Recently, a wine bar opened up in the Pacific Beach area of San Diego.  It’s called Enoteca Adriano, and I’ve been eating there a lot because of the great pasta, intimate atmosphere, and of course, the great wine list.  One of my favorite wines they offer also happens to be the least expensive on the list–the 2006 De Canal Montepulciano d’Abruzzo.

Abruzzo is an Italian wine-growing region east of Rome.  Although they grow a variety of grapes, including Sangiovese, the most popular wine grape from the Abruzzo region is the Montepulciano grape.  In order for a varietal to carry the name Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, it must be at least 85% Montepulciano, with the remainder Sangiovese.  Its Riservas need to be aged at least 2 years before release, with 6 months of that time in wood barrels.

Montepulciano grapes are big, juicy, and produce good quality wines even when grown in large quantities–an unusual characteristic for a wine grape, and a special boon to the historically poor Abruzzo farmers.   The wine it produces is a deep, rich color.  Its tannins are mild and the wine is low in acidity, making it a soft, drinkable wine that pairs well with a variety of foods (making it a great choice for sharing).

The 2006 De Canal Montepulciano d’Abruzzo at Enoteca Adriano is $18.  If you have trouble tracking it down online, try other Montepulcianos–most are reasonably priced, and many can be found for around $8.  Pair with Pasta Bolognese or roast pork and enjoy!

Oaky: Many wines are aged in oak barrels.  Over time, the barrels impart a scent of freshly sawn oak to the wine.  An “oaked” wine can have a variety of different aromas, depending on the age of the barrels.  New barrels contribute stronger flavors to the wine.  Oak aging can give wine characteristics called “toasted,” “roasted,” or “smoky,” tastes that result when the barrels are heat-treated.  Because of the phenolic compound aldehyde, which resides in the wood, oak aging also imparts tastes of vanilla to the wine.  A properly “oaked” wine will have a subtle vanilla scent in the nose.  Oak can overpower other wine flavors, so bold, rich wines carry the flavor best.  A wine that is overwhelmed by oak flavors is said to be “overoaked.”

Tart: Wines that are too sharp and acidic can be called “tart,” referring to the often-unpleasant, almost sour taste that such wines have.

Clarity: A term that refers to a visual quality of the wine.  A wine with “clarity” is not cloudy, hazy or murky.  To test clarity, pour wine into a very clean glass.  Hold it against a white surface (like a tablecloth) and look at the wine through the glass.  Any bits floating in the wine or any cloudiness that is apparent decreases the clarity of the wine.  Wines with great clarity are prized.

Fat vs. Flabby: Though they might mean the same thing when referring to your post-Thanksgiving midsection, these two terms have decidedly different definitions when they are used to describe wine.  ”Fat” is a textural term referring to wines that are concentrated and rich on the palate.  ”Flabby” is fat gone too far: it refers to a wine that is too heavy on the palate, lacking balance, structure, and acidity.

Legs: Pour a taste of wine in your glass.  Swirl it like the pros do by keeping the base of the glass on the table and moving it in small, quick circles.  Be careful not to spill!  Stop swirling and inspect the glass.  Often, you will see small rivulets of wine running down the glass from the inside rim.  These are legs.  Their presence indicates a rich, full-bodied wine with a high alcohol content.  The more viscous and thicker the legs are, the richer and more full-bodied the wine.

Concentrated: When it refers to your orange juice, “concentrated” isn’t a good thing.  But it is a positive term when it refers to wine.  Fine wines, no matter if they are light-, medium-, or full-bodied, should have fruit flavors that taste rich and deep, or concentrated.  A synonym for “concentrated” is “deep.”

Complex: The definition of “complex” changes from one wine expert to another; its meaning is highly subjective.  But a memorable and accurate way to think of “complex” is how “interesting” a wine is.  Is the third glass just as good as the first?  Can the drinker continue to discover new tastes and aromas as he or she drinks?  If the answer to these questions is “yes,” feel free to call your wine “complex.”

Hard: “Hard” wines could also be called “abrasive.”  They are very high in tannins and acids.  Bold, strong wines that are still young can be hard.  Hard wines aren’t for everyone, but this descriptor isn’t necessarily a negative.  However, if a wine is too hard, it’s called “harsh,” which is never a good quality.

