Nuggets of Knowledge, or Nonsense?
Andrew Bluett-Duncan
Director
Andi Healey
Web Manager
Out of the wrong glasses!
It's Andi Healey here, Art of Living's Website Development Manager (more often referred to as Andrew's Mancunian typesetter). As Andrew is away this week, on his annual model railway Summer Retreat, I thought I'd step into the breach.
As well as doing what I do at Art of Living, I also oversee the website of our sister company, The Riedel Shop and as Andrew is away, I thought I'd take advantage of his absence over there and write about rosé wine.
He's (with tongue firmly in cheek, I'm sure) convinced that only me and a few other eccentrics drink rosé and that my insistent praise of it is a peculiar misfire in my wine addled brain.
My article is here, if you're interested.
With the above in mind, you will probably be unsurprised to hear that in my working (and social) life I talk about wine..... a lot.
Like many things that arouse our passion and devotion (music, sport, fashion), the "language of wine" can seem impenetrable and intimidating to a newbie.
And, as well as learning the lingo, you have to sort the nuggets of knowledge from the nonsense.
If something is repeated often enough then it becomes the "truth" and the wine world is full of myths and misconceptions that have evolved, over time, to become accepted as fact.
Lets debunk half a dozen or so! (Don't worry, it's not all about Riedel glasses).
1. Open the bottle, to let it breathe.
Letting wine “breathe” for a few hours improves it’s softness and palatability, however the opening in the top of a wine bottle is too small of an air passage to have any significant effect on increasing the wine’s flavour.
Allowing a bottle to breathe is a great idea in theory, but ineffective if only the top of the bottle is exposed to the air. One of the best analogies I’ve found for this myth is “Expecting a wine to breathe by popping the cork is like expecting a weary traveller to feel refreshed after a long flight by simply opening the aeroplane’s door.”
You need to let the wine get out and stretch it’s legs!
Decant, decant, decant.
2. Wine always gets better with age.
Much of the time, that's simply not true, since 90% of wines are made to be consumed within a year or two of their release.
When you hear about wine auctions where exquisite old wines are sold for astronomical sums of money, it’s easy to assume that all wine gets better with age.
In reality, only a small number of wines benefit from ageing. These tend to be of exceptional quality and often have notably high levels of tannins and/or acidity, as these elements help to preserve wine.
3. Red wine should never be chilled.
One of the first things most novice wine drinkers hear is “only keep white or sparkling wines in the fridge” and “reds should be always served at room temperature”.
Although, generally, red wine characteristics are best expressed at warmer temperatures than whites, there are some exceptions. The best red wines to try chilled are usually light to medium bodied, with low levels of tannins, such as wines from Beaujolais and those made from the Pinot Noir grape.
Don’t be afraid to try experimenting!
Also, “room temperature” is probably cooler than you think.
The “room temperature” myth originates from the days before central heating, when wine was usually stored in the cellar, which was often underground where the temperature stayed at 12˚C to 14˚C. This was the perfect cellaring temperature, because it preserved the wine and allowed it to mature slowly.
Our living and dining rooms are now generally much warmer than this, often around 21˚C to 22˚C.
Ideal serving temperatures for red wines range from 13˚C-18˚C, so experts now recommend that red wines are put in the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes prior to serving.
Doing so might mean we serve the first glass slightly chilled, which makes it easy to drink, but we can be sure the second glass will be at the ideal temperature.
4. A silver spoon will keep your fizz fresh.
We all know someone who puts a metal spoon or a fork inside an unfinished bottle of sparkling wine before putting it in the fridge, thinking it keeps the wine fizzy for longer.
The rationale behind this sounds very convincing. The theory goes - as a good conductor, the metal spoon is quickly chilled in the fridge, the cold metal then emits cooler air around it, supposedly making it more difficult for the gas to escape from the bottle.
However, this has been tested by many respectable researchers and it’s been found ineffective.
If you don’t finish a bottle of sparkling wine in one sitting, you’re better off buying a good sparkling wine stopper.
5. Screwcap equals low-quality wine, good wine will have a cork.
There are outstanding quality wines bottled under both corks and screwcaps.
Screwcaps have now become mainstream in numerous wine-producing countries, particularly in the ‘New World’ such as Australia and New Zealand.
They’re popular among wine drinkers as they’re easier to open and store, and preferred by many winemakers and importers as there is no danger of a bad cork contaminating the wine.
First introduced in the early 1970’s, screwcap technology is constantly improving, and if you look around you will find wines at all quality levels and most price points sealed with a screwcap.
6. Great wines have great “legs”
You know those clinging dribbles of wine that ooze down the inside of the glass once you’ve swirled? They’re called “legs”, or “tears of the wine” if you’re French, and some believe their appearance indicates the quality of the wine.
This is not the case, in reality, they can give you a clue as to the wine’s alcoholic strength, colour intensity or sugar content, but not its quality.
The higher the alcohol, the fatter the legs.
7. Wine quality is objectively measurable.
If human beings were machines, maybe a person could taste a wine and, with accuracy, give a quality ranking to that wine. As it is, however, the equipment we have to work with (our noses, mouths and brains) is personal and varies in performance from one individual to the next. The experience of wine is always subjective, and the quality “score” given to a wine is, therefore, always subjective.
Everything about the wine-tasting experience influences your subjective impression of a wine's taste. For example, the weather, your mood, and the ambiance of the situation all affect your reaction to a wine.
Not only that, but one bottle of a wine can be subtly different from another bottle of the same wine, and, as we know, the same wine in a different glass can taste very different.
Which brings me to my last myth.
8. Wine does not travel.
I've heard countless tales of people who have splashed their cash, in order to bring home cases of the exquisite rosé that they sipped on a sun lounger, whilst being fanned by palm leaves on a tropical beach … but when they arrive home, they complain that the wine tastes different and must have spoiled during their return.
What a waste, they say, and it really is!
This myth would be more accurate if it were actually "your taste buds do not travel".
The truth is that context is everything when it comes to your senses; mood and environment massively manipulate our perception of the taste of wine.
So, my advice to you is this: drink up whilst on holiday, and leave the remaining bottles for the next lucky travellers.
You never know, it could be me!
Stay safe and be kind to each other.
Andi
Andi Healey
Website Development Manager
My Mancunian typesetter was kind enough to send me this to read in advance, whilst I was slaving over a hot soldering iron, or was I sipping an unexceptional Bordeaux….I’m not sure I recall.
What does strike me is that he, on more than one occasion, has commented on the length of my emails…….
Warm regards and a pleasant weekend to you from sunny Missenden.
Andrew
Andrew Bluett-Duncan
Director
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