Half Full

posted by Callie in Snooth, Wine, Guest Bloggers

Lately, I’ve been writing a lot of “how to” entries and I know these can be semi-mundane, but hopefully they’re creating a solid foundation for further knowledge. If you belong to a wine community like Snooth, chances are you already know the very basics of wine, but for those of you that I forced into joining just to read my blog (you know who you are); I’m now going to give you some hints on how to serve me wine the next time we’re in each other’s company.  I understand that in order to learn, practice makes perfect and in this case the ‘practicing’ is the best part.

So let’s say you’ve got some friends over with a nice bottle of wine chilled and you’re ready to tear into it… not so fast buddy.  Corking the bottle requires more than just muscle.  You’ll need some tools and first off I recommend the waiter’s corkscrew.  It’s light, easy to carry and doesn’t have those fancy wings.  Wing type corkscrews tend to have a really short screw and usually demolish the wine cork. Now let’s say, god forbid, you do end up breaking the cork in the bottle.  An easy remedy is to go back in with your waiter’s cork screw at an angle and try, try, again.

After you’ve opened your bottle, in many cases especially if you’ve opened an old red wine or even a very young and tannic wine, you’ll want to let the wine breathe for a bit.  Oxygen chemically changes a wine’s balance, therefore by letting the wine breathe it may improve the aromas and tannins.  You can do one of two things here.  One, pour the entire contents of the bottle into a decanter and let it sit… or two, pour the wine into individual wine glasses (preferably large) with big bulbs at least 10 minutes before you’re ready to drink.

Of course, not all wines need to decant before drinking.  Steer clear with light to medium bodied red wines that are less tannic, for example; Pinot Noirs, Dolcettos, lighter Zinfandels, Burgundies etc.  You can also skip this step with inexpensive, ready to drink wines, as they are generally less tannic and ready to go right away.

Now we come to the issue of glassware.  If you’re just hanging out for the night casually, then by all means use your favorite plastic Yankees beer cup.  However, if your girlfriend is coming over for your anniversary dinner and she knows a bit about wine, bust out the stemware (glasses with stems).  This isn’t because you have to impress her with your fancy style, it’s because good wine tastes better out of the proper glassware as it appreciates the wine’s value.  Glassware has the ability to create a certain mood, and as I mentioned before, it helps aerate the wine, bringing out the smaller nuances and complexities of your juice.  This will obviously make the entire experience that much more enjoyable and unique.  My glass of choice is the Spiegelau brand.  They’re clear, understated and elegant without breaking the bank.  Use larger stemware for your more tannic, heavier bodied reds, while lighter wines and white wines can be poured in the smaller glasses.  Fortunately, many companies make glasses that can cross over between white and red.

When pouring wine properly, this isn’t a case of more is more.  Fill up the glass to about half way so that you can stick your nose in it without getting wine up your nostrils.  You’ll also want to be able to swirl your glass without spilling.  Again, this isn’t so that you can look like a snob.  It’s so you can smell the different aromas and oxygenate the wine so that it will inevitably taste better.

General rules when serving multiple wines at a dinner party include:

1. Serve white before red.  White wine generally doesn’t stick to the palate like red wine does, therefore this order won’t confuse your taste buds as much.
2. If you’re having a course dinner, try serving your wines lightest to heaviest bodied (for the same reason as above)
3. Dry wine before sweet wine.  The taste of sweet generally has a long aftertaste, therefore if you drink a dry wine after, the taste can get lost.
4. Simple, straightforward wines before complex wines, so that you won’t tire out your taste buds. (It’s the same concept as smelling too much perfume at once).

You don’t need to worry about following the above tips all at once or else you’ll drive yourself crazy, but generally speaking that’s how things operate independently.

It’s a common misconception that if you’re tasting many different wines, you’ll need a new glass for each wine.  I’m not really a huge follower of this method unless I’m at a really formal dinner.  If you’re following a format where wine is being served lightest to fullest bodied, I wouldn’t worry about reusing your glass too much.  Although if you’re switching back and forth, I recommend trying out a new glass so that the wines don’t become polluted.

I understand it’s a holiday so you all should be outside enjoying your last days of summer, perhaps with a plastic cup in hand!  Here we come fall, my favorite wine-drinking season!  Cheers!

Callie Exas has just launched her wine career at New York Wine Co. in Manhattan. So far so good!

How to order wine

posted by Callie in Snooth, Wine, Guest Bloggers

For some, ordering their tall (or is it short??) double, skinny, mocha, latte, iced first thing in the a.m. is a no brainer, but don’t feel as confident when faced with the daunting prospect of ordering wine from a menu in a public institution.  I understand the pressure that can come with this kind of decision.  There are so many options and aspects to consider that I’m sure I’m not alone when I’ve decided to go with the “close your eyes and point” strategy.  However, there’s hope for us all because I’ve put together a couple of basic guidelines that will help you narrow down your search with little to no pain.

