5 Common Misconceptions in the Wine WorldBy Dana Pickell on 3.15.2007 |
The extreme amount of misinformation regarding wine is abundant nowadays. How easy it is to classify all rose wines as "sweet blush" or to say that California Chardonnay is all oaky and buttery. Or what about this one: white wine isn't made for aging. Or better yet, all red wines have the capability to age for years and years.
As someone who works with the wine-buying public on a daily basis, I feel a large part of my job is not only to sell quality wine that fits my customers' interests and wallets, but also to dispel the myths and misunderstandings surrounding wine. And in an ode to the sometimes mistaken, yet always well-intentioned wine-enjoying public, I offer my five favorite wine myths.
1. Screw cap = cheap wine.
Not so, friends. In fact, the really smart people in the wine-making end of the industry know that a screw cap, or stelvin enclosure as they are called, is merely insurance for their precious vintage of wine. While natural corks may have a certain flair at the table, a flair that no metal cap could ever hope to have, natural corks may also carry chemical compound, called TCA, that is oh-so-harmful to wine. That smell of wet cardboard in your wine? That's a sign that your juice is corked. Tainted. Plonk. And all thanks to that pesky cork. Put a (perhaps less than romantic) screw cap on your bottle and you're sure to flee the risks of corked wine. And for those who have mistaken capped wines as being inexpensive swill, I beg to differ. Many of the great German and Austrian winemakers are now entrusting their bottles to stelvin, as are many a winemaker from Australia and the United States. If you were a winemaker, wouldn't you want the promise that your wine would stay bacteria free, inexpensive or not? I would hope so.
2. Sweetness and fruitiness are the same thing.
How many times have I heard "I like something lush and rich, full of big fruit. But not sugary." Or "Wow, this Zinfandel is really sweet." The concept of sweetness in wine has somehow become confused with fruitiness in wine. But really, there are few still wines that can honestly qualify as sweet, however many that qualify as fruity. When smelling and tasting a wine, humans use thousands of taste receptors to match aromas and flavors with what they smell. That's how we get unusual descriptions, such as "cat pee", "pig pen", "sweaty feet" and "bacon fat". When smelling fruit-forward wines, we can use descriptors that range from rich brambly vine berries, to tart red cherries, to tropical notes of pineapple and mango. But none of these descriptors necessarily signal sweetness. Not like actual sugar itself. And while it may every-so-often happen that a bottle of sweet white wine graces your table, the chances of a sweet red wine finding its way there is not too likely, since most red wines are vinified dry.
3. Red wine gives people headaches because of the sulfur it contains.
I hate to break it to you, but unless you are one of the few who has a legitimate sulfite allergy, that headache you're getting after a bottle of Vieux Telegraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape, is more likely blamed on dehydration than on the sulfites. And what would our world of wine be without sulfites? For starters, not nearly as fulfilling, as most great wines would be consumed well before their maturation... drunk early to save risking oxidization and spoilage. Sulfur acts partly as a preservative, so wines with no sulfur added (or sulfite-free as they may be referred to), have a much shorter life span, generally speaking. So, unless you are plagued by allergies, chances are a few tall glasses of water and an aspirin or two will fix that headache before it even comes on. And if we were getting scientific here, we would warn you to lay off the whites more than the reds, as white wine typically contains more sulfur than red wine.
4. "Blush" wines are so passé.
Oh no, no, no, no, no. The "blush" wines of days gone by are just that: gone. Enter the brilliantly seductive rose wines of France, Italy, and Spain. Try one of these lovely sippers with everything from your freshly caught trout at your campsite to platefuls of barbequed ribs, and you'll see that pink wines have come into fashion. Of course, the aforementioned countries have been making these wines for centuries, and we westerners have just recently become smart enough to figure out how wonderful rosés of Syrah, Pinot Noir, and Montepulciano can really be. Keep in mind that these wines are seasonal and meant to be drunk within a year or two of release (meaning don't reach for that screaming deal of a rose from 2001). But they'll make you put your reds away for the summer and make space next to your whites on the picnic table.
5. Cooking wine should be the cheapest thing you can find.
Scientifically speaking, cooking a liquid, be it broth, water, or wine, causes the liquid to reduce, concentrating its flavor. This makes the liquid stronger and more intense, due to evaporation. So, you buy that $3.00 bottle of XYZ Red Burgundy from California. You know the one. It comes in a big green jug with a little finger handle on the side. Would you drink a glass of it? Probably not. So why would you want to cook with it? You're just concentrating the flavor of a not-so-good wine and adding it to your potentially delicious braised lamb shanks. So, why not try spending an extra buck or two and get a 750-ml. bottle of something that's not only drinkable, but also tasty? Leave the cheap stuff aside. Your food is too good for it.
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