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Wine 101: The Beginners Guide to Wine
- wawayanda 4y agoClever
- mylons 4y agowhich part is clever
- stjohnswarts 4y agoThey're... learning
- diego_moita 4y agoThe thing I never understand about wine and no introduction ever explains is what do people mean with those names they use to describe it's taste: "dry", "body", "mature", "grassy", etc.
- BrentOzar 4y agoDry = not sweet. Not bitter - bitter is bad - but just not sweet. Body = thickness, aka mouthfeel, aka strength of flavor and texture. (I’m simplifying here.) Mature = complex. Simple wines that can be opened while young are usually straightforward in the same way that soda is sweet.
- pwarner 4y agoIt can be daunting to learn the vocabulary of any domain, wine included. It's even trickier because you are learning the words to describe flavors, and perception of flavors vary. But there are totally resources. If you want to go in deep, I suggest https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/the-everyday-guide-to-wine https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/the-everyday-guide-t...
- InCityDreams 4y ago>what do people mean with those names they use to describe it's taste: "dry", "body", "mature", "grassy", etc. I always thought it was all pretentious claptrap, until a bar owner gave me a glass of 'wine from where I'm from". Wow! My description? "Dry, full-bodied, heavy", then, there where the _several aftertastes is how I'd describe it, and i later bought several bottles. As a dark-beer drinker i was knocked out by this stuff, and did (finally) understand how some descriptions can be applied. I've tried a few different wines in a few different bars since, and the vast majority have been a very easy "light, fruity....and shite".
- romeoblade 4y agoWhat was the wine he gave you? Always looking for new ones to try!
- nerdponx 4y agoYou might enjoy Oz and James' Big Wine Adventure, wherein James May learns exactly what you are asking about, while on a very entertaining road trip with a wine expert (about whom I will not pretend I know anything else). Look up "Oz and James" on YouTube and you'll probably find a few complete episode uploads, if not the whole series.
- UncleMeat 4y agoImagine you were asked to describe the flavors of a steak. Could you do it precisely? Would you have to use words that didn't quite fit? But because we never ask people to describe what a steak tastes like, we don't notice this. Instead we conclude that only wine is described in this circuitous way when actually this is just how we'd have to describe basically all taste experiences. We are trying to describe a wine but we don't have words that really fit these particular senses. So we develop a jargon that is at least largely consistent across the ecosystem so when somebody describes a wine as "high minerality" you understand if you've tasted other wines also described this way. The fact that a wine isn't actually "dry" in a literal sense (it is almost entirely water, after all) doesn't matter once you've got a bit of experience matching the jargon to prior experiences. Next time somebody tells you a wine is "high tannin" or "fruit-forward" or "thin", ask what dimension they are talking about here and try to remember it. Next time somebody says this you'll be able to predict what the wine will be like or you'll know to ask a professional for wines that match the particular things you like.
- chondl 4y agoI was hoping this would be about printing barcode labels under Wine: https://www.seagullscientific.com/software/ https://www.seagullscientific.com/software/
- sys_64738 4y agoThis isn't WINE as in Wine Is Not an Emulator.
- throwawaysleep 4y agoIronic to have a completely different Wine 101 on the homepage at the same time.
- throw7 4y agoThe article says whites have their skins removed... Why are the skins of white grapes removed before fermentation? Are there whites that don't have the skins removed?
- makrelmad 4y agoFermenting white grapes with their skins is how orange wine is made. The skins on white grapes actually impart a very different experience to the wine. Do remember that it's a spectrum; winemakers can still have some degree of skin contact in a white wine, so it could also fall outside either of the two categories.
- throw7 4y agoAh. I'd never heard of orange wines. It looks popular/originating in eastern europe. I will have to try them.
- nerdponx 4y agoOrange wines are also often "natural" wines, using entirely wild yeast and no added preservatives. Very much worth getting some, and it's not even that expensive. Apparently it's traditional in Georgia (the country, not the US state) and that's also cool because I otherwise never get to interact with anything from that part of the world.
- jfengel 4y agoYes, some "blanc de blancs", including some champagnes. It adds tannins, which are usually added by aging in oak instead. I don't know why the article would say it never happens, but it's not usual.
- tgamma 4y agoYou can actually vinify red grapes into white wine by separating the pomace from the must early enough after pressing the grapes. The red pigments are located in the skins of the grapes, so if you do this early, they won’t tranfer into the juice. A white wine made in this fashion is called blanc de noirs („white from blacks“). If you let must macerate without removing the pomace the red color and a lot of tannins will transfer over and you get red wine. As you usually don’t want a lot of tannins in white wine you separate the pomace from the must as well, even if you use white grapes (but of course you could let it macerate on the skins, but then you end up with orange wine). White wine made from white grapes without maceration on the skins is called blanc de blancs.
- imglorp 4y agoIt bears pointing out there are skeptics around the entire concept of wine tasting: "even trained, professional palates are terrible at judging wine"[1] let alone everybody else. My takeaway is drink whatever you enjoy and ignore the price, the label, and the snobs. 1. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-tasting-junk-science-analysis https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-ta...
- dllthomas 4y agoMost of us can't afford to ignore the price!
- brewdad 4y agoIt's less ignore the price than understand that, like most luxury goods, higher price doesn't necessarily mean better. Any wine under $10 is going to be basic, get you tipsy stuff that, hopefully, isn't offensive to your palate. There are a lot of really good wines in the $15-25 range that represent what most people should be drinking most of the time. By the time you reach $40+, you are paying for marketing or very subtle differences in quality that most drinkers won't appreciate, especially outside of a very controlled environment of temperature and food pairings. *all prices US and may vary by your specific location and wine shop.