Precocious: Just as a precocious child acts older than her age, a precocious wine matures quickly.  Precocious wines can realize their maximum flavors in a relatively short period of time, and so allow an impatient collector to appreciate their benefits quickly.  Precocious wines can also be those wines that will continue to age well over a long period of time, but taste mature early on.

Here’s a new installment to our wine lexicon.  If you missed the first one, “The Top Ten Wine Tasting Terms“, check it out now.

Acetic: When the alcohol in wine oxidizes, it turns into acetic acid.  The common name for acetic acid?  Vinegar.  All wine has some amount of acetic acid, but too much means that the wine has gone bad: most likely, the cork has failed, letting in too much oxygen and causing too much of the alcohol to turn into acetic acid.  If your wine has a prevalent vinegary taste, you could say it’s “acetic.”  And if the taste is any stronger than a “barely detectable” level, you might want dump out the bottle (or better yet, use it for Sangria!) and try again.

Berrylike: As the term implies, this refers to a wine with strong berry flavors (always a fruity red wine).  Common berries that you might perceive are the “dark” berries, like black cherry and blackberry, and other berry flavors that can range from raspberry to strawberry to cranberry and everything in between.

Chewy: If there was ever a strange-seeming wine term, this would be it.  Wine that has a high glycerin (sugar) content gains a texture that can be described as dense, viscous, or fleshy (think thick like milk, not thin like water).  When you drink a very viscous wine, you almost feel as though you should chew it like solid food.  So maybe it isn’t such a strange term after all.

Diffuse: Wines that lack a sense of structure are said to be diffuse.  A diffuse wine’s flavors are muddied, or unfocused and unclear.  Serving red wine at too warm a temperature causes it to taste diffuse.  This is because when wine is too warm, the alcohols overwhelm the bouquet, masking the more subtle, delicious flavors.  If you didn’t know that you should chill your red wine before service, check out our post on the subject here.

Forward: Wine that has bold, easily distinguishable flavors is said to be forward.  Forward wines have been matured to the ideal age, and their full flavor potential has been realized.  The term “forward” is often used in the phrase “fruit-forward,” which refers to a wine that has especially strong fruit flavors.

Green: Wines made with grapes that haven’t been given adequate time to ripen are “green.”  They have a distinct vegetal taste and can have flavors reminiscent of grass, peas, or any other green vegetable.  ”Green” can be a negative term that refers to an immature wine, or it can simply be a descriptor of a wine’s vegetal or herbaceous qualities.  This term isn’t to be confused with the other kind of “green,” which means “environmentally friendly” and has become something of a recent fad.  But we’ll save that for another post.

Hot: No, this term doesn’t refer to a wine that’s served at too warm a temperature, and neither does it refer to a wine that has spicy qualities.  Instead, “hot” wine is wine that has too high an alcohol content and because of it, causes an unpleasant burning sensation in the back of the throat.  Wine that’s more than 14.5% alcohol is often “hot.”  However, a high alcohol content can be balanced by the sweetness of fruity flavors.  So there’s nothing wrong with a really bold wine high in alcohol, as long as it has the bold fruitiness to back it up.

Nose: This one’s pretty simple.  It refers to the aromas in wine that you can detect by smell.  When tasting wine properly, you should start by smelling it, first from a distance, and then deeply, with your nose inside the glass.  The aromas you detect are called the wine’s “nose.”  (And if you didn’t know you should be sticking your nose inside your wine glass to get the full tasting experience, click here to learn more about wine tasting.)

The top ten most common wine tasting terms, and how to use them correctly:

Aroma: Since the human tongue is limited to detecting the five primary tastes of sour, sweet, bitter, salty, and umami, the aroma of wine is primarily detected through smell.  This is why we smell wine before drinking it; by both smelling and tasting, we allow our senses to perceive more of the complex and subtle aromas of wine.  Words like “smokey,” “buttery,” and “clean” all describe aromas.  Aroma is not to be confused with bouquet, a term that refers to the specific set of smells that characterize a wine that has been aged.

