Drinking Wines

Although the Chardonnay grape has its origins in France, the Chardonnays of California have carved out a niche of their own on the world scene.

Some of the most popular vino in the world is the white. These crisp, fruity vintages are refreshing ? usually served chilled, and pair well with a number of different foods. In the United States, Chardonnay is a particularly popular selection. Its light taste and subtle qualities are valued among many wine lovers. The Chardonnays of California are valued highly among wine drinkers in the US, and the many different vineyards that produce this wine all bottle unique wines.

Chardonnay is named for the village Chardonnay in France, and it is produced from a green-skinned grape that is believed to have first been bred there. It is bottled in several different countries throughout the world including France, Italy, Australia and the United States. It is the eight most commonly planted variety of grape in the world, and it’s the most popular vintage in Australia and New Zealand. In 2001, there were over 140,000 hectares of land throughout the world that were planted with the grapevines that produce the Chardonnay variety of grape.

The Chardonnays of California, like the Chardonnays that are produced in much of the world, are highly prized for their versatility. Depending on how the wine is fermented, different flavors can be brought out in the final product. The original vineyards in France that produced Chardonnay tended to produce a soft tasting variety with fruity and flowery notes. They shunned the idea of aging it in oak barrels, preferring to have theirs taste cleaner and pure. They also do not produce Chardonnay by the process of malolactic fermentation. As a result, French Chardonnay is more acidic.

In the US, however, and specifically in California, Chardonnay is aged in oak barrels, with the oak for these barrels coming from either in the US or France. It is this oak aging that sets the vintage apart as many drinkers prefer the aroma and flavor produced. California vineyards also use malolactic fermentation, which helps to produce a different flavor. US Chardonnay wines tend to have a different set of background notes than the French versions; these include a smoky taste and a caramel or vanilla flavor.

Chardonnays of California are an excellent bet for a clean tasting, crisp white. They pair well with seafood and other light tasting dishes, but it is also great when it is sipped on its own. Not as interesting as some whites, Chardonnay tends to appeal to a wider range of people than many other varieties.

Xavier Moldini is with http://www.wineriesforyou.com - a directory of wineries and wine articles.

The future of the Australian wine industry will be shaped by a group of innovative grapegrowers and winemakers who are busily experimenting with new varieties in new regions.

The phenomenal success of the industry in producing quality wine at competitive prices does not need recounting here. But this success has led some critics to brand Australian wine as boring. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A pioneering spirit has been sweeping the industry and this has resulted in a much wider range of winegrape varieties being used.

There are over a hundred winegrape varieties grown in Australia. In a recent book Varietal Wines, leading Australian wine writer James Halliday uses a classification of varieties into classic, second tier and Lesser varietals for both red and white. He identifies four classic whites (chardonnay, semillon, riesling and sauvignon blanc) and five classic reds (cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, merlot, shiraz and grenache).

The Australian wine industry is heavily dependent on these classic varieties. They are all French by the way; although there is merit in the argument that grenache can be regarded as a Spanish variety.

A supporting role is played by a cast thirteen white varieties and seventeen red varieties, second tier varietals in Halliday?s language.

For the rest there are about seventy varieties that are used by ten or less producers. Let?s call them the under-tens. They look like the also rans.

But this is the exciting part of the industry. These varieties are being used by people are the pioneers who are intent on leading the industry into new territory.

Some of the under-tens are survivors of an earlier age. Chasselas for example is now much less common than it was previously. Others have been introduced into Australia more recently from diverse European sources. Australians will soon be able to sample wine from such exotic varieties as Graciano (Spain), petit manseng France, lagrein (Italy) and Saperavi (Russia).

Yet another group of under-tens are of Australian origin. The Australian research body CSIRO has bred a few varieties to suit particular Australian viticultural niches. Cienna and tyrian are two such varieties

Two varieties, malian and shalistin have also emerged from a vignerons identifying and breeding from sports (mutations) of existing varieties.

Purists recoil in horror at this kaleidoscope of varietal diversity. But a closer analysis reveals that this diversity is a sign of a healthy dynamic industry. It is quite possible that the next success story in Australian wine will emerge from this group of under-tens.

If this seems a bit far-fetched, then look at what has happened to Viognier. In the late sixties the variety was virtually extinct, with just a few hectares in the Northern Rhone Valley. It is now seemingly ubiquitous, with plantings in other regions of France, California as well as in Australia. There are more a hundred winemakers using it Australia.