- cycrutchfield 4y agoThis is somewhat of a simplification. The wine $40+ is also likely to mature into something more interesting over time, which the $15 wine likely will not. You are partly paying for future appreciation in quality. Of course the vast majority of wine drinkers just guzzle the bottle as soon as they come home from the store, so I can see why one might come to the conclusion that wine $40+ isn’t worth the price.
- cycrutchfield 4y agoIt bears pointing out that all such studies that have been conducted have super questionable methodologies and therefore questionable conclusions. There is a strong publication bias for surprising conclusions like “all wine experts are frauds” and essentially no bias for publishing something mundane like “people who train explicitly for blind tasting are… actually good at blind tasting”. My suggestion is go and participate in a blind tasting with an actual expert (a MW or Master Somm), and draw your own conclusions about whether it is a parlor trick or not.
- Jedd 4y ago> Wine is the oldest alcoholic beverage ever produced. Is that true? I thought it was mead, and a brief search suggests mead does still have a greater claim to that title. Some references call mead 'honey wine', but to me that feels like like calling vodka 'potato whiskey'. I accept the same yeasts can be used for wine and mead, but a) we don't know what yeasts they were using millenia ago, and anyway, b) yeasts will certainly influence the flavours, but generally don't determine the name of, the end product. For example, some historically champagne-only yeasts are a relatively recent favourite for beer makers.
- dllthomas 4y agoI've heard that there's sufficient yeasts on the skin of a typical grape that you can get fermentation without human intervention. If that's true, then for a sufficiently broad definition of "wine" and "produced" it seems to follow that wine probably predated mead. Deliberate - and particularly large scale - production by humans is a more interesting question, of course.
- Jedd 4y agoSure, and at that point you get into the definition of beverage (is a mouldy bunch of grapes in a forest a beverage, if there's no one to drink it?). I'd suggest that from a purely evolutionary perspective, honey bees predate grapes, and wild yeasts would certainly have turned an abandoned bee nest into an ad hoc mini-bar on more than one occasion during pre-modern history, but I feel I'm now veering way off from my challenge to that original claim.
- cjohnson318 4y agoIsn't honey antibiotic though? When I've made mead, I always added yeast to it to get it to ferment. I'm not sure an abandoned bee nest would ferment before it just turned into a papery, waxy, lump.
- dllthomas 4y ago
- throwaway892238 4y agoHow to select good wine, the idiot's guide: 1. If you see it in your local liquor or grocery store, it's mass-produced so it's probably crap 2. If it's <$20, it's probably crap 3. If it's less than 2 years old, it's probably crap (or needs time to mature) 4. If the label looks flashy, comical, amusing, or otherwise overly graphic, it's probably crap 5. Try lots of wine. Make a spreadsheet. Narrow down what kinds of wine you like over time. 6. Pick the grape you like. Reds: Merlot has a lot of body and alcohol. Cabernet Saugivnion is similar but more tannins. Both of them are mass-produced and often cheap and crappy, but can also be great. Zinfandel has a lot of body, is jammy with black fruit flavors. Pinot Noir is a lighter red with fewer tannins, but flavor and body can vary greatly. Syrah/Shiraz are full-bodied tannic reds. Grenache are a little sweeter and less acidic, when younger is more fruity, when older is richer-flavored. Gamay is medium-body, low-tannin, fruity. Tempranillo is medium-bodied high-alcohol. Nebbiolo is full-bodied, high-tannin, fruity/flowery & sometimes savory. Sangiovese is full-bodied, high-tannin, acidic, ages well. Pinotage is like a Pinot Noir left in a locker room. Carmenere is high-alcohol, high-tannin, spicy. Malbec is spicy & savory, and a majority of women tend to like it in my experience. Whites: Chardonnay is middle-of-the-road, and can either be super oaky or have no oak. Sauvignon Blanc is lighter and more fragrant, high-acid; Loire Valley and Napa Valley make good examples. Riesling and Gewurztraminer make dessert wines. Pinot Grigio has medium body and acidity, can sometimes taste like slightly acidic water. Verdicchio has high acid and citric flavors, can taste cheap. Chenin Blanc can be medium-body and slightly sweet and sometimes makes up cheap wines. Viognier are floral, high-acid, high-alcohol. Albarino is medium-body with fruit flavors but can be very bitter. Torrontes makes medium-body, high-alcohol, floral wines. 7. Sign up for a wine delivery thing with whatever coupons you can. Select wines based on flavors you like. Cancel it, then take their generous offers of discounts to order again. And again. And again. 8. If a wine nerd is excited about it, it might not be crap, but you'll probably hate it 9. If you try a wine and really like it, ignore everything above, buy lots of it.
- isitmadeofglass 4y ago> 1. If you see it in your local liquor or grocery store, it's mass-produced so it's probably crap All wine is mass produced. The only non mass produced wine you’ll ever find is hobbyists doing fermentations at home in the tens of liters, and while that’s a romantic concept those are surely all actual crap, or at best reach the level of “you know this doesn’t competely such, I can’t believe you made this yourself”
- dps 4y agoI've been making wine at home in California for the past few years. Finding grapes on Craigslist/via friends, picking them myself and fermenting/storing/bottling wine in my basement. It's great fun, and tastes pretty good too! I wrote up a guide for anyone who'd like to try here - https://wine.singleton.io/ https://wine.singleton.io/
- autoexec 4y agoNeeds a pronunciation guide.