A myth is a traditional story of unknown authorship, communicated through the centuries from one generation to the next, seemingly with a historical basis but serving usually to explain some phenomenon of nature, the origin of man or the customs, institutions and religious rites of a people. Somehow, myths are propagated and persist in all aspects of our culture. Sometimes, these myths are passed along sort of like an oral tradition.
Exactly how and why these myths come to be is not always easy to explain. Long ago, we seemed to be more willing to subscribe to them; today, we seem more likely to be sceptical. The news media are a lot more revealing these days. So there are fewer myths in most fields — except in the wine domain.
The world of wine has numerous myths and exaggerations. Unfortunately, these myths have caused many people to base their wine drinking choices on unfounded beliefs. Simple answers usually are for simple people, but in the wine business, some otherwise very intelligent people are prepared to believe a myth rather than deal with research and fact-digging. They know, consciously or unconsciously, that to do so might ruin their simple answers. And simple answers, even if incorrect, make their lives simpler and less complicated. In this month’s newsletter, we will tackle a few common misconceptions from the wine world. These myths are by no means the only ones centred around wine appreciation; we shall deal with more such fallacies in future newsletters.
Myth 1: Old wine tastes better than new wine
The ageing of wine, and its ability to potentially improve in quality, distinguishes wine from most other consumable goods. An Italian proverb quotes, “Old wine and friends improve with age”, and a Danish proverb states, “Old friends and old wine are best”. A Cuban proverb reiterates, “Cheese, wine, and a friend must be old to be good”. Another quotation states, “Old wood is best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read”. Such statements surely suggest that the older the wine the better.
It is a common misconception that all wines improve with age. Ageing is part of the “natural” biological cycle of wine. Wine changes over time. Some don’t realize that wines change also in the bottle. Some think that wines will last forever or that the best quality wines will continue to improve forever. Ageing is a phenomenon that occurs according to a cycle during the storing period. For a certain time, the taste of the wine becomes more refined, reaching the peak of its taste and then slowly losing quality until the very end of the storing cycle. Most people who taste an “aged” wine for the first time are disappointed, because what they are usually getting is simply an “old” wine. Fortunately, if the wine is over the hill it won't hurt you, but what a disappointment to open a treasured old bottle, only to find out that it’s turned brown and smells like bad sherry!
People are naturally curious if wine does age, if it improves with age, and if white and red wines age differently. The fact is that only a very small proportion of wines benefit from being aged. For a start, almost all white wines need to be drunk within two to three years at the most. Even that is too long for many. Some red wines do improve with age. A small portion of wines will improve over about a decade following release. A rare few will last several decades.
Consumers have the false impression that wine, simply because it contains alcohol, has the same general nature and properties as liquor, when wine in reality has more in common with fresh produce. Although strictly a matter of personal taste, most experts would agree that comparatively few wines actually taste “better” when aged more than five years past the vintage date. This is true for 99% of all white table wines and sparkling wines and probably 80% of all red table wines, under average consumer storage conditions. For a wine to be aged successfully, it must have a balance of tannin (which slows down the oxidation process), acidity and fruitiness. And this balance must come from the grape, not be added afterwards.
A wine is a complex chemical system that will change over time. There are several factors that contribute to the ageing capability of a wine. First, the wine must have the chemical makeup (proportion of extract, acids and tannins) to last and evolve into something greater than what was initially bottled. This is highly dependent on the year produced, source of fruit and winemaking methods (even in a good year, a poor producer is very unlikely to miraculously turn out a stunning, exceptional wine).
Once the magic has been captured in a bottle at the winery, the next important factor is determined by those involved in the transportation and storage. In order for the wine to age well, the wine should be stored properly. You need to keep it on its side, in a cool environment (55º–60ºF or 12-14ºC) at a constant 60% humidity. The wine should be kept out of the light and not moved. Frequent vibrations will also prevent the formation of sediment. This is best achieved with a controlled-climate wine cooler placed in a cool dark room. Finally, some investment of both time and capital is needed to monitor the ageing progress, so as to know when the wine is ready, has reached its peak, and begun to decline. The most important thing you have to remember is that it is mostly a matter of personal taste. A particular 10-year-old wine may taste wonderful to you and horrible to someone else.
