13 Things You Need To Know To Sound Smart About Wine
The Merlot market was crushed by the movie Sideways
After Sideways won the Oscar, everyone in the world went nuts about Pinot Noir, says wine expert Peter Slywka. At the same time, they turned up their noses at Merlot, because that's exactly what the lead does throughout the entire movie.
Apparently this line especially stuck with the industry:
"Pour any Merlot, and I'm leaving."
But what's the great wine that the Sideways lead is drinking out of the styrofoam cup at the end? Merlot.
- Peter Slywka, www.skurnikwines.com
They really do still stomp on grapes with their feet, just not as much as they used to
Foot treading of grapes is still used in producing a small quantity of the best port wines.
But there is no where near the amount of stompage that there used to be in the industry.
Of course, that could change in early 2011
The wine industry could really get stomped on by the capital gains tax hike.
Currently, profits made on wine can be saved from income tax because they can qualify for the capital gains tax.
But if a new bill that just passed through the House makes its way through the Senate, 75% of those profits will be taxed as regular income.
The new bill proposes that the first 75% of carried interest be taxed at normal income tax rates. The remaining 25% would be taxed at 15%, the current capital gains tax rate.
Read more about the tax at the WSJ.
Inside the wine world, people mostly hate on Bordeaux
Fake Veuve
"There's a lot of controversy over Bordeaux," says Peter.
He says most Bordeaux scandals focus on the fact that a couple major auction houses have sold a number of cruddy wines that scam artists fraudulently labeled to mimic expensive Bordeauxs.
But rumors of Chateau scandals and shoddy wine-making practices may go back further.
- Peter Slywka, www.skurnikwines.com
And you should stop being obsessed with Pinot Noir
Vineyards started selling out of Pinot left and right after Sideways, so some Californian vineyards started mixing their Pinot Noir with Pinot Meunier.
It's perfectