Category Archives: Wine Education

Grape of the Week: Gewurztraminer

In a nutshell:

  • Produces an intensely aromatic white wine with notes of exotic spices and rose petals that is often made off-dry.

Where it is primarily grown:

  • Germany
  • Alsace, France

Wine Styles:

  • Dry to sweet white wine

Fun Facts:

  • The grapes have a pink to red skin, although it produces a white wine
  • Gewürz is German for “spice”

Wine Texture:

  • Body: Medium
  • Acidity: Low to Medium
  • Alcohol: High
  • Sugar: Dry to sweet, but often off-dry

Flavor and aroma profile:

  • Citrus fruit: grapefruit, lychee
  • Tropical fruit: pineapple
  • Stone fruit: peach, apricot
  • Herbs/Spices: ginger, incense, allspice
  • Floral: rose petals, honey

You might like this grape if you like…:

  • Riesling
  • Muscat

Food Pairings:

  • Asian, African, Indian, Middle Eastern dishes
  • Stinky cheeses
  • Foie gras
  • Apple-based desserts

Recommendations:

Chateau Ste. Michelle – Gewürztraminer Columbia Valley, $12

Image result for Chateau Ste. Michelle - Gewürztraminer Columbia Valley

Trimbach Gewurztraminer 2016, $22

Josmeyer Gewürztraminer Alsace Cuvée des Folastries 2015, $30

Image result for Josmeyer - Gewürztraminer Alsace Cuvée des Folastries 2015

Grape of the Week: Vidal Blanc

In a nutshell:

  • Produces fruity off-dry late harvest wines and sweet dessert wines called Icewine
  • Drink young

Where it is primarily grown:

  • Canada
  • New York State
  • Sweden

Wine Styles:

  • Off-dry to sweet dessert ice wine
  • Dry white wine

Fun Facts:

  • Vidal is one of the very few grape varieties that is an American hybrid. Almost all wines you drink today are European vines. Grape vines native to America generally make terrible wines, with Vidal being a rare exception.
  • Since Vidal is very winter hardy, it makes excellent Icewine. Icewine is made by leaving the grapes on the vine into winter, so they are harvested frozen. The sugars don’t freeze, but the water in the grape does, so when the grapes are pressed, the frozen water is removed, leaving behind a sweet juice that is then fermented to create sweet Icewine.

Wine Texture:

  • Body: Medium
  • Acidity: High
  • Alcohol: Medium
  • Sugar: Off-dry to sweet

Flavor and aroma profile:

  • Citrus fruit: grapefruit, melon, lychee
  • Tropical fruit: pineapple
  • Stone fruit: apricot
  • Floral: honeysuckle

You might like this grape if you like…:

  • Riesling

Food Pairings:

  • Scallops, crab or tuna
  • Spicy dishes
  • Fruit-based desserts
  • Panna cotta

Recommendations:

Tomasello Vidal Blanc Ice Wine 2016, $15

Image result for Tomasello Vineyards - Tomasello Vidal Ice Wine 2016

Jackson Triggs Vidal Ice Wine Proprieter’s Reserve 2016, $18

Image result for Jackson-Triggs - Vidal Icewine Proprietor's' Reserve 2016

Inniskillin Vidal Gold Icewine 2017, $47

Image result for Inniskillin - Vidal Gold Icewine 2017

Grape of the Week: Touriga Nacional

In a nutshell:

  • Produces big, rich, dark colored, tannic red wines

Where is it grown:

  • Portugal

Wine Styles:

  • Dry red wine, often blended with other varieties, but sometimes a single varietal
  • Port

Wine Texture:

  • Body: Full
  • Tannin: High
  • Acidity: Med-High
  • Alcohol: High

Flavor and aroma profile:

  • Black fruit: blackberry, blackcurrant, blueberry, black plum
  • Herbs/Spices: leather, licorice, mint
  • Floral: violet
  • Oak: cocoa, vanilla, nutmeg

You might like this grape if you like…:

  • Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
  • Australian Shiraz

Food Pairings:

  • Red meat
  • Game meats
  • Blue cheeses
  • BBQ
  • Winter stews

Recommendations:

Evidencia Reserva Touriga Nacional 2016, $15

Sandemann 10 yr Tawny Port, $30

Quinta Do Crasto Touriga Nacional 2016, $65

Image result for Quinta Do Crasto Touriga Nacional 2016

 

100% Wine Tariff and What It Means for You

President Trump is really annoyed with France and is lashing out at them in a way that will hurt all wine-drinking Americans. So what did France do to draw such ire? France has been pressing large American corporations (Google, Facebook, etc.) to pay the country’s newly passed digital service tax. In retaliation, Trump is trying to hit them with a 100% tariff on wine imports and other goods like cheese, handbags, makeup, and soap.

