Champagne Encyclopedia, Part I

As we approach the New Year or other holidays and celebrations, we turn to Champagne or other sparkling wines.  But why?  What is it about little bubbles in our wine that enthralls?  We’re in good company.  Winston Churchill loved the stuff and famously said in 1918 to his men during World War I:  “Remember gentlemen, it’s not just France we are fighting for, it’s Champagne.”

This month’s column is devoted to everyone’s favorite celebratory wine.

Champagne Encyclopedia, Part II

Last week’s column addressed some history about sparkling wines in general and Champagne in particular.  This week I’ll finish with a little more about sparkling wines and how to choose and serve them.

True Champagne may only be made of some combination of the following six grapes:  chardonnay, pinot noir, pinot meunier, pinot blanc, arbane and petit meslier.  The first three are by far the most common.  And just like still wines, a Champagne made from chardonnay is going to taste quite different from one that is made from pinot noir.  I’ve written before about the fact that wine’s color typically comes from contact with the skin during fermentation.  Sparkling wine is usually not in contact with the skin for very long and this is why the darkest Champagne you’ll find is pink in color.

You may have noticed that generally, sparkling wine bottles are heavier than regular wine bottles and they also nearly always have a “punt,” which is the hollow part in the bottom where you stick your fingers to make sure you don’t drop the bottle while opening or serving it.

Zinfandel – Red And Right For You

Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday.  It is fitting that we should celebrate with the quintessential American wine.  That’s why I’m recommending (and serving) zinfandel with this year’s Thanksgiving feast.

Although zinfandel did not originate in the United States, we definitely perfected it.  And, its profile is uniquely American – bold, powerful, approachable, versatile and with a real emphasis on value.  Perhaps this is why zinfandel was my first wine love.  And why it still has a special place in my heart. 

Zinfandel is a red grape, although many winemakers separate the juice from the skins early in the winemaking process to create white zinfandel.  Most of the pigment in a grape is in its skin.  If the juice is not in contact with the skin during the fermentation process, the juice of a red wine will turn out more white (or pink) than red. 

Wine for The Ages

My husband and I love to discuss world politics and how the United States fits in to things.  We pore over surveys and studies that show how Americans rate in terms of education, gross domestic product and per capital consumption of meat.  We analyze and theorize as to why Germany and France have the highest unemployment rates in Western Europe and why Ireland has one of the best economies in the world.

All this pondering recently led me to wonder where Americans are now in their consumption of wine.  How much do they drink and what do they drink.  Who is drinking wine and what do they think of wine.  It’s true that other countries have been making and drinking wine a lot longer than the U.S.  And, the last time I checked (about 10 years ago), we were consuming a lot less than most European countries, though certainly a lot more than most Asian countries.  But I wondered what the American wine consumer is doing today.

A little history is in order.

In Defense of Chardonnay

In Defense of Chardonnay

I’ve pretty much been a member of the ABC club for more then 10 years.  The club, also known as “Anything But Chardonnay” is pretty exclusive – if you measure by the number of members.  You see, Americans love chardonnay and frankly, I don’t. 

In its purest, unadulterated form, handled by a skillful vineyard master and a talented winemaker, wines made from the chardonnay grape are rich and smooth, with fresh flavors that can range from apple and peach to lemon and/or tropical fruit and aromas that can remind you of a fresh garden.  An interesting note about chardonnay is that through the fermentation process and/or through aging in oak barrels, the wine can take on a buttery or creamy taste and feel in your mouth.  In small amounts, this gives a wine a roundness, smoothness or fullness that is very satisfying. 

How To Host A Wine Party

Wine doesn’t have to be intimidating.  Even better, learning about wine doesn’t have to be expensive.  To prove both of these, I decided to devote this month’s column to showing you how you can arrange and throw your very own wine-tasting party.

It’s true that you have to try a lot of wines to learn a lot about wine.  One way to try a lot of wines is to buy a lot of wines.  Another is to travel to various wine regions and visit the wineries where you can sample multiple wines at one time.  But both of these methods are expensive, and, unless you are taking good notes, it can get very confusing very quickly. A great way to avoid all that cost and confusion is to organize a wine-tasting party.

Wine For the Dog Days of Summer

Wine for the dog days of summer

Like many of the folks who choose to live in our high desert climate, I love the dog days of summer.  That’s mostly because of the sunshine, but also because summer gives me an opportunity to experiment with white wines. 

I’m generally a red wine gal.  I like the texture and substance of cabernet sauvignon and Shiraz.  I like the spice and heft of a great red zinfandel.  But these wines are just a little too heavy for 90 degree weather and they tend to overwhelm the lighter fare we enjoy in the summer. 

'Why Do I Like This Wine?'

There are basically two kinds of people in the world:  those who feel and those who analyze. Wine lovers divide into these two camps as well. While I sometimes find the analyzers tedious when winetasting (I’m more of a feeling type—I just know I like it without worrying about why) I admit that the analysts have taught me a thing or two.

To spare you the agony of having to learn from the analysts, I thought I would devote this month’s column to some of the essential things you ought to know if you are really going to understand why you appreciate a particular glass of wine.

Wine really has only four components: sugar, acid, tannin and alcohol.

How to Taste (and Enjoy) Wine

One of the most intimidating aspects of wine is all the fancy terms that wine drinkers use to describe what they are tasting.  “A toasty nose with loads of fruit on the palate, finishing with just a touch of tannins on the otherwise ultra smooth finish.”  What does that mean? How do they come up with so many adjectives to describe a glass of grape juice?

I pondered this last week when wine tasting with some friends.  We got together to try an assortment of affordable wines procured from local grocery stores.  Our goal was to find several that I could recommend in a future column.  But I was sidetracked from my goal when one of my friends said, “So, how do I taste a wine?”

Sauvignon Blanc Gets No Respect

If the wine world has a Rodney Dangerfield, I think it must be sauvignon blanc.  I’m not sure why sauvignon blanc gets no respect, but it doesn’t.  Unlike pinot noir, which had a movie made about it (Sideways), Hollywood, and much of the wine-drinking world, largely ignores sauvignon blanc. Maybe that’s because unlike chardonnay or merlot, it’s just hard to pronounce when you want to order a glass of wine in a restaurant.

But there are a lot of good things to say about sauvignon blanc.  For one thing, it’s an incredibly flexible wine.  It is good by itself before a meal or when you just feel like a glass of wine, and it will stand up to a wide variety of food.  Though it’s a white wine, it can hold its own with hearty food that would otherwise call for a red wine, such as dishes with a tomato base.  It’s generally the only wine that can be served with salad.  But versatility isn’t all sauvignon has going for it: It’s one wine for which you don’t have to sell your first-born to buy a good bottle.

Choosing Wine On Valentine’s (Or Any Other Special) Day

"How many times did I ask you,
 'Please don't forget the wine'?"

You’ve bought a present. You’ve remembered the flowers. You’ve either chosen the recipes for a dinner at home or you’re out on the town for that special night, looking to impress. Either way, you’ve got to choose: at the grocery store or from the wine list. How do you decide?

In general, there are four simple rules to keep in mind that will help guide you to the perfect wine.

Serve red wine with red meat, white wine with poultry and fish.

The wine should match the main dish, which works as long as you know whether the dish you’re serving falls into a recognizable category. It’s not too hard to figure out that beef is the king of red meats. But what’s pork? Technically, it’s a red meat too even though marketing types would have you believe it’s white. Salmon, on the other hand, with its pink color, is still a fish. Thus, it calls for white.

Once In A Lifetime

View from Melnik Castle 45 minutes outside Prague of the junction
 of the Voltava and Melnik Rivers--an area which has
been producing wine for the past 800 years

I love wine for many reasons, but perhaps most importantly, I love wine because of the memories I associate with particular wines. When I buy a wine at a winery that I have visited or when I buy a wine that I tasted at a special event, I’m buying it as much for the opportunity to relive the experience as because I liked the wine itself. 

Whenever I drink Roederer Estate Brut sparkling wine (a real deal at $20), it takes me back to my wedding.  Whenever I drink Ravenswood Vintner’s Cuvee Zinfandel (another bargain at $10-12), I fondly remember the weekly “girls nights” I had in San Francisco with my school friends, dining on salad and talking about the challenges of transitioning from school to the real world.

Wine can transport you to back to past places and times. I was never so aware of this as during the recent Christmas holidays, which fortunately for me included an extra-special wine excursion.  In this month’s column, I wanted to share with you my experience, in hopes that it will inspire you to seek out unique wine-tasting experiences of your own.