The companion myth for this one is that “older is always more valuable”. It may be more valuable, but investing in wine is a very tricky business, and unless you really know what you’re doing, you could end up with a cellar full of oxidized wine that you can’t even give away. Part of the problem is that wine increases in monetary value as it gets older. The public fails to grasp that the value only rises because of the wine’s increasing rarity, not its increasing quality. The public can also be misled by certain “collectors” who are not drinkers, but simply hoarders who sit on wines for speculation. The best advice – which all wine experts agree on – is that it’s much better to drink it too young than let it spoil. At the end of the day, wine’s there to be enjoyed, not worried about. So make sure you enjoy it!
Myth 2: Wine "legs" or "tears" indicate high quality
“Legs” or “tears” refer to the little droplets that come down the sides of your glass. You may have noticed someone swirl a glass of wine, watch as the liquid slowly trickles down the side of the glass, and then remark, “That's a great wine. It has nice legs”. However, wine legs have more to do with the physics related to alcohol’s evaporation than anything else. Wines with higher alcohol content have more legs, but high alcohol content certainly does not equal a better quality wine. Legs, or “tears” as the French call them, are a cool phenomenon to observe, but nothing more! The alcohol gives wine its legs and a high alcohol wine may well have very nice legs, but high alcohol is not necessarily a good thing. These “legs” or “tears” are observable because of the difference in the way alcohol and water each refracts light. Of wine’s two primary components, alcohol evaporates faster than water. As the ethanol evaporates, gravity takes over, the surface tension is broken and the water runs back down into the glass in rivulets. The legs that trickle down a glass are related to the amount of alcohol in the wine as well as surface tension, not its quality.
The roots of the myth may exist in northern countries where the cool climates in many regions make it difficult to reach 12% alcohol and above. Many regions establish minimum alcohol levels, among other requirements, in order to gain appellation status. The phenomenon occurs most readily in wines above 12% alcohol. Although ethanol, wine’s primary alcohol, is a major contributor to the “body” of a wine, a high content does not alone guarantee fullness or texture in wine. It is a visually pleasing phenomenon. Fuller-bodied wines have slower dripping legs. In general, more pronounced legs do indicate a greater amount of alcohol in the wine, but legs or tears indicate nothing about the quality of the wine.
Wine quality is determined by its balance. Wine balance is the synergy of all the components that formulate an enjoyable tasting experience: aroma (smell), flavour (taste), structure (tannin, acid and alcohol), residual sugar (if present), and mouth feel (the tactile sensations in the mouth). In a balanced wine, individual components do not overshadow one another. Winemakers are always looking for balance, so you can discount this myth.
Myth 3: Old wines are better when they are opened long before you drink them so they can breathe
This one is a little controversial, but tests show that simply uncorking a bottle of wine doesn’t do much to let a wine open up, due to the small surface area of the wine exposed to air. The aerating method is ineffective. The narrow bottleneck simply prevents air from opening up the wine. Simply removing the cork to allow the wine to “breathe” has no substantial effect whatsoever. The waiter, sommelier, or “expert” is wasting your time by simply removing the cork without decanting the bottle. It has been scientifically proven that the narrow space of the bottle neck where the wine can contact air is inadequate to produce any change within a period of even 24 hours, let alone a few minutes.
The only real way to get a wine to breathe is good decanting. This involves pouring the wine into a separate container and then pouring it into your glass from there. Without decanting, a wine sitting in an open bottle essentially does not “breathe” in the way we think it does. Very little happens. Tannic, mature red wines may benefit from decanting.
The reason is that the surface-to-air exposure in the space within the neck of the bottle is so small, very little oxygenation actually occurs. It's like saying a traveller who has been stuck on a five-hour plane ride will feel less cramped and more stretched-out simply because the stewardess pops the door open when the plane lands. Most would agree that the real opening up after a flight occurs when you step off the airplane. It is the same with wine! Get that stuff out of the bottle and let its flavours and aromas be activated by the air in the room. There’s no better place than the glass to make this happen.