In November each year the diversity lovers have their day in the sun, both literally and figuratively. While Melbourne is preoccupied with horseracing the Australian Alternative Wine Varieties Show is held in Mildura, on the banks of the Murray River.

Growers and winemakers from throughout Australia and New Zealand will be showing of their products, sharing knowledge and experience as they plan to stretch the boundaries of Australian wine even further.

The end result will be an ever-widening choice for discerning winelovers.

About The Author

Darby Higgs is the founder of Vinodiversity an information resource about wines made from alternative grape varieites in Australia.

darby@vinodiversity.com

Tempranillo is the premium red wine grape variety from the Rioja region in Spain. It is now challenging Sangiovese as the up and coming star of the red varietal wine scene in Australia.

New plantings throughout Australian wine regions over the past five years are just coming into bearing. In fact on a percentage basis Tempranillo is growing in popularity more rapidly than any other variety.

What makes this variety so exciting? Well, it makes wines which have good colour and good fruit flavours along with low acid and low tannins. This adds up to an easy drinking style. The wine also goes well with American oak.

In the vineyard the variety has a short growing season which makes it suitable for cooler areas.

In Spain the variety is the backbone of the wines of the Rioja and the Ribera del Duero regions in Northern and Central Spain. In these regions it is often blended with Graciano or Cabernet sauvignon playing a minor role. It is a component of Ribera del Duero’s famous Vega Sicilia, the Spanish equivalent to Grange.

In Portugal the variety is used as a minor component in port, and some red table wines. Elsewhere in the world the major plantings are in Argentine and California. In the latter region it is called Valdepenas and is regarded as a unsuitable for making fine wine.

Tempranillo has taken off in Australia only in the past few years. Brown Brothers have been a pioneer of the variety, but there are now over 50 producers in about half of Autralia?s sixty wine regions. Although McLaren Vale has the highest number of producers variety is widely planted throughout the mainland Australian wine regions. The highest rated Tempranillo in James Halliday’s Wine Companion 2005 is from Manton’s Creek Vineyard in the Mornington Peninsula. Casella Wines, the makers of the hugely successful [yellowtail range are also interested in the variety. They received a silver medal for a 2003 Tempranillo at the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show 2004.

The obvious food match is to go with Spanish style dishes. A lighter bodied Tempranillo would go well with tapas, those delightful little snacks that originally were designed for accompanying sherry. A little plate of olives, some prawns and a few slices of Chorizo sausage may just what is needed.

The Spanish also love jamon, dry cured ham. Many bars in Spain have dozens of hams hanging up and there is always a ham in a special rack ready to be thinly carved for a snack to accompany a glass of wine. Sheep farming is a major industry in the in the Rioja and the Ribera del Duero regions. Hence grilled and especially roast lamb are local specialties, as well as the ideal accompaniment to Tempranillo. Sheep milk cheeses, roast stuffed peppers and vegetable casseroles would also be enhanced by a glass or two of these fine wines.

What then can we expect in future from Tempranillo in Australia? It is an interesting fact is that the variety is being tried in many wine regions. Virtually all of the plantings in Australia are new and the vineyard managers and winemakers are just starting to climb the learning curve. Some enthusiasts say Tempranillo is the next big thing in Australian red wines; others think that the Italian variety Sangiovese will triumph. The next few years will tell, in the meantime there will be some interesting wines to try.

About The Author

Darby Higgs is manager and editor of Vinodiversity a web based guide to Australian wine made with less common wine varieties.

http://www.vinodiversity.com

Global Warming is something we all hear about. We hear mention of it on the news, we see protests regarding it on college campuses, and we receive messages about it in our email in-boxes. But, most of us don’t really understand what it is, or we choose to ignore it. However, for those of us who are wine drinkers, Global Warming is knocking so hard we are about to have no choice but to open the cellar door.

Guide to Global Warming
In a nutshell, Global Warming is the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth’s lower atmosphere. This warming has been increasing since the Industrial Revolution, with the prevalence of greenhouse gases. These greenhouse gases trap more heat near the earth, increasing global temperatures.

