Introduction
Hi, my name is Jonathan Clark. I’m the manager of the campus Pub at
We’ve tried to break each of the three videos into a
specific set of topics, to make things more organized. The beginners’ video will go through a
generic history of wine, and touch on all the topics that essentially do not
deal with the grapes themselves. These
would include such topics as “what is wine?,” “attributes of wine,” (such as
alcohol content, acidity, dryness, and sweetness), “the environment and how it
affects wine,” (such as growing conditions in vineyards, climate, sunshine,
temperature, and wind), “grape physiology,” (general information about species,
varieties, clones, and rootstocks), “making wines,” (yeasts, pressing grapes,
and using barrels for aging), “handling,” “shopping for wine,” and “tasting
wine.” That sounds like a lot of ground
to cover, and it is! But these are the
simple, basic concepts and facts which are easy to learn, and which will be the
groundwork for everything that you learn about wine later. Koren Thomson, one
of our senior servers at the Tantramarsh Club, will
guide you through this video (available on YouTube
now).
Once you have a basic concept of what wine is all about,
you’ll want to move on to the “intermediate” video. In this video you will start to learn about
specific grapes, and therefore about specific categories of wine. We will talk about the five classic whites
first: chardonnay, chenin blanc, Riesling, sauvignon blanc, and Semillon. After we cover those, we’ll talk about the
four classic reds: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot noir, syrah. We will end by talking about a number of
other important varieties, categories that you will be able to find commonly at
restaurants, sales outlets, and wine tastings. (This video is coming soon).
Your educational experience does not have to end there,
however. For the most adventurous and
more advanced consumers, we have a final video available, where we will take
you on a very comprehensive tour of the world, country by country and region by
region, and discuss a large number of wines.
(This video is coming soon).
At this point, we would like to take the time to thank
our several sponsors, without whom this video would not have been
possible. The first is Mount Allison University’s Tantramarsh Club, which provided staff and facilities
for the editing and production of the videos.
The Olive Branch Restaurant in
In addition to our sponsors, we certainly could not
continue with a clear conscience without thanking Karen MacNeil, writer of “The Wine Bible,” which was used
extensively as a reference book during the filming of these videos. This very comprehensive resource, published
by Workman Publishing out of
Thanks for your interest, and we hope you enjoy the
videos!
- Jonathan Clark
Understanding
Wine
Section
1: For Beginners
“The
Basics of Wine Appreciation”
Video Links:
YouTube
Video, Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLVnLf5ee_4
YouTube
Video, Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kzdB_Lo434
YouTube
Video, Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRS5J7Q4YMg
YouTube
Video, Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCEZdo5Tqio
YouTube
Video, Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p67Q7YifGVw
YouTube
Video, Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji66hK5uZQY
YouTube
Video, Part 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieHlLS0u-E4
YouTube
Video, Part 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi5X5Ob7aNM
YouTube
Video, Part 9: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSqA0DM-T_Q
Attributes
When people talk about the taste of different wines,
their judgement is affected by a number of different characteristics, or
attributes, such as alcohol content, acidity, tannins, fruitiness, and dryness
or sweetness. We’re going to explain each
of these characteristics right now.
Alcohol
Alcohol is produced when yeasts come into contact with
sugars from the grapes. Alcohol is not
important because of the intoxicating effects that it produces, although for
many people it is certainly a desirable by-product. First, alcohol can affect the body of the
wine. A wine with high alcohol content
can seem “thick” or “chewy”. Second, a
high alcohol wine, if not balanced, can affect aroma and flavour, and produce
what is almost a burning sensation.
Balance refers to the combination of alcohol versus acidity. Balance is critical. If a wine has too much alcohol or acidity
without the other component balancing it out, the wine will be considered
inferior. Often, wines that have higher
alcohol percentages are considered superior, again not just because of the
alcohol, but because the underlying grapes that produced the higher levels of
alcohol must have been more mature and richer in sugar. Finally, one last reason why alcohol is a
desirable by-product, of course, is the relaxed, comfortable feeling that the
intoxication produces.
Acidity
We mentioned acidity a few moments ago. As a grape ripens, its sugar content
increases and its acid content decreases.
A wine that has too much acid tastes “biting.” However, a certain amount of acidity makes a
wine “vivacious” and, to a small extent, thirst-quenching. Therefore, wine is a lot like lemonade,
because having just the right amount of acid, no more and no less, is critical
to taste.
There are actually two types of acidity, which is
important to understand. Natural acidity
is an inherent part of the grape, and the right amount is a good thing. The second type is the volatile acidity,
which is sometimes abbreviated “V.A.” The V.A. is not an inherent part of
the grape – it is acetic acid formed during or after fermentation. If you have a tiny amount of V.A., it often
cannot be noticed, and is not harmful.
However, wines that are exposed to the air will go bad eventually. The bacteria that makes
the V.A. will multiply, and the wine will begin to taste and smell vinegary and
sour.
Tannins
Tannins are the next component that we will talk
about. Tannins are a type of chemical
component that are contained in the skin and seeds of the grape, rather than in
the pulp. Tannins are difficult to
define. With an appropriate amount of
tannins, which have been properly ripened, the wine will seem to have a better
structure and backbone. However, too
much tannin can make your mouth feel like it has been shrink-wrapped.
The best way to explain the tannins is to make an analogy
with tea. If you let a pot of tea steep
for too long, the tea tastes bitter and harsh.
Tannins in wine are related to tannins in tea. Adding more water does not eliminate the
problem, it only dilutes the bitterness.
Adding sugar only hides the bitterness temporarily. Adding acid is destructive, since acidity and
bitterness reinforce each other.
Essentially, the only substances that can properly camouflage the
bitterness would be fats and proteins, such as milk added to tea, or cheese and
meats served alongside wines. Caterers
who are clever will often serve lots of cheeses when lower quality wines are
featured, to disguise the shortcomings of the wine.
Tannins are also natural preservatives. Red wines quite often have more tannins than
whites. Wines with more tannins can have a longer life, as they handle aging
better. Of course, a side characteristic
is that such wines often need to be aged longer for best quality.
Scientists do not fully understand the chemistry behind
tannins yet, although the ripening factor is understood to be desirable. There is speculation that as grapes mature,
tannins may group together and polymerize into larger molecules. Although the amount of tannins does not
change, a person’s taste buds perceive the larger molecules as softer, and thus
better.
