (now also used in places other than Champagne), requires that grapes be harvested by variety (as the finished sparkling wine may be the product of one grape or several), and that the juice of each grape variety is fermented separately, then blended. But these base wines are all still, not sparkling. The still wines—either a blend or the product of one grape variety—may be adjusted with older wines from other vintages to fit the house style of the producer. That house style is bottled along with a small amount of extra sugar and yeast inside each bottle, and the bottle is closed with a cap (like a beer cap) or temporary cork. The bottles are laid down horizontally in the cellar and left to rest, during which time the yeasts and sugar create a second fermentation inside that bottle, which causes carbon dioxide to be trapped in the wine. The trapped carbon dioxide produces millions of bubbles inside the very same bottle that the consumer eventually opens, pours, and enjoys.

In addition to producing bubbles, the second fermentation in the bottle also means that there is yeast sediment left in each bottle that has to be removed, but not before the winemaker allows the wine to take on the yeast flavors and aromas. If the bottle is left for a long time with the yeast lees (the spent yeast cells) inside the bottle, the yeasts will eventually break down and create enzymes and amino acids that have the effect of producing a rich texture in the wine. That process takes at least one year. In the Champagne region, the minimum period for this is 15 months, but many producers there leave their premium wines in this aging stage for three years or sometimes much longer.

To remove the yeast sediment from the bottle after aging, the bottles are periodically agitated by hand or mechanically to drive the sediment into the neck of the bottle with the bottle becoming inverted over time.

The inverted bottles then pass through a freezing solution that creates a plug of ice in the neck of the bottle. That plug contains all of the yeast sediment. When the bottle is turned upright, the cap is removed and the yeast pellet is expelled from the bottle. Immediately, more wine is added to replace the wine lost in the plug, and the winemaker may also take the opportunity to add a small amount of sugar solution (known as "dosage") to adjust the final dryness/sweetness of the wine. Finally, a traditional sparkling wine cork is inserted.

The spirit in the bottle

A wine is described as fortified when extra-high-proof spirit is added to the wine. If the spirit is added to the wine after the fermentation is complete, there will be no remaining sugar in the newly fortified wine, making a finished product that is dry in taste, not sweet. Typical products of this type are the Fino and dry Oloroso Sherries of Spain (see Chapter 10). To make a sweet fortified wine, the spirit is added very soon after the wine’s fermentation has begun. The addition of the high-alcohol spirit halts the fermentation, leaving residual sugar in the wine. The Port wines of Portugal are a fine example (see Chapter 11). Some sweet, fortified Sherries are also made by initially creating a dry Sherry, and then adding concentrated, reduced grape juice as a sweetener. This is true of many Sherries labeled Cream.

Body

With one more threesome, we can round out the basic vocabulary of wine. Depending on where the grapes are grown and what winemaking methods are used, the wine will be:

light-bodied

medium-bodied

full-bodied, or heavy

This means that our impression of the weight of the wine in the mouth ranges from light (think lemonade) to medium (orange juice) to full (tomato juice) to very full (root beer float or chocolate milkshake). Light-bodied wines are usually associated with cool-climate areas and straightforward winemaking using stainless-steel vats and little or no aging. To get to the full-bodied version, you need to put the wine through a rigorous body-building process, a sort of enhanced steroid program with oak aging and malolactic fermentation. We have further comments on these practices below.

The price to pay

Even the most cursory glance

around a wine shop will reveal that a standard 750 milliliter (25.4 ounce) bottle of wine can carry a price lower than $5.99 or higher than $599. Is the second bottle really at least a hundred times better? We think the answer is a resounding NO! What makes the difference? What makes one bottle cost more than another?

