Sunday, July 11, 2010

A Crash Course in Wine: Part I

Ahead of my posts about North Fork tastings, I thought it would be helpful to do some Wine 101 for those who do not yet consider themselves wine connoisseurs :) Since it can be a lot of content to digest, I’ve split the entry into three parts. In Part I, I’ll cover the major wine regions and varietals. Part II includes the major components one can see, smell and taste in a wine. And Part III will be a quick wrap-up.

As we jump into the fundamentals of wine, this is a great time to mention Kevin Zraly, who runs the Windows on the World Wine School in New York City, an 8-session class I took last spring. In the class, I not only learned the basic facts of wine, but also discovered key characteristics and how I most prefer they be expressed in a wine. The many amusing anecdotes Kevin shared with us during class were quite helpful as well!

Since most of my fundamental wine knowledge came from Kevin, much of the content below can be traced in some way back to his book, Windows on the World Complete Wine Course and detailed tasting notes I took during his class. For anyone in the New York area who is curious about the subject, I highly recommend the course.














                             
                                                   

No matter what you glean from the information below, the best way to learn about wine is to accumulate lots of tasting experience. Through this, you begin to develop a basis for comparison, and gain a familiarity for common characteristics in particular varietals and regions. How about that adage? Less reading and studying...more drinking!

What is Wine?                                                                                                             
I’m going to go with the bold assumption that everyone has a general understanding of what wine is. As Zraly mentions in his book, for the purposes of this lesson, the simplest definition of wine is fermented grape juice. Fermentation is the process in which grape juice is converted into wine. Essentially, the sugar in the grapes is mixed with yeast, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide. The CO2 is released into the air, unless you’re making sparkling wine, in which case it would be captured.

The three major types of wine are: table wine (8-15% alcohol), sparkling wine, and fortified wine (17-22% alcohol). Unless noted otherwise, my entries will be about table wine.

Wine Regions                                                                                                              
Zraly notes that there are 70+ wine producing countries in the world today, and that more acres of grapes are planted than any other fruit crop in the world. Go grapes!

The top five wine producers in the world, in descending order are: France, Italy, Spain, United States and Argentina. Typically, the most important factors that make a region suitable for grape growing, and consequently wine production, are the right climate and ideal soil, or what the French call “terroir”. At the end of the day, a wine is only as good as the grapes used to make it, so these elements are very important.

Most grapes cannot thrive in just any climate or soil. To that end, familiarity with major wine regions can be very powerful, as it helps you learn what grapes will likely yield good wine, and which varietals to avoid from a particular region. For instance, the most venerable Rieslings (whose character is best expressed in wine when cultivated in cooler climates) often come from upstate New York, Washington State, Germany and Northern France, not California or Southern Europe.

In addition to the traditional wine superpowers, there has been a lot of growth in other regions around the globe, particularly in New Zealand, Chile, and South Africa. And, fun fact, there are now wine-producing regions in all 50 states here in the US! That said, after a recent visit to a winery in a remote part of North Carolina, I certainly cannot attest to the quality of wine produced outside of New York, California, Oregon and Washington.

Major Varietals                                                                                                           
Below are the most popular grapes used to make wine. They are listed from light to full-bodied. The notion of “body”, or the weight of the fruit and level of alcohol, is very important. Body dictates the order in which one tastes a series of wines. When tasting multiple wines in one sitting, you start with the light-bodied ones. Body also helps you determine which wines will best complement a particular meal.
                                                  












                                                                
                                                       
                                                              
                                                              
                                                              
The best varietals on the North Fork, based on the region’s climate and terroir, are light-style Chardonnay and Merlot. A less common grape, Cabernet Franc, has also shown some success. There are a number of other varietals produced in the region, but I’ve found that the caliber of wine produced from them is less consistent, depending much more on the quality and style of the particular winemaker.

Meanwhile, it’s more challenging for the North Fork to produce robust “big reds” like Cabernet Sauvignon that are frequently found in California, as the region's growing season isn’t warm or long enough for those grapes to ripen to their full potential.

Stay tuned for Part II...

2 comments:

  1. I love this post! And after Parts II and III, I'm sure I'll know 10 times more about wine than I currently do! :)

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  2. I think I need to read that book! Jude

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