It’s OK to decant an older red wine to get rid of sediment, but if you let it sit, it will degrade and taste terrible. The older a red wine becomes, the more delicate it becomes.
Some wines need contact with air to open up and express aromas and flavours. Historically, this practice took hold because, in earlier days, winemakers used much more sulphur than today. This led to some wine having an off-putting smell. Since this smell was caused by volatile sulphur compounds, aeration allowed most of those compounds to escape from the wine. In modern wine, the reason for aeration is simply to allow the wine’s natural and appropriate aromas to loosen up and blossom. When you realize how little of the wine’s surface is exposed to air in the neck of the bottle, it becomes apparent that the wine will not be able to release those luscious smells and flavours if it is just left to sit for days in the opened bottle.
Most wines could benefit from decanting — except sparkling wines. If the wine is young, tannic and red, go ahead and pour it into the decanter. If it’s an old red wine, stand it up for several hours to get the sediment to the bottom. Then decant it off the sediment at serving time. However, as already mentioned, older wines are rather fragile. Decanting may dispel any remnants of aroma and flavour, so proceed with caution. Aeration opens a wine, but leaving it exposed to air days on end will result in oxidation and spoilage.
Finally, you may try all you want, but you will never be able to freshen up a corked wine.
Myth 4: Smelling the cork can tell you something about a wine’s quality
It is often common practice at a restaurant, when wine is opened and served, for the waiter or sommelier to hand to the customer the cork so that he or she can check it. Most people think that the reason for placing the cork in front of them is to sniff it and determine if there is something wrong with the wine. It seems to be a popular belief that the smell of the cork will give you a sense of the quality of the wine. Also, some people have argued that if a bottle is “corked” (i.e., tainted from a spoiled cork), that you can smell it in the cork. Others suggest that you can note if it’s dried out or crumbly. Dried out cork can indicate a poor seal and improper storage of the wine. Also if the cork is wet at the bottle end, it means it’s been stored on its side and the wetness helps keep a good seal.
Some “experts” go as far as to identify three important steps to follow when presented with the cork at a restaurant:
Step one is to verify the cork is the same brand as the bottle. This determines whether the wine is authentic or has been tampered with. Each cork should have the company name written somewhere on the side of it. They suggest that you should return the bottle immediately if the brand name and cork name are different.
Step two is to check the cork’s odour. There should not be an irregular or a dank, musty smell. The proponents of this check believe that odour is a great indication of what you can anticipate.
Finally, check the condition of the cork. Bottles not stored properly will most likely have a shrivelled, cracking cork. Any air that enters the bottle as it is stored will spoil the wine.
Rituals are wonderful because they help us define our culture. They can add colour, meaning and a sense of purpose to our lives. But there is also the possibility of reading too much into rituals without understanding their historical basis or viability. Sniffing the cork is one such ritual — a ritual that at its heart speaks to the importance of enjoying every second of the wine drinking experience, popping the cork not withstanding. To sniff the cork is a way to bring this moment home — to bring yourself to the present and get ready for the adventure and excitement that (hopefully) awaits in the wine you are about to drink.
The tradition of a sommelier or server presenting the cork in a restaurant dates back to a time when counterfeit wine was a problem. Matching the winery name on the label with the one stamped on the cork assured that the wine inside was genuine. However, sniffing the cork has very little to do with being able to determine the quality of the wine. There are very few things you can tell from inspecting the cork that will not be evident from smelling and tasting the wine. If you have done this enough times, you will agree that the sniffing ritual tells you little about the wine but it also tends to smell less than appealing. In fact, you may often get misled with musty smell of mushrooms or damped earth aromas from the outside end of the cork. If your wine happens to be corked, it may not be detectable in the cork itself as generally all you can pick up is the smell of cork. Nobody is sure how this pretentious practice even began. The first thing you need to know is that 90% of the cork ceremony is pure show and serves almost no real purpose. Smelling the cork is almost a thing of the past. It was appropriate for the older, mature wines handed down from one generation to the next. Nowadays, you might take a look at the cork, but smelling it really isn't necessary.