The actual cost of producing a bottle of dry, still wine can be as little as 50 cents and rarely exceeds $30. So how do we get to $599 or more? There are three main considerations in the pricing of wine:

costs of production

availability versus scarcity

what the market will bear

Costs of production

All winemakers incur costs, but some incur higher costs than others. Those who have higher costs believe that they are producing a higher-quality wine. How does this work? Winemaking includes a series of decisions, and each one of those decisions will impact the style of the wine, the quality, and the price. Many of those decisions include incurring higher costs of materials and pursuing a more labor-intensive path. For every decision there are winemakers who defend this methodology, arguing that there is a discernible increase in quality (often true). At the same time, there are winemakers who belittle these arguments and claim that their faster, less expensive, more mechanized methods result in wines that are just as good (not so much).

In the vineyard

These decisions go back to the very beginning of a vineyard and carry on through to the bottling and even the marketing of the wine. First, the grower must choose which grape to plant and where to plant it. The very best wines are usually produced from Vitis vinifera grapes. Vitis vinifera, when translated from the Greek, means vines to make wine. Vinifera includes the usual suspects: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and on and on (for a discussion of the major vinifera grapes, see Chapter 2 and Chapter 3).

In California, the cost of vineyard land can run anywhere between $35,000 and $350,000 per acre, depending on whether it is already planted and whether it is deemed to be a premium and desirable site. For example, a flat, valley-floor strip of land with rich, fertile soils is cheaper and easier to plant and maintain than a rocky hillside plot with good exposure to the sun and protection from winds, but many people would claim that the hillside plot will produce better wine.

A steep hillside vineyard is harder to work, necessitating more manual labor.

Vine density is an important consideration in producing wine. Planting a vineyard with wide spacing of 8 to 10 feet (2.42 to 3 meters) between the vines and between the rows makes for easier and more cost-effective mechanized maintenance and harvesting. A spacing ratio of 3.3 feet by 3.3 feet (1 meter by 1 meter) will provide up to four times as many vines in the same amount of land. Though there may be more vines per acre, each plant is programmed by pruning to produce fewer grapes per vine. This requires more hand labor, which can be far more expensive than using machines in the vineyard.

And so it goes. Some vineyard owners pay a team of 20 pickers to go through the vineyard several times over a period of three or four weeks, hand-harvesting only those bunches that are visibly ripe into small plastic trays so that precious juice is not lost under the weight of too many bunches of grapes. Other producers swear that a mechanical harvester with a single operator can do just as good a job in 24 hours. The cost differential is enormous.

Tending the vineyard by hand, removing unwanted leaves and unripe bunches.

One of the highest costs in wine production comes in the form of strict selection of grape material before or at harvest time to ensure that only the finest fruit is made into wine. By going through the vineyard three to four weeks before harvesting and removing the weaker or poorer clusters of grapes, some producers maintain that they will produce better wine. This practice is known as a green harvest. What they are doing is lowering their yield, picking only the healthiest grapes, and harvesting perhaps 2 tons per acre (5 tons per hectare) rather than 5 tons per acre (12.5 tons per hectare).

After the grapes have been picked, some producers will pay workers to sort bunches of grapes, removing any unripe or moldy fruit as it moves along a conveyor belt or sorting table prior to entering the winemaking process. Grapes that are afforded the extra-special care and attention described above will command higher prices. Napa Valley premium Cabernet Sauvignon grapes have been fetching more than $5,000 per ton, Merlot as much as $3,400. Less highly regarded sites in California may command as little as $400 per ton for the same varietals.

Effect on Style. Wineries that produce a limited amount of wine in a labor-intensive process from premium land claim that they are producing a more hand-crafted wine that has more intense or more complex flavors that are characteristic of the place the grapes were grown, the "terroir." Such wines cost more to make and will be priced accordingly.

Costs at the winery

High-tech stainless-steel tanks with integrated refrigeration keep everything under control in modern wineries.

Most producers today use stainless-steel tanks for most if not all of their fermentation needs. But stainless-steel fermentation tanks are like coffee-makers—you can buy the basic model, or you can get the version with all the bells and whistles. The more expensive models provide the winemaker with greater control, especially temperature control, and temperature can make or break a successful fermentation. It can even dictate the style of the wine. A wine produced by a long, slow, cool fermentation will give the consumer a lot of fresh, forward fruit character, with a clean mouthfeel. But using that technology costs more, and the wines will be priced accordingly.

