This site uses cookies to store information on your computer. By using our site you accept the terms of our Privacy Policy.
To continue without making any changes just click the close panel on the right of the page.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we'll assume that you are happy to recieve cookies on the Simply Wines Direct website. Some cookies on this site are essential, and the site will not work as expected without them. These cookies are set when you submit a form or interact with the site by doing something that goes beyond clicking on simple links.
Cookies enable us to identify your device, or when you have looged in. We use cookies that are strictly necessary to enable you to move around the site or to provide certain basic features. We use cookies to enhance the funtionality of the website by storing your preferences and to providing you with a better user experience.
 |
|
||
|
|
|||
Helpful Hints |
|||||||||||||
Wine Guide - Introduction Wine Guide
Wine Guide - Overview
|
| Despite the huge range of wines out there, the good
news is that a little learning goes a long way. But wine isn't something
you learn about and then " know ". It's a personal journey of
adventure and discovery. It wouldn't be much fun if you found a wine you
liked and then drank nothing else for the rest or your life. The
fact that everyone in the room likes Pinot Noir doesn't mean that you
have to and there's something wrong if you don't. After all, does everyone
you know like broccoli? What's important is that you know what you like; that, after all, is what makes wine enjoyable to you. There's no point in drinking wine you've been told is good if you just don't like it. So as you embark on your own personal journey of wine discovery, pay attention to the wines you like and those you don't. This will help you develop a sense of your own taste preferences which, in turn, will help inform your wine choices and purchases. |
You have selected Storing Wine - things to consider| Many people think that if they're going to store wine at home then they need a cellar. But the word "cellar" conjures up images of dark, cavernous chambers cut out of bedrock, or slick, temperature and humidity-controlled rooms lined with mahogany wine racks. All very nice, but not at all necessary. We recommend that "cellar" should be interpreted somewhat loosely. There are four main things to consider when storing wine: temperature, light, vibration and keeping the cork wet. |
| Temperature - Both
red and white wine likes to be kept cool. 55F is ideal, but more important
than this magic number is that the temperature doesn't fluctuate. Better
a constant 65F than 40° one day and 80° the next. Light - Bright light and sunlight can damage wine as it ages in bottle, so the darker the room, the better. Total darkness is easily achieved by simply closing the lid of your shipping pack or shutting the closet door. Vibration - Areas subject to heavy foot traffic, or vibrations should be avoided as wine, unlike martinis, should be neither shaken nor stirred. Keep the cork wet - Laying your bottles down on their sides keeps the wine in contact with the cork, which in turn prevents the cork from drying out. Dry corks contract, allowing air to pass into the wine and wine to leak out. If air gets in, it renders the wine dull and lifeless and it will taste more like old sherry than wine. |
| If you keep these basic requirements in mind, you'll
find it remarkably easy to find a place to store your wine, and you won't
need a cellar at all. A corner of the basement, a closet in a spare bedroom,
or the cupboard under the stairs will all do nicely. And remember, the
longer you plan to store your wine, the more important these factors become.
If a newly-purchased wine is to be drunk in a day or two, it really doesn't
matter too much where you keep it, but if the wine is to be kept for weeks
or months then find it a nice cool, dark spot. Now, some wines require
not months but many years, even decades, of bottle aging before they're
ready to drink. This is a small percentage of all the wines made, but
nonetheless, it is important. Where you store these high quality (and often expensive) wines designed for long aging takes on a special importance if your investment is to be protected. In this case you may want to consider one of the commercially available wine storage units, which come in a variety of sizes and finishes. Another alternative is off-site storage, where you rent a locker in a temperature and humidity-controlled wine storage facility. This option is great for wines that you don't plan to drink for some years and has the added advantage of being out of reach; a real bonus during those weak moments. |
You
have selected Serving Wine - a few simple tips| There's really no mystery to serving wine as most of us can manage to get the wine out of the bottle and into our glass without too much trouble, but here are a couple of things that may help the wine show its best. If you don't finish the bottle, most wines will keep quite happily for a couple of days with the cork stuck back in the bottle, keeping the air out. |
| Temperature -
In general, white wines should be served chilled and reds at room temperature.
