Tell me the truth: how often do you walk into a liquor store and buy a bottle of wine just because it was on sale or because someone who looked like he or she was more educated than you picked it up and you figured if he or she was buying it, it must be good? How often do you open up a bottle of wine because someone brought it as a hostess gift only to discover that it is totally not to your liking? It’s time to demystify wine, to get a better understanding of what is in the bottle so that when we sit down to our Yom Tov tables we can truly enjoy the wine that we are about to imbibe.
If you’ve ever gotten confused reading the label on a wine bottle, you are not alone. Wine is produced in almost every country in the world and each one has its own rules regulating what information must be listed. In the United States, a wine bottle’s front label must list the name of both the vineyard that grew the grapes and the winery that produced the wine, the year the grapes were grown and harvested, the name of the area in which the grapes were grown, the amount of wine in the bottle, in milliliters, and the alcohol content of the wine.
We’ve all heard terms like “Burgundy” and “Chardonnay” tossed around, but while both are wines, those names describe very different things. Wines produced in Europe and the Middle East by countries with a long history of winemaking are described as “Old World” and are typically named after the region that produced them, such as “Burgundy.” Vintages from countries that are relative newcomers to the wine business, including the United States, are generally classified as “New World” and are usually named after the primary grape used in their wine, so a bottle of Chardonnay could actually have been produced in any one of a number of places including California, Australia or Argentina.
It is grape skins that give red wines their distinctive color and flavor. If you have ever peeled a grape, you know that the inside actually has very little color. Red wines are produced by keeping the skins, which contain tannins, in contact with the juice during all or most of the fermentation process, giving red wines their distinctive color and taste. Blush or rosé wines are produced by removing the grape skins from the juice after just a few hours, while white wines are made with no skins at all. With their higher levels of tannin, red wines can range from smoother to bolder, while white wines are more acidic, giving them a crisper taste. Factor in just how sweet you like your wine (how dry and sweet became opposites I will never know) and body, how thick or watery your wine may be, and the possibilities are almost endless.
What kind of wine you choose may also depend on what you are eating. Full bodied reds, including Zinfandels, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, pair well with red meat, while the lighter Chardonnays, dry whites and Rieslings are better suited to poultry. Looking for a good one to pair with pasta? What vintage to select really depends on the type of sauce dressing your dish has. More acidic sauces pair better with red wines, while creamier sauces are better accented by Chardonnay or a dry white wine.
As with anything else you eat or drink, there are no right or wrong answers and much depends on your personal preference. Spending more on a bottle of wine doesn’t guarantee that you will like it better and your best bet is to put on your sleuth’s cap and figure out which wines most appeal to you. There is definitely an element of trial and error here and experts advise trying several bottles and keeping track of which ones appeal to you most.
Developing an appreciation for wine and a knowledge of which vintages appeal to you most is an educational process according to wine enthusiast Avrumi Iwaniski, a sales representative for Carmel Royal, a division of Royal Wine Corporation. Iwaniski, who has been doing wine tastings for four years, advises would-be buyers not to be shy when it comes to wine purchases.
“I have students that I started on semi-sweet wines and now they are drinking the most sophisticated Bordeaux,” said Iwaniski. “Build a relationship with the manager, purchaser or someone else knowledgeable at your local wine store and have them suggest wines based on what your preferences are. Check out the wine blogs. Go to wine tastings. If you really want to get into the wine scene, then go to a wine class.”
In recent years, kosher consumers have begun demanding more sophisticated wine choices and it is important to remember that your wine preferences can vary widely depending on many circumstances, according to Iwaniski.
“I always tell people that your wine choice can depend on your mood, what food you are eating, even the time of year,” explained Iwaniski. “Right now store windows are packed with kosher rosés because it is the perfect summer wine, great for either an outdoor picnic or a rooftop party in Tribeca.”
While learning to appreciate the subtle nuances of different wines is a process that evolves over time, you don’t have to be an oenophile to enjoy a good bottle of wine.
“There are many wines that are easy to drink, like a late harvest Herzog or a Pinot Noir or a Spanish Rioja,” said Iwaniski. “I call them ‘potato chip wines.’ Jackie Mason used to talk about how there are all these wine connoisseurs who talk about how to drink wine. He says, ‘Did anyone ever tell you how to eat a bag of potato chips? You just open up the bag and you eat it.’ There are many wines that fall into that spectrum. You just open them up and enjoy them.”