Malolactic Fermentation. There are other choices as well. Most winemakers agree that consumers will enjoy certain wines more if the wine is put through a process called malolactic fermentation. This is particularly true of almost all red wines, some whites (such as Chardonnay), especially those aged in barrels, and just a few sparkling and rosé wines. By introducing a friendly type of bacteria to the wine—a strain of lactobacillus, the active culture found in yogurt—the winemaker can convert a harsh form of acid (malic, the acid in green apples) into a softer one (lactic, the acid in milk), providing a richer, smoother feeling on the tongue. But all of this takes time and costs money.

There is still an important place for barrel aging at many wineries.

Oak. Then there is the wood debate. For centuries, winemakers used wooden barrels to store wine, and that practice gradually evolved into purposely leaving wine in barrels to age. Current consumer preference favors a noticeable wood character in certain styles of wine, especially Chardonnay and many red wines. How that wood character is achieved is part of the cost equation. For a long time, the preferred type of wood for aging wine has been oak. Placing the wine in a brand-new oak barrel (which costs as much as $950 for a barrel that holds about 60 gallons [225 liters]) is far more expensive than leaving the wine in a stainless-steel tank that has been temporarily lined with rough-cut oak staves. The oak stave immersion method is in turn more expensive than stirring oak chips into the stainless-steel vat. Is there a difference? Purists maintain that the flavors and effects achieved from a real wooden barrel are far cleaner and more balanced than the effects of oak staves or oak chips. Certainly, a wine aged in a real oak barrel will cost more.

Barrel aging takes time, and that means that the wine is still at the winery, not on the wine store shelves or on a restaurant’s wine list. Following barrel aging, some producers will insist on keeping the wine at the winery after bottling, allowing the wine to rest, giving the various characteristics of the wine a chance to marry and become a more harmonious whole. As we all know, time is money, and wines held back by the producer will cost more.

Clarification. As with almost all beverages today, we expect wines to be clear and free of haze. But fermentation is a messy process that creates all kinds of debris that can remain suspended in the wine. So the winemaker has to decide if the wine should be clarified or stabilized using additives or machinery, both of which speed up the clarification process. Or should the wine simply sit at the winery, allowing time and gravity to slowly achieve what humans and machinery can speed up? Critics of mechanical or chemical clarification charge that such processes strip the wine of its essential flavors and characteristics and that the wine will be better if left alone. Even though the machinery for clarification and stabilization is expensive, it is less expensive than keeping the wine at the winery. Anything that prevents the wine from reaching the consumer increases the cost.

Oak: What the Winemaker Wants

The primary effect of an oak barrel on wine is to add to its flavor profile because the liquid helps to pull flavoring components from the barrel. The most obvious flavor is often described as vanilla, because the sap of oak contains vanillin.

Vanillin is found in the sap of European oaks, so that when wine is stored in oak barrels, the vanillin is leached from the oak staves into the wine. Whether it comes across to you as vanilla or butterscotch or caramel doesn’t really matter—it all has the same effect of giving the wine that desired flavor and making the wine seem just a tiny bit sweet. It will also soften the texture of the wine, since the vanillin gives the impression of a smooth, syrupy consistency. In the case of white wines, that same consistency can be enhanced by leaving the wine on the lees (expired yeast cells) in the barrel—what the French call "sur lie." As the yeast cells break down they release enzymes that contribute to a richer feel in the mouth.

If the wine stays in the barrel for too long, however, it may take on what we believe to be negative characteristics—too much wood flavor, which will overpower the wine’s natural flavors, and too much tannin, a compound that masks the vanilla effect and leaves a drying sensation and bitter taste on the tongue. We have sampled far too many wines that taste mostly of wood. We would prefer to see winemakers use wood in the same way that a painter uses a frame. The job of the frame is to set off the picture, to enhance it. If the frame enters the picture, there is something wrong!

Xtreme wines, xtreme costs

There are bizarre lengths that

some winemakers go to in order to produce something extraordinary. This is particularly true in the production of sweet and sparkling wines.

