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How to Buy a Bargain Wine
Never forget that wine production is a business like any other. As such the most popular items are the most expensive; although not always the best.
Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay have become the wine catch phrases that most of us are comfortable with. This has made the demands for these wines so high, that it is all but impossible to find bargains made from these grapes.
Instead turn to the huge variety of wines made from less popular grapes. An extra bonus is that nearly all non Cab and Chard grape varieties are better with food than the heavier and more popular Cab and Chard.
In Red Wines:
Zinfandel, and I don't mean white. This grape is all but native to California (it probably came from Italy where it is now hard to find) and produces a huge range of styles, and prices. Nearly all of the under $10 versions are worth trying.
Pinot Noir is rarely found under $10, but a few are, and as such should be sought out.
Syrah is gaining in popularity, and unfortunately, price. While lesser labels are available for $10, nearly all are worth trying, and most worth going slightly above your $10 mark.
Mouvedre, Nebbiolo, Grenache and other varietals you may never have heard of are starting to make their presence known. Try a few.
Plain old Red Table Wine, without a specific variety listed often offers great value. Imported versions tend to be less of a bargain, no matter what their price, because of the cost of shipping, and the damage to the wine from the shipping itself.
In White Wines:
Sauvignon Blanc (Fume Blanc) is one of the most food friendly white wines, and is available in a huge variety of styles, almost all of them affordable.
Chenin Blanc is all but forgotten in the US, and it has no one but the American Winemakers to blame. Too often sweet out of balance (although I am a fan of sweet Chenin, when it is not cloying) this wine is disregarded by many. Try a Vouvray from France, or a dry Chenin Blanc from the Pacific Northwest.
Riesling is certainly one of the finest white wine grapes on the planet, and yet it is shunned in the US for being sweet. Debate on the sweet drinking habits of Americans aside, not all Rieslings are sweet. From the Pacific Northwest and the vineyards of Germany come many tart and refreshing Rieslings that are exceptional with food, and lighter in alcohol than the powerhouse Chard.
Gewurztraminer is more often slightly sweet when made in the US, and bone dry when it comes from the Alsace region of France. Great to sip, or with lunch, this spicy white deserves your attention.
Pinot Blanc is up and coming. Its dry crisp style, often with no aftertaste, is a real crowd pleaser, and appropriate with a wide style of foods. Alsace, France is the unquestionable home of this grape with a good variety of choices in the under $10 range. The domestic versions may be more expensive, but are worth experimenting with.
Why Cheaper Wines are not Always a Bargain
When a label states the grape variety, it must be between 75 to 100% of the stated variety (depending where in the world it is made). When that grape variety stated is Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or Chardonnay, economics plays a major role.
These grape varieties are the most popular, and their fruit the most expensive. In order to produce a well priced version of one of these varietals, corners must be cut.
Where blending with an unspecified grape is allowed (Primarily the US, especially CA) that grape is certain to be the cheapest one that the winemaker can find. Too often Thompson Seedless for white or Flame Tokay for reds. Yes, supermarket grapes.
Another, and even more common way to cut corners is press wine. The first juice from the grapes, that needs little to no urging is Free Run, subsequent pressings yield juice of lessening quality. By adding back in these press wines the winemaker can make a wine that is legally what is stated on the label, without being the quality generally associated with that grape variety.
In wines, as in life, if it seems too good to be true, it is not true.
What to order
In American and Australian wines avoid Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay (Merlot almost makes it in this list as well). Zinfandel (the real red stuff) and Syrah are good bets for red American wines. Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc for American whites. The same goes for Australian, except no Zinfandel , and they call Syrah: Shiraz. Pinot Noir is my favorite grape, alas it is difficult to grow and produce, so there are to many less than stunning examples available. If you love Pinot (like me) or you want to avail yourself of its fabulous food pairing qualities, look for a Central Coast of California (incl. Santa Maria, Edna and Santa Ynez Valleys as well as Santa Barbara County).
