How To Pick A Top Quality Wine
Selecting a good wine is fairly easy provided you know what to look for.
Obviously the choice of a specific brand, type and year of wine is a question of individual taste. Nevertheless, setting aside the question of price, there are some broad principles on which there is agreement.
Fortunatey the increase in the number of of vineyards around the world and of websites featuring wine means that the availability of wine is quite simple today. If you live in Florida or Berlin you can order a New Zealand Syrah not carried by a local wine merchant as simply as anybody living in Wellington.
Setting aside the matter of pairing specific wines with specific foods, are you looking for a red or a white wine? Some believe that Madeira is far too heavy while others find that a German Riesling is too dry. A lot of the easily available wines are intended to be consumed a quite short time after they are purchased, but wine drinkers who are looking to drink only the best wine must be patient. A Cabernet Sauvignon would without doubt be much better after it has aged.
Chardonnay from a cool climate, such as those fermented from grapes grown in Canada, will interest those people who prefer a young wine with prominent acidity and also to those people who wish to experience it's honey and nut character that comes with aging.
It may also be of assistance to categorize wines by their class. Class 1 wines, generally labeled as 'Red Table Wine' or 'Light Wine' will have an alcohol content of between 7% and 14% when measured by volume. Wines in Class 7, by contrast, will have an alcohol content of at least 15% when calculated by volume. These wines have normally had Brandy added to then and perhaps flavored with herbs with those wines having the greatest concentration being considered as 'fortified'.
Read the label for a declaration of the amount of sulfites in a wine. It is common practice to add sulphur during the winemaking process to prevent the growth of unwanted organisms, but some vineyards introduce more than many individuals would wish. Sulphur dioxide is occasionally also sprayed onto the grapes themselves to reduce pests and can find its way into the skin. A small percentage of people are sensitive to sulfites and will experience an allergic reaction. Concentrations that are lower than 10 parts per million are normally okay for most wine drinkers.
If you are tasting a wine you should begin by cooling it to the correct temperature of around 65F (18C) for reds and 52F (11C) in the case of white wine and use a glass with a thin rim that is free of dust.
Pour no more than approximately one third of a glass and take your glass by the stem to avoid getting fingerprints on the rim and heating the bowl.
What you are looking for is a clarity of color when you are viewing a wine against a white background with a wine like a Pinot Noir having a light ruby color and a Cabernet Sauvignon being a darker violet color. Wines which are made from grapes grown in a hot summer and dry fall will be darker in color than those wines made during a cool summer and wet fall.
The final step is to spin the wine gently around coating the sides of the glass and let your nose sample its aroma before tasting it.
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