Oh so sweet

The beginning of botrytis on a ripe bunch of Riesling grapes.

It is fairly easy to produce a simple, lightly sweet wine by stopping the fermentation before all of the sugars have been converted to alcohol. This leaves residual sugar in the wine, making the wine taste sweet. But to produce a very sweet, dessert-style wine, extreme steps are often taken. Grapes can be left to hang on the vine for an extended period of time until they dehydrate and become raisins, or until they are attacked by a specific type of mold, which also causes the grapes to dehydrate. As these grapes lose water, their sugar content is concentrated in smaller quantities of liquid, making them extremely sweet. The mold is called Botrytis cinerea or noble rot. It is considered a beneficial mold and is highly prized by producers of sweet wines—there is no carryover of moldy flavors to the wines. Because of the dehydration factor, these remarkably sweet wines are produced in very limited quantities, which in turn makes them very expensive, sometimes as much as $100 or more per half bottle (375 milliliters [12.7 ounces]).

Riesling grapes that have frozen on the vine and will be made into Icewine.

As if the above were not extreme enough, winemakers in areas susceptible to freezing temperatures, such as Canada and Germany, have taken matters one step further, allowing grapes to stay on the vine well past the regular picking date until they are frozen by the first very cold spell. The frozen grapes are harvested and pressed, producing minuscule quantities of very sweet juice that leaves behind most of the grape’s water content as ice. Once again, these measures result in very highly priced wines. The sweet Icewines produced along these lines can easily cost from $75 to more than $100 per half bottle.

Bubbling over

Many people still see sparkling wine as a luxury item, and much of that image is connected to price. The most expensive sparkling wines in the world continue to come from the Champagne region of France, commanding retail prices from about $35 to more than $250 per bottle. But there are reasons why Champagne and some other sparkling wines can be so expensive. As with any wine, very good wine comes from the highest-quality grapes, most often grown on premium vineyard sites, and those grapes command high prices. But in the case of great sparkling wine, the winemaking process is very long and demands a very high level of skill (see Bubbles in the bottle).

The Champagne method takes time, skill, and labor, including aging of the wine once it’s in the bottle. Aging helps to add quality to the finished wine, but it also ties up the producer’s cash, and that adds up to a more expensive bottle of wine. That’s why some bottles of sparkling wine cost more than others. At the other end of the spetrum is the relatively inexpensive method of trapping carbon dioxide gas in the original stainless-steel fermentation tank and then bottling the wine under pressure so as not to lose the gas. Using the tank method creates a very different style and quality of wine, with much bigger bubbles that fade more easily; this wine should be sold at a much lower price point.

So why are some wines more expensive?

It all comes down to

whether the winemaking methods tend more toward mass production or small-batch nurturing. If the grapes are of a fashionable variety (such as Merlot), from a premium region (say, Napa), and from a prized plot of land (such as Three Palms Vineyard), the wine will be considerably more expensive than a Merlot wine from Macedonia.

And if the winemaker seeks to retain a level of individuality in the wine by keeping small batches separate, careful monitoring of the fermentation process, skillful blending, the use of wood, aging, or a combination of all or some of these approaches, those wines will also be higher-priced.

Availability versus scarcity

The Chevalier-Montrachet vineyard produces very little wine made from Chardonnay grapes at a very high price. Courtesy of Kobrand Corporation.

In any market, certain goods are in limited supply, and because they are rare but in demand, those goods can command high prices. In some instances output is artificially limited to keep prices high. In the case of wines, certain items are in short supply simply because it is impossible to produce any more. For example, the 2.5 acre (1 hectare) vineyard of Les Caillerets in the village of Meursault in Burgundy, France, will produce only about 555 cases (6,660 bottles) of wine each year for the entire world market. For that reason alone it is in limited supply and will be priced accordingly.

Similarly, certain Champagnes from specific vineyard sites are available in very small quantities. Or some Champagnes are made in limited supply because they are aged for an extended period of time after the second fermentation in the bottle and the producer does not want to commit a large segment of production to such long aging.