For whites, a couple of hours in the fridge will do just fine. If you're
pushed for time, then put the bottle in an ice bucket filled half with
ice and half with cold water. This will bring the wine down to the desired
temperature in about twenty minutes. For most reds, room temperature is
ideal, unless the room is a balmy 80°F, of course. We've all had warm
red wine served to us in restaurants and, frankly, it does the wine no
favors. Light, fruity reds, like Beaujolais, are best served a little
cool, especially on a warm summer day. Champagne, dessert wine, most sherry
and rosé should be treated as white. Red port should be served
at room temperature but tawny port can be chilled. Decanting - This is the process of pouring off any sediment that has been deposited in the bottle over time to create 'clean wine'. It is frequently done with vintage port or older red wines that have spent many years in a bottle. The vast majority of wines do not need to be decanted at all, but if you do need to do it, simply pour the wine slowly into a glass decanter or jug keeping an eye on the neck of the bottle. When you see sediment in the neck, it's time to stop. Decanting can also help the wine "breathe". Breathing - If a wine has spent many years locked up in a bottle, away from the air, it will benefit from a little breathing time. This can take place in the glass or in a decanter and twenty to thirty minutes should suffice. Even young wines can benefit from a little breathing time as it allows the wine to open up and really show what it's made of. You can test this by tasting a wine immediately after opening it and then see how your second glass tastes some twenty minutes later. There's often quite a difference. That's also why, if you're opening several reds, open them all at once. You give your next bottle a chance to breathe, while you are enjoying the current one. On the other hand, whites generally don't need to be opened ahead of time, as the goal is usually to retain their freshness. Glassware - The best glasses for appreciating wine are made of plain, thin, clear glass. Heavy, cut glass makes it difficult to see the wine properly. The glass should have a wide bowl tapering to a narrow opening; a tulip shape, in other words. This allows room for the wine to be swirled in the glass while concentrating the aromas at the rim. Champagne should be served in tall flutes or tall, thin tulip-shaped glasses. Today there are many specialty glasses designed to be used with different grape varieties. While these may, indeed, enhance the attributes of the different wines, they really aren't necessary. A good, all purpose glass like Riedel's "Ouverture" series red and white wine glass, is a simple, elegant solution for a reasonable price. Intensity - The glass should never be filled more than about half full. This allows room for swirling the wine around in the glass to release its aromas without splashing it all over the table. A good way to achieve this is to leave the glass on the table, hold the stem at the base and make small, quick circles with the base. Try it! |
You have selected Tasting Wine - now for the fun part| You don't need to analyze wine to enjoy it, but if you pay attention to what you're tasting you'll find that you'll be better able to identify what you like or don't like in a wine. It's a bit like languages: You don't have to speak Italian to visit Italy, but if you know a few words, your enjoyment can be greatly enhanced. Glasses should be clean and dry and filled with only a small sample of wine (about a quarter of the glass). Wines all have certain components and characteristics in common. When we taste, we use sight, smell and taste to recognize the various components and to assess the quality and health of the wine. So let's give it a go. Before you taste make sure there are no distracting odours in the room, like cooking smells or perfume. The only thing you should smell is the wine in your glass. |
| Clarity - is the
wine clear and bright (as it should be) or is it hazy or murky?
Intensity - is the colour pale or deep? Colour - hold the glass at an angle against a white background (table cloth or sheet of paper) and assess the color in the middle of the bowl of the glass and at the rim. White wines start life pale and darken with age. Red wines start out a deep, bright purple and gradually turn ruby, mahogany and eventually brown as they age. |
| Condition - does
it smell clean and attractive or is there any mustiness or off-odour?
Intensity - is the nose faint or pronounced? Character - what does it smell like? This may seem difficult initially, but you can do it. Just as you can tell the difference between the smell of bacon and coffee, you can also identify some of the possible smells in wine. Here are some things you may smell: fruit, grapes, lemon, grass, peaches, raspberries, blackcurrants, flowers, apples, vanilla, oak, smoke, plums and many, many more. Remember that there are no right or wrong answers, here. It's simply an exercise in thinking about what you're drinking. |
| Sweetness - an
easy one. Sweetness is immediately noticeable on the tip of the tongue.
If there's no apparent sugar the wine is called "dry".
Acidity - very important if the wine is to be refreshing and balanced. Lemon juice and vinegar are acidic. Too much and the wine tastes too tart; too little and the wine is known as "flabby", tasting heavy and just not refreshing. Tannin - a natural preservative found in grape skins and stalks, tannin is the stuff that makes young red wines seem harsh and leaves the mouth feeling dry. If you want to know how tannin feels when it's not in wine, brew some very strong black tea and you'll soon know! Tannin's role as preservative is extremely important in high quality red wines that are made to age for many years. Body - an indicator of how the wine feels in the mouth. Pinot Noir or Beaujolais tend to feel quite light in the mouth while Bordeaux or Australian Shiraz tend to be full and dense. So, the progression for both reds and whites is light-bodied, to medium bodied, to full-bodied. Fruit - the taste and intensity of the fruit in the mouth; generally, the better the wine, the more evident the fruit. Also, younger wines will often display more fruit than mature wine. Length - how long the taste of the wine lingers in the mouth after swallowing is a good indication of the wine's quality: the longer the better. |
| Quality - you might
think it's obvious to say that a £100 bottle of wine is likely to
be high quality and a £5 wine low quality, but the assessment of
quality goes beyond this. A wine that looks clear and bright, has a pronounced,
intense nose, shows good fruit and balanced acid, sweetness and alcohol,
and has a long finish might be an inexpensive wine. It would be classified
as good quality, though, because it is a good example of its type. So
as your tasting progresses, question the wine. Is it a good example of
its type? Maturity - this is a measure of the wine's readiness to drink, which is not the same thing as its age. Many wines are made to be drunk as soon as they are bottled while others require years (or decades) of maturation in bottle to reach their optimum state. Simple wines, which are designed to be drunk young, will not improve with age. Rather they will deteriorate and be over the hill if kept too long. Faults - Thankfully, modern winemaking practices have reduced most of the problems we used to commonly find in wine, but there's still one which affects around a small percent of bottles: bad corks. " Corked ", the term used to describe the affliction, has nothing to do with cork floating in the wine, but rather (not to get too technical) a condition in which the wine has reacted with a substance in the cork, producing a musty, corky smell and taste, reminiscent of wet cardboard. The wine should always smell clean and appealing. The cork problem is the reason behind many wineries switching to synthetic closures or screw caps, which are now widely used with aromatic varietals like Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling. So don't be put off is you see a screw cap on your wine. It doesn't mean cheap wine, it means the winemaker is sick of cork problems and wants to preserve the freshness of the wine. |
| We've taken the guesswork out of finding wines you'll love. Don't waste time with trial and error. Our wines are carefully selected by experts, then approved by panels of wine drinkers just like you - to ensure that every wine's a winner, time and time again. Simply Wines Direct is an easy and reliable way to discover new favorites. |
|
Click
on arrows to Expand
You have selected the Wine Guide - Hints & Tips