Tag: Wine

Spanish Wine – Rioja

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In the competitive wine market, Spanish wines offer both quality and values. Its red wines are intense and fruity, while its white and rosé wines enjoy the crispness, refreshing acidity and minerals that are characterful.

Of the many and confusing wine producing regions, Rioja DOC- DOC is a quality wine classification – made its fame long before all other regions in the modern days. At any wine store with Spanish wines, you would be able to spot at least a few Riojas.

What makes it the first love for many wine drinkers when it comes to Spanish red wines?

Is it its fruit aromas? Is it the successful marketing campaign worldwide? Is it the quality of the wine? The answer is yes. It is the combined factors that bring out the result benefiting both the Rioja trade and the wine lovers everywhere.

Rioja is more known for its red than white wines. After all, more than 75% of its production is red wine. The rest of the Rioja wines are rosés and white wines. One of the current trends is to make single vineyard Rioja from Tempranillo grape, the number one red grape in Spain.

Tempranillo in Spanish means “the little early one”, indicating its early-ripen quality in the vineyard. Because it ripens early in the hot climate, the grape naturally contains higher amount of sugar, which with fermentation becomes higher alcohol. All great wines begin in the vineyard. In superior winemaking of lesser cellar manipulation, the individual characteristics of the grape determine the style and quality of the wine. Thus the knowledge of the wine grape becomes very helpful for a wine lover. The other red wine grapes for Rioja are Garnacha (Grenache in French), Mazuelo and Graciano.

The modern Rioja expressions are the strawberry (from Tempranillo), a jammy quality, some vanilla, good concentration. The interplay of high alcohol and abundant fruit on the palate creates the impression of sweetness, but this is definitely not a sweet wine. Depending on the aging time in the oak, Riojas could be Crianza, Reserva or Gran Reserva. With the aged wines, the aroma and flavor would naturally start to include savory, meaty notes, in addition to the youthful fruit.

Does all the wine talk make you thirsty? If you have not tried any Spanish wine, it is time to get up and close with it, starting with a Rioja.

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How to Enjoy Wine

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The question may seem absurd to some! You just drink it. Well, yes that the basic idea of course. You find a wine you like and then drink it, but let’s delve a little deeper.

First of all, what makes a good wine, a wine you’ll be more likely to enjoy? It’s very simple: it you like it, it’s good. If you love it, it’s great. Wine is about enjoyment. Scrap notions of imagine or popularity or other nonsense. And although prices of the world’s most famous wines like Chateau Latour and Lafite have skyrocketed out of range of all but the rich, the availability of really good enjoyable wine for under 10 or 20 dollars a bottle has also skyrocketed!

If you try a wine and don’t enjoy it at first, don’t give up yet. It may need some time to breathe, to loosen up since the bottle was open. Many bottles may soften and blossom with a little time in your glass. Also a wine may taste totally different when you have it with food, and yes, often much better.

Keep in mind that occasional bottles of wine may be “off” or bad.” If it tastes bad, the bottle may be bad. Wine doesn’t like hot weather so it may have been literally cooked during shipment or storage or it may have been contaminated by the cork.

When I first open a bottle and pour a glass, I usually first look at it in the glass, then smell it, and have a taste. Good wine looks good, smells good, and taste good. Don’t be surprised if the tastes are unexpected or surprising, only pay attention to whether you enjoy the wine or not. Sometimes it may take a glass or two to be sure, especially with the myriad of wine tastes and aromas that are out there, ranging from earth and dirt to fruit to minerals and everything in between.

It’s simple to find wine you enjoy. Feel free to experiment with different wines as well as drinking them with different foods. There are no rules. Just open a bottle and enjoy.

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Storing Red Wine in Wine Bottle Refrigerators

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When you think of wine bottle refrigerators, chances are, you think of storing white wine there. In North America, most people are accustomed to serving red wine at room temperature and white wine chilled. This is actually not necessarily the best way to go.
 
You see, red wine is meant to be served at room temperature . . . but not the room temperature that we are accustomed to. Consider that for centuries, wine was stored in wine cellars, which were almost always underground. If they were not built below the earth, then they were in heavily walled rooms without windows, providing a cooler “room temperature”.
 
These days, our homes are fairly warm and not really suitable for wine storage. Since the vast majority of people don’t own a wine cellar, we need to improvise. Wine bottle refrigerators offer a carefully controlled climate that you decide. It will help the wine mature correctly and provide better flavor, since the temperature is just right and these refrigerators are built to eliminate the harmful vibrations that most kitchen fridges have.
 
Not everyone will need a wine refrigerator, of course. If you are someone who rarely drinks wine, then it probably isn’t necessary. However, if you drink or serve wine on a regular basis, at least twice a month, you should definitely consider investing in one.
 
Your red wine will have a fuller body to it, better flavor and more complex components when stored at the correct temperature. Every wine expert knows that your red wine should not be kept at the average room temp, but at around 55-60°F / 12.7-15.5°C. This mimics the coolness of a wine cellar where your wine would be allowed to mature at a gentle rate.
 