As we pointed out earlier, Icewines and botrytis-affected sweet wines are, by their very nature, in limited supply and expensive. So it is the limited resources of grapes or juice that will create a product of limited availability but one that is in high demand and carries a high price.

What the market will bear

There are wines that are in relatively plentiful supply but are still high-priced. Those wines are not rare, but they have earned a reputation for being consistently very good. The best examples of these wines come from the Bordeaux region of France. The reputation for great wines from this region has been well established since the eighteenth century, so much so that modern wine collectors continue to be willing to spend large sums of money to acquire them. A case in point is the wine from Chateau Mouton Rothschild. The chateau produces around 34,000 cases of wine each year from an estate of 195 acres (79 hectares). That’s a lot of wine, but the price per bottle on release is almost always well over $1,000. A well-earned reputation for consistently high quality can justify higher prices.

The same can be said for what have become known as boutique or cult wines from producers all around the world, such as Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon from California or Hill of Grace Shiraz from Australia. Their reputation for quality means that they can charge a retail price of more than $500 per bottle for their wines (and considerably more on a restaurant wine list) and the market will bear it.

Of course, if a wine receives a very high rating in the wine press, usually based on a 100-point scale, the price of that wine may almost automatically increase. A wine that receives a score of 95/100 is likely to sell for more—sometimes far more—than a wine that receives a score of 90/100 or (perish the thought) an 80 or 85. We are not fans of wine scores, and we find that when we taste the highest-rated wines we often don’t agree that the wine is all that. Alternately, we find ourselves enjoying many less expensive wines that receive far more humble scores. Our WineWise tip: learn to trust your own palate and be confident that just because a wine critic may not like the wine that you in fact love, you are not wrong. Enjoying wine on your own terms is simply a matter of personal taste, not a report card.

Sometimes even the bottle itself adds tremendous cost to the wine. Bottles with flowers etched into the glass, bottles dipped in gold paint and with an ace of spades as its logo, bottles created by and signed by famous artists, and on and on, will add to the price of the wine, even if what’s in the bottle does always not merit that inflated price.

The importance of place

You may have noticed that we’ve made several references to the concept that where the grapes are grown is an important consideration in the quality of the wine. This concept is reflected in current labeling practices that include an indication of place on the label. In the wine world, the term "appellation" has come to mean a defined, named geographic area dedicated to growing grapes for wine production. Some appellations are considered to be premium areas for producing certain kinds of wines, and many appellations, especially in the Old World (Europe) have become associated with one or more specific grape varieties.

Brands Versus Terroir Wines

Over the last two to three decades there has been a proliferation of branded wines in the marketplace. During the 1900s, place-named wines ruled the wine market, either from Europe or from New World producers who lazily borrowed a European place name, such as Chablis or Champagne, to market their wines. But in the twenty-first century, New World winemakers have realized that their wines don’t need the cachet of a European name to be successful, and the branding of wines is seen as a viable way of capturing and maintaining loyal fans.

Some of the most successful brands to date in the United States include Sutter Home, Barefoot, Woodbridge, and Menage a Trois from California, and the range of Australian wines offered under the [yellow tail]® label. There are many other successful and recognizable brands, including Red Bicyclette from France and Ecco Domani from Italy. What do these brands offer? A surefire recipe for success—reliable quality, affordable prices, a consistent profile jam-packed with ripe, fruit-driven flavors, and smooth texture. There are no surprises in these wines, and that is exactly what millions of us want, all around the world. Such cookie-cutter wines are possible in a world where multinational corporations own vast tracts of vineyard land in sunny, flat areas where huge quantities of ripe grapes can be ensured every year.

In contrast, terroir wines originate from smaller plots of land in more challenging climates that create noticeable differences in the wines from year to year. They are also more likely to include non-fruit aromas and flavors, such as wet rock or moist undergrowth, that are not appealing to everybody.