Finally, when a waiter opens the wine and offers you the cork, ignore it and smell the wine instead. If it’s corked (smelling of wet cardboard or dirty dishwater — you’ll know!), then return the bottle. Otherwise, the wine is fine and you own it.
Myth 5: You need a different wine glass for different types of wine
There is a lot of myth surrounding which glass to use with which wine. It is true that the shape and style of glass will make a wine taste or smell different. This is easy to test for yourself — simply try the same wine out of several different types of glass at the same time. So does this mean that those expensive fine crystal glasses that are a different shape for each type of wine really make a difference? Yes and no. Certainly they make a difference, but it is a more subjective question to ask if they actually make the wine better. The problem always comes down to the fact that wine, like everything we experience, is subjective. I may prefer A, and you may prefer B.
Different manufacturers have different shapes for the same wine types. One company alone makes 64 different kinds — a glass for nearly every type of wine. Some have shapes for wines that are of similar style. Shape does matter, but the perfect shape for any given wine seems to be a myth in concert with the statement that there is a perfect food accompaniment for any given wine. Unless one is truly a wine connoisseur who understands and recognizes the complexities of all the different wines, there’s no reason to have a different glass for each different wine.
There are many types of wine glasses, but in general, only four are needed. Red wine glasses are taller and wider so the complexities of the wine can be better appreciated. You’ll want at least two for your collection. The first is a Bordeaux glass, which is designed for rich, full-bodied red wines such as Cabernets and Merlots. The wide bowl allows the wine to breathe and brings out the rich aromas. Generally, tulip-shaped Bordeaux glasses work well with “big,” rich, and intense red wines. Because the glass is tall, the wine proceeds directly to the back of the mouth, allowing for maximum flavour.
It’s also a good idea to have a Burgundy glass to use for other full-bodied wines. Though bigger in size than Bordeaux glasses, Burgundy glasses are actually for “smaller,” subtler wines such as Pinot Noir. The larger glass size gives the wine’s bouquet even more room to develop.
White wine glasses are smaller. The small size limits surface area, which in turn prevents the wine from warming quickly and helps keep the wine cool. For a young crisp white wine, you’ll need a glass with an opening that’s slightly larger than the body of the glass itself. This will allow the wine to dispense at the tip and sides of the tongue to better enjoy the wine’s sweetness. You'll also want a glass for more mature white wines. This is a taller, straighter glass and will allow the wine to dispense to the rear and sides of the tongue to better taste the bolder flavour. Rather than buy all four, many people choose instead to buy only two types of wine glass: white wine glasses and Bordeaux glasses. If you want to buy just one type of wine glass and use it for all sorts of wine, the most versatile is the Bordeaux glass. Also, over the years, tests have shown that a standard ISO wine glass allows you to pick up the bouquet of both red and white wines as well or better than specialty glasses.
An exceptional case is the Champagne flute: These glasses are long and narrow to control the bubbles in Champagne and other sparkling wines.
In general, as long as the glass is taller than it is wide, allowing you to swirl the glass and incorporate air into the wine without sloshing the wine all over. The important thing is to use the glasses providing the most enjoyment for you. The average wine drinking person is no connoisseur, yet thousands of people seem too invest in these designer wine glasses and tableware. Once again it seems that people are striving to purchase products to re-enforce their exclusive ‘image’ rather than for the actual purpose the product was intended for.
Wine News and Information
Increasingly, wine production is being driven by the needs of the supermarket and high street wine buyers, who claim that their requirements are driven by what people will buy. A staggering statistic is that the supermarkets are now responsible for over 70% of the wine sold in the UK. Again, it’s a matter of convenience. It is far easier to pop a few bottles in the trolley than to trek round to a specialist wine shop. But, the supermarket ranges are contracting rapidly, and look set to continue this over the next few years. A “winner-takes-all” scenario is developing, with great riches for the few producers who can secure listings for their wines with the multiples, while for the others it really is a case of being cast into the outer darkness. There is, therefore, a huge commercial pressure towards bland, “commercial”, branded wines produced in large volumes to hit the right price points. The diversity — and the link to geography — that makes wine so interesting are under real threat.