Though Global Warming doesn’t sound that bad, with many people’s image of it being that of a globe wrapped snuggly in a warm blanket, it’s something that needs to be taken seriously and it’s something that could greatly hinder, and destroy, the future. The feared long term impacts include melting of polar ice, causing coastal flooding and a rise in sea level; a disruption in the drinking supply, with much of the water supply becoming contingent on snow melts; vast changes of agriculture and farming, causing havoc among the world’s crop supplies; extinction of certain species; and an increase in both tropical storms and tropical diseases.

And, in regards to wine, Global Warming could lead to the destruction of many of the vineyards across the nation by the end of the century.

Affect on Wine
A new computerized climate study recently released in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences predicted that an increase in the number of days hotter than 95 degrees during the growing season could sharply reduce the amount of areas able to produce vintage wine-grape production. This would also cause the elimination of vineyards nationwide and cause the vineyards capable of producing the most expensive premium wines to be cut in half.

This study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, Purdue University, and NASA, took supercomputer calculations over a span of five months, calculating daily temperature swings contingent on climate-change situations, under the assumption that carbon dioxide levels would continue as outlined in the standard Global Warming scenarios (levels that warn gases will rise to over twice their current levels by 2100).

Because the production of quality grapes is reliant on a balance of the yin and yang of mother-nature, with an easily disturbed equilibrium of hot and cold being a major factor, the change in climate from Global Warming could be detrimental to the ability to make quality wine. And, if the equilibrium was weighed too heavily on one side - with weather that was too hot or too cold - the ability to make grapes could disappear altogether.

Why it Matters
No one wants to be credited as that guy or that girl who helped destroy the earth, unleashing diseases and viruses on the masses. And, no one wants to be credited as helping to destroy wine vineyards, picking grapes off their vines and stomping them into oblivion.

Global Warming, like so many environmental threats, is easy to ignore: the fall out from it probably won’t be directly felt in our lifetime. However, it will be felt in the lifetime of our children and our grandchildren. While some people shrug their shoulders at this notion, we must take into account this reality: if our grandparents left us with a destroyed world, we’d be pretty ticked off. And nothing, not even a hefty inheritance, could make up for it.

What Can be Done
There is no quick fix to stopping Global Warming, pulling the plug on it is a lengthy process, made up of extension cord after extension cord. However, there are a few things that can be done to help slow the process, and eventually stop it altogether.
?Drive a Hybrid car, one that runs on both gasoline and electricity. Not only will they save you money for their fuel-efficiency, but they just might save the earth in the process
?Buy energy efficient appliances. These are things such as energy saving refrigerators, dishwashers and air conditioners.
?Replace light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. According to the EPA, if every household in America replaced their light bulbs with fluorescent light bulbs, it would be the energy saving equivalent to taking 8 million cars off the road.

Overall, Global Warming is a serious threat. It’s threatening our oceans, our coasts, our crops, and our wine. It’s causing us to look at things we take for granted, things like a good bottle of wine, and savor each drop. While it sometimes seems inevitable, or irreversible, things can be done to put a cork in it; if everyone puts in a little effort, chances are our grandkids will still be able to celebrate their 21st birthday by ordering a nice glass of wine, topped off by another.

Jennifer Jordan is the senior editor at http://www.savoreachglass.com. With a vast knowledge of wine etiquette, she writes articles on everything from how to hold a glass of wine to how to hold your hair back after too many glasses. Ultimately, she writes her articles with the intention that readers will remember wine is fun and each glass of anything fun should always be savored.

The Jacobs Creek Brand of wines have taken the world by storm. And so they should. They are excellent Australian wines which are consistently good. They have clearly won the battle for everyday wines at their particular price range.

But they are a made from classical French grape varieties, Chardonnay, Riesling, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. As such they represent the successes of Australian winemaking in the 1980s and 1990s.

What will be the wines of the new century? As the wine boom of the 1990s in Australia unfolded, a quiet revolution was taking place. The area planted to grapes expanded rapidly to underpin massive increases in production and exports of Australian wine. But a large number of vignerons and winemakers were also planting alternative grape varieties.

The profile of the Australian wine scene has changed as dramatically as the scale of production. During 2003 a new winery was opened in Australia every day. About half of these new enterprises were growing or using varieties other than the classics mentioned above.

As well as the less common French varieties, growers and winemakers have been pioneering with Italian varieties such as Sangiovese, Barbera, Nebbiolo and Arneis. We have also the Spanish stalwart Tempranillo being increasingly favoured. Even the Russian red grape variety Saperavi is being used. There are probably one hundred wine grape varieties now being produced for commercial wine production. These new varieties are being planted in traditional areas as well as in new wine regions.