This is on top of a 25% tariff Trump already enacted on European goods this past October after the E.U. was found guilty of unfair subsidies to Airbus, giving the European company an unfair advantage over the U.S.’s Boeing. The October tariff hit all wines from France, Spain, Germany and the U.K., except for sparkling wines, wines over 14% alcohol and large-format bottles.

If you didn’t notice that your European wines had increased in price by 25%, it’s because many of them didn’t. Most European winemakers and importers absorbed that cost so they wouldn’t see a reduction in their wine sales. Instead, their bottom lines fell by 25% so your wallets wouldn’t take the hit. There is no more room for them to absorb further costs, so this new 100% price increase will be passed on to you.

You might think the increase in prices on European wines means you’ll just buy U.S. wines instead. You may see a cost savings in the short term, but studies have shown there is a good possibility U.S. winemakers will raise their prices too because of lack of foreign competition.

These tariffs will also hurt American businesses that rely on the sale of European wines and other goods (e.g., retailers, distributors, restaurants, transportation companies, etc.). In addition, one-third of all U.S. wine exports from California go to the European Union (EU), so any retaliation on the EU’s part will cause U.S. wine exports to suffer.

Not only that, but American wine consumers will be penalized by lack of choice. Currently, 35% of wine purchased in the U.S. is European wine. If you love Burgundy, Bordeaux or Champagne, you may have a hard time finding your favorite bottles because wine retailers will purchase less foreign wine out of fear they won’t be able to sell it at the higher prices.

Bottom line – Trump’s proposed 100% tariff on European goods will hurt you more than it will hurt France. The biggest consumer of French wine is China, not the U.S., so France may be perfectly content to focus on their China exports to the detriment of the U.S. As of now, there is no official implementation date for these tariffs and there seems to be a desire on both sides to negotiate a deal. However, the European Union has vowed to retaliate if these tariffs are put in place. Hopefully we will see a positive resolution to this stand-off in the coming weeks.

Differences Between Red and White Wine

It may seem somewhat obvious that the difference between red and white wine is the color. Although that is true to some extent, the differences go much deeper, both in the vineyard and during wine production.

Grape skins contain high concentrations of flavor and tannin compounds, which give wines their signature varietal flavors. Red wines will develop flavors and aromas of red, black and blue fruit – cherry, raspberry, strawberry, blackcurrant, etc. White wines will develop flavors and aromas of green, citrus and stone fruit – apple, lemon, peach, pear, etc.

The skins also contain color compounds – red wines are produced from black-skinned grapes and white wines are produced from white-skinned grapes. The pulp on the inside of most grapes is colorless and made up mostly of water, sugar and acids. Regardless of skin color, when you crush most grapes, the juice will run clear.

Beyond color and flavor, the biggest difference between red and white wines is how they are made. Although winemakers may choose to use different production methods, white wine production is generally about retaining the more delicate flavors and aromas found in white grapes. Red wine making is focused on extracting color, richer flavors and tannins. These objectives are achieved in the winery through critical variations in the production process:

Skin Contact

Typically, after the grapes are harvested and brought into the winery, they are immediately crushed to release the juices. The juice used for white wine spends very little time in contact with the grape skins. It is quickly separated from the grape pulp and stored in sealed, stainless steel tanks. Limiting skin contact ensures the bitter tannins in the skins won’t overwhelm the fruit, and sealed tanks help reduce oxygen contact that can destroy delicate fruit flavors and aromas.

When making red wine, the skins may soak (or “macerate”) in the grape juice for a period of time before alcoholic fermentation is started, allowing the color and flavor compounds in the skins to bleed into the juice.

