The following tips will help you gain an appreciation for both the aroma and taste in a bottle of wine posses.

1. Does cost indicate quality?   Sometimes yes, and sometimes no.  Generally, the more expensive a wine costs, the more expensive the grapes were to grow or purchase, and / or the more elaborate the winemaking processes were, both of which leads to more complex and flavorful wines, and / or what the wine team thinks the value of the wine is.  There are many examples in the history of wine in which a winery tied up a lot of costs and processes to make a wine only to have the end product turn out bland and basic.  Just as likely, there are many examples of a winery not “busting the budget” to make a wine only to find out that the wine tastes like they must have spent the money to make it.  Price usually does have a bearing on the quality, but taste is very subjective 

2. Try a variety of wines. This enables you to experience new flavors and discover how they blend together.

3. Try the same wine out of different shaped glasses.  Stemware is an important aspect of wine and can greatly influence the aromas and flavors in the wine. Don’t necessarily “buy into” the concept that a “red wine glass” should only be used for red wines.  Try whites in them too!  The same holds true for “white wine glasses” by trying reds in them as well.  Here are a few great hints:  Bigger is normally better.  More curves the better, and a larger opening the better.

There’s a lot to it!!! 

First, did you know there are over 10,000 different grape varieties grown in the world for making wine?  Additionally some varieties have clones of those varieties.  For instance, our cabernet franc that we grow is clone 347.  Wow, so many choices….

If you made wine from 100% of the grapes, here is where the wine would get the flavors (approximate percentages)

·          Grape Seeds        65%

·          Grape Stems        19%

·          Grape Skins         15%

·          Grape Juice         1%

With white wine, all we care about is the juice, the 1%.  With reds, we carefully manage the 1% while adding the effects of the grape skins (the 15%)   

Ever notice when you try wines made from grapes that you’ll pick up flavors of strawberry, cherry, apple, blackberry and so forth?  Did we add those flavors to the wines?  Not a chance!  Here’s a cool fact about wine.  If you can believe this, there are more than 1000 natural chemical compounds that exist in a bottle of wine.  Many natural chemical compounds are shared between plants.  Therefore, that apple taste you find in our vignoles may in fact be a shared chemical between a certain apple variety and our vignoles.  Cool, huh?

 The Mind Games Wine will play on you

Adding to the allure of wine is how your mind processes such a wonderful beverage.  Before you consume any beverage, your sense of smell kicks into gear and tells you a couple of wonderfully basic things.  First, is the beverage safe to drink or not?  Seriously, we’re not that far removed in the course of human existence from hunting and gathering and safe beverages haven’t been around for more than maybe 100 years.  And that includes water!  Second, after your sense of smell gives you the green light, next it tries to associate the aroma with a pleasurable experience.

Next, you tongue is divided up between bitter, sweet, salt, and acid receptors. The same wine directed towards the bitter senses first can taste different than if it was directed towards the sweet receptors first.

Some ideas for enjoyment

So here we go, a body in constant survival mode, taking in a beverage with over 1000 natural chemical compounds, many of them shared with other plants.  Therefore, wouldn’t you agree that…

1.       Trying a wine in a different shaped glass will affect the flavor and aroma of wine?  Every uniquely styled wine glass will provide subtle and not so subtle changes in the wine complexity.

2.        The art of a great wine may not exist in a single variety, such as cabernet sauvignon, but rather in how the winery blends different wines to create more complexity.

3.       With 1000 natural chemical compounds, everything counts – the grape variety, where it’s grown, the weather for that year, the yearly vineyard maintenance and the harvest parameters.

4.       The temperature of the wine affects the flavor and enjoyment.  Typically, the warmer it is, the more fruit and perhaps the more the alcohol is noticed in the wine.  Some reds we prefer cool and some whites we prefer at room temperature and vice versa.