Most people don’t realize just how bad it is for their wine to be kept in the kitchen fridge or pantry. If you plan to use it for cooking, go ahead and do that, but if you want to really get the most out of your evening cup, then you need to take a little better care. Whether your wine is the finest Italy has to offer, a Chilean brand or something you whipped up yourself, it is vital that it be stored correctly.
 
There’s no reason to ruin a great bottle of red wine. If you don’t have an adequate place to store your wine, it is time to consider investing in a wine bottle refrigerator that will allow you to maintain those bottles at the proper temperature in a cool, dark environment.

Wine Labels

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Generally, Wine labels are used to a certain style of a bottle wine. Notwithstanding the design abilities of the artist in question, every label is legally required to include certain information. Understanding what that information is telling you can be the key to picking a good bottle of wine and avoiding a bad one.

The first thing you are going to see is the name of the winery. There really isn’t much to it other than the creativity of the winery when it came up with a name when it first started. That being said, watch out for names that are close to something that might also be seen as a bit of a misrepresentation.

The next information to be provided should be the vintage of the wine in question. The vintage is simply a reference to the year the grapes were grown. Ah, but this doesn’t mean that 100 percent of the wine in the bottle comes from grapes grown in the year indicated. A winery in an AVA region can have 5 percent filler grapes, while a lesser appellation can have up to 15 percent. That’s rather sizeable and suggests that AVA region wineries produce higher quality wines.

The next indication on the label should be the type of wine. A label might read “Chardonnay” for instance. As with the vintage, this does not mean 100 percent of the wine in the bottle is the indicated type. Varietal wines must have 75 of the type indicated, but the percentage drops with other wine variations.

The label may next indicate a specific vineyard. Importantly, you want to look for the actual word “vineyard”. Why? This indicates that at least 95 percent of the grapes used for the wine in the bottle came from the vineyard. Wines without vineyard on the label have no such requirement and can be severely mixed.

The final bit of information you may see on the label is “contains sulfites”. This is a government required warning that must be on the label if sulfites are indeed present. Sulfites are a byproduct of the wine production process. A very small number of people can be allergic to them, but massively so. Thus the reason for the warning.

Understanding how to read wine labels is important because it allows you to grasp what you are really buying. Only then can you really choose a wine that meets your preferences.

 

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I Love Organic Wine – A South African Cabernet Sauvignon

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The Sonop Wine Farm is located in Paarl, South Africa about sixty kilometers (less than forty miles) northeast of Capetown, wine country that produces some mighty fine red wines. This organic Cabernet Sauvignon wine also has the advantage of being Fair Trade which means that the producers and workers are paid a living wage. So you can drink this wine with a clear conscience knowing that both the environment and the people involved its production have been respected. As long as we’re on the subject, make sure to enjoy this wine in moderation so that nobody is harmed. What about the wine itself?

OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.

Wine Reviewed

Sonop Organic Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 13.5% alcohol about $ 12.50

Let’s start by quoting the marketing materials.

Description: An excellent value, this certified-organic Cab is also one of a growing number of wines that are certified as Fair Trade. Such a certification guarantees that producers and workers are paid a living wage and that grapes are grown using environmentally conscientious practices. This medium-bodied Cab delivers cassis and typical cigar box aromas, ripe fruit flavours and fairly soft tannins. Pair it with pasta in a meat sauce. Our Quality Assurance Laboratory has determined that this wine contains 22 mg/L of free sulphur. And now for my review.

The first sips revealed a wine that was mildly sweet with soft tannins. It had good length and light acidity. The initial food pairing consisted of slow-cooked beef stew and potatoes with a side of okra in a sauce of garlic, onions, and crushed tomatoes. The wine’s intensity and fruit stepped up to the meat. The okra dish brought out the darkness of the fruit. I added green jalapeno pepper sauce to the meat and got some chocolate and tobacco.

The second pairing involved chicken and potatoes baked in a commercial honey and garlic barbecue sauce. The Cab tasted of dark fruit. It was mouth-filling and yet light. There was a tiny bit of sweetness. The lingering acidity did a good job of cutting the grease.

The final food pairing was with whole-wheat lasagna noodles baked with ground beef, peas, and tomato salsa. This lasagna had no cheese. The wine was round. It tasted of dark cherries with soft tannins and a tobacco finish. I added extra salsa (mild, not spicy) and the tobacco finish intensified. The length was good.

Two cheese pairings marked the end of the bottle. In the presence of sheep’s milk feta cheese the Cab was long and chewy. But brick cheese managed to weaken the wine somewhat.

Final verdict. This wine was quite good and the price is right. I would buy this wine again. If you want an organic wine, this is a good deal. And it’s even better when you consider that it is Fair Trade as well. Even if you aren’t interested in these factors, this Cabernet Sauvignon offers a fine wine for the price.

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