Balance: The four main components of a wine’s flavor are sweetness, alcohol, tannins, and acid. The interplay between these four components is what forms the primary tastes of the wine.  Acidity counteracts sweetness and alcohol, and fruitiness counteracts tannins.  A balanced wine has a harmonious level of all of these components, without one standing out and dominating the rest.  An unbalanced wine could be harsh or bitter (tannins in dominance), cloying (sweetness in dominance), acidic (acids in dominance), etc.

Crisp: A term exclusively used to characterize white wines, “crisp” denotes a pleasant sense of acidity or tartness.  Crisp wines are also often called “fresh” or “eager.”  They can often include flavors of apples, honey, flowers, and citrus.  This bright acidity is usually seen in young wines, as age tends to mellow a wine, and so, crisp wines tend to be a clean yellow color or even yellowish-green.  A dry Riesling is a classic example of a crisp wine.

Finish: The final stage of wine tasting is noting the finish, or the residual taste that the wine leaves in the mouth.  Specific flavors, like tannins, can dominate the finish of a wine.  Finish can be short or long and lingering, depending on how full-bodied the wine is.  Aged reds tend to have a bigger finish than whites.

Fruity: The specific grapes used give wine its sense of fruitiness: therefore, it is the fruitiness that characterizes the grape varietal.  Fruity wines are high in alcohol, low in acid, and obviously, high in fruity flavors.  Fruity wines tastes of berries, apples, or herbs.  Some fruity wines feel “hot” in the nose because of the alcohol vapors.  ”Fruitiness” often implies a little extra sweetness.

Smooth: Also called “soft” or “velvety,”  smooth wines are low in tannins, acids, and alcohol.  They therefore don’t pack as big of a punch to the palate as other wines, and are so “accessible” or easy to drink.  Smooth wines have a long finish; with no alcohol to take over, the flavors slowly melt away from the palate.

Spicy: “Spicy” refers to a flavor of spice in the wine.  It refers to the taste of strong spices like pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Structure: Related to balance, structure denotes the overall flavor plan of the wine.  The acids, tannins, and alcohols in wine make up its structure.  The term is used to suggest the basic flavor of the wine, and is always used with a modifier, such as “brawny” or “soft.”

Tannins: Tannins are polyphenols that come from the grape skins, seeds, and stems, and so are prevalent in red wine.  Tannins contribute to the bitter or astringent (mouth-puckering) taste often present in stronger reds such as Cabernet Sauvignon.  Though too much tannin is considered a fault, tannins contribute to the structure of the wine.  Tannins bind together and fall to the bottom of the bottle as sediment as wine ages, so aged wine loses its tannic bitterness and becomes “mellow.”  To decrease the bitterness or astringency of a a young red, decant it.

Taste: The taste of the wine, perceived by the 5 types of taste receptors on the tongue.  Humans can taste bitterness, sweetness, sourness, saltiness, and, as recently discovered, umami or MSG (monosodium glutamate, a naturally occurring chemical that enhances flavor).  Umami is often characterized as “richness” or “savory”.

This list uses the same terms as the copywrited eBacchus® Top Ten Most Used Wine Terms with new definitions

Wine lovers are often foodies too, and for them, there is nothing more satisfying than a wine perfectly matched to a dish, complementing and enriching the flavors of the food.  Such a meal is truly one of life’s great pleasures, feeding both the stomach and the soul.  But with so many wines and so many dishes to choose from, forming the perfect pairing can be an overwhelming challenge.

“Serve white wine with white meat, and red wine with red meat,” is the old adage.  But not only does this not account for meats like veal and Ahi tuna, which are really neither white nor red, it’s very limiting and leaves out considerations like sauces, spices, and how the food is prepared.  Food and wine pairings vary with each combination, and rather than memorizing a rule, wine lovers should consider several difference aspects of the way the food and wine will work together.

A good pairing is balanced, with neither the wine nor the food becoming overwhelming. The flavors of the food and wine should enhance each other, bringing out the best flavors of each.  Here are some tips to consider when pairing food and wine:  

Match flavors. A wine with earthy notes such as a Pinot Noir will bring out the earthy flavors in mushrooms.  Just as a squeeze of lemon enhances grilled fish, the citrusy acidity of a Sauvingnon Blanc will brighten a seafood dish.