Australia, like other new world wine producers is less inhibited to the strong ties of tradition that permeate the European wine industry. Since the start of the 1990s a strong predisposition for experimentation has permeated the wine industry. Australian wine consumers are now adopting this ethic.

It is safe to say that Chardonnay and Shiraz will continue to dominate wine production in Australia for many years to come. But consumers will have a much wider choice, and they are willing to be just a little adventurous. You can follow the rapidly evolving Australian wine scene at http://www.vinodiversity.com

About The Author

Darby Higgs is a wine writer and founder of Vinodiversity, a wine information site dealing with wines made from unusual grape varieties in Australia. http://www.vinodiversity.com.

darby@vinodiversity.com

Wine has been called the drink of the gods. This may be debatable, but it has definitely been the drink of the ages. Here is an overview of wine you can sip on.

An Overview of Wine ? The Drink of Gods

Wine is one of the oldest drinks known to mankind. Although historians may not be entirely sure that this is how the fermentation of wine started, an overview of the history of wine is full of interesting tidbits.

Made of fermented grape juice, wine is an alcoholic beverage that is both made and drunk in many parts of the world. The history of wine starts over 5000 years ago. It was said to have been discovered when grapes were left for too long in amphorae or earthenware jugs. These grapes somehow became tainted with wild yeast, which caused the grapes to ferment. Some courageous individual took a drink and realized the fermentation process had produced something that would be come known as wine.

There are several different basic types of wine. The most basic breakdown is red wine and white wine. When the grapes that make these varieties of wine are combined, a rose or blush wine can be created. If the wine is allowed to ferment in a way that produces carbon dioxide bubbles, it becomes a sparkling wine. If the sparkling wine comes from a particular region in France called Champagne, it is known as Champagne. There are also fortified wines ? these wines are also fermented from grapes, but additional amounts of alcohol from other sources are added to the wine to raise its alcohol content. An example of a fortified wine is brandy.

Making wine is not an easy process ? the fermentation of a really good wine may take years or even decades to complete. The type of oak barrel that wine is typically fermented in is also the result of a difficult process. Out of the 400 species of oak that grow on Earth, only 20 species are used in oak barrels for winemaking. Of those 20 species, only 5 percent of the wood taken from these trees is deemed good enough to be made into wine barrels.

The amount of grapes needed to produce quality wine is another of the many mind boggling wine tidbits known. Generally, it takes four clusters or 300 grapes to produce just one bottle of wine. Since there are only about 40 clusters of grapes produced on a grapevine per year, this means that each vine is only capable of making 10 bottles of wine. Given this fact, it is pretty amazing that wine is as cheap as we find it.

As you can see, wine is a not a simple fermentation process. The next time you drink a glass of your favorite chardonnay, think about the difficult journey that it made from grape to bottle.

Xavier Moldini is with WineriesforYou.com - a directory of wineries.

Australia?s wine industry has boomed in the past ten years. Employers have had to triple their staff numbers to cope with the demand for Aussie wine. Considering the lower average national population of Australia, compared to say the United States or even South Africa, 30,000 (2001) workers is pretty high.

One of the main reasons for the demand on this skillful industry is that it has won an international reputation for quality and value. Australian wines have won many highly sought after international awards and labels and many innovative Australian winemakers are sought internationally for their wine making expertise.

Wine regions throughout Australia have continually had high ratings especially over the past four years. Most of these regions and especially the East and South coasts (New South Wales and Victoria) are averaging 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. Second to the brilliant winemakers, and a close second, is the great climates / weather that certain regions have for cultivating vines.

Wine is very much a part of the Australian way of life, closely associated with both business and leisure. Wine consumption is often linked to the country’s outdoor-oriented lifestyle as well as to the cosmopolitan urban way of life of the bulk of the Australian population.

Australia exports more wine than that that is sold domestically. Out of a total of approximately 919 million litres bottled, 516.5 million litres is exported. The largest export market has been the United Kingdom and second has been the United States.

Researchers from the University College London have come up with a few very interesting facts. They found that drinking alcohol (including wine), even in small amounts, might be associated with higher cognitive ability, especially for women. You would be silly not to have a drop every night! I think Aussie are reasonably bright, it must be all the great wine they produce.