Fruitiness
Fruitiness is a simple concept to understand. It is the characteristic of a wine to give off
a fruity taste or aroma. Fruitiness is
not usually a characteristic of older, mature wines. However, young wines can be obviously fruity.
Sweetness/Dryness
Sweetness and dryness are the last two characteristics
that we are going to address in this section.
These are concepts that often confuse some wine drinkers. If almost all of the sugar in the ripe grapes
was converted to alcohol, the wine is said to be dry. However, if only some of the sugar was
converted to alcohol, this residual sugar gives the wine a
sweetness. Numerically, a wine
with a small amount of sugar is considered dry – say one to two percent. Getting up to a level of three to four
percent sugar starts changing the wine to a “sweet” rating. Dessert wines are very sweet, perhaps from
five or eight to thirty percent sugar. In fact, these wines are called dessert wines
because of the sugar – taste one and you will see why.
With sweetness, as with other characteristics, balance is
everything. A wine with 8% sugar can
taste like children’s cough syrup, or, with the proper amount of balancing
acidity, can taste like a proper, decent wine.
Sweetness ratings are listed on the price labels at NBLC (New Brunswick
Liquor Corporation) stores, and in their catalogue, although not on the bottles
themselves. Essentially what happens is
that a wine gets a rating that ranges from 00 to 04. A rating of 00 means a very dry wine, with
01 being “off dry,” 02 being “semi-sweet,” 03 being sweet, and 04 being a very
sweet wine, probably a dessert wine (these terms are rough descriptions
intended to correspond with the numbering system, not official labels). Sometimes, a restaurant will even list these
sugar ratings on their wine menus. For
instance, La Pallida lists the sugar contents,
although at the moment most of the wines are quite dry, with sugar ratings of
either 00 or 01.
Sweetness and fruitiness are often confused. A wine can be sweet and fruity, or it can be
dry and fruity. However, it cannot be
sweet and dry because those two descriptions are opposite ends of the same
spectrum. Remember that fruitiness
refers to the taste or aroma of fruit, and sweetness
refers to sugar content. Thus, you can
see why some people confuse the two easily, if they perceive a fruity taste to
be an indicator of a sweet taste.
This wraps up our section on the attributes of wine. Now you can understand better how factors
such as alcohol content, acidity, tannins, fruitiness, sweetness, and dryness
can affect the taste of a wine.
The Environment
Vitaculture, the science of
growing grapes, is essentially a type of agriculture. Agriculture seeks to produce standardized,
uniform crops, with the greatest yields possible. For wine-making, however, the goals are not
exactly the same as they are for regular agriculture. In terms of producing large standardized
batches of inexpensive wines, perhaps the same goals apply. However, for advanced viticulture, or for the
production of small batches of very high quality and unique wines,
standardization can be a drawback. The
very small differences in production methods and the environment that the wine
is produced in, will affect the product and create the
subtle differences that vintners seek.
Every facet of the environment can affect the wine in some respect – the
climate, sunshine, weather, temperature, the elements, and the soil. In this section, we are going to talk about
the effects of these different factors.
Climate
Climate is probably the most important overall environmental
influence to consider. Grapes thrive in
temperate regions which feature long warm periods without frost. Although there is some variation between
varieties, in general, once temperatures reach 10 degrees Celsius, vines can
begin to grow. Once the average daily
temperature reaches about 17 to 20 degrees Celsius, the vines can begin to
flower. The process of flowering is
important. Only the flowers that become
fertilized and “set on the cluster” become grapes. What is interesting is how fragile a process
this is. Normally, even under the best
climatic conditions, not more than 15% of a vine’s flowers will set. Regardless of these facts, the important
thing to remember is that if the climate is too cold (or too hot), the grapes
will not grow. Microclimates are
important too, and the geography of the region usually dictates the effects of
the microclimate. For instance, factors
such as the proximity of large bodies of water, the presence of hills and
mountains, the slope gradients, the direction the slopes face, and the altitude
will all affect the production at the vineyard.
The proximity of large bodies of water is especially important. Water has a very high specific heat compared
to many other substances. In other
words, it takes quite a bit of energy transfer to raise or lower the
temperature of water. That’s why the
ocean is still quite cold for the first part of the summer, and stays
(relatively) warm through the winter.
Sometimes, a cool breeze can blow in off the water during hot periods in
the summer, helping the grapes. Also, in
the fall, when frost is threatening, warmer breezes coming off the water may
hold off frost for several days.
Sunlight
Sunlight, or sunshine, is the next important
environmental factor. Sunshine goes hand
in hand with temperature, in some ways, but there are other non-temperate
considerations. Sunshine affects
photosynthesis, the process that produces the sugar that allows the plant to
live and grow. Too little sunshine makes
it difficult for the plant to grow. But
too much sunshine is also detrimental – it can make leaves grow too much,
shading the grapes and making it harder for the grape clusters to grow and
compete. But then again, in very hot
areas, a type of sunburn can also be a problem, so a heavy leave canopy can
help the grapes. So, as with many
factors, balance is important when considering the optimal amount of
sunshine. Like Goldilocks and the Three
Bears, the best thing is to hope for not too much, and not too little.
Stress
Stress is a difficult concept for some people to
understand. Although with many
environmental factors, certain minimums are required, it is usually better not
to have optimal growing conditions. The
reason for this is quite simple. If
conditions are adequate but not perfect, fewer grape clusters will be able to
survive. The plants then concentrate
their energy on those few clusters, and thus the grapes that do grow have
greater character. All the world’s
greatest vineyards are located in areas that are in some way marginal, because
as long as the stress from a deficiency in sunshine/water/nutrients is not so severe as to kill the vines, a moderate amount of
adversity forces the vines to adapt and improve.
Temperature
Temperature swings are important. Rather than having constant mid-range
temperatures, many growers believe that it is important to have wide
temperature fluctuations over time, whether that means from the spring to the
fall, or on a shorter term from day to night, or both. In hot climates, growers like to see cool
nights, although cool nights are not a benefit in already cool regions. Back to the larger time scale, significant
seasonal change is useful. The vines use
temperature cues to ensure that the growth process stays on “schedule”
throughout the growing season. An
interesting phenomena is the balance of temperature
versus sunshine that results from changes in latitude. If you move significantly further north, say
from a vineyard in California to one in northern Europe, the average
temperature will decrease as you move further north, but the average hours of
sunlight in the day will increase (well, in the northern hemisphere, this
technically this only happens during the half of the year from the first day of
spring to the first day of autumn, but that pretty much corresponds to the
growing season). The decrease in
temperature is therefore somewhat balanced out by the increase in sunlight.