Fermentation

White wine is often fermented in sealed, stainless steel tanks under cooler temperatures to protect delicate fruit characteristics that can be lost at higher temperatures.

Red wine is fermented at higher temperatures, which is necessary to extract color, flavors and tannins from the skins. The skins and pulp that remain in the juice is called the “cap”. Red wine fermentation often occurs in open-top vats allowing winemakers easy access so they can agitate the cap regularly to further extract color, flavors and tannins into the juice.

Post-Fermentation & Maturation

After alcoholic fermentation is complete, white wines that are intended to have a light, fruity, aromatic style (e.g., Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling) are bottled as soon as possible with no further winemaking processes occurring. Other white wines that are less fruity and meant to be fuller bodied (e.g., Chardonnay) may undergo techniques such as malolactic fermentation (MLF), lees stirring, and oak maturation, depending on the style of wine the winemaker is trying to achieve.

MLF uses bacteria to convert tart malic acid (think green apples) into soft lactic acid (think milk), giving wines like Chardonnay that buttery, creamy texture. Lees are dead yeast cells leftover after alcoholic fermentation. Rather than filtering out the lees immediately, winemakers may keep them in contact with the wine for a period of time to create a richer texture and add yeasty, bread-like flavors. Maturing the wine in oak barrels for a short time will impart some tannins and flavors such as toast, vanilla, cinnamon and smoke into the wine.

For red wines that have completed alcoholic fermentation, the winemaker may choose to further macerate the skins with the wine depending on the ultimate style the winemaker wants to achieve – the longer the post-fermentation maceration, the more tannins will be extracted and the smoother (less bitter and astringent) those tannins will become.

Most red wines undergo MLF, but they don’t typically spend time on their lees because the delicate lees characteristics would be lost in the bolder flavors of red wine. Red wine is then often stored and aged in oak barrels anywhere from 6 months to four years, with typical aging duration between 12-18 months. The longer the amount of time spent in barrels, the greater the concentration of oak characteristics imparted into the wine.

Blending

Fruity, aromatic white wines are usually bottled as single varietals to let the purity of the fruit, with their more delicate flavors and aromas, shine through.

Red wines are more often blended. Blends can be made from different grape varieties, the same varieties grown in different sites, or the same grapes that have undergone different winemaking processes (e.g., aged longer, use of more or less oak, etc.). Blending can add complexity to a finished wine, or balance out certain aspects of a wine, such as color, body, tannin or flavor.

Ageability

The factors that help wines age are acidity, tannins, alcohol and sugar. In general, full-bodied reds like Cabernet Sauvignon, Barolo and Bordeaux can age for a longer period time (some for decades) because they contain high levels of tannin from skin contact and oak aging, along with having higher alcohol levels.

Certain full-bodied whites, such as high quality Chardonnay, can be cellared for 7-10 years due high acidity and tannins imparted by oak aging. However, most white wines are meant to be drunk young, usually within 1-3 years. Light and fruity white wines like Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio will lose their delicate aromas and flavors very quickly in the bottle. Similarly, lighter red wines, such as Pinot Noir, that don’t have the same high tannins and alcohol as bigger red wines should be drunk young.

Decanting

Older red wines that have been resting in a bottle for many years can throw off sediment that looks ugly in the glass, leaves an unpleasant gritty texture in the mouth if drunk, and can make a wine taste more astringent. Decanting will gently separate out the sediment, leaving it behind in the bottle, so you can enjoy a beautiful glass of aged red wine poured from a decanter.

Decanting can also aerate a wine that might be young and tight. As the wine is poured into a decanter, it comes into contact with oxygen that helps smooth out rough tannins and open up aromas and flavors. Aeration particularly benefits full-bodied, highly tannic red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon, Bordeaux, and Syrah.

Young, fresh white wines are unlikely to require decanting. However, fuller-bodied, more complex white wines can benefit from decanting in the same way as red wines. White wines like Chardonnay may open up, developing more nuanced flavors and aromas with decanting. There is even a new trend in decanting older vintage Champagnes to soften the bubbles and reveal more complex flavors.

The differences between red and white wine are more than skin deep. The skins help determine color and some flavors, but winemaking practices significantly influence the final style of wine that ends up in your glass. What’s your favorite color and style of wine?