About The Author

Chris Burd

Website: http://www.wineography.com

(c) 2004 Wineography.com

As touched upon in the preceding article, ?Making White Wine, a Labour of Love? making wine is a very time consuming and difficult job. Timing must be perfect as does combinations of ingredients. The same goes for all other types of wine: red, rose and sparkling.

Ros? wine is a red wine that is made with the same methods of a white wine. The production is the same except that the skins are thrown in with the juice. Few winemakers prefer to make ros? wine by mixing some red wine into white wine, but this is not the popular method. When using the skins to make ros? wine most important thing is to only leave the skins in with the juice for a short period of time, long enough to give it that rose color and make it ever so slightly tannic.

Making red wine involves using the entire grape except for the stalks. The grapes are de-stemmed and crushed, but instead of filtering the skins from the juice the skins are transferred to open top tanks where they are continuously stirred so the flavor and color from the skins will become infused with the wine during fermentation. The wine is then filtered to remove the skins and put into barrels to age from six months up to two years before being bottled and sold.

Then you have sparkling wine or Champagne. Because of the Treaty of Madrid in 1891 and the Treaty of Versailles in, only wines from the French region of Champagne are allowed to be called as such, which is why everything else is referred to as sparkling wine. However it is important to note that the United States never ratified the treaty and therefore some wine makers today use the term Champagne on their bottles, only if the original place of origin is on the label as well to prevent confusion. The wines most commonly used are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier. The first step is to have a ?base wine? which is usually made from very acidic grapes giving it a horrible taste. The next step involves getting the bubbles into the wine.

There are three methods that can be used to get bubbles into wine, carbonation, transfer method and m?thode champenoise. Carbonation, the same method used in soft drinks, is the cheapest. Carbon dioxide is pumped into a wine tank and then the wine is bottled under pressure to prevent the case from escaping. The transfer method is when a sweetened base has yeast added to it and is allowed to ferment a second time in an enclosed tank so the building carbon dioxide cannot escape. After fermentation, the wine is then clarified and re-sweetened if necessary before being bottled under pressure. This method is used to produce medium price range sparkling wine. The final method is m?thode champenoise, which is when the wine has a second fermentation in the bottle. This method is used to produce the best quality wines.

Making wine is an art form. It takes knowledge, skill but most of all patience. The process of making wine from picking the grapes to bottling can be months or years, which is why winemakers are so passionate about their work. So the next time you pour yourself a glass, think about the voyage those little grapes have made.

Finest Wine Racks is a major supplier of a variety of wine racks including wood wine racks, wrought iron wine racks, counter top wine racks, free standing wine racks, hanging wine racks, and wine rack kits.

Ken Finnigan - CEO
Finest Wine Racks

Mystery and intrigue surround the disappearance of Roerderer’s presence in Russia. He just vanished, according to Natalia Feduschak writer for the KYIV Post in an article from Sudak, Ukraine dated January 30, 2003. She says, The man himself seems to have just disappeared from Czarist Russia?s winemaking scene. What is known, however, is that the company became one of the leading producers of champagne in the Russian Empire. (A taste of Ukraine, one sip at a time) http://www.kyivpost.com/guide/travel/13471/

Threads of time weave into a legend and unlimited possibilities exist. Where in the world is Roederer?

This sparkling wine producer originally founded in 1776, under Louis Roederer I, spent the first thirty-eight years reaching sales of 2,500,000 bottles, 660,000 in Russia alone, according to http://www.champagne-roederer.com/origine/us/louis.html. The creation of Cristal cuv’ee by Louis II followed in 1876 and by 1909 he was Russia’s top supplier.

After the Great Depression the Roederer family was saved from financial disaster through efforts of the family matriach, Camille-Olry-Roederer in 1932. To this day the grandson, Jean-Claude Rouzaud, along with his son Fre’de’ric steer the 200-year old icon in the United States. With the same genealogical drive of their forefathers and inherited matriachal finesse’ they manage Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes on the four hundred and ninety four acres in France (Cote des Blancs, Montagne de Reims, and Valle’e de la Marne), eventy-five miles northeast of Paris.

Louis Roederer Estates caused flap of a California kind. I didn’t hear it until 2003 and the local talk suggested heated discussions over his presence in the valley began in 2000. According to public record he was there nine years before that.