Frost
Frost is always a threat to grapes. In the spring, a late frost can kill buds and
shoots and ruin the potential for a crop.
In the fall, an early frost can prevent the grapes from fully
ripening. At any time, a particularly
cold frost or stretch of weather can kill young vines outright. Because the financial repercussions of a
frost are so severe, if an entire year’s crop is destroyed, fighting frost
problems is critical. Unfortunately, it
is also very difficult. There are
several methods used to combat frost, mostly expensive and generally quite
ineffectively, such as trying to artificially heat the vineyard or spray the
crops with water. The best way to avoid
frost problems though, is to harvest the crop before frost sets in.
Water and Moisture
Water is naturally a requirement for the vines, as with
any other plant. And again, too much
water can be a bad thing. If a vine is
growing on dry soil, the roots are forced to search deeper into the ground for
moisture. Ironically, this keeps them in
a more stable environment as they grow deeper, allowing them to handle droughts
or other climatic difficulties more easily.
In
Wind
Wind is a factor which is mostly an obstacle to
growth. Slight breezes are good, as they
can keep the grapes cool in hot areas, and air circulation minimizes the
potential for rotting. However, more
severe winds are a problem. Flowers can
be knocked off vines, preventing grape clusters from being able to form. Stiff winds can cause the vine to close its
stomata, tiny holes that are responsible for evaporation. Once these become closed, the vine
essentially shuts down growth. In a cold
region, the addition of strong winds raises the wind-chill issue, so that the
cold can damage the grapes. In very,
very windy regions, the vines sometimes compensate by learning to grow along
the ground rather than upright. Another
technique is for the grower to let them grow on the ground until they are
strong enough, and then train them to grow upright in the normal manner.
Soil
Soil is the last major environmental factor that affects
the final quality of the wines. In
general, well drained soils are important.
As mentioned earlier, good drainage ensures that vines push their roots
deep into the ground to find a stable source of water and nutrients. Drainage is even more important than
fertility – many vineyards are located in areas that are so barren that almost
nothing else will grow there. Other
aspects of soil, such as geologic composition, density, and colour are also
important for various reasons, but these are more advanced concepts that
generally are of interest mostly just to the growers. The main thing to remember is that good
drainage is most critical.
Grape Physiology
No matter how important environmental factors are, the
type of grape being grown is equally important.
A grape that may flourish under certain conditions may do poorly in a
different environment that works perfectly for a different grape. For example, a climate that is too warm for
successful production of pinot noir may instead be perfect for Syrah. While vineyards sometimes can produce a
number of different varieties, and may be pulled up and replanted with
different grapes for financial considerations to satisfy market demand, the
optimal approach is to find the grape that is best suited for the vineyard, and
go with it. Some grapes prefer fairly
warm temperatures, such as cabernet sauvignons, zinfandels, and sauvignon blancs. Other grapes prefer cool conditions, such as
pinot noirs and Rieslings. And others
can handle almost any conditions, such as Chardonnays.
In some areas, a vineyard will find a good grape that
produces a great wine, and will work exclusively to produce that wine. In other vineyards, the growers will try to
find some diversity, perhaps by producing two (or several) separate
grapes. That diversity is good in
several respects. If the growing seasons
of the two grapes are different, it allows for major events such as harvest to
be spread out more. It also mitigates
risk – not putting all the eggs into one basket. Finally, the grapes can sometimes be combined
to form other more complex and interesting varieties of wine.
Varietals
Speaking of varieties of wine, this would be a good point
to talk about the differences in wines according to their “species.” A varietal,
strictly speaking, is a wine made from a particular variety of grape. Merlot, Riesling, pinot grigio, cabernet sauvignon, and so on, are all varietal wines. In
general, each varietal has a unique flavour, distinct
from other varietals. If a wine is named
after a varietal, it means that the wine is composed
predominantly (although not always exclusively) from that variety. In the
Clones
Grapevines are not genetically stable. Over time, they spontaneously mutate
slightly. Therefore, each grape variety
is actually a group of a number of similar clones, or subtypes. A clone is a population of vines, all of
which were derived from a single vine called a mother vine. For example, there are dozens of clones of
pinot noir – each has slightly different characteristics. This is very important. The different vines can be examined, in a
search for those with the best characteristics.
Then, since new plants are produced not by growing seeds but by
transplanting cuttings, the cuttings can be made from the best vines to ensure
superior future generations. Each of
these new vines grown from the cuttings will be from the same “clone.”
The discovery of clones is relatively new in the vintage
world, dating back less than a century ago.
It has only been for the last couple decades that clones are becoming
more fully understood and identified.
Different clones can taste different, which is important to
remember. In some vineyards, growers are
trying to standardize and go with just one superior clone. However, in most places, vineyards are still
a mixture of several different clones, which can be a good thing, as it adds
complexity to the wine.
Rootstocks
Rootstocks are the next part of the vine that is
important, far more so than most people realize. The rootstock is simply the root system below
the surface of the soil. What is very
interesting, and something that most people do not realize, is that the
majority of vines in the world today are not growing from their own roots! Instead, growers choose from a number of
specific rootstocks that are known to be very well suited for specific growing
conditions, or tolerant of specific pests, and then once these rootstocks are
established, the desired varietal is grafted onto the
rootstocks. The process is so versatile
that the varietal can even be changed – for instance,
a grower could scalp off a sauvignon blanc varietal and graft chardonnay onto the same rootstock
instead.
Historically, there is an interesting story to be learned
from rootstocks. In the mid 1800’s, a
specific pest (a tiny yellow aphid called phylloxera)
spread throughout
Different rootstocks can be high vigor
or low vigor, and have shallow or deep roots, can be
drought-resistant or tolerate wetter conditions, and can be more or less
tolerant of certain pests or soil conditions.
Therefore, selecting a good rootstock for the growing site can be one of
the most important decisions made.