Consider how food is cooked. Steamed or poached fish and vegetables need a delicate wine.  Braised or roasted dishes are heavier and can stand up to deeper and more intense flavors.

Match the flavor intensity of the food and wine. Light foods such as chicken breasts, for example, would be overwhelmed by a rich Cabernet Sauvignon: you want to taste both the food and the wine.

Match the wine to the sauce. A creamy sauce should never be paired with an acidic wine (think about how acid curdles milk.)  A rich tomato sauce, which is high in tannins, wouldn’t match well with an acidic wine such as a Zinfandel, which is also high in tannins.  The two together would create an overwhelming bitter, astringent taste.

Consider matching opposites. The flavors in rich and spicy ethnic foods can work well with a sweeter wine like a Gewürztraminer.

Match by geographic region. The foods and wines from the great culinary regions of the world, like Spain, Provence, and Tuscany, have developed together for hundreds of years and often have a natural affinity for each other.

Consider how the flavors interact. Wine and food are both made of chemical compounds.  When imbibed together, these chemicals react with each other, forming new tastes.  Sweet notes in a dish will magnify bitterness and astringency in wine, making it seem drier and stronger.  Highly acidic foods decrease the sour notes in wine and make it seem richer and more mellow.  Bitter flavors in food increase the perception of bitter flavors in wine, while sourness and salt in food decrease it.

Consider using wine as a palate cleanser. Acidic wines remove the lingering fat compounds the foods leave behind.   A sparkling wine before the meal or during the appetizer course prepares the taste buds for new flavors.  A wine with acidic qualities served with a rich, heavy dish can make it taste fresher and brighter.

So you’ve got an old bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon that’s been aging in the cellar for years.  You think that dinner party Friday night might be the perfect time to show it off to your guests.  But let’s do it right, shall we?  There’s no sense in carefully aging a bottle for years if you’re just going to plop it in the middle of the table.  Decanters are a practical and beautiful tool for serving certain wines properly.  Aged wines and young red wines are both good candidates for decanting.

Aged Wines: As wine ages, the chemical reactions it undergoes produce what Americans call sediment and the French call lees: small solid particles that collect in the bottom of an old bottle.  These particles are harmless to the drinker and may even provide valuable antioxidants, but they are aesthetically unpleasant, and can have a bitter taste that ruins the fine wine experience.  Decanting an old wine removes any sediment that has collected, and makes for a beautiful serving experience worthy of the time you’re spent waiting for that wine to age to perfection.

To decant an old bottle of wine, first make sure to allow several hours to let the bottle stand in an upright position.  This allows the sediment to settle at the bottom.  Though much of the sediment will fall quickly, the fine particles may take up to 24 hours to make their way to the bottom.  When you’re ready to decant the wine, remember that they key is to pour slowly.  Tilting the bottle as little as you can, slowly pour the wine into the decanter.  When you get to the last third of the bottle, start watching carefully for sediment to appear in the neck.  As soon as it does, stop pouring.  As too much exposure to oxygen can diminish the flavor of old wines, serve the decanted wine right away.

Young Red Wines: You don’t need to be as careful when decanting young red wines as you do with old wines, since young red wines have not had time to develop sediment.  So why decant them at all?  Red wines tend to be very high in tannins, compounds which can impart a bitter, astringent taste to the wine.  If exposed to oxygen, or allowed to aerate, these tannins will mellow out and make the wine taste much smoother.  Therefore, in decanting young wines, the goal is to give them as much oxygen as you can.  So go ahead and splash that bottle of wine into the decanter: the more it splashes, the more oxygen it gets.  Let the wine rest for a short while, and then go ahead and enjoy.

Serving wine in a decanter is a great way to make drinking it a little more special.  A beautiful decanter can make an attractive–and useful!–centerpiece for the table.  Vintage Cellars offers some great decanters from that renowned maker of fine glassware: Riedel.  Check out some of Vintage Cellars’ amazing decanters here.