But, the holdings of Roederer didn’t disappear, they expanded and included an educational component in Siraz country. Five-hundred and eighty acres in Menocino County, specifically Philo have joined the case surrounding the disappearance of Roederer and sparkling Shiraz has become another crop in the area. One part of the mystery is solved. But, still there remains a nine year hole in the story. L’ErmitageBrut his first California wine, debuted in 1989.

According to the Wine Spectator, since he purchased the property he has been seen buying in Bordeaux in 1995, partying in Paris in 1997, and in 1999 selling off parts to a subsidiary named Scharffenberger (also in Philo-8501 Highway 128, (800) 824-7754). Scharffenberger was named Pacific Echo from 1998 to 2004, but he’s back, too, and managed by Maisons Marques et Domaines Ltd. This company was contracted in 1986 by Roederer and continues to maintain exclusivity of the Roederer line, being the only distributor in the United Kingdom. Some say England created sparkling wine. But, argument ceases with unions (at least some). The question is indeed irrelevant in this case, what with the business mix of Roederer and Maisons Marques et Domaines Ltd.

I visited Philo in October of 2003, with a stay at Highland Ranch just south of Roederer Estates. The climate is indeed well-drained and cool that time of year (By all means, take long johns.). Here grapes mature slowly balancing acid and sugar. According to reports this fifth generation Roederer searched since the late 70s for climatic conditions similar to his precious Champagne region in France. The estate’s regional rustic dormers is all that’s seen of the estate from the roadside, so he is still staying hidden somewhat.

I sat a mile and half as the crow flies at a thousand foot elevation, at the ranch with gorgeous views obstructed by redwoods near Hendy Woods National Forest, so I couldn’t see Roederer either. In a little over a year the stir Roederer’s presence caused, with real estate prices not wine, appears amiably settled. I wonder if the Russians know where he is yet.

It turns out the cloak-and-dagger disappearance is an expansion and asset management strategy, which has served well to protect the whereabouts of Roederer.

This excellent sparkler is consumed all over the world. A bottle of Brut can be had for $16.99.

Grapes used in Roederer’s sparklers as Legend Has It

RED-SHIRAZ/SYRAH (Australia/France and U.S.) unlike Petit Sirah

Persian King Jamshid found one of his slaves knocked out in the grape cellar due to the CO2 from fermenting grapes and the king’s distraught mistress meaning to commit suicide, ended up drunk revealing the grapes’ mysterious power. Also, in 1/330 BC the destruction of Persepolis was said to be a direct result of Shiraz grape ingestion per Peter Svans, http://www.uncork.com.au/tidbits10.htm. Others claim it originated in the Rhone Valley of France. http://www.wineintro.com/types/sirah.html. These grapes are vigorous, disease resistant and grow well in cool climates, which the Mendocino hills certainly are ? hosting a flavor of pepper.

RED-PINOT NOIR

The Burgundy (Gaul) region of France touts the beginning of a first century AD legend that the Aedui (Celtic family) brought the grape along with their invasion of Lombardy and Italy, others say Barbarians drove Romans from the already established area and Catholic monks took custody of Pinot Noir.

WHITE/GREEN-CHARDONNAY

As luck would have it, mine ran out searching for legend surrounding the white/green grape. It is thought to have migrated from the 8th century BC to Italy, and somewhere, somehow ended up in the Champagne region of France.

And CHAMPAGNE

Legend and myth continues to blend and meld things into oblivion. Even the word champagne which means white chalky plane. Written on Cognac labels, the reference is to the Cognac area not the area of the same name.

Roederer Estate Inc.
P.O. Box 67
Philo, CA 95466
707 895-2288
info@roedererestate.net
http://www.champagne-roederer.com

For more information see:
http://mag.leftcoastart.com/html/roedererestate.html
http://www.klwines.com/find/search.asp?id=765
http://www.atlasofwineries.com/wineries/scharffenberger.html
http://www.philoapplefarm.com/Map.html (Just north of this farm on the right Roederer Estate sits. Plentiful fields of apple and olive in the Northern Sierra Mountains, add flavor to another part of a growing mystery.)

Linda?s writing appears in From Eulogy to Joy, Beischel, Xlibris Press, 2000, Bootsnall.com, and http://www.ezinearticles.com She loves to travel, write, design, decorate, and paint. Linda studied writing through Long Ridge Writers Group in Connecticut, journalism at MSCD, Denver, and painting at the Art Academy in Loveland, Colorado, USA.