Vineyard structure is an interesting topic. Vines can come in a huge different variety of
shapes and sizes. Their appearance
depends partly on the variety being grown, and on the climate. In a cold, barren, windy area, the grapes are
more likely to grow close to the ground to maximize shelter. The way the vines are pruned, spaced, and
trellised is also important. Pruning
removes some of the shoots and leaves so that there is not a problem with too
much fruit being produced, and of course when pruning, the goal is to
selectively retain the highest quality parts of the vines. Spacing depends on many factors. Economically, smaller spacing between vines
means that more can be grown in a specific area. However, closer spacing also increases
competition for precious resources such as moisture and nutrients, and also
makes it more difficult to harvest if mechanical harvesters are used.
Speaking of mechanical harvesters, it is interesting to
know how extensively they are used. Most
people have a vision that all grapes are picked by hand, but this is
flawed. Handpicking certainly results in
higher quality, because the picker can be so selective. However, it is much more expensive to pick by
hand, and sometimes the lack of availability of labour prevents hand-picking
from even being possible. Mechanical
harvesters can run around the clock, ensuring that once grapes are ready for
harvest, it proceeds as quickly as possible.
A mechanical harvester can usually pick anywhere from 80 to 200 tons of
grapes in a day. By
comparison, a manual labourer can usually only do a maximum of two tons.
One thing that we have alluded to earlier in our talk is
about the distinction between quality and quantity. Grape bunches compete for the plant’s
resources. For this reason, if there are
fewer bunches on a particular vine, each one will be
able to utilize a greater portion of the sugars and other nutrients available,
giving the grapes a higher quality.
Knowing this then, it makes sense to a person that by cutting off
bunches of developing grapes early in the season,
quality of the wine will eventually be increased, even though the quantity
produced will be lower.
Making Wine
People have been making wine for more than 5,000 years,
but it has only been the past century and a half that anyone truly understood
why the process of fermentation worked.
In the 1850’s, Louis Pasteur linked the actions of yeasts to the process
of conversion of sugar to alcohol. After
that, fermentation was no longer regarded as an occult mystery, but rather as a
scientifically grounded process. Despite
that, until World War II, most wines (except for a few fortified or sparkling
wines) were made according to one of two classic processes, for reds and
whites. Since the 1960’s, technological
advances have made it possible for vintners to use new processes to produce
better wines, but the essentials are still the same. Beginners to the world of wine-making have
many questions that need answering. For
instance, what is the basic process for making wine, and why is red wine
different than white wine? The juice of
almost all grapes is actually colourless.
Interestingly, what gives red wine its colour is that the juice is
fermented with the skins of the grapes. As it turns out, skins are like packets of
dye. When making white wine, the skins
are separated from the juice before fermentation, preventing the dye-spreading
process from taking place.
Earlier in this video, we talked about tannins, which are
contained in the skins of the grapes.
Since red wines are fermented with the grape skins present, they end up
containing substantially more tannins than white wines. Because tannins are a natural preservative,
among other things, this means that red wines can
usually be aged far longer than whites.
Tannins are also contained in the stems, not just in the skins. In some red varieties such as pinot noir,
that have relatively less natural tannins in the skins than other reds, the
winemakers make include stems to ensure that sufficient tannins are present in
the final product. With other varietals
that are naturally heavy in tannins, such as cabernet sauvignon, this is not
necessary and in fact may hurt the wine by making it too bitter.
Making Red Wine
We’re going to talk about the production of red wine
first, which includes the skins of the grapes.
Once the large mass of crushed grapes, juice, skins, pulp, seeds, and
(possibly) stems is produced, it is called the “must”. In olden times, this would be fermented in
large wooden vats. Nowadays,
fermentation usually takes place in stainless steel tanks which can be cleaned
easily, and are temperature controlled.
Fermentation is a chemical process during which carbon dioxide and heat
are thrown off. Yeasts are necessary for
fermentation to take place. They can
either be naturally present, or cultured yeasts can be added by the winemaker,
or a combination of the two can be present.
Either way, the yeasts begin to convert the sugars in the must into
alcohol, with carbon dioxide bubbling up to the surface. The skins will then float to the surface of
the wine, although this is not a good thing – they will be intentionally pushed
back down into the must and mixed around regularly, so that the tannins leech
out more effectively to improve the wine.
During fermentation, the heat given off by the chemical
changes will increase the temperature of the must to anywhere between 15 and 30
degrees Celsius. If the temperature gets
much above thirty degrees, some of the desired flavours may start burning off,
so this is avoided if possible. After
several days to a few weeks of fermentation, almost all of the sugar will have
become alcohol, and the wine will be said to be “dry,”
or lacking sugars. Ripe grapes, both red
and white, usually have enough sugar to produce wines of anywhere from 8 to 15
percent alcohol. If the wine gets above
about 16.5% alcohol, the high concentration of alcohol starts to kill the yeasts,
thus wines cannot naturally be much higher than this without artificially
fortifying them.
There is another method of fermentation used
occasionally, which is different than the process we just outlined. This process, called carbonic maceration, isn’t
something that we’re going to talk about in great detail. Basically, fermentation still takes place, of
course, but the difference is that the grapes are not crushed, but rather are
put into a tank whole. The oxygen in the
tank is then removed and replaced with carbon dioxide, and natural yeasts
eventually perform the fermentation process.
After fermentation is complete, the juice is
removed. There are two categories for
the juice. The “free run” is the juice
that runs out of the must freely. After
the free run is drained, what remains of the must is compressed, and the
resulting juice is called “first press.”
The free run is considered to be better juice, and is preferred for superpremium wines.
However, the first press often has better flavour and tannins, and may
be mixed in with the free run juice to give the wine more strength.
If the wine is intended to be a good one, it will next go
into barrels for some time for aging.
During that time, the wine is racked several times. Racking is the process of letting solids
settle to the bottom of the barrel (or vat) and then pouring off the clear
wine. Essentially, it lets gravity
filter the wine so it is a lot cleaner and without sediments.
Above and beyond the natural process of gravity based
racking, there is a second similar process that might be applied to the wine,
called fining. To fine a wine, a type of
substance called a coagulant is added to the wine. The coagulant attaches to small particles
remaining in the wine that are too small and light for normal grativational rack filtering. Once the coagulant has attached, the fine
sediments become heavy enough to settle to the bottom of the barrel for normal
racking.