The wine trade has done too good a job convincing people that the older a wine is, the better it is. That, at least, is one notable conclusion to be drawn from a recent survey of 429 American wine consumers. When respondents were asked what vintage of white wine they would pick for either a casual or fancy dinner, most said they would buy the older vintage. An amazing 54% of the respondents said that for a fancy dinner, they would pick up an expensive white wine from the 1999 vintage rather than a 2001 (20%) or a 2003 (16%). But consumer misunderstanding of the age ability of wines is just one concern for the wine industry stemming from vintage dates, according to the results of the survey.
Only one-third of the respondents knew what a vintage date represents — the year the grapes that yielded the wine were harvested. Most respondents, 37%, thought the vintage was the year the wine was bottled.
American wine sales overtook French in the UK for the first time this year. Sales of American wine in the off-trade grew 5% to £781m in the year to November, while French wine sales fell 3% to £780m. The figures, from analysts ACNielsen, show US volumes also increased. America now produces 15.6m cases against France’s 14.5m — an increase of 3% compared with a drop of 7%. Ninety-five per cent of American wine is produced in California. Stewart Blunt of Nielsen said, “France has traditionally had a lot in the under-£3 sector, with ‘vin de pays’ and cheap Bordeaux. That chunk of the market has lost quite heavily over the past six months”.
Crucial to the success of US wines is Californian rose, which has become a hit with women in Britain. Sales of rose went up by 17% in the year to October. French rose has done badly, slipping by 9% in volume and 5% in value. John McLaren, UK director of the California Wine Institute, said that above all, the Americans master how to market their wines. “The Californians do very well what the French don’t do very well, which is to find out what the customer wants.”
Scientists at UCLA, in collaboration with a team at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York, recently announced their findings that grape seed-derived polyphenols block and neutralize the toxic plaques that build up in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and kill brain cells. Two proteins known as amyloid-beta peptides are associated with Alzheimer’s. These long, protein strands tend to clump together, forming plaques that kill surrounding brain cells. The UCLA and Mt. Sinai researchers found that the grape polyphenols blocked the formation of the plaques. They also found that the polyphenols decreased the toxicity of the plaques when the compounds were bonded with amyloid-beta peptides before being added to brain cells. The results were published in the November 21 issue of the Journal of Biochemistry.
The UCLA team isn’t the only one making progress in the fight against Alzheimer’s. In mid-November, the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research offered an alternative theory for how red wine compounds may help in the fight against Alzheimer’s. The team found that the red wine compound resveratrol appears to activate a specific enzyme that controls amyloid-beta peptide levels.
Both the UCLA and Mt. Sinai teams and the Feinstein Institute are exploring clinical trials with humans. Much more research remains to be done. “Resveratrol in grapes may never reach the concentrations required,” said Marambaud. “However, grapes and wine contain more than 600 different such components. We cannot exclude the possibility that several compounds work in synergy with small amounts of resveratrol to slow down the progression of the neurodegenerative process in humans.”
Monolithos Monthly News
January is a time of much preparation. In the vineyards, pruning can now begin and will continue through the winter months. However, the relatively warm and dry autumn and winter delayed considerably the falling of leaves, and not all vines are dormant.
At the winery, racking, transferring and clarification of wines is a closely scheduled activity. Also, samples are regularly extracted from the maturing white and red wines to ensure that the appropriate balance of pH, acidity and tannin as well as their organoleptic qualities are retained. Stock taking in the winery is carried out during this period to ensure that the right quantities and types of corks, bottles and oenology products are available. It is also very important to check all machinery and equipment prior to bottling to ensure perfect functionality.
All wines are available for tasting so, if at any time you are passing near the village of Pachna and wish to visit the winery or purchase any of our products, Martin Wood will be pleased to meet and assist you at his “Fig Tree Villa” in Pachna, so do not hesitate to phone him at 25-816212 or 99-165995.
Regards from all of us here at Monolithos and always remember —
When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to Heaven. So, let’s all get drunk and go to Heaven.
