The 5 S's of Wine Drinking

The 5 S's of Wine Drinking

There are 5 steps that will help you get the most out of that glass of wine sitting in front of you. This week we have talked about the Big 6 grapes and we've talked about how to read the label. Now that you know these basics you have the best chance of stumbling on something great! Now after you have that bottle home, whether you've splurged or kept it cheap (that's just how it is these days), you can thouroughly enjoy it. It seems like a good idea to make the best of the purchase since it is one of those extra "treats" and in this economy those are far and few between. Before you start to open the bottle chill whites and hour before you are suppose to drink it and reds for 15-30 min. Chill Reds?!?!?!! Yes chill your red. They were always ment to be enjoyed at 50 °F which is most wine areas is room temp not the balmy 70's we keep houses or the summer months impose on us. Now that the wine is chilled to proper consuming temperature you should open it. Use whatever glass you have right now, we'll go more into better glasses in a later blog but this is about experimenting and enjoying what you can. Don't go out and buy some crazy glasses until you are more into wine drinking and it's a good financial purchase for you.

* random note - don't pour the glass over half full, no matter what you need the wine to breath and move around...this isn't Kool-Aid people! : )

Now to the 5 S's of Wine Drinking........


See - Look at the color of the wine, see how light or dark it is. This will help you be prepared for the body of the wine (full or not). This will also be your first indication of age of the wine. If the color seems off it is and don't drink it. Going from light bodied to full you will have lighter to darker colors (both reds and whites)

Swirl - The easiest way to swirl is placing the glass on a flat surfaces and moving the base of the glass in a circle...less sloshing this way. The act of swirling opens up the wine so that you can break out all the aromas of the wine. In complex wines this imperative. It's amazing the difference between swirling and not.

Smell - Next you smell the wine. The swirling step has now opened all the delightful smells and aromas for you to enjoy. Each wine type has it's own "staple" smells. This also gives you a heads up to what it might taste like. You can get go from tart fruits to juicy fruits to tropical in whites and red cherries to plums and figs in reds. You also can get spices, herbs and earthiness. A Cab Sav will have a ton of spice in the aromas and a white grape called Viognier will have the most amazing herb smells with honey and peach. Start your smelling career by smelling slow and long. Do it more than once! When trying to pick out all the complex aromas you'll never get them all on the first couple goes. AND make sure to get you nose in the glass. Since you haven't poured more than half a glass there should be room and in the area above the bowl of the glass is where the swirling put all those lovely smells.

Sip - This is the best part!!!!!! Sip the wine making sure it covers all of your tongue. This way you get all the levels of flavors. You'll want to taste the fruit and the spices. And obviously this should happen as often as is appropriate!!!

Savor/Spit - A less obvious S but a good one to know. Like I said make sure you take your time to get to know the wine. They are as complex as women. Treat her right and take it slow and you might meet the person (wine) of your dreams! Take your time to smell every possible aroma and taste so that you can get every hint of flavor. For instance a Chardonnay will be a whole pastry in a glass and trust me you'll want to taste the apple/pear/citrus/butter/toast/vanilla/honey/oak flavor. The second half of this is spit. You may think this is bad or stupid but if you are doing a wine trail (Wine Trail Survival Blog to come) you will not want to drink as much as you are going to and drive. The professionals do it and you should too.


I hope this helps! Please let me know what you drink this weekend and what notes you came up with in the tasting as well as any pairings. Who doesn't love food and wine ?! A bonus blog may happen when we do our pairing and tasting this well too and you can see how good or bad this goes. We have been having quite the epic adventures with "the other whites".


~Beth & Jake

The Four V's of Wine Labels

Today we are going to just touch on basics. These four V's can get confusing when you start talking about old world wines. Each country almost has it's own way of doing it. HOWEVER; with these basics you can go into the store and have some idea of what you are about to drink and whether or not you will like it. The first label example we are going into is La Cana.
* (magical pairing-La Cana drinks like a more sophisticated Riesling so pair it with linguine in a butter sauce with fresh parm on top!)

The four V's are vintage, vintner, vineyard location and variety/varietal. While starting out you are going to look at varietal most. This tells you the grape involved in your delightful beverage. Vintage will be another one you may look at. This tells you the year it was made. When drinking a daily casual wine you would just want to be drinking it within 2-3 years (this doesn't involve aged expensive wines). The vintner is the people who made it. The is esentially the "brand name". This you may confuse with vineyard. Vineyard is actually the growing location.

The Four V's: La Cana

Varietal - Albarino

Vintage - 2009

Vintner- Not so clear- may be on the back of bottle - Bodegas makes it so it seems

Vineyard - Not so clear either - with this you do know that albarino is a spanish grape depending on where in spain (cool or warm climate) that will affect your grape. Rias Baixas a location near the atlantic which is said to be a very "celtic" area of spain happens to be where this grape called home.

What you can learn from this label, after some practice and web searching, is that a white grape Albarino from Spain in it's prime is located within this bottle. You will also know, from further knowledge and practice, is that the growing area produces acidic wines that are sweet and lush. Making this wine great for pairing!!!!! Ready for the next label?

This label is from Susan Fields Pinot Noir. This is an American wine and it's a wonderful treat to get if you can find it. This wine flat out is great for sipping. Try it with some cheese if you want but it's a beautfully balance Pinot Noir. Now that i'm done my random but well earned praises we'll get to the label.

