Wine Facts

Grape varietals and their characteristics:

Sauvignon Blanc - Sauvignon Blanc is a white wine best known for its grassy, herbal flavors. Sauvignon Blanc is also called Fume Blanc, and is a popular choice for fish and shellfish dishes.

Pinot Gris (Pinot Grigio) - The low acidity of this white varietal helps produce rich, lightly perfumed wines that are often more colorful than other whites. The best ones have pear and spice-cake flavors.

Chardonnay - Chardonnay is a white wine which can range from clean and crisp with a hint of varietal flavor to rich and complex oak-aged wines. Chardonnay typically balances fruit, acidity and texture.  This varietal goes well with everything from fish and poultry to cheeses, spicy foods and nut sauces.

Muscat - The white Muscat grape produces spicy, floral wines that often do something most other wines don't: they actually taste like grapes. Muscats can range from very dry and fresh to sweet and syrupy. This varietal is often served with puddings and chocolate desserts.

Gewurztraminer - Gewurztraminer is a white wine that produces distinctive wines rich in spicy aromas and full flavors, ranging from dry to sweet. Smells and flavors of litchi nuts, gingerbread, vanilla, grapefruit, and honeysuckle come out of this varietal.  It is often a popular choice for Asian cuisines and pork-based sausages.

Riesling - Rieslings are white wines known for their floral perfume. Depending on where they're made, they can be crisp and bone-dry, full-bodied and spicy or luscious and sweet. The flavor is often of peaches, apricots, honey, and apples and pairs well with duck, pork, and roast vegetables.

Champagne/Sparkling Wine - These wines are made effervescent in the wine-making process. Champagnes and sparkling wines range in style from very dry (Natural), dry (brut) and slightly sweet (extra Dry) to sweet (sec and Demi-Sec). Many sparkling wines are also identified as Blanc de Blancs (wines made from white grapes) or Blanc de Noirs (wines produced from red grapes).

Pinot Noir - Pinot Noir is a red wine of light to medium body and delicate, smooth, rich complexity with earthy aromas.  They are less tannic than a cabernet sauvignon or a merlot.  Pinot Noirs exude the flavor of baked cherries, plums, mushrooms, cedar, cigars, and chocolate.

Zinfandel – Primarily thought of as a Californian varietal (though recently proven to have originated from vineyards in Croatia), Zinfandel is a red wine with light to full body and berry-like or spicy flavors. The Zinfandel grape is also widely used in the popular off-dry blush wine known as White Zinfandel. The Red Zinfandel pairs well with moderately spicy meat dishes and casseroles. 

Syrah (Shiraz) - Syrah can produce monumental red wines with strong tannins and complex combinations of flavors including berry, plum and smoke. It's known as Shiraz mainly in Australia and South Africa.

Petite Sirah - Petite Sirahs are red wines with firm, robust tannic tastes, often with peppery flavors. Petite Sirahs may complement meals with rich meats.

Merlot - Merlot is a red wine with medium to full body and herbaceous flavors. Merlot is typically softer in taste than Cabernet Sauvignon.  It’s flavors and aromas include blackberry, baked cherries, plums, chocolate, and mocha.

Cabernet Sauvignon - Cabernet Sauvignon is a red wine known for its depth of flavor, aroma and ability to age. It is full-bodied and intense, with cherry- currant and sometimes herbal flavors. Cabernet Sauvignon may have noticeable tannins.

Commonly Asked Questions

What is the ideal temperature for wine?
Whites: chilled (45-55 degrees F) for a few hours in the refrigerator.
Reds: slightly cooler than room temperature (about 65 degrees); Younger fruity reds benefit from chilling.
Sparkling Wine: thoroughly chilled; refrigerate several hours or the night before serving.
Dessert Wine: room temperature.
Chilling tones down the sweetness of wine. If a red wine becomes too warm, it may lose some of its fruity flavor.

Should I ever use a decanter for my wines?
A decanter is used mainly to remove sediment from older red wines.  Also, it can be used to open up young red wines.  Otherwise, wine will “breathe” enough in your glass and decanting is not necessary.

What is the purpose of swirling wine in my glass?
The purpose of swirling wine in the glass is to aerate the wine, allowing the aromas to escape for you to smell.

Fun Facts

In ancient Greece, a dinner host would take the first sip of wine to assure guests the wine was not poisoned, hence the phrase “drinking to one’s health.” “Toasting” started in ancient Rome when the Romans continued the Greek tradition but started dropping a piece of toasted bread into each wine glass to temper undesirable tastes or excessive acidity.

 A “cork-tease” is someone who constantly talks about the wine he or she will open but never does.

 Since wine tasting is essentially wine smelling, women tend to be better wine testers because women, particularly of reproductive ages, have a better sense of smell than men.

 An Italian study argues that women who drink two glasses of wine a day have better sex than those who don’t drink at all.

Red wines are red because fermentation extracts color from the grape skins. White wines are not fermented with the skins present.

Early Roman women were forbidden to drink wine, and a husband who found his wife drinking was at liberty to kill her. Divorce on the same grounds was last recorded in Rome in 194 B.C.

 Red wines are red because fermentation extracts color from the grape skins. White wines are not fermented with the skins present.

 The world’s oldest bottle of wine dates back to A.D. 325 and was found near the town of Speyer, Germany, inside one of two Roman sarcophaguses. It is on display at the town's Historisches Museum der Pfalz.

 There is increasing scientific evidence that moderate, regular wine drinking can reduce the risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and gum disease.

Red wine, typically more than white wine, has antioxidant properties and contains resveratrol, which seems to be important in the cardio-protective effects of wine.

California, New York, and Florida lead the United States in wine consumption.

California is the fourth-largest wine producer in the world, after France, Italy, and Spain.

Romans discovered that mixing lead with wine not only helped preserve wine, but also gave it a sweet taste and succulent texture. Chronic lead poisoning has often been cited as one of the causes of the decline of Rome.

A wine that tastes watery is said to taste “dilute.” It may have been made from grapes picked during a rainstorm.

The worst place to store wine is usually in the kitchen because it is typically too warm to store wine safely. Refrigerators are not satisfactory for storing wine either. Even at their warmest setting, they’re too cold.

   

References:

http://facts.randomhistory.com/2009/08/21_wine.html

http://www.800wine.com/winefacts.cfm

Joseph, Robert and Margaret Rand. 2000. Kiss: Guide to Wine. New York, NY: Dorling Kindersley.

Miller, Tracy. “Women Who Drink Two Glasses of Wine a Day Have Better Sex Than Non-Drinkers.” August 6, 2009. Accessed: August 15, 2009.

Pellechia, Thomas. 2006. Wine: the 8000 Year-Old Story of the Wine Trade. New York, NY: Thunder’s Mouth Press.

Sbrocco, Leslie. 2003. Wine for Women: A Guide to Buying, Pairing, and Sharing Wine. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

ⁱSommers, Brian J. 2008. The Geography of Wine: How Landscapes, Cultures, Terroir, and the Weather Make a Good Drop. London, UK: Plume.