 

 

How to Taste Wine in 3 Steps

Tasting wine was a mystery to me for a very long time. I was in awe of people who could take a quick sniff and pick out dozens of aromas, or take a tiny sip and know exactly what wine was in their glass. It seemed like a magician’s trick, some sort of sleight of hand that I just couldn’t grasp.

However, I now know that wine tasting is a very methodical process that anyone can learn. The only “trick” is that you have to drink a heck of a lot of wine to build up your internal database of wines for identification. That said, you can definitely learn enough in a short time to impress your friends. So let’s get started!

1. Appearance

Wine tasting begins well before any wine reaches your lips. The appearance of a wine can tell you a few things about it, but don’t spend more than a minute or so on this step. A quick visual assessment is sufficient. Pour yourself a glass about 1/3 full and take a good look.

  • Clarity: Most wines should be clear. There are some wines that are purposefully made unfiltered and cloudy, but apart from that, any haziness or particles floating in a wine may signal a fault.
  • Color: The great majority of white wines are lemon in color. If a white wine is more gold, that generally means it is older. Many red wines are ruby in color. If your red wine has more purple in it, it is very young, and if it is turning garnet to brown, it is likely older.
  • Intensity: This is the depth of color and can help you narrow down (or eliminate) grape varieties. For example, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah produce very deep-colored wines while Pinot Noir and Beaujolais are much lighter colored. Deeper red wines tend to be richer, oaked and more concentrated than lighter red wines. For white wines, if the color is deeper, it can indicate oak aging, such as with a Chardonnay. Stainless steel aged wines, like Sauvignon Blanc, tend to be paler.

     

  • Legs or Tears: Swirl the wine and hold up your glass. Take a look at the “legs” or “tears” as the wine runs down the inside of the glass. Thick, slow legs could be an indication that your wine has a higher alcohol percentage or residual sugar in it. However, legs aren’t always the best indicator of a wine, so take them with a grain of salt.

2. Nose

  • Condition: Before you swirl your glass, take a quick sniff. Does it smell fresh or musty? If you’re smelling wet cardboard, your grandmother’s basement, rotten eggs or nail polish remover, the wine likely has some kind of fault.
  • Aromas: Swirl your glass to release those aromatic compounds, stick your nose in and take a whiff. The most important thing to remember is that whatever you are smelling is correct. Wine tasting is very subjective, so don’t be afraid that you’ll be “wrong” – there is no such thing. It is helpful to start with the most obvious aromas first, focusing on each of the categories below individually. If you try to pick out every aroma all at once, it is much harder.
      • Primary aromas are those that come from the grapes and vineyard. Think 1) fruits, 2) herbs and 3) flowers. White wine will often have aromas of green, citrus, stone and/or tropical fruits (apples, lemon, lime, peach, pineapple, pear, etc.). Red wines will often have aromas of red, black and blue fruits (blackberry, blueberry, cherry, strawberry, etc.). You may get a whiff of herbal/spicy aromas like bell pepper, rosemary or black pepper. Floral aromas, such as violets, chamomile or roses, can be harder to detect.

 

      • Secondary aromas are those that come from the winemaking process. In red wines this often means aromas from oak aging, such as toast, cedar, smoke, vanilla and/or coconut. In white wines, this may be aromas from yeast (pastry, bread, stale beer) or malolactic fermentation (butter and cream) like you get in Chardonnay, for example.

 

 

      • Tertiary aromas are those that result from aged wine, such as mushroom, earth, tobacco, leather and nuts.

 

 

Picking out subtle aromas in wine is not easy. The best way to train for it is to smell everything – go to the produce section of your grocery store and sniff every fruit, herb and vegetable available. You may get some odd glances, but this helps build a library of aromas in your brain that you can call on when tasting wine. Another option that won’t get quite so may sideways looks is to purchase a wine aroma kit. These kits come in a variety of sizes and contain vials of common wine aromas that you can use to test your aroma recall in the privacy of your own home.