Is one better than the other? Is fast food better than a meal prepared with love from fresh, seasonal ingredients? Both meals will stop hunger, but only one will be nutritious and soul-satisfying. Sometimes we crave salty, fatty French fries, but sometimes we want an elegant meal over candlelight. Branded wines and terroir-driven wines are different concepts, different approaches. Branded wines can be and usually are of good quality. They have to be in such a competitive market. Without that quality they simply wouldn’t survive. A branded wine should provide good quality at a good price, be fun to drink, and work well with your food. A terroir-driven wine should create a very different experience, and hopefully a memorable one.

How the appellation system works

All wine-producing nations of the

world have appellation systems, and there are common characteristics to all of them. Appellations range from very small in area to very large. In many cases, smaller appellations can be found inside larger ones, just like those Russian dolls where the larger dolls have smaller dolls inside them. One general rule about the size of an appellation is that smaller appellations usually command higher prices for their wines. For the name of an appellation to be used on a wine label, most of the grapes must come from that region. Most nations have adopted legislation requiring that a minimum of anywhere from 85% to 100% of all grapes used to make the wine must come from any place named on a label. Another common characteristic of appellation systems is that existing county or state names, such as Sonoma County or California, can be used as an indication of the origin of the grapes.

Two good examples of how the appellation system works can be found in the wine areas of Bordeaux and Sonoma.

The Bordeaux Appellations

You start with France, a national appellation.

Inside France is Bordeaux, a regional appellation.

Inside Bordeaux are several district appellations, one of which is Haut-Medoc.

Inside Haut-Medoc are six villages, each an appellation in its own right. They are St-Estephe, Pauillac, St-Julien, Margaux, Listrac, and Moulis.

If all the grapes used to make the wine came from vineyards within one of these villages, the label will include a phrase such as "Appellation Pauillac Protegee."

The Sonoma Appellations

You start with California, a state appellation.

Inside California is North Coast, a regional appellation.

Inside North Coast is Sonoma County, a county appellation.

Inside Sonoma County is the Russian River Valley appellation.

Inside the Russian River Valley are two sub-appellations: Chalk Hill and Green Valley.

If more than 85% of the grapes used to make the wine came from vineyards in the Chalk Hill area, the label can include the name Chalk Hill.

Smaller appellations such as Chalk Hill and Green Valley are clustered inside the Russian River Valley, which is in Sonoma County.

Associating place with grape

As mentioned before, some appellations in Europe become specifically associated with one or more grape varieties, both because certain areas have a long history of sticking with a particular grape variety or varieties, and also because the appellation laws in Europe often require that a specific grape variety or varieties must be used to make the wine if the place name appears on the label. For example, white wine from the Burgundy region of France is made from Chardonnay only—the winemakers have no choice. Red wine from Burgundy in France is Pinot Noir. Case closed! In contrast, New World wine areas (just about everywhere outside of Europe) have no laws that dictate what grape must be used in any appellation. Even so, some New World areas have become recognized as masters at producing wines from one particular grape—for example, Napa Valley in California is closely identified with Cabernet Sauvignon, while the Willamette Valley in Oregon is Pinot Noir country.

Willamette Valley in Oregon has become famous for Pinot Noir. Courtesy of Cloudline.

Joseph Drouhin’s Vero bottlings of white and red Burgundy labels also identify the grape variety as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, respectively.

Closures

We think it’s important to

include some comments here on bottle closures. We are happy to report that we fully support the move by many producers to use screwcaps to close the bottle instead of corks, and we strongly encourage consumers of all stripes to accept them. Screwcaps are not a sign of inferior quality. In fact, in many ways, a screwcap could denote a wine of higher quality since the screwcap is impervious to bacteria and mold, and provides an almost completely airtight closure. Corks have been notorious for becoming infected with bacteria or for not fitting properly and allowing air to seep into the bottle, both of which will spoil the wine. You’ve heard the term corked wine? That’s a wine that is spoiled by a type of mold (TCA) that can spread through the cork into the bottle, and TCA doesn’t know the difference between a $5 bottle of wine and a $500 bottle. A wine sealed with a screwcap can’t be corked simply because there is no cork.