The last step before bottling may involve proper particle
filtering. In this process, some sort of
actual filter, perhaps made of cellulose, filters out the larger particles in
the wine. Unfortunately, if too many
particles are removed, it can remove some of the desired taste of the wine. For this reason, the size or strength of the
filter is important, and some wines are not filtered at all.
At this point, the red wine is bottled and may be left to
age further within the bottle. When a
wine is aged in the bottle, it is called reductive aging. When it is aged in the vat it is called
oxidative aging, because air is in contact with the wine at the time.
Making White Wine
Making white wine is similar to making red in several
ways, but some differences exist, nonetheless.
For instance, as mentioned earlier, skins remain with the juice when
making red wine, but with white wine, the juice is separated from the skins
before fermentation begins. Most
winemakers chose to filter the wine at this point, using one of the several
processes outlined above: filtering, fining, or centrifuging (which is a method
of quickly using a simulation of gravity to eliminate sediment and pulp).
As white wines ferment, the controlled temperature is
kept ten to fifteen degrees Celsius lower than it would be for red wine. With whites, the goal is to preserve the
freshness and delicacy of the fruit, which works best at the lower
temperatures.
If the winemaker is attempting to make a slightly sweeter
wine, called an off-dry, the process is not difficult. All that has to be done is to stop the
fermentation process before all the sugar is converted to alcohol. Fermentation is stopped by killing the yeasts
with either sulphur dioxide or cold. Not
much sugar may be left, and the goal of this process is to enhance the
fruitiness of the wine with the tiny bit of sugar, not to make it taste sweet.
Making Dessert Wines
Making dessert wines, which are really sweet wines, is
simply an extension of the method used for the off-dry. Fermentation is stopped before all the sugar
is used up. The difference is that the
winemaker starts with extremely sweet grapes.
There are several ways that this can be accomplished, but all are labour
intensive. For this reason, dessert wines
are usually rare and expensive.
Chaptalization
Chaptalization is a final
process worth mentioning. It may be used
occasionally in areas where grapes do not have sufficient time to ripen. Chaptalization
refers to the addition of sugar to a wine to boost the eventual alcohol
content. The point is not to boost
sweetness but to boost alcohol percentage.
Of course, the alcohol content cannot be raised much above 16% without
poisoning the yeasts, so this method is sometimes used when the grapes are
weak.
Now that you know about the processes involved in wine
making, it is also important to note that the medium of storage is
important. Aging wine in oak barrels is
a time honoured profession. But why oak? After
all, the barrels can be made out of several different types of wood. Well, oak is used because of a number of
different reasons. It is strong, yet
light enough to be shaped in barrels. It
doesn’t leak. Finally, and most
importantly, oak has certain compounds in it that enhance the wine.
There are about four hundred species of oak trees that
grow around the world, but only three specific types that are used for wine
making barrels. The person who makes the
barrels is called a cooper. Making the
barrels is a very difficult and laborous process
which must be performed by hand. An
experienced cooper may only be able to make one good barrel per day.
Shopping for Wine and Handling
Wine
Now that you know how wine is produced and what can
affect its taste, let’s talk for a few minutes about shopping for wine. Walking into a wine boutique can be a very
daunting experience. In
Here we are in the NBLC in Sackville. We’re going to meet two local employees,
There are several things that you should be aware of when
shopping for wine. First, don’t let
yourself be intimidated. Have fun –
experiment! It is good to have some sort
of a plan though. For example, the first
several bottles that you buy could all be charonnays. By buying and tasting different brands of the
same basic varietal, you should eventually learn to
start noticing subtleties between vintages.
Finally, don’t think you have to pay a fortune for a good wine. There are a very large number of decent wines
available in the $8-15 range per bottle.
The Importance of Vintages
Some beginners are scared off by the year that the wine
was produced, also known as the vintage.
In the old days, the quality of a particular brand of wine would vary
significantly from year to year, predominantly due to the weather of that
particular growing season. If the
weather was very bad in one year in a particular region, the wines from that
region for that vintage were generally inferior. For normal wines produced in the past couple
decades, the importance of vintages has declined somewhat. Advanced technology and viticultural
methods have been able to mitigate the effects of a poor season somewhat, so
the quality of wines from year to year is now a lot more consistent than it has
been in the past. Beginners do not
really have to worry so much about getting a bad vintage nowadays, at least not
like in the past. Having said that,
wines of different vintages definitely do have different characteristics, but
for the most part this is only discernible by advanced connoisseurs dealing
with more expensive brands.
Storage
How you store a wine will also affect its quality. The first thing to be aware of is that in
general, only red wines are meant to be stored for appreciable periods of time,
because only some reds are really meant to be aged after purchase. In particular, reds with generous fruit and
firm structures are meant for the long term.
Most white wines and roses are actually made to be consumer fresh and
young. Most beginners do not realize
this, as they are under the false impression that aging a wine is always the
most important thing to do. This is
probably one of the biggest myths about wine that beginners would do well to
understand in more detail.
In the old days, younger wines were always more expensive
than older vintages. It was only in the
last two centuries, since the development of glass bottles with proper corks to
seal the wine and keep it from turning to vinegar, that older wines were able
to retain their quality over a period of time.
At this point, experts began to realize that a limited number of wine actually did taste better with age. The French, being the consummate wine
drinkers that they are, actually make a distinction between wines to lay down for a time (called vins de garde) and wines intended for current
drinking.
Temperatures
In a few minutes, we’ll go into more detail about the
optimum temperatures for serving various wines.
However, as far as storage goes, scientists suggest that wine should always
be stored below twenty degrees Celsius, which is slightly lower than “standard”
room temperature. In fact, if you are
considering a storage area for wine, it doesn’t have to be fancy or
specifically designed for wine, as long as the following three rules are kept
in mind: (1) the environment must be “cool”, (2) the bottle must lie upside
down or on its side so the cork remains moist, and (3) there should be no
direct sunlight on the bottle. The
optimum temperature for long term wine storage is probably about twelve to
thirteen degrees Celsius, no matter whether it is a red or white. Keeping the cork moist is important so that
the cork does not shrink or become brittle and let oxygen get into the bottle. For short term storage, of a few weeks, standing
a bottle upright will not make a difference, but for longer term storage of a
few months, it would be better to be safe and keep the bottles on their
side. In La Pallida,
the bottles are stored on their side under the bar for reds, and on their sides
in a chilled wine rack for whites. It
appears that we have a number of bottles standing upright on the bar shelves,
but if you look closely you will notice that these are only old bottles filled
with water and food colouring, and are there simply for display purposes.