3. Palate

It’s finally time to taste the wine – my favorite part! Take a good mouthful and swish it around your mouth like mouthwash, coating every part of your pallet. Then spit or swallow the wine –  repeat as many times as needed – and think about the following (and write down your conclusions so you don’t forget them):

  • Sweetness: Is the wine dry or does it have any residual sugar in it? Remember, fruity does not mean sweet. Sweetness is from remaining sugar that hasn’t been converted into alcohol.
  • Tannin: Especially with many red wines, you’ll notice tannins as a mouth-drying sensation, which is most obvious on the gums above your front teeth. Tannins give a wine body and structure.
  • Alcohol: Does the wine burn a little when you swallow it? If so, it probably has a higher level of alcohol. Alcohol also contributes to the body of a wine.
  • Acidity: The acids in a wine will cause your mouth to water. The more and longer you salivate, the higher the acidity in the wine. Acidity gives a wine freshness and balances out tannins and residual sugar, if any.
  • Body: How heavy does the wine feel in your mouth? A full-bodied wine will have a consistency reminiscent of whole milk while a light-bodied wine will be more like water or skim milk.
  • Flavors: What are you tasting and how intense are those flavors? Flavors follow the same primary, secondary and tertiary characteristics as aromas, and consider whether what you smelled you also taste.
  • Finish: How long do those delicious flavors linger on your palette after you swallow your wine? Higher quality, more complex wines will likely have a longer finish than simpler, less expensive wines.

All of these considerations will help you deduce the wine in your glass, but you need to drink a lot of wine to do this. For example, in order to identify Cabernet Sauvignon correctly, you would need to know that it is deeply colored, dry, full-bodied, with high alcohol and aromas and flavors of blackberry, black cherry, pepper and cedar.

So the moral of the story is keep drinking! And drink lots of different types of wine. Follow the above steps and take notes on what you notice about the wine. Before you know it, you’ll be impressing everyone with your wine expertise.

Cheers!

10 Common Wine Terms De-coded

It’s easy to find yourself lost, confused or intimidated by all of the lingo in the wine world. Tasting notes can sometimes feel impossible to decipher, and use descriptions that make it difficult to really understand the wine, like this one: “Well seasoned oak supports the floral scent of musky black roses and a savory thorny understory like a briar growing through straw mulch after a recent rain” (yes, that is an actual tasting note).

Let’s start to deconstruct and untangle some of the most common wine lingo, so the next time you hear these descriptors you will know exactly what they mean.

1. Acidity

It’s the acidity in wine that causes a sharp sensation in your mouth and triggers your salivation reflex. The more you salivate and the longer you salivate, the higher the acidity level in the wine. Wines that have low acidity are often described as “round” and “soft”, while wines that have high acidity are sometimes described as “vibrant” and “fresh”. You will often find higher acidity in wines from cooler regions.

  • Examples of high acidity wines: Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Champagne, Pinot Noir
  • Examples of low acidity wines: Chardonnay, Viognier, Grenache, Merlot, Gewurtztraminer

2. Balance

In every wine a battle is waged between fruit and sugar on one side, and acidity and tannins on the other side. Balance between these sides is achieved when all of these elements are well integrated so none stands out too much over the other. Too much fruit and sugar can make a wine taste cloying, while too little makes a wine taste austere and thin. Too much acidity and tannins can make a wine harsh or aggressive, while too little makes it unstructured and flabby.

3. Body

Body is the mouthfeel of a wine, or the weight of it on your tongue. Sugar, tannins and alcohol contribute to a fuller bodied wine, while acidity makes a wine feel lighter. Many wine professionals use the following comparison to determine the body of a wine: light body = skim milk, medium body = 2% milk, full body = whole milk.

  • Examples of full-bodied wines: Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah/Shiraz, Malbec, California Chardonnay
  • Examples of light-bodied wines: Pinot Noir, Beaujolais, Grenache, Barolo, Prosecco, Riesling, Rosé

4. Complexity

Complexity refers to the number of different flavors and aromas that can be identified in a wine. A wine that only shows a few similar fruit flavors (e.g., lemon, lime, green apple) would be considered simple. A wine that shows a multitude of different characteristics across a variety of flavor/aromas categories (e.g., red cherry, blackberry, raspberry, pepper, toast, mushroom, vanilla) would be considered complex.

