So, it’s the weekend. You’ve got a nice dinner planned and you’re at the grocery store picking up ingredients. You walk by the wine section and think, “Why not buy a nice bottle to go with dinner?” But no sooner than you get past the end cap, you’re overwhelmed. What color? From what country? And why are there 1,000 different types?
Back it up. Let’s start out slow.
Becoming a confident wine drinker (and picker-outer) is a multi-step process. Let’s start with step one. Hang on, because I’m about to drop some knowledge. Thank you, sommelier hubby.
All wines are not created equal.
At its most basic, this adage is true simply because some wine producers are better than others. Often, this is because they use better fruit. What I really want you to learn is a bit more complicated, but crucial to making headway towards really knowing what you like, and how to find it. Wines aren’t created equal because there are so many ways they can vary!
The flavor and characteristics of a wine are influenced by a four main variables:
The type of grape used.
Winemaking grapes are different than grapes we squeeze for breakfast grape juice, or those we eat for snacks, and they come in many varieties. Different varieties of grapes produce specific types of wine. For example, chardonnay is made from the chardonnay grape… but so are many Champagnes, and what’s known as white Burgundy. Other common winemaking grapes include pinot noir, merlot, chenin blanc and cabernet sauvignon.
The location of the vineyards.
You’ve probably heard the French word “terroir,” which literally means “land” but with wine refers to the characteristics grapes pick up specific to the place they were grown. So, it’s not just the soil, but also the climate, and even attitude of the people who grow it. In truth, it’s a very holistic notion. Terroir makes a HUGE difference in how grapes taste from one place to another!
Continuing our chardonnay example, chardonnay produced from grapes grown in California will taste very different than wine from the same type of grapes grown in France. Actually, one can grow the same type of grape in the same immediate area, but if one vineyard is on a mountainside and the other is in a valley, these grapes will not taste the same. Chalk it up to weather and soil conditions, availability of sunlight and water, and general farming techniques.
The method by which the wine is made.
Wine is fermented grape juice, yes; one harvests the fruit, extracts the juice, and lets it sit until alcoholic things happen. That’s what all wine has in common. However, the journey from the vine to the bottle has myriad paths, and all of the choices a winemaker makes influence the final flavor of the wine. Some may squeeze out the juice with a machine, while others may let the grapes sit until they leach out their juice by themselves. Some wine goes into stainless steel tanks while others are aged in oak barrels. Some do both! My point is, a chardonnay made in one style, again, will taste very different than one made in an alternate style.
Finally, the year the grapes were picked.
You know this as the vintage, and it’s normally on the label. The vintage is important due to one simple fact: weather changes from year to year. So, a hot, dry summer will produce a particular crop that won’t taste the same as a harvest from a cooler, rainier year.
Knowing all of this is good background for the becoming a more confident wine drinker. So now it’s time to explore some of our other tips on drinking wine, knowing what you’re tasting, and then figuring out what you like.