First things first: Glass or bottle??  By opting for just a glass, you automatically narrow your search to a handful of options.  From there you can either base your decision upon price point, or if you’re still a little bit confused, tell your server what you like and she can take it from there.  Your servers or sommeliers are very capable and should be quite intimate with the wine list.
If you’re sitting with 2 or more people, we recommend getting a bottle because it’s a bit more cost effective in the long run. Always try to have just one person in charge of picking the wine in order to avoid heckling over a merlot or a cabernet… choosing a wine doesn’t have to be completely democratic. Also, when going this route, choose your colors early in the decision process.  This narrows down your options by half, making the decision less painful.

From there, you can decide what will go best with your meals.  If everyone is having something different, try a soft red like a pinot noir, that can stand up to your red meats but also pairs quite well with your fish and poultry.  If white is what floats your boat, go with something crisp that has more body.  If you have a large group, I would recommend ordering both a bottle of red and a bottle of white for the table.

If this task stills seems a bit overwhelming, point to a wine in your price range and simply ask your server their thoughts on the wine.  They’ll be happy to guide you in the right direction.

Ok, moving on.  You’ve ordered your wine… now what?  You don’t have to feel like a bumbling idiot if you’re the person chosen to take that first taste.  When your server comes back to display the bottle, simply check if it’s actually the bottle you’ve ordered.  This part of the ritual isn’t for you to faun and admire the pretty label, so don’t worry if you aren’t sure you’re giving the right amount of accolades.  When your server opens the bottle and hands you the cork, go ahead and take a good gander at it.  If you’ve got a serious bottle, check to make sure the cork is moist, without any damage to it as it could be signs for a damaged wine.  When the wine has been poured, swirl the wine a bit to open it up, smell it and then taste it.  If it doesn’t smell musky or moldy, you’re good to go.

However, if you’re caught in that sticky situation where the wine has been “corked”, any good restaurant should be more than happy to take the bottle back.  Be polite but firm and don’t let it hang up your evening too much.

See, not as bad as you thought, right??  Ordering wine is no big deal, just take the bull by the horns and you’ll be a wine ordering pro soon enough.

Callie Exas has just launched her wine career at New York Wine Co. in Manhattan. So far so good!

Judging quality

posted by Callie in Wine, Guest Bloggers

A lot of my friends have been asking me if I can tell the difference between expensive and cheap wines. The answer is no, I can cannot.  Generally, when I’m drinking a wine I’m not concerned with price point.  I’m more concerned with how it tastes.  This is where things can get tricky.  Who decides what’s good or not for your particular taste buds?  When you go into a wine shop asking the staff for just a “good” wine odds are you won’t get a straight answer because it really all depends on you.  So the main issue at hand here is how to tell a quality wine.  In wine we look for something that has value within all price-ranges.

The wine industry has set quality standards that wines are rated by.  These ratings can determine how a wine sells, however wines that are determined high quality come in all colors, flavors, bodies, etc., so really it can’t determine if you as an individual will actually enjoy it.

Wine experts use their nose, mouth, eyes, and brains to judge wine quality, and their collective opinion then determines a wine’s rating.  There are a few concepts that wine experts use when tasting. The main standards are balance, length, complexity, depth, and length.

When talking about balance in wine, we’re really talking about how all the tastes (sweetness, acidity, tannin, and alcohol) in wine play together in your mouth.  A wine has balance if none of the components overpowers the others when you taste it (like when you taste a really bitter, or really sweet wine).  If you don’t really eat too many sweets, some wines may taste unbalanced to you.  When tasting, wine experts know their own little quirks and typically adjust for them so that they don’t skew a wine’s ratings.

How long a wine’s length doesn’t refer to how long you taste it after you swallow.  Length is what we refer to when we can taste the wine along our entire palate.  If a wine stops short, or if we can taste it right away but as soon we move it to the back of our mouths, the taste is gone, that means that the wine’s length is short.

A wine’s depth is particularly hard to measure because it is extremely objective.  A wine high quality wine has depth when you perceive it to be three-dimensional.  Think of it this way, when you taste a wine that has been opened for a couple days, and it just tastes lifeless, like grape juice, that means its flat.  A wine with depth is the opposite of a wine that’s gone flat.  Which brings to the next concept: complexity.

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with a wine that’s straightforward and honest, a wine that continues to reveal new innuendos (flavors or impressions) in its taste typically gets better quality ratings across the board.  If a wine is complex, it will reveal different aroma and tastes as you keep tasting.  These are the wines that make you take a second swig and think.

So after we take that swig and while we’re still thinking, we taste whatever the wine left on the palate.  This is a wine’s finish or aftertaste.  In a quality wine you can taste the wine’s characteristics (fruit or spice) after it’s been swallowed. A wine that finishes bitter is tannic, or if hot, its because the wine is very alcoholic.

With modernization of wine production practices, its become increasingly easy to find quality wine at all price points.  Just because you may not like a wine does not mean that it’s of bad quality.  It just means that you personally do not like it.  If you do come across a bad wine, it’s usually that the wine has been mishandled in some way.  If a wine tastes like moldy fruit, vinegar, or flat it’s been what we call “corked”, meaning it may have once been good wine, but somehow things went wrong in the bottle/handling process.  In this game, you are that last judge when it comes to the wines you like to drink.

Callie Exas has just launched her wine career at New York Wine Co. in Manhattan. So far so good!