For French wines look towards the Rhone for reds, and Alsace or Loire for whites. Avoid Burgundy unless you are confident of the choices available. If you want a bottle of red Bordeaux but don't want the costly wines of the Medoc, look to St. Emilion and Pomerol. The newest trend in French wines are inexpensive Varietals such as Merlot and Viognier from the south. These 2 varieties, Merlot and Viognier are the best bets.
Italian wine is huge in its diversity, and yet an equally huge number of the whites are made from the grape Trebianno. Italian wine is best enjoyed light and young, full of life. If you want to save your pocketbook, avoid the trend of pricey Italian wines. If money is less of an issue for you, concentrate on the Super-Tuscan wines.
Spain is an ocean of well priced wine; however most of it is sold in bulk through out Europe. Rioja, both red and white has been on an upward spiral of quality. When you see one of these wines, chances are you will enjoy both the style and the price.
Champagne / Sparkling Wine is an area that the wine steward can easily get carried away, don't let him (or her). Watch out for the famous Dom Perignon and Cristal Champagnes. I will hear about it for saying this, but these 2 prestige wines are made in a quantity that makes it difficult to create a quality product (enough tact?). If you are in a spending mood, try Taittinger's Comte de Champagne instead of Dom Perignon and Charbaut Certificate (hard to find in many restaurants) instead of Cristal. If you really want the real thing, and money is no object, try Krug or Salon.In the less pricey range Taittinger is again a perennial favorite with La Francaise, but the hands down winner is Veuve Cliquot Yellow Label. In US sparkling Domaine Carneros (from Taittinger, again) and Roderer Estate (from the makers of Cristal) are good bets.
While far from a comprehensive list, this should give you a good direction to steer through any wine list.
What to do when the bottle comes
First make sure that the bottle is still sealed. In Europe and some European restaurants it is not uncommon for the wine to come open. Unless it is a very inexpensive wine, send it back and ask for a corked bottle. Next check the label to make sure it is what you ordered, pat particular attention to the vintage date and the vineyard if one was specified. If the vintage or vineyard is wrong, ask for the correct bottle. In the likely event they don't have the bottle you ordered, make sure you are happy with the price and selection before you approve the bottle; otherwise, reorder.
What to do with the cork
After you have gotten through the ordering, your wine is presented, and you are faced with another dilemma... what to do with the cork when it is placed in front of you. The answer is simple, at all costs, ignore it. It tells you nothing, the taste of wine tells you everything.
How to taste the wine, and what you are looking for
You survived the cork test, and the wine steward is eying you with expectation as the taste of wine is poured.
To start with look at it. Send it back if it is cloudy or full of particles (not just a few small pieces of cork or crystals from the cork [these crystals in white wine are not glass, and are harmless, and may even be a sign of quality]). If it is an old wine, it should have been (and now should be) decanted. If it was a young wine, it has problems. Even if the wine specifically says unfiltered on the label, this is not a license to poorly make wine. Try a different wine, not a different bottle.
If the wine is clear, move on to swirling the wine in the glass. To do this place two fingers on either side of the stem, on the base of the glass, and make small circles while the glass is on the table. Practice this at home with water, and you will slop (less) red wine out of your glass when it counts.
After the swirl, and while the wine is still moving, comes the sniff. Take a good whiff of the wine. Smelling wine is an art form, all you are looking for here is off odors. Watch out for these smells: Wet Cardboard, Vinegar, Wet Dog, Sour Milk, Cooking Cabbage or rubber. None of these are good. If the smell is slight, swirl the wine a few times and smell again. If the smell persists and is not too bad, taste the wine, if the wine tastes fine, tell the steward that the wine smell off ,and you would like to either send it back, or if he has time, he can try to decant it (quickly with lots of chugging) in the hopes it gets better. If the smell is strong, send it back.
Wet Cardboard is the most common off smell. It is a slightly moldy smell as well. It is hard to describe, but it means the wine is "corked". The is the result of a bad cork (due to the finishing process) and it happens to 1 out of 40 bottles or so. If this is the smell, another bottle of the same wine is likely to be fine.