5. Dry

Dry wines are those that have no residual sugar left in them after fermentation. During fermentation, yeasts consume sugars in the grapes and convert them into alcohol. In a dry wine, all of the grapes sugars are fully converted into alcohol. A dry wine can still be fruity (see #7) if it contains flavors and aromas of fruits, but there is no actual sugar in the wine.

6. Finish

Finish, also referred to as length, measures how long the pleasant flavors remain on your tongue after you take a swallow of wine. Typically, a higher quality, more intense wine will have a longer finish.

7. Fruit-Forward

Fruit-forward, or fruity, is not used to described the sweetness or sugar content in a wine. A wine can be dry and still fruit-forward. This term is used to describe wines that are packed with primary fruit flavors (e.g., apple, peach, pear, lemon, lime, grapefruit, etc.) that stand out as the defining characteristic of the wine.

  • Examples of fruit-forward wines: Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Pinot Gris/Grigio, Vinho Verde, Zinfandel, Grenache, Shiraz
  • Examples of non-fruity wines (earthy, herbaceous): Many French wines, such as those from Bandol (Mourvedre) and Cahors (Malbec)

8. Oaky

An oaky wine is one that has picked up flavors and aromas from being fermented and/or aged in oak barrels. Oak will impart different flavors and aromas based on the type of wood, the barrel size, degree of charring on the inside of the barrels, and time spent in barrel. Characteristics imparted by oak include toast, cedar, smoke, vanilla, coconut and sweet baking spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.).

9. Tannins

Tannins are found on grape skins, so grapes that have spent more time macerating (or soaking in) a vat with their skins will produce more tannic wines. Tannins cause your mouth to dry up. The easiest place to notice this is the gums above your front teeth. Tannins can also leave a slightly bitter taste at the back of the mouth. Tannins are important to the structure of a wine, giving wines texture and body.

  • Examples of high tannin wines: Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Barolo
  • Examples of low tannin wines: Pinot Noir, Beaujolais, Tempranillo

10. Terroir

Terroir is a French word that is used to describe a wine’s “sense of place”. It encompasses the idea that wine should be an expression of the environmental factors where the grapes are grown and the wine is produced, inclusive of the soil, climate, farming, elevation, slopes, direction of sunlight, etc. In France, every vineyard is seen as having its own unique terroir. The value the French put on terroir is why French wines are labeled by region or chateau rather than grape variety.

Are there other wine terms that you would like to better understand? If so, comment on this post or contact me to have your term added to the next list!

 

My 5 Favorite Wine Apps

The world of smart phone apps can be incredibly valuable, but also stunningly overwhelming. With millions of apps to choose from, most of us probably rely on word-of-mouth recommendations or the latest hot thing to determine what we are going to download.

It’s no different in the world of wine apps. With hundreds of wine-related apps out there, which ones are the best? I have tried many wine apps, but there are only a handful that I come back to on a regular basis, and I wanted to share those with you.

  1. Vivino

Vivino is not only free to download, but it is the world’s largest and most popular wine app. There is a reason why millions of people use Vivino – it is a fantastic way to determine whether the bottle you are buying is any good. It is powered by a gigantic user community of people who enter ratings and reviews of the wines they drink. When you pick up a bottle, just take a photo of the label and the app will pull up that bottle in seconds with its user rating. The Vivino database has more than 10 million different wines, so there is a very good chance the bottle you are considering is in there. The app also provides shops that carry that wine, allowing you to immediately purchase it and have it shipped to you.

I also use Vivino as a way to track every bottle I drink. I can photograph the label and store that wine in my Vivino account, along with the date and location of where I had it. If I am ever trying to recall that amazing bottle my husband and I had at that little restaurant in New Orleans, it’s right at our fingertips.

2. Wine Searcher

It’s not always possible to find that unique or highly sought after bottle at your local wine shop. In my little rural town in central western New Jersey, it can be difficult to find a specific bottle I am looking for anywhere within reasonable driving distance. That’s when I turn to Wine-Searcher.

When you type a wine into Wine-Searcher it will return to you the shops that have that bottle in inventory along with the price. It becomes super easy to find and purchase your desired wine at the best price available. The app is free to download and use, but the free version will return to you a limited list of results. If you want to unlock the full list of results, you can upgrade to Wine-Searcher Pro for $65 per year.