We’ve all tasted wine, whether at a winery, a wine bar, or after ordering a bottle at a restaurant.  We swirl and slurp, but do we really know what we’re doing?  Following these few simple steps can help you get the most out of your wine tasting experience.

1. Look at the wine.  Yes, wine tasting starts with the eyes. Tilt the glass to observe the color gradient.  It’s helpful to hold the glass against a white background, like a white tablecloth or white napkin.  Though color isn’t necessarily indicative of quality, it can tell you something about the age of the wine.  White wines become darker with time.  Red wines tend to become more brownish in color as they age, and can sometimes collect a small amount of harmless sediment.  An older red wine will also be more translucent than a younger one.  Check for bits of cork floating in the wine–if they are there, they could indicate that the wine is corked, or has oxidized and gone bad.
2. Smell the wine.  Smell is actually a large component of what we sense as taste, so of course wine tasting includes the use of your nose! Take a quick whiff to get a first impression (and make sure it hasn’t gone bad).  Swirl the wine and take another sniff, observing if the aroma changes as the wine oxidizes.  If you’re trying to teach yourself to better appreciate wine, it’s helpful to use descriptive adjectives.  They don’t have to be the ones you always see on the backs of wine bottles.  Use whatever comes to mind, whether it’s “woodsy,” “mushroomy,” or “kinda-like-Mom’s-pot-roast-y.”  Smell again, this time with your nose deep in the glass.  Note your second impression.  Swirl and take another deep sniff.  Did the aroma change as you smelled and swirled?
3. Taste the wine.  There are three phases to the actual tasting: attack, evolution, and finish.  First, take a small sip and roll it around your tongue, exposing the wine to all your taste centers.  The attack phase is the initial impression the wine makes, built of four parts: alcohol content, tannin levels, acidity, and sugar.  A good wine is balanced, meaning that one of these parts will not strike you as dominant over the rest.  Take another small sip.  This is the evolution phase, the wine’s actual taste on your palate.  If you’re drinking a red wine, you might start to notice fruit tastes, like fig, berry, or plum, spices like cinnamon or pepper, or other tastes like wood or smoke.  If it’s a white, you might notice tastes of apple, pear, flowers, butter, herbs, or honey.  Do describe the wine to yourself.  Don’t be limited by the words you think are wine-appropriate–go with your instincts.  Finally, experience the finish–the lasting impression the wine leaves you with.  How long does the taste linger?  Was the wine light-bodied (thin like water) or full-bodied (thick like milk)?  Most importantly, does the finish make you want another sip?
4. Note your overall impression of the wine.  Write down a few of the adjectives you thought of.  Rate it from one to ten.  Notes which foods the wine went well with, or foods you think it might go well with.  Keeping a small notebook can be a great help the next time you’re planning a dinner party or pondering the wine aisle. You might even get inspired to host a blind wine tasting party for your next gathering.
5. Enjoy the rest of the wine.  You didn’t open that bottle for three sips!

Looking for something a little different to host this holiday season?  How about a blind wine tasting party?  Blind wine tastings can be a great way to learn about wine while having some bonding time with the ones you love.  A blind wine tasting can help you discover new favorites and inexpensive bottles with expensive flavor.  A blind wine tasting can help you decide what to serve at an upcoming dinner, party, or even wedding.  And best of all, a wine tasting is a great party catalyst, giving your guests something to talk and laugh about.

The powers of perception and expectation can play surprisingly large roles in our judgement of wine.  Studies have proven that people will rate a wine they were told was more expensive as better than the same wine labeled as a cheap bottle.  A white wine will be judged as “fresh” and “clean,” while the same wine dyed red will be judged as “bold” and “spicy.”  Think you’re immune to this kind of fooling?  Test yourself and your friends with a blind taste test!

Gather 6-12 wine lovers (any more and you’ll have to buy two bottles of wine for each tasting) and pick out a few bottles of several different grape varietals, from different price points.  Bag each bottle, making sure the bag is long and loose enough to conceal the bottle’s shape (remember those powers of expectation).  Group the bottles by grape varietal, and taste away.  For serious wine connoisseurs, you can pass out pens and paper for note-taking, but for a more fun and casual atmosphere, let your guests chat away, and have everyone rank the wines in each group.  You and your guests might be surprised by your choices!

