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So much choice can be daunting, but with a little help a structure falls into place, and the world's wines become both accessible and enjoyable.
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White Wines
White wine may be bone dry, lusciously sweet, or anywhere in between. usually produced from white grapes, but the grape juice (must) is usually fermented away from the skies.
Light, dry wines are intended for drinking young, are not aged in oak, are bottled with no residual sugar and are low in extract (the components that give a wine substance, or body). These may be served well chilled, and are delightful for everyday drinking, with or without food. |
Medium-bodied and full, dry white wines have increasingly more extract, and although technically dry they have the almost sweet richness of ripe fruit. Either may have been matured in oak vats and/or bottles, and the fullest style may be capable of further ageing in bottle.
Certain grape varieties make particularly aromatic wines; these may be dry or medium-dry Medium-sweet wines are usually bottled before all the grape sugar has been converted into alcohol. Light and low in alcohol, their soft sweetness makes them less suitable with food. Sweetest of all are the powerfully Favoured wines, usually served in small glasses
When winemakers choose to name their wines by grape variety, much depends on the climate of the producing region. A Chardonnay from the Alto Adige in northern Italy will taste crisp and fresh, with the acidity of grapes ripened in a cool region, while an Australian Chardonnay will display the tropical fruit character of fully ripe grapes.
Much also depends on the intention of the winemaker. Thus a Riesling from Alsace will always be made dry, while German Rieslings (unless marked trocken/dry) tend to have more than a hint of sweetness. |
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Red Wines
Most red wines are made to taste dry, thus removing one of the major style variants some are made to be drunk young - like most white wines - others can improve with age for decades.
Rose wines vary relatively little: few are made to age, and they differ mostly in sweetness. Some, such as Rose d'Anjou and California "blush" wines, are fairly sweet, others, including most Spanish and Provence roses, are dry. |
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Medium-bodied red wines form the largest single class. It includes many wines of high quality and even more of medium status. Some of these can go on to age into the "mature quality" class.
The "assertive, powerful" class includes wines made to display strong flavours and tannins, usually (especially from the New World) with plenty of fruit flavours. Most of these wines have the structure to age.
Mature quality wines are those from classic areas, and great vintages in lesser areas, which have undergone bottle aging. These wines deserve a special category because the taste of maturity is a distinct one.
Some wines are hard to place: are they in this "specialties" group or are they fortified? The answer is in the winemaking technique, but in taste terms there can be little to choose between a wine made from sun-dried grapes, but not fortified, and one which is made from freshly-picked grapes and then stiffened with brandy.
Red wines may move from group to group according to vintage: a good vintage in a classic area such as Bordeaux or Burgundy will move many wines up into the assertive and powerful class from their normal status as medium-bodied. |
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Sparkling Wines
Sparkling wines vary greatly in quality, character and style. The French prototype, champagne, is imitated around the world. At its best champagne is dry but not austere, with a full but fine flavour coming from the use of classic grape varieties and from bottle-ageing.
The winemakers of Champagne are fiercely protective of their name; wines from anywhere else in the world made by methode Champenoise are no longer allowed to use the term methode champenoise on their labels; look for the words methode classique (classic method), methode traditionelle (traditional method), or "fermented in bottle". All should denote quality wines made by the second-fermentation method. |
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Fortified Wines
Fortified wines such as sherry, port, Malaga and Madeira - and Italy's Marsala, have a wide spectrum of tastes, from austerely dry to positively sweet. Wines may be sweet when young, but can mature into relative dryness, as with vintage port. This maturing is done by the winemaker in virtually all cases, vintage port being the exception. Most fortified wines are very much controlled by their makers, who decide on the style and blend accordingly.
All Sherries start off dry, and gain their sweetness from the blending in of sweeter wine. Manzanilla and fino Sherries are never sweetened, but amontillado and oloroso, although classically dry, are often made as a medium or sweet wine. |
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Aromatized Wines
Ther are flavoured and fortified. Typical examples are Vermouths and Commandaria. Vermouths are of four main types from Dry - Sweet Rose to red Vermouth.
Aromatised wines have alcohol in the form of brandy added after the fermentation is over, leading to consumption of the entire sugar by yeast resulting in very dry wines. Vermouths like Martini Rosso and extra dry fall in this category. |
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Faults in Wine
Faults occasionally develop in wine as it matures in bottles. Nowadays, through improved techniques and attention to detail regarding bottling and storage, faulty wine is a rarity. Here are the more common causes.
Corked Wines: These are wines affected by a diseased cork caused through bacterial action or excessive bottle age. The wine tastes and smells foul. This is not to be confused with cork residue in wine which is harmless.
Maderization or Oxidation: This is caused by bad storage -- too much exposure to air, often because the cork has dried out in these conditions. The colour of the wine browns or darkness and the taste very slightly resembles Maderia, hence the name. The wine tastes 'spoilt'.
Acetification: This is caused when the wine is overexposed to air. The vinegar microbe develops a film on the surface of the wine and acetic acid is produced making the wine taste sour, resembling wine vinegar (vin vinaigre).
Tartare Flake: This is the crystallization of potassium bitartrate. These crystal-like flakes, sometimes seen in white wine, may cause anxiety to some customers as they spoil the appearance of the wine, which is otherwise perfect to drink. If the wine is stabilized before bottling, this condition should not occur.
Excess Sulphur Dioxide (SO2): Sulphur dioxide is added to wine to preserve it and keep it healthy. Once the bottle is opened, the stink will disappear and, after a few minutes, the wine is perfect drinkable.
Secondary Fermentation: This happens when traces of sugar and yeast are left in the wine in bottle. It leaves the wine with an unpleasant, prickly taste that should not be confused with the petillant, spritzing characteristics associated with other styles of healthy and refreshing wines.
Foreign Contamination: Examples include splintered or powdered glass by faulty bottling machinery or re-used bottles which previously held some kind of disinfectant.
Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S): The wine smells and tastes of rotten eggs. Throw it away.
Sediment, Less, Crust or Dregs: This is organic matter discarded by the wine as it matures in cask or bottle. It can be removed by racking, fining or, in the case of bottle wine, by decanting.
Cloudiness: This is caused by suspended matter in the wine, disguising its true colour. It may be due to extremes in storage temperatures. |
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