3. Vinocell

If you have a growing wine collection that is becoming difficult to keep track of, you are probably considering downloading an app to help you organize your inventory. There are dozens of wine cellar tracking apps out there and I think I have tried just about all of them. The one I stuck with was Vinocell.

Vinocell costs $8.99 to download. What I really like about it is that it is very easy to enter a new wine into the system. Vinocell has about 1 million wines in its database, so when you want to enter a new wine, you can find it in the database and add it to your cellar, along with all of the accompanying data – wine, grape, region, price, maturity dates, etc. You don’t have to enter all of that information manually for each wine.

Vinocell has a ton of features including storing photos of wine labels, graphically laying out your wine cellar racks and identifying the location of each bottle, adding professional wine ratings, getting detailed statistics of your cellar, and being able to filter and sort on any piece of data in the system. I also love that my husband and I can sync our cellar data, so we both have the same up-to-date view of our cellar on our individual phones.

4. Wine Spectator

Many folks in the wine industry love to hate professional wine ratings. They hate how a good wine rating drives the purchase of a wine, when there are so many amazing bottles out there that go unrated and unappreciated. There is also the underlying specter of cheating in the wine rating system – can ratings really be trusted or is there favoritism occurring?

These are all valid concerns. However, from a consumer perspective, with so many bottles of wine out there, no one wants to spend their hard-earned money randomly selecting a wine that ends up tasting terrible. The best way to find a good wine is to ask your knowledgeable wine store employee. That said, wine ratings play an important role in helping people chose wines on their own that they will have a greater likelihood of enjoying.

There are dozens of professional wine rating systems out there, but my favorite is the ubiquitous Wine Spectator. The WS Wine Ratings app is free to download, and requires a $2.99/month subscription for the content. I prefer WS because after drinking many wines with different ratings, I feel that WS ratings are more in line with my taste preferences than some other rating systems. I also find them to be tougher in their ratings, so if a wine earns a high WS score I know it is very likely to be deserving of that score. The WS app allows me to pull up ratings in wine stores and at restaurants to help me narrow down my purchasing decisions.

5. Wine Events

As a wine blogger, I think I would go broke if I had to buy a full bottle of wine every time I wanted to try something new. Wine events are a wonderful way to taste new wines, varieties and producers without committing to full bottle costs. They are also a lot of fun!

Living out in the boonies, it can be challenging to find wine-related events. The Wine Events app has been a great resource to find wine events happening near me. The app is free to download and use. So get out there and start drinking!

6 Most Common Wine Storage Questions

In this post, I will attempt to answer some of the most common questions people have about storing wine. If you have any questions about wine, send them to me and they may appear in a future blog post!

1. Do I need a cellar or wine fridge to collect wine?

No. The biggest enemies of wine are sunlight and heat. The purpose of a wine fridge or cellar is to keep wine in a dark, temperature controlled location. You can accomplish this same objective by storing your wine in a dark, cool place in your home. The bottom of a closet, under the stairs, in a corner of your basement, etc. would all work just fine. One of the worst places to store wine is in your kitchen due to temperature fluctuations from cooking. That said, if you are planning to hold on to your wine for 10 or more years, you should consider purchasing even a small wine refrigerator, just for those special collectable bottles.

2. How long can wines age?

The aging potential of wine is variable based on grape variety and winemaking style. The factors that help wines age are acidity, tannins, alcohol and sugar. So generally speaking, full-bodied reds like Cabernet Sauvignon, Barolo, Bordeaux and Brunello di Montalcino can age for a longer period time (some for decades) because they contain higher tannins and alcohol levels. Dessert wines will also age longer because they contain higher acidity and sugar levels. Certain full-bodied whites, such as high quality Chardonnay, can be cellared for 7-10 years.

However, most white wines with are meant to be drunk young, within 1-3 years. These wines, such as Sauvignon Blanc, Pinto Gris/Grigio and Prosecco, tend to be light and fruity, and will lose their fruity aromas and flavors very quickly. Similarly, lighter red wines should be drunk young, like Beaujolais, Pinot Noir and Merlot.