This is not to say that we see a day when all wines will be stoppered with screwcaps, but especially for those wines that are consumed within four or five years of production, we believe that screwcaps are the way to go.

Choosing wine

One thing we want to

emphasize up front is that most of the wines we buy for personal use are under $20 a bottle, in many cases under $15. How do we do that? By venturing off the beaten path to lesser-known wine areas and by experimenting with lesser-known grape types. If you know, for example, that you really like straightforward, fresh, fruity white wines to enjoy with grilled fish outdoors in the summertime, then we hope you will learn from this book that Albarino from Rias Baixas, Spain, and Moschofilero from Mantinia, Greece, fit that profile, and hope that you will try them.

Most of all, we believe that anyone can learn to taste wine and be his or her own critic. By following some of the simple steps below about tasting wine, and by trying some of our suggestions from the various regional chapters, you can create your own matrix of what it is you like, and why. We would encourage you to find a knowledgeable and reliable wine merchant or store clerk with whom you can discuss your preferences. In a restaurant discuss the style of wines you enjoy with a sommelier or a knowledgeable server, and don’t be shy about setting a price point, the amount you’re willing to spend on a bottle of wine.

As we mentioned earlier in this chapter, perhaps our biggest word of warning is not to take as gospel everything that wine critics (including us) say about a wine. Most of the time wines are tasted and judged in the absence of food, and we believe very strongly that wine is food and is made to pair with other foods. We also believe that it is impossible to quantify the pleasure that a wine can bring—there are far too many variables such as the climate, your disposition at the moment, the noise level, the company, and whether it’s a banquet for 200 at the White House or a lakeside picnic for two.

Tasting and enjoying wine

We encourage you to develop

the mental habit of tasting wine. Not that every sip of wine that enters your mouth has to be analyzed and commented on, but you will reap greater pleasure if you take a few minutes to objectively taste a wine before deciding whether you subjectively enjoy it. At the very least, you will get used to the idea that you can taste a wine in a restaurant and confidently accept it, or reject it if you feel it is not right.

All wine books will tell you that there are separate stages to tasting wine—look at it, smell it, taste it. That is true, but you will find the whole exercise easier once you understand that there are connections from one step to the next.

Appearance

We look at wine in the glass mostly to get an idea about the strength of the wine. A red or white wine that is relatively pale and translucent will probably be light in all of its characteristics—more delicate aroma, light flavor, an easy presence in the mouth. In contrast, a white wine that shows deeper gold hues or a red wine with deep purple, opaque notes will have a stronger, more assertive aroma and flavor and a tenacious, more powerful presence in the mouth. These are the essential differences between a light-bodied wine and a full-bodied one. When it comes to sparkling wine, you want an enormous quantity of teeny-tiny bubbles that exhibit real persistence in the glass, what is called a good "perlage."

Aromas

The practice of recognizing aromas can be enhanced by adding fresh ingredients such as fruits or herbs to wine.

In smelling a wine, there are three main aspects to consider: intensity of smell, simplicity versus complexity, and types of smell. Lighter, more delicate aromas usually follow from the visual conclusion that the wine is pale, and will help you to conclude that the wine is light-bodied. A more assertive, more powerful, perhaps earthier aroma will lead you in the direction of a fuller-bodied wine. You will also find that there is generally an association among lighter wines, such as Riesling (white) or Gamay (red), where fruit is the primary noticeable smell, with the earthier notes in the background. In contrast, fuller-bodied wines such as oaked Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon are often accompanied by more powerful aromas, where fruit is complemented (and hopefully not overwhelmed) by wood and mineral, earthy smells.