Ok, it has gotten past your eyes and nose, now you can taste the wine. Truthfully if the wine has passed the first 2 tests, it is unlikely to taste bad.
If you don't like the taste of the wine and it: Tastes actually bad - send it back (unless you just brushed your teeth recently, try a bite of bread). Is a wine you choose on your own - write it off to experience, and hope it gets better. Is a wine the steward recommended - let the steward know at once before you drink any of the wine. If the steward does nothing to make good, don't go back to the restaurant.
Tasting Champagne and Sparkling Wines
Few wine stewards know this, and fewer still customers. You do not taste sparkling wines. The premise is that it either has bubbles or not. If you are poured a taste, casually inspect the wine to make sure it looks bubbly before you accept. Don't drink the wine if you want to look like you really know what you are doing, and if the steward has been snotty in any way, you may scoff at the fact a taste was offered. Above all else never pay for sparkling wine that is not served in a v shaped flute glass (especially avoid those flat glasses)
What about Breathing?
Breathing is a debatable practice, one that I don't subscribe to. No matter what side of the fence you fall on this one, few will argue that breathing is more likely to happen in the glass than in the bottle. If the wine has an off odor (or for some reason it is Italian) decanting may help the wine 'blow off' any bad odors, or just improve the wine.
What about Temperature?
White wine ice cold tastes like nothing. Unless it is a hugely powerful wine (like a Sauternes, dessert wine) keeping it too cold will ruin the wine. If you just really like ice cold wine (you are allowed to like anything at all) do yourself a favor, choose less expensive wines. Sparkling wine should be served cold, but avoid chilled glasses it makes the wine flat faster.
Watch out for how much wine is poured in your glass
You need to have room in your glass to swirl and enjoy the wine (except sparkling). Over filling the glass is the most common mistake a wait person or steward will make. Let them know if they go over the half way mark on the glass.
Reading Wine labels:
The typical wine label contains information that will tell you the:
1- Alcohol Content
2- Appellation or Growing Region
3- Bottle Volume
4- Name of Wine
5- Producer
6- Quality of Wine
7- Type of Wine
8- Variety
9- Vintage
1- Alcohol Content
Different standards abound from one country to the next when it comes to alcohol content. The United States requires a minimum level of 7% for table wine and a maximum of 14%. The percentage of alcohol must be put on the label but a small variance of up to 1.5% is acceptable. For sherry or port, the alcohol content is in the range of 17% to 20%.
2- Appellation or Growing Region
In the case of Old World wines from Europe, the wine's region of origin becomes its default name. This causes much confusion because, to those of us who drink wines from the New World, like the United States, Chile, South Africa, or Australia, the wine name is the grape variety (Shiraz, Zinfandel). If the wine region is held in high esteem, you are apt to find it on the label. But for this to be the case for American wine, 85% of the grapes must derive from certain appellations or American Viticultural Areas.
3- Bottle Volume
The standard is 750 millilitres or 1.5 litres. You can either find the volume on the label or at the base of the bottle itself.
4- Name of Wine
You got a sense of the protocol in the appellation description. In France, Italy and Spain, for example, the name and the region are one and the same. Take a look at France, for example; Beaujolais, Bordeaux and Champagne are all names of wines and appellations. It's simple really. Italy, with Chianti, and Spain, with Rioja, are in the same boat. So now you know that when you order a wine, with some notable exceptions (like Alsace in France or the Gros Manseng seen in the picture on the right), the name and the region of origin often have the same designation. Wines from the United States, South America, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are another matter. As aforementioned, the grapes get most of the credit, along with the vineyard. Gallo of Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon, for example.
5- Producer
If you know enough about wines, the producer can tell you more about the contents of the bottle than anything else. The more experience you have with wines, the more familiar you become with the quality being put out by the producers on the market. Now the name of a producer differs again by country. In France, it can be a Château in Bordeaux or a Domaine in Burgundy. Germany, Italy and Spain have Estates but again, the precise name is crucial because, in many instances, producers share surnames and quality can vary from one to the next. This is important to note when you navigate the vast landscape of German wine, for example.