As far as serving temperatures go, it is incredible how
much of a difference temperature makes in serving a wine. A lot of wine instructors will, on the first
day of a course, offer two red wines and ask their students to talk about the differences
between the two in a blind taste test.
However, it will really be the same wine in both glasses, with only a
couple degrees difference in temperature – that is enough to make it taste like
two different wines and trick many of the beginners. Red wines properly should be served at
sixteen to eighteen degrees Celsius – not exactly chilled, but a little cooler
than room temperature is most appropriate.
At La Pallida, we quickly learned that the
reds taste far better when stored near ground level than on a high shelf, due
to the temperature difference of four to five degrees that exists. If a red is too warm, don’t be scared to ask
your waiter or host to put the bottle on ice for five to ten minutes. A mixture of ice and cold water will actually
chill the wine faster than straight ice.
It may seem strange to chill a red wine, and go against “common
knowledge,” but that small temperature difference does make the wine taste
slightly better. An exception to this
rule would be a red wine which is extremely fruity – such a wine, maybe a
Glassware
There are a lot of myths surrounding glassware, and what
is the proper type to use. We have quite
a few guidelines here to help you.
First, do not spend so much on wine glasses, which can be quite expensive,
that you would be scared to ever use them for fear of breaking them. Second, buy more than you think you will
need. Some will break eventually, and it
is nice to have extras in case you ever try serving two wines side by side for
comparison. Next, the theory that
different glasses should be used for red and white wines is not necessarily
true. You can most certainly get away
with having one type of glass for both wines, probably more along the lines of
the “traditional” red glass, with a larger bowl. Never buy small glasses. Buy glasses that are clear, so you can easily
see the wine, and with a good stem, so you do not have to hold the bowl of the
glass. Holding the bowl can warm the
wine faster than desired, and fingerprints on the glass are also
unsightly. Finally, if you may be
serving champagne or sparkling wines, you should invest in a second type of
glass, known as a flute. The flute is a
tall, thin tapered glass than encourages a steady stream of bubbles.
Serving Wine
Knowing how to properly serve wine is a confusing
subject, but it is one that you can quickly master with only a few practice
sessions. The first step is learning how
to approach the table. The bottle should
be carried at an angle, with the label facing the customer, and preferably set
against a light backdrop, like a white cloth carried across the server’s
arm. It is best to present the bottle
towards the customer so that he or she can examine the label of the wine, and
then when satisfied, he or she will nod to the server to indicate that it is
appropriate to proceed with opening the bottle.
The second step is uncorking the bottle. This is the part that most servers find to be
most difficult. Corkscrews were invented
in
With a conventional waiter’s corkscrew, as shown, the
proper technique for opening the bottle is as follows. First, use the knife to cut the foil under
the second rim at the top of the bottle, and remove the top part of the
foil. The reason it is cut here rather
than a bit higher is because when pouring, the server does not want any of the
wine to drip across the foil. Next,
insert the point of the corkscrew into the cork, slightly off center, and start
twisting the screw down through the cork.
This can be done in the server’s hands, or with the bottle sitting on a
flat surface, such as the customer’s table or a nearby unoccupied table. Once the screw has been driven most of the
way through the cork, put the metal pry lever in place, and exert some pressure
to start pulling the cork up. This can
take between 50 and 100 pounds of pressure in some bottles, so it isn’t necessarily
as easy as it looks. Many beginning
servers will be under the impression that it is best to remove the cork in one
sweeping motion, however, experienced servers will usually pull it up partway,
then insert the screw deeper, then pull the cork some more, perhaps repeating
this two or three times to gradually remove the cork without ever bending it
sideways too far. This approach lowers
the risk of damaging the cork while it is bent sideways. The final rule to note is that it is best to
try to avoid “popping” the cork, by removing it very slowly and carefully at
the end. Treat it gently and slowly, as
if you were opening a can of pop that has been shaken up.
Once the cork has been removed, the waiter should place
it on the table to the side of the customer.
In some areas, customers will sniff the cork, or feel it carefully. However, this custom is dying out quickly,
and most customers today simply ignore the cork. The original point of putting the cork on the
table was to allow the customer to see the vineyard’s design on the cork,
supposedly proving that the wine was an original bottle from the appropriate
vineyard, not an inferior wine that had been rebottled to look like a better
one. For this reason, it is quite
appropriate for the customer to simply give a cursory glance at the cork, if at
all, rather than pay it close attention.
The server then takes the bottle of wine, holding it by
the base of the bottle, and pours a small amount into the customer’s
glass. The customer will then first
swirl the wine around for a few moments, giving it time to breathe, or to
release aromas within the glass that make it easier for the customer to test by
smelling. Next, the customer may tilt
the glass carefully sideways, in order to look at the “legs” of the wine,
meaning to examine how the wine runs down the side of the glass. Some thick wines may descend very slowly,
whereas other white wines may appear very thin, and descend quickly. This gives the customer an idea of the
composition of the wine. At the same
time, the colour and clarity of the wine can be examined.
The next step involves smelling the aroma of the wine,
and then tasting the wine. If the
customer is satisfied, he or she will nod to the server, and this means that
the bottle has been approved. At this
point, the server should serve each customer, starting with the purchaser of
the bottle – the taster - and then going clockwise around the table. It is important not to fill each glass too
full. The proper technique is to fill each
glass only halfway, and then leave the bottle on the table beside the
purchaser. This is where a small dilemma
comes into play. If the customer is
ordering wine by the glass, the server’s tendency is usually to avoid cheating
the customer, and thus to fill the glass quite full. But this is not truly proper, as a proper
glass of wine should only be about half full.
When serving wine “by the glass,” the best compromise
would be to serve a volume in between those two extremes. However, if you are in a restaurant and
ordering a glass of wine, you can expect to get a reasonably full glass,
depending of course on the type of glassware used. Some restaurants use glassware with very
large bowls, in which was a “half glass” serving is not only appropriate, but
it seems appropriate. The restaurant will most definitely have its
own internal guidelines, based on the side of the glass and the desired pour
size. For example, at La Pallida, the servers are instructed to fill the glass to
about three quarters of an inch below the top for the reds and whites. This works out to be more than five ounces,
which results in a pour size that is slightly greater than what is desired in
terms of proper serving size (five glasses coming from a single 750ml bottle of
wine), but allows the customer to get a portion that is more than fair, without
being too full.