There are thousands of aromas that you might find in wines, but don’t let that worry you. If you are new to this, the easiest way to proceed is to think of categories of smell, rather than specific smells. Is there a floral aroma? Or is it primarily fruit? Or are there vegetal or herbal notes? Those are great starting places, and from there you will find it is not hard to progress at your own speed to breaking those broad categories into smaller ones if you want to. Remember, you don’t have to. If you are the adventurous type, you might consider whether the floral aroma is delicate and fleeting or heady and perfumed—you can guess where those two different conclusions would lead you. Or you might distinguish between the smell of green, acidic fruits, such as limes, as compared to the rich ripeness of dark cherries and dark plums. Most of all, aromas in wines should be pleasant; if you detect any unpleasantness when smelling a wine, do not hesitate to send it back in a restaurant or take it back to a wine store. The most objectionable of all smells in wine comes from wines that have been in contact with a tainted cork. Those wines are described as corked or corky, and they smell of a dank, damp basement, paper, or wet, rotting cardboard. Once you come across it, you will never forget it, and you should store that smell away in your memory for future reference and action. Note: screwcap wines are never corked. Just saying.

Taste

Where we sense the different aspects of wine on our tongue.

Much of the action of looking at and smelling wine is about impressions, pleasant or otherwise. It is when you place the wine in your mouth that you can make physical conclusions about the taste of the wine. We encourage you to recognize that anybody can taste, since we all have taste buds, and it will help you to remember that taste is a narrow concept. The Western world has traditionally accepted four tastes—sweet, sour, bitter, and salty—and tasting wine becomes much easier when you realize that only three of these are present in wine to any appreciable degree (wine is not really salty).

Sweet, sour, and bitter often show up in wine, singly or in combination, and are the result of components in the wine that came from the grapes. Sugars alert our sweetness-detecting taste buds, most of which are located on the tip of the tongue. The sweet effect is a light, fleeting but pleasant sensation, similar to the initial impact of ice cream or a soda. Acids set the sour-sensing taste buds all a-tingle along the sides of the tongue and will also cause one set of salivary glands at the top of the cheeks to jump to attention. Many people appreciate this bracing sensation as it cleans and refreshes; it is exactly what is meant by palate cleansing. Phenols, which are bitter compounds, have the greatest effect on the taste buds at the very back of the tongue, like the wickedly pleasant thrill of dark chocolate. The most common bitter component in wine is tannin, the same component found in black tea. It also has a drying, astringent effect on the tongue.

Indeed, many of our preferences in tastes can be predicted by the way we drink tea or coffee. If you add cream and sugar, you will probably prefer sweeter tastes and smoother textures in fresh, fruity wines. Espresso drinkers who take their coffee strong and black are more likely to appreciate bitter tastes and the drying effect found in powerful red wines. You can test this out for yourself by experimenting with sugar water, lemon juice, and strong tea to represent sweet, sour, and bitter. You can even see what happens when more than one taste is present by adding some of the lemon juice and then the sugar water to the tea.

The tea will become less bitter with the addition of lemon and sugar and will take on the complexity of all three tastes, just as wine will.

We believe it is useful to recognize the presence or absence of sweet, sour, or bitter tastes. It is different from the highly complex world of attributing perceived flavors to wine, such as strawberry, apple, chocolate, or vanilla. Those have much to do with the aromas that were detected at the smelling stage. Initially concentrating on the three tastes is much more useful than pondering whether you detect apple or pear.

Determining the sweetness or lack of sweetness in a wine is very helpful in figuring out how you might use that wine with food (see Chapter 14). An absence of sugar sweetness in wine means that all the sugars from the grapes have been converted to alcohol, and the wine is described as dry (see Fermentation).

The level of acidity in the wine will impact our perception of what is called its texture. Wines with high levels of acidity seem to be crisp or sharp, like biting into a Granny Smith apple, while wines with lower acidity appear to be softer and smoother, like milk. That perception of texture will also affect our use of the wine and what foods work well with it. Appreciable levels of bitterness in a wine can be an important factor in determining whether we actually like the wine, since the bitter taste is the last one noticed, at the back of the tongue, and stays with us longest.

Once you have mastered the three tastes, it is important to enjoy and savor what the wine offers, and even to see how the wine changes with time. You might even find it is fun to consider and describe the flavors of wines, launching into poetic and flowery descriptions. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as you are sincere, and as long as you are enjoying the wine.

Glasses

Our final words about enjoying

wine have to do with glasses. We have used many different vessels in our wine careers and would never deny that circumstances