Anyone can learn to enjoy a good wine
Anyone can learn to enjoy a good wine
Maria Endah Hulupi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Wine connoisseurs taste good wines with deep pleasure and
appreciation. But those with little experience with this delicate
liquid can learn to enjoy its pleasant yet complex taste.
Wines plays a variety of roles in life, from the reported
beneficial aspects it has in preventing heart disease to its
symbolic meanings for Christians.
The French, for instance, are famous for believing that wine
is not to be enjoyed alone but with family and friends. People
from different cultures also drink wine to "break the ice",
helping smooth the conversation at social events.
The president of the 300-year-old French wine producer Chateau
Beychevelle, Aymar de Baillenx, said recently there were many
stories about wine, and each wine had its own story.
While stressing that wine tasting is a personal experience, de
Baillenx dismissed the assumption that wine drinking has a set of
strict rules that must be followed, and is reserved for a
particular class only.
"There are no (standard) rules. I may like wine that you don't
like. It's OK. My taste is different from yours. Wine tasting is
an extremely emotional experience. It's related to your personal
taste, experience and memory of special events," he said, adding
that wine connoisseurs have a good memory.
Novices too, he added, can also try to separate good wines
from inferior ones, which can be done even with a blindfold and
the labels of the bottles removed.
"Just trust your feeling. It's a very personal experience. Try
to listen and concentrate to what your body is trying to tell
you. Is (the wine) pleasurable or not?" said Laurent Bonnet, a
wine merchant with French company Barriere Freres.
The delicate flavors and bouquets of wine can remind people of
many things, like fruit, flowers, fungus or even wood.
"When it reminds you of water it's an inferior wine, but when
the flavor is complex it's a good one," he said.
French wine, Bonnet added, is very popular mainly because it
comes in a wide range of characteristics, bouquets and tastes.
There are wines for different ambiences, occasions, seasons and
meals.
"The selected wine has to fit the occasion and the people,"
Bonnet said.
However, there are conditions affecting one's judgment about
wines. "We are not ready to appreciate wine when we are tired or
have just consumed particular food that doesn't go well with the
wine," he said.
The golden rule that white wine should be served with white
meat and red wine with red meat still prevails, but now consumers
are more adventurous.
"It is an old perception. Now the cuisine has changed a lot.
You can choose a wine to accompany a dish as long as you
understand the basic sense of taste, so the flavor of the food
will not overpower the wine. Besides, your palate will tell you
what combination is complementary," said the commercial director
of wine and spirits distribution firm PT Tebet Indraya, Patrick
Lim.
Both de Baillenx and Bonnet said the wide range of
international cuisines can be accompanied by different wines.
"It's free and you can be creative when combining wine with food.
However, it's a relatively new trend, say 10 years ago," Bonnet
said.
Besides having a low alcohol content at 11 percent to 12
percent, a good wine also has a complex taste. But wine's
precious quality can vanish in the improper environment.
"Unlike spirits, wine is alive and is easily spoiled. It
evolves and the environment plays a very important role," Lim
said.
Among the most common mistakes people commit is using an
"inappropriate" glass to drink wine -- such as a plastic glass --
or keeping the bottle near a heat source like a stove.
"Wine has three enemies: light, exposure to which can ruin the
liquid, huge variations of temperature and trepidation or shaking
your wine," explained de Baillenx.
Wine, he said, likes humidity, which is not good for the label
but good for the cork. "The cork is very important because it has
to enable oxygen penetration, which is required for the wine's
evolution process," he said.
Not all wines, though, are fit for aging. Some wine are worth
keeping because their characters can improve with time. Others
are best consumed in their early years.
Lim also encouraged novice to enjoy in moderation good quality
wines on a regular basis to nurture their appreciation.
"If you limit yourselves to cheap wines and you happen to
taste a bad one, you may end up not liking wine," he said.
Although the trend shows that novices tend to go straight to
red wines, a lighter and sweeter version of a white one is easier
to enjoy, he said. After that, they can progress to other fuller
bodied and heavier wines.
"This way people can develop a longer and lasting liking of
wine," he explained.
Lim said the slow growth of wine drinking here was partly due
to a lack of knowledge and the possibility that local beginners
are intimidated by wine, and the fear being criticized for making
an "error".
Although information about wine is needed, Bonnet cautioned
that the more you know about wine, the less you know.
"This is simply because there are plenty of other things to
learn about wine as you progress."
Tips for wine drinking
* Find a properly lit and cozy location away from noise,
pollution and sources of heat like a stove to prevent anything
from hampering your senses in tasting the wine.
* Prepare yourself to enjoy the experience by trying to relax and
be happy.
* Professional wine tasters would also have a spittoon at hand.
They would spit out the wine in their mouth so that previous
tastings would not affect their judgment in tasting the remaining
wines.
* Choose a proper wine glass, one with a tall stem and tulip-
shaped glass. The tall stem is designed for holding the glass to
prevent your body heat being transferred to the wine through your
palm. The tulip shaped glass is designed to capture the aroma
released by the wine.
* White wine should be kept at about 10 degrees Celsius to 12
degrees Celsius, while red ones are best stored at 17 degrees
Celsius to 19 degrees Celsius. Too hot a temperature will make
the alcohol become overwhelming, while too cold a temperature
will numb your palate and you cannot enjoy the wine's flavors.
* Hold the wine glass away from you and pay attention to the
color of the wine. Young red wine has a purplish color, while a
more mature one has brownish or orange hues. Young white wine is
greenish in color and the color tends to shift to golden as they
age.
* Gently swirl the glass to help release the aroma. Plunge your
nose inside the glass and try to sense the wine's aromas, which
can remind you of, among other things, fruits, floral or fungus.
These elements are also called the bouquet.
* Pay attention to the glass' wall as full-bodied wines would
leave its traces behind, dubbed the "leg", on the glass' wall
after swirling.
* Slowly take a sip of the wine and gently let the liquid slide
across the palate, covering it completely. This is important to
give the palate an opportunity to detect possible flavors in
different areas of the organ of taste, such as sweetness (at the
tip), bitterness (at the back part of the tongue) or sourness (in
the middle). Then let it cover the whole mouth cavity, by doing
so the bouquet can also travel into the nasal passage.
* After swallowing the wine, you can feel the aftertaste of the
wine in your mouth for 10 seconds to 30 seconds after. The longer
it lingers in your mouth the better the wine. Some wines have a
10 minute to 15 minute-long aftertaste.