Tasting Wines
It is possible for a person to drink wine for years
without actually tasting it in a way that helps you understand and remember
it. Tasting and smelling are two senses
that are very strongly related, and for most people they are mindless
tasks. However, no matter how
experienced or inexperienced you are at tasting wine, you can definitely learn
a systematic methodology for tasting and cataloguing wine so that that you can
properly describe it afterwards, and know what you have been tasting. Wine appreciation carries many myths with it,
and for beginners, the skills involved in proper tasting are another area that
carries many myths. If you look at a
wine expert, that person probably does NOT have better taste buds than
you. Even more importantly, they may not
necessarily have had years and years of wine tasting experience – if you look
carefully, many persons who have consumed wine for decades have very little
skill in talking knowledgeably about taste and attributes, whereas some persons
who have achieved Masters of Wine diplomas may be very young, with only a few
years of tasting experience. The
difference for the experts is that they pay attention to their wines, and
develop systems for remembering what they have tasted. This sounds very scientific, or like it is a
lot of work, but actually it is fairly simple.
And learning how to taste wine like a professional from the beginning
will make your wine appreciation more understandable and appreciative for
decades to come.
The first thing to be aware of is that the time of day,
previous tastings, previous meals eaten, and
emotional mood can all affect the taste of a wine, and these are just a few
factors. Many professionals believe that
the best time to taste a wine is early in the day, while they are still wide
awake, yet before they eat a lunch which can affect the palate and cloud
judgement. Beginning wine conneisours will rarely try to do their tastings
just before lunch, but knowing that the time of day affects your taste is
something useful to keep in the back of your mind. The next thing to remember is that the first
few sips of any wine often taste abrupt because your mouth is not yet used to
the presence of the wine. This is the
same phenomena encountered, for example, by anyone drinking something strong –
many die-hard university students who drink tequila will agree that “the first
shot is always the hardest!” If an expert
is doing a professional tasting, they will often come back to the same wine
several times during the course of the event, just to make sure that their
judgement was not clouded at the beginning of the tasting. Finally, emotional state is very important. If you are about to encounter a wine for the
first time, and you are eager to see what it is like and in a good mood, the
wine will taste different to you than if you are less elated.
Some scientists have suggested that wine is a virtually
tasteless liquid that happens to have deep fragrances associated with it. This might be taking it a bit far, but there
is certainly no doubt that smelling a wine is critical to tasting it. There are hundreds of elements that can be
present in a bottle of wine. However,
the taste of wine can be largely confined to four well-known concepts: sweet,
sour, bitter, and salty. Of the four,
only the first three are common. You
will rarely encounter salty wines.
As mentioned, smell and taste are very
related. Once a wine is in your mouth,
you might think that taste takes over from smell, but that isn’t true – your
sense of smell starts to work better at that point. As the wine is mixed with your warm saliva,
and circulates around your mouth, your body heat warms it up and additional
volatile molecular compounds are released from the wine in evaporation, and
these compounds hit your sense of smell through the back of your mouth. Interestingly, these compounds are hitting olefactory cells that are the most exposed (and sensitive)
nerves in the body. However, we’re
getting ahead of ourselves here. To
smell correctly, you should start while the wine is still in the glass. Swirl it around, whether it is in your hand,
or on the table. Then, stick your nose
right into the glass and breathe in deeply.
Don’t just take a polite sniff from a few inches away! Now, after you’ve taken the deep breath, take
a series of short, quick sniffs. Think
of how a dog sometimes smells an object, rapidly and repeatedly, to maximize
the impression of the aroma.
The human nose is so sensitive that when trained
properly, a person can detect the scent of one drop of high quality perfume
within an entire concert hall. Dogs have
even better developed senses, with several breeds having noses one million
times as sensitive as the human nose, and some specialty breeds theorized to
have senses tens or hundreds of millions of times as sensitive as humans. But of course, there is a drawback. As sensitive as the nose can be, it can
fatigue itself quickly, in as little as six seconds. Essentially, the odours overwhelm it, and as
a biological defence mechanism, it starts to filter out those same odours, so
as to be able to detect new odours.
Therefore, you must pay close attention when about to try the wine, and
try to assess the aroma in the glass immediately.
Smell is the most primitive of the senses, having evolved
millions of years ago as a survival mechanism for guiding behaviour. It is not a sense that is easily grasped by
the verbal-semantic parts of the brain, therefore, although most people can
distinguish and recognize literally thousands of different smells, very few
people can quickly name more than a handful off the top of their head. Having a list of possible aromas in front of
them often helps people markedly in their ability to name aromas. Why is this important? Because when you are trying to identify an
aroma in the wine, try to imagine a list of aromas in your head and run through
it – this method may help you hit upon the aroma you are looking for.
It is important also to know that not everything has a
strong smell to it. Some substances,
such as glass and metal, are made up of molecules that do not easily
volatilize, which means to throw off aroma molecules that people then receive
and sense as aroma. In general though,
heating an object makes it throw off more molecules (this process is exactly
related to evaporation) which will make it smell stronger. This is why food, when cooking, smells much
stronger than when you bring it home as groceries. For the same reason, wine that is very cold
may seem to have very little aroma, but when you heat it a bit, even if that
only means cupping the glass in your hands for a few minutes so that body heat
affects it, then the aroma will become stronger.
At this point in the video, we need to make a distinction
that is especially important for more advanced wine conneiseurs. People often refer to the smell of the wine
as the “nose” of the wine. Essentially,
this slang developed in
Taste
So what exactly is taste?
Well, it is actually a combination of several things – aroma, body,
texture, and flavour, which can be quickly described as the “physical contact”
element of aroma. But what are body and
texture? Well, essentially, it is the density
of the wine. The body can be described
as light, medium, full, or something in between. A good analogy would be the “thickness” of
milk, where skim milk is light, 2% is medium, and homogenous is full. The body of the wine only deals with the weight
though. It has absolutely nothing to do
with the quality, intensity of flavour, or finish. It is just the thickness. By the way, the finish of a wine refers to
how long the flavours last in your mouth.