6- Quality of Wine
Appellations or wine regions dole out their own rating systems that attempt to imply the quality of the wine to the consumer. They do sometimes make an appearance on the bottle label, but not always. Take Italy, which has several levels of quality, from Vino da Tavola to Denominazione di Origine Controllata. Similarly, Grand Cru is the best quality rating from the Bordeaux wine region in France. While a high ranking often translates into a finer product, you can find plenty of gems among lower-rated wines. You just need to conduct a thorough investigation, taste many and read up on wines from time to time.
7- Type of Wine
This piece of information never gives the reader any major revelations about the contents of the wine. For the most part, you are likely to get some very basic terms like "white table wine" or "dry red wine." This is not necessarily a reflection of the quality, however. Keep in mind that, because wines in the United States must contain at minimum ¾ of one grape variety, it cannot otherwise use the grape name on the label. This is where nondescript and bland titles like "white wine" fill in for a more descriptive and sexier name. However, it is the taste that counts at the end of the day and not the name. So no need to put too much stock in the type.
8- Variety
Variety is the type of grape the wine was made with, otherwise known as varietal content. There may be some confusion here because wines from France and Italy do not divulge this information. Regions in those two nations must make wine from traditional grape types: Cabernet Sauvignon in Bordeaux and Sangiovese in Chianti, for example. While most nations permit the use of outside varietals in a blend, it cannot be more than 15% of the wine (25% in the United States).
9- Vintage
The vintage denotes the year of harvest, not the year when the wine was put into bottles. This can be an important gauge of quality and certainly, the components that merge to give wine distinctive characteristics over time. The majority of laws from country to country stipulate that at least 85% of the wine must derive from grapes harvested in the year of the vintage. The rest can be a blend of wine from other years.
WINE and AGING
Perhaps you've had the chance to taste one of the world's great red wines when it was fully mature. If so, it's an experience you remember for many years. Mature wines from outstanding vintages are the stuff of legends and provide tangible ties to distant summers and harvests.
Most Wines Are Not Designed for the Long Haul
In reality, only a tiny portion, some 5%, of the world's wines are actually better after a couple years in the cellar. Even fewer can improve for 10 or more years. Most wines, both red and white, do not have the stuffing it takes to improve over time, but they can offer value and are perfect for everyday drinking.
The Rewards of Maturity: Bouquet and Texture
The hallmarks of well-aged wines are bouquet and texture.
A young wine's fruity aromas and flavors come mainly from the grapes. As the wine matures, these vibrant primary fruit flavors slowly evolve, gaining dark, earthy and leathery notes called "bottle bouquet" or simply "bouquet."
Over time, a wine's texture also evolves. The wine feels smoother and silkier in your mouth. This happens when firm or rough tannins soften and fall out of the wine as sediment.
WHEN IS A WINE READY TO DRINK?
A wine at its peak still has some youthful fruit flavors as well as the more subtle and complex aromas and flavors of maturity. The mature wine's texture will be smoother and the wine will seem more delicate and focused. The finish may also seem longer.
Finally, the remaining fruit fades and the wine declines, turning amber-brown. Acidity and tannins dominate and the wine can be described as dried out, over the hill or dead.
Picking the Peak
One responsibility of professional wine tasters is to estimate the length of time it will take a wine to develop bottle bouquet and how long the wine might continue to improve.
These estimates are made on the basis of experience and can take some of the guesswork out of determining when to drink a wine.
As a rule of thumb, a mature wine will remain at its peak for about the same length of time required to achieve its peak. For example, if a wine takes 5-10 years to peak, it will stay at that plateau for another 5-10 years.
Personal Preference
Finally, personal taste, which is infinitely variable, is the key determinant of when a wine is at its best. Some people like the fruity freshness of young wines, while others prefer the darker complexity of older wines.
Where along the curve of a wine's evolution you prefer to drink your wines is a question only you can answer, based on your own experience.
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