Wine tasting is properly known as ‘Wine Degustation’. It is the art of being able to note the various differences between difference types of wine, and even the various differences between the vintages of the same type of wine.

There are basically two parts to Wine Tasting, first is ‘What are we looking for’ the second is ‘How are we looking’. We’ll start with the How, and move on to the What.

Traditionally the seven steps to sampling wine are: see, sniff, swirl, smell sip, swish, and spit. This is the process we see tasters going through at the table and in wineries.

The first thing we want to do is see that the color of the wine is good. Put some light behind the glass and look for clarity. Fogginess is a sign we probably want to be careful with. Rusty colors in a white wine are another sign that we probably don’t want to put it in our mouths.

That might seem a bit crass but let’s keep in mind what we are looking at here. The act of Wine Degustation didn’t get its start at high society dinner tables as a way to see what was good with lamb, and what is better with beef. Wine Degustation came into being as a method of deciding what was safe to drink and what might be poisonous due to bad storage or aging processes. While today these tasting methods are less defensive, since modern methods of wine making produce safer wines, some wines you may get to embrace were bottled 100 years ago, or even 200.

Some red wines are so dark you will be lucky to see anything through them, but we still want to take a look. Some of the more obvious signs we want to look for are brown, muddy, orange or other non-winelike colors. It is not uncommon to see bits of cork floating in a glass of wine, just try to make sure that it is cork.

After our eyes are satisfied, we try our nose. Recall that taste is more or less an olfactory sense. With practice we can tell a great deal about a wine from its perfume. A good whiff at the very least will give you an impression, or preview of what to expect from the wine when we taste it. The obvious impressions to look out for are: does it smell like wine? Is the overall fragrance fresh or foul? Anything strange about it?

Our next step, the swirl, enhances our ability to evaluate the first two steps once more. The swirl is to get some of the wine onto the surface of the inside of the glass. Wines are generally not oily or syrupy. The liquid should slide off the side in an expected manner. Also with the wine spread out on the surface, it should be easier to get a better sample of the fragrance it presents. Which is what we do now, but this time we inhale it slowly. No quick sniffs. We bring the fragrance into our nose with a smooth steady inhale, letting our mind go through the stages of the bouquet with a more examining course.

If our nose is still interested then we move on to taking a small sip. Just enough to get a taste on our tongue. You will notice here a bit more of the cautionary tactics in the wine tasting steps, but there is a bit more benefit really than just making sure that we didn’t miss something painful in the previous steps before we commit to a good mouthful. Taking in just a taste allows our mouth to get a quick preview and some expectations. There is also the fact that many concoctions, not just wine, taste a bit different when taken in small sips rather than mouthfuls.

So we are still interested, and by this time we are sure whether or not we want to commit to a real taste, so we take in a mouthful. Not only do we take it in, we swish it around like it was mouthwash, letting the liquid coat every part of our mouths and gums. Allowing the wine to be heated up by our body temperature. Some tasters even gargle a bit with the wine, because our taste buds are everywhere in our mouths.

The last step is spit or swallow. Not much to say about that, but it is a choice to be sure. If this is the only wine or one of two or three you are going to be tasting tonight, swallowing might be an appropriate option. But if you are at a winery and going through 6 or 7 wines, spitting is probably your best option. Otherwise every wine is going to start tasting swell and you might as well just have a few glasses rather than try to go through the steps.

What are we really looking for through all of this? There are many aspects of wine, and each vintage and type has its nuances. There are some over all basics though we can start out with.

Oakiness - Some wines have a ‘oak’ flavor. There really isn’t another way to describe it. You have to taste it, but once you do you can pick it out. The flavor is generlly from either from the Aging barrel or oak chips

Sweetness - The process of some wines allows a greater amount of the natural sugars from the grapes (Or fruit) to remain without being processes into alcohol. So a sweetness, and sometimes a fruity taste remains from the amount of residual sugar

Tannin - A wine stressing tannins would be described most of the time as dry. Tannin is the bitterness from seed and skin of the grape and is effected by carbonic maceration and Maceration

Above all, the real test is Did you like it. Your tastes are just as valid as anyone else’s and life is too short for wine you don’t like. Enjoy.

Jerry Powell is the Owner of a Popular site Know as Gourmet911.com. As you can see from our name, we are here in the business to help you learn more about different kinds of Gourmet Food and Wines, from all around the world. http://www.gourmet911.com