Texture
The texture of a wine is the impression it leaves in your
mouth. Fabrics are often used for
comparative purposes. A wine such as an
Austral
Flavour
Flavour is much more difficult to describe than body and
texture. As mentioned earlier, there are
three basic tastes commonly applied to wine: sweet, sour, and bitter. But there are hundreds of flavours that, like
smell, can be applied to a wine. Wine
experts such as Karen MacNeil have developed personal
lists of flavours that they notice in various wines, and categorize them to
make them easier to remember. Karen’s
lists from her Wine Bible are reproduced here in full detail, to give you some
better examples. Again, we recommend
that for your own personal benefit, you consider purchasing a copy of this
inexpensive and resourceful text for yourself.
Flavours and Aromas of White Wines
Fruits: apple, baked apple, apricot, banana,
coconut, fig, grapefruit, lemon, lime, litchi, melon, dried orange peel, peach,
pear, baked pear, pineapple.
Butter and Cream: Butter, butterscotch, caramel, cream,
custard.
Vegetables: Asparagus, bell pepper, green beans, olives.
Grains and Nuts: Almond, biscuit, bread dough, brioche,
hazelnut, roasted nut, yeast.
Spices: Cinnamon, cloves, ginger, white pepper.
Flowers: Gardenia, geranium, honeysuckle, rose.
Earth: Chalk, flint, grass, hay, minerals, stone,
straw.
Others: Oak, toast, vanilla, honey, gasoline, rubber
boot.
Flavours and Aromas of Red Wines
Fruits: Blackberry, black currant, blueberry, boysenberry,
cherry, cranberry, dried orange peel, plum, pomegranate, raspberry, strawberry,
baked blackberry, baked cherry, baked raspberry, jam, prunes.
Vegetables: Asparagus, bell pepper, green beans,
mushrooms, olives, truffle.
Chocolate and Coffee: Bitter chocolate, cocoa, milk chocolate,
mocha, coffee, espresso.
Spices and Herbs: Black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, licorice, mint, spiced tea.
Tobacco: Cigar box, pipe tobacco, smoke.
Flowers: Geranium, rose,
violet.
Earth: Cedar, damp earth, dried leaves, eucalyptus,
forest floor, gravel, pine, stone.
Animal: Barnyard, horse blanket, manure, sweat.
Others: Oak, toast, vanilla, cola, game, leather,
tar, tea, worn boot.
The “Finish”
Another characteristic that experts consider when comparing
wines is their “finish”. The finish is
the extent to which a wine’s aromas and flavours persist in your mouth even
after you’ve swallowed. The better the wine, the longer the finish. By contrast, if you’re drinking an
inexpensive house wine, the finish will disappear almost as soon as you swallow
it. Sampling the finish of a wine is
easy. First, take a sip, and before you
swallow it, swirl it around with your mouth closed. Then, after you swallow, and with your mouth
still closed, breathe out forcefully through your nose. As long as the wine has some finish to it,
you will still be able to taste and smell it, even though you have swallowed
it. The better the finish, the stronger
and the longer you will still be able to taste and smell it. Testing the finish in this manner is
important because it allows you to get a more fully developed sense of the
wine’s aroma and flavour and see how long those two things last. For a wine with exceptional finish, you may
still be able to smell and taste it a full minute later.
Colour and Appearance
When being taught about wines, often colour is one of the
first subjects mentioned. However,
tasting properly is more important than assessing colour, which is why we’ve
left this section for near the end. The
colour is not the only visual cue that should enlighten you about a wine,
though.
First, when examining colour, don’t hold the glass up to
the light and look at it in this manner.
The proper way to get the best view is to look down and across the glass
while it is being held against a white backdrop. A natural angle downwards of about 45 degrees
usually works best. Different grape
varieties have different hues. Pinot
noir makes a wine that is coloured a light vermillion. Gamay is the colour
of cherry Jell-O. Zinfandel can be
electric purple. Nebbiolo
can be almost black. When an experienced
taster is given an unidentified wine, the colour is one of the first clues
about what varietal might be in the glass.
Beginners sometimes make understandable mistakes relating
to colour. You can learn to avoid these
right away. First of all, the intensity
of a wine’s colour is not related to the intensity of its flavour. A deep red wine is not necessarily more
flavourful than a pale red wine. Also,
colour is a clue to age, although reds and whites behave in an opposite
manner. Red wines get lighter as they
get older, while whites get darker.
Clarity
Clarity refers to how clear the wine is. In today’s world, almost all whites have
excellent clarity. If the wine is not
clear, there is quite possibly a problem with it. However, it is not uncommon for a red to lack
in clarity, and such a condition does not necessarily indicate an inferior wine. Many great reds do have great clarity, but
others may seem more opaque. By the way,
be careful not to confuse an opaque wine as being one
containing sediment. An opaque
wine is one in which the liquid is uniformly less prone to passing light
without obstruction. An example would be
a pot of water with a tiny bit of skim milk added and well mixed in. The water starts to become a tiny bit opaque,
in a uniform way. By comparison,
sediment happens when long chains of molecules form and become too heavy to
remain in solution, therefore, they end up on the bottom of the bottle as a
solid precipitate. Sediment is harmless,
and can be consumed, although usually the server will try to avoid pouring
sediment into one’s glass. A comparison
of sediment would be adding a small pinch of a spice such as dill or oregano to
our pot of water. If the spice didn’t
remain on the surface, it would probably mix throughout the water. It would not become a part of the solution,
it would merely be chunks of solid, interspersed throughout the water, and
these chunks would eventually settle to the bottom.
Conclusions
To gain a really intimate knowledge of any subject, it is
important to understand the fundamentals first.
If you’ve gotten to this point, and are serious about learning more
about wine, don’t be scared to review this same material again to increase your
familiarity. In fact, you may even want
to go on to the intermediate and advanced sections, and then later come back and
review this section of the video again.
It certainly is beneficial to understand the basics, inside out. The fact that you’ve made it this far,
however, does suggest one very important thing.
If you’re this interested in learning about wine appreciation, and have
paid attention to the things we’ve talked about thus far, you certainly
shouldn’t have any hesitation to try the next video in our series, which talks
about the characteristics of many of the world’s classic varietals in more
detail. To finish, remember these twelve
truths that wine pros know:
Good luck with your future
research, and thanks for watching!