A few tips for a perfect blind wine tasting:

• Tape or rubber band bags to bottles so they don’t slip during pouring. (You can cover the tape or band with ribbon to make it more festive.)
• Serve something for your guests to nibble on, but choose a snack that won’t interfere with the taste of the wines.  Mild cheese and crackers is a good choice.
• Label your wines A, B, C etc, so you can tell them apart during discussion and ranking.
• Organize your tasting so that your guests move from sparkling, to white, to red, from sweet to dry, and from light-bodied to full-bodied.

Recently after a long day shooting wine cabinet education videos, selling cooling units and putting the finishing touches on some wine cellar designs, we needed a refresher course on why we are in this crazy business. In an after hours discussion of the business, new cooling units on the market and recent wine trends, we broke out 3 wines from the Vintage Cellars wine room.

We started with a 1999 Altagracia Araujo Estate Napa Valley Red. It was amazing that after 10 years in our wine cellar, it could still use a few more. We tasted and discussed the elegance of this wine. Plump, sweet, pure black currant fruit and black cherry are a few terms we threw around. A long complex finished followed with a hint of licorice.

The second bottle had 10 more years of proper aging, 1989 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron. Intense dark fruit forward aromas from the moment it was poured into the decanter. This vintage had a fantastic nose of plum, raspberry and tobacco. The final grade: this wine is full of Bordeaux magic and this is why you age and store wine properly.

The last was a palate turner to a Spanish dessert wine, Alvear Solera 1927 Pedro Ximenez. The dark amber color almost maple syrup appearance stands out upon first pour. We discussed different ways to use this wine including poured over fresh berries and vanilla ice cream. It’s like crème brulee in a bottle topped with candied Bavarian nuts.

Yes, this is why the Vintage Cellars crew spends hours everyday talking wine and wine storage. If you store wine properly, great wine experiences will follow.

jake

VintageCellars.com Wine Tasting

Yesterday, the Vintage Cellars gang got to enjoy some great wine and great people at the San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival. This annual event attracts over 8,000 restaurateurs and wine experts who cater to more than 8,000 thousand hungry foodies with unlimited samples.  Held at the gorgeous Embarcadero Park North, which overlooks San Diego Bay, yesterday’s event was the high point of a five-day culinary festival.  One hundred seventy wineries and spirit producers and 70 of San Diego’s award-winning fine dining restaurants offered tastes to food lovers from around the world.  For anyone who loves food and wine, the San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival is truly a can’t-miss festival, and one of the best events offered in San Diego.

The venue

Gene, Jake and Chris had a successful day connecting with new clients and socializing with a crowd that loves wine as much as they do.  Gene said, “This is a great event and the venue is incredible.  I’m pretty amazed that there are so many wine enthusiasts here.”  Indeed, the Vintage Cellars booth was full all day as interested wine lovers checked out some of Vintage Cellars’ past projects and imagined themselves seated on chairs made from vintage wine barrels, enjoying a perfectly aged bottle from their private cellars.

Gene talks to some interested wine enthusiasts

But the San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival wasn’t all work and no play for the Vintage Cellars crew.  Beyond getting a chance to interact with new clients, they had a great time tasting wine and sampling great food.  Jake especially loved the wines offered by Ahnfeldt Winery, a Napa Valley winery that grows five vineyards of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes.  As for me, choosing a favorite wine was too tough to call, but two food standouts were an herb gnocchi from Anthology and a surprisingly delicious tempura-battered cheesecake dessert taco from Blue Point.

If you didn’t make it to the San Diego Wine and Food Festival this year, mark it in your 2010 calendar today.  The Vintage Cellars gang had a great time drinking, eating, and showing off their work to the foodies and wine aficionados of San Diego.  One customer, admiring Vintage Cellars’ past projects portfolio, remarked, “You know, the cellars they build are not just a place to keep your wine.  They are a shrine for your wine.”  I couldn’t have said it better myself.