3. Why is wine stored on its side?

Storing wine on its side allows the wine in the bottle to stay in contact with the cork. This helps to prevent the cork from drying out. If you plan to drink your wine within a few months of purchase, it’s fine to stand it up, but any longer than that and the wine should be placed on its side. A dry cork lets in oxygen which can destroy your wine.

4. At what temperature should I store wine? Is it different for reds and whites?

The ideal storage temperature is between 55-58 degrees F. However, wine can be stored just fine between 45-65 degrees F. Any colder than that and the cork will dry out. Any warmer and you will cook your wine. You can store both reds and whites at the same temperature, but you would serve them at different temperatures once you take them out of storage.

5. How long can I keep an opened bottle of wine?

An opened bottle of wine will generally last 3-5 days. An open bottle of sparkling wine will only last for 1-3 days before it loses carbonation.

6. How should I store an opened bottle of wine?

Re-cork your bottle between glasses to reduce the amount of oxygen that gets in. White wines and sparkling wines should be stored in the refrigerator. Red wines should be stored in a cool, dark location, and only refrigerated if the weather is hot and humid. Keep the bootle upright to reduce the surface area of liquid that is in contact with oxygen.

if you would like to store your wine longer, consider a wine preservation system that sucks oxygen out of the bottle or replaces oxygen with an inert gas like argon.

 

Organic v. Biodynamic v. Natural Wines – What’s the difference?!

As consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about environmental sustainability, health and food sources, a market is emerging around organic, biodynamic and natural wines. However, these terms can be confusing and difficult to differentiate, so I will attempt to explain these terms and provide some wine recommendations for each category.

Organic

Organic wines are those produced from grapes grown without the use of pesticides, fungicides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers, and must adhere to stringent requirements and certification processes set forth by a governing body (with different governing bodies having different requirements).

Organic vineyards are much easier to sustain in wine regions with stable climates and low disease pressure. Regions that are dry and windy, such as Alsace and the Rhone in France, suffer less from mildew, rot and harmful insects, making it easier to adopt organic practices. In fact, Europe produces almost 90% of all organic wines on the market. However, organic wines tend to be a little more expensive because organic vineyards produce lower yields of grapes, meaning growing and production costs are spread across fewer bottles of wine.

One of the biggest differences with organic wines is that the addition of sulfites to wines is prohibited. Sulfites have been used in winemaking for hundreds of years as a preservative to protect wine from oxidation and spoiling. Some level of sulfites are naturally occurring, so all wines contain sulfites, but organic wines contain less. A very small percentage of people have a sensitivity or allergy to sulfites that can cause headaches and other symptoms, and organic wines may help alleviate that problem. Keep in mind though, this does not mean that organic wines prevent hangovers!

Biodynamic

The father of biodynamics was Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian spiritual scientist, cultural philosopher and social reformer (and all-around oddball genius). His idea was to apply a holistic “circle of life” approach to the farm, encouraging biodiversity and self-sustainability. Biodynamics views the vineyard as one solid organism or ecosystem that must be treated holistically. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides are forbidden, and only natural materials (e.g., manure) may be used. There is are governing bodies that set standards and certify vineyards as biodynamic.

Biodynamics differs from organic agriculture in its belief that farming can be attuned to the spiritual forces of the cosmos, including linking harvesting to the phases of the moon. There are nine natural biodynamic preparations that can be used in the vineyard, some of which sound bizarre, such as burying cow manure in a cow’s horn over the winter, unearthing it in the spring, diluting the aged manure in 34 liters of water, and then spraying the mixture over the vineyard. Although there is some mystery as to how these concoctions work, they do seem to work.

Natural

There are no legal requirements, standards or certifications to label wines as “natural”, which makes defining it difficult. They are often organic or biodynamic, and usually produced by small independent growers.

Natural wines are unadulterated, made with very little intervention – no additives, sulfates, commercial yeasts, filtration, or oak influence. This results in wines that have funky, gamey, yeasty aromas and flavors, and are hazy in appearance. They tend to have more sour flavors than fruity flavors. Some can be very good and others can be downright weird. There is a certain thrilling unpredictability to natural wines.

Wine Recommendations

2017 The Eyrie Vineyard Pinot Gris, $18

2016 Rogue Vine Grand Itata, $20

2015 Tikal Natural, $20