Varietal - Pinot Noir
Vintage - 2007 ( a little too old to drink maybe but this was the picture I could find)
Vintner - This one is obvious, Susan Fields is the vintner and not the name of the wine
Vineyard - Also wonderfully clear, it's in Santa Barbara County. If you research this area you will learn the growing region and what it does to the grapes. Again the Vineyard location knowledge will come with practice, especially when you notice a region that doesn't stear you wrong.


Another place to look to find out more is the sites of the vintner/vineyard itself. This comes with a lot of history and stories. This is of course after you've gotten a bottle home. Feel free to ask me any questions you have or if you have a bottle and want to know more about the growing region involved. Are you ready for the weekend?! We are well on our way to discovering a wonderful bottle to enjoy and make memories with this weekend!!!!!!

Beth & Jake

THE BIG 6

In today's "lesson" we are going to cover the big 6 wines. These are the basic wines that cover the gambit of everything you may want/need in a wine. I'm sure you can guess that there are 3 whites and 3 reds. They range from light to full body for both red and white. We are also going to give you a general idea of pairing with them. Essentialy don't match color of the wine but match the body of the wine.

White Side of Big 6-3 Types

Riesling - This the lightest and sweetest of the three whites. It does however have the most acidity. This acidity, that some people have problems with, is actually what makes it pair beautifully with food. This wine chilled is wonderful on a summer day. It tends to have notes of apple and pair. There also can be some minerality depending on where the grapes have grown. Pair this delightful little find with spicy food (BBQ would be awesome!) or pair it with a light buttered noodle covered in some fresh parm!

Sauvignon Blanc -  This is the medium body to light body wine of the whites. This will have more mouth watering fruits and tends to have wonderful citrus flavors. Once again this is awesome on a hot summer day. There is still some acidity in this wine making pairing easy. Since it's medium to light body don't eat anything too heavy with it. Fish or chicken is a staple go to or even fresh burgers on the grill would be nice. Also acidity is awesome for cutting through richness in food....ie butter sauce/ cheese sauce.

Chardonnay - This is by far the fullest body you will get out of a white. The grape is so complex and the process of making it makes this a wonderfully thought provoking wine. Also this wine can potentially pair with red meats. It has the slight acidity but wonderfully juicy and tropical fruits. And as a bonus because it's been fermented a second time in oak there are distinctly vanilla and buttery flavors. It's a fruit pastry in a cup with less calories! Chardonnays will taste different depending on if it's old world or new world. If you aren't sure about the oak taste have someone steer you towards a lighter oaked wine to start you off. And did I mention this pairs wonderfully with food. So open a bottle and enjoy the complex fruits of this wine. If you want to just study what you can find in this wine pair it with mild cheeses.

Red Side of Big 6-3 Types

Pinot Noir - This is the sweetheart of wines. It's has tart cherry and raspberry flavors with a light ruby color. It's the lightest in body for the 3 reds. It also contains a bit of acidity that makes pairing this wine very easy. It also will be the only red you will get the silky mouth feel that you get with whites. Again if you are pairing this try light body food with it. This is also a good transition into red wines for those of you who have stuck with sweet whites or whites all together. This truly is a very fruit forward wine.

Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot - This is a fuller bodied than the Pinot Noir. It also will be the wine that starts to have tannins. Those "things" that make your mouth feel covered in velvet and cause a slight drying. Cab Savs will have very spicy flavors ranging from sweet spices to savory spices. This wine is more complex the PN and will have more plum or fig flavors to it. Merlot is very similar to cab sav and they are often grown together and mixed together. This will go well with more acidic foods because they help calm down tannins especially in tannin overloaded young/cheap wines. So try pasta sauce!

*Magical Pairing - dark chocolate with cab save. Get really bitter dark chocolate like 80-90% and you won't be left wanting. Cherry cordial in your mouth! Trust me this is a MUST try pairing!

Shiraz/Syrah -  Both types here are the same grape but with different names. Syrah is from France and when it moved/migrated to Australia they changed the name. This is a high tannin and bold wine. It also has the spicy flavors but less leather and more complex. Syrah has such a wonderful velvet in the mouth that is rich like creamy chocolate. This is a must try with pizza!. Try to make or get fresher pizza that has a good acidic pizza sauce.


I hope this helps you on your hunt to finding the perfect wine to try this weekend. Remember that the best way to learn about wines is the TRY THEM! You'll never know until you try. Also when going to a tasting make sure you taste with crackers. The old saying is buy on bread and sale on cheese. Cheese can cover many flaws so if you get a young/cheap wine that's a little off make sure you pair it with cheese and food. After all wine was meant to be enjoyed with food.

Let me know what you think and if you have any questions!!!!!!!

Week of Wine Basics - Overview

This week we'll be going through some basics of wine. Just enough to get you through the weekend. We are going to go through the basic grapes for red and white wine. We will also touch on label reading. This first lesson on labels we will just touch on basic grapes. And finally how to drink! The last but the most enjoyable lesson. This way we can get you ready to buy and drink before the weekend! After you have your wine adventure this weekend let me know how it went, what you loved/hated, and definitely any questions you have.

Slainte!

Beth & Jake

Let's Simplify This!

Hello Everyone! We are Jake and Beth and we are here to help you through understanding wines. This means information about lables, varietals, wine regions and even pairings. We'll be glad to offer tips for dates and gifts to help impress that certain someone. You also get to see how we stumble through it. It gets overwhelming and sometimes it's nice to learn from someones "untasty" mistakes.

So here's a glass to you (and perhaps a few more)! Just remember that through our journey wine is always about good times, good laughs, and good stories!