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What's the point in tasting wine? This is a reasonable question, if wine evokes for you the image of a wine snob, pinky extended, mouthing fancy talk. Certainly no similar mystique surrounds Pepsi-Cola, iced tea or milk. But wine is different. It's the only beverage I know that appeals to both the senses and the intellect. If you take the time to look for it, every glass contains a lesson in history, geography, agriculture, botany; sometimes anthropology, religion, psychology and more. There's no reason to be snobbish about wine, and none to fear it. But it's well worth talking about and sharing with friends. (We call WineLoversPage.com a "snob-free zone" because we avoid taking wine too seriously, and we recommend that you do the same. This stuff is supposed to be fun. You don't have to pass a test to enjoy it, and you needn't learn a new language. The idea behind wine tasting is as simple as this: Slow down. Relax and take the time to think about what you're drinking and to enjoy it with all your senses. (Well, all except hearing. Nobody listens to wine.) Examine its color. Is it clear or hazy, transparent or opaque? Take a deep sniff. Does it smell like fruit? Flowers? Road tar or sweat sox? Got it? Take a drink. Take two. Swish it around your mouth, sensing not only its taste but its texture and weight. Don't worry about looks; you're enjoying yourself. Put it all together in your head. Think about where it came from. Sip again and enjoy. You won't get all this out of a Pepsi!
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The oenologists at Davis consulted with scores of wine lovers and wine tasters to list all the descriptive terms they could imagine for the smells of wine. Then they organized them, categorized them, eliminated all that seemed ambiguous or less than clear, and ended up with a list of 12 major categories of wine smells, subdivided into 29 subcategories and in 94 specific terms. The original "wheel" was so called because it was displayed as a circular table, with relatively similar smells placed close together around its circumference. (Colored plastic laminated copies of the wine aroma wheel may be obtained from A.C. Noble, Dept. Vit. & Enology, Univ. California, Davis, Calif 95616.) The wheel can be viewed on the UCDavis Website.) You don't need a wheel to get rolling, however: The information is just as useful in the form of a list, starting at noon and moving around the clock from "fruity" through "nutty" and "earthy" around to "floral," "spicy" and back to fruity again. If you want to get more out of your wine, try your next tasting session with the list at hand, scanning the categories in search of the exact word to describe what you're smelling. I think you'll be surprised to see how a glance at the "wheel" helps your thoughts snap into focus. I've edited the following list somewhat to save space, leaving out some of the more obscure and technical terms, but you'll find all the usual aromas rounded up here: FRUITY: Citrus - grapefruit, lemon; berry - blackberry, raspberry, strawberry, black currant (cassis); tree fruit - cherry, apricot, peach, apple; tropical fruit - pineapple, melon, banana; dried fruit strawberry jam, raisins, prune, fig. VEGETATIVE: fresh - stemmy, cut green grass, bell pepper, eucalyptus, mint; canned-cooked green beans, asparagus, green olive, black olive, artichoke; dried - haw-straw, tea, tobacco. NUTTY: walnut, hazelnut, almond. CARAMELIZED: honey, butterscotch, butter, soy sauce, chocolate, molasses. WOODY: vanilla, cedar, oak, smoky, burnt toast, charred, coffee. EARTHY: dusty, mushroom, musty (mildew), moldy cork. CHEMICAL: petroleum - tar, plastic, kerosene, diesel; sulfur - rubbery, garlic, skunk, cabbage, burnt match, wet wool, wet dog; papery - wet cardboard; pungent - acetic acid (vinegar); other - soapy, fishy. PUNGENT: hot - alcohol; cool - menthol. MICROBIOLOGICAL: yeast, sauerkraut, sweaty, horsey, "mousey." FLORAL: orange blossom, rose, violet, geranium. SPICY: cloves, black pepper, licorice, anise. Use the "wheel" as a guide when you're tasting wine for fun, and I think you'll be surprised to see how well this list of descriptive terms will help you recognize those elusive characteristics. This brings our quick online wine course to a conclusion. If you'll remember two simple rules - (1) think about wine, and (2) keep opening bottles - you'll soon be on your way to expertise and a lifetime of enjoyment. Good luck, and good wine!
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For the new wine lover, few things about fine wine are more daunting than the wine-bottle label. All that small print! All those foreign words and terms! But bear in mind that information brings knowledge, and lots of print conveys lots of information. Learn to decode the label, and you've armed yourself with the tools you need to be a savvy consumer. Take a look at the half-dozen label images below, and follow the red numbers from each label to the related numbers in the text for a quick explanation of every label line. Even though these labels represent five countries with five different sets of labeling regulations, you'll soon see that they all provide the same general information, with only relatively minor differences in format and content.
UNITED STATES
FRANCE
ITALY
1. Wine maker or winery: The company or firm that made the wine or, in some cases, the wine's trademark name. 2. Appellation: The country or region where the grapes for this wine were grown. This may be as broad as "California" or as narrow
as a specific vineyard like "Erdener Treppchen." Note, however, that the California wine pictured also lists its specific vineyard source ("Pagani Ranch" and, in small print at the bottom of the label, "Sonoma Valley") while the German wine also mentions its region ("Mosel-Saar-Ruwer"). In most countries, wine-growing regions ("appellations") are defined by law, and wines made in these regions will carry legal language on the label such as "Appellation Controle" in France or "Denominazione della Origine Contrallata (DOC)" in Italy. Most regulations allow up to 15 percent of the wine to be made from grapes grown outside the area.
3. Vintage: This is the year in which the grapes were harvested, not the year in which the wine was bottled, which for some wines
may be years later. Note that some countries add the local word for "vintage" to the label: "Cosecha" in Spain, "Vendemmia" in Italian. (Most national wine laws require that at least 85 percent of the wine be harvested in the year of vintage; up to 15 percent may be blended in from other years.)
4. Variety: The specific kind of grapes from which the wine was made. Not all wines disclose varietal content. Most French and
Italian wines do not do so, for example, because the wine laws require the wines of each region be made from traditional varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petite Verdot and Malbec in Bordeaux, for example (the Chateau Coufran pictured is primarily Merlot); Sangiovese and others in the case of Chianti, and Tinto Fino (a variant of Rioja's Tempranillo) in Ribera del Duero. Most countries allow the use of some non-varietal grapes in the blend. In most states of the U.S., for example, only 75 percent of the wine's content must be of the named varietal. In Europe and Australia, the rule is usually 85 percent.
5. Ripeness: In a tradition known primarily in Germany and, in somewhat different form, Austria, some wines use special
terminology to reflect the ripeness of the grapes and the quality of the finished wine. The German wine pictured, for instance, is a "Kabinett," the lowest ripeness level in "Qualittswein mit Prdikat," the highest quality level. For more information on the German system, read John Trombley's excellent article, Knowing the German Quality System for Wines. Some German wine labels will also show "Trocken" ("Dry") or "Halbtrocken" ("Half Dry") to denote wines vinified to less natural sweetness.
6. Estate bottling and winery information: If the wine is "estate bottled" (made from grapes grown and harvested in the winery's
own vineyards), this will be disclosed with language on the label such as the French "Mise en bouteille(s) au Chateau;" the German "Gutsabfllung" (a newer and more specific term than the older "Erzeugerabfllung"); or the English "estate bottled" or "grown, produced and bottled."
7. Other required information: This may vary widely depending on national regulations. German wines, for example, carry an
"Amptliche Prfungs Nummer (AP Number)," the serial number it received during official testing. French wines may carry their ranking from traditional classifications (such as "Cru Bourgeois" on the Bordeaux pictured). The back labels of wines sold in the U.S.
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are typically decked out with required consumer warnings such as the notorious "Surgeon General's Warning" and notices that the wines contain sulfites. Wine labels also carry small print disclosing the wine's approximate alcoholic content and the size of the bottle, as highlighted on the Spanish and U.S. wine labels; and imported wines in the U.S. normally bear information (often on a separate label, as seen on the French wine label) about the company that imported it.
8. Optional information: Additional information that may range from winemaker's notes or detailed analytical and tasting
information to advertising hype are often featured on labels, especially the back label. Not to mention the ubiquitous UPC bar code!
GERMANY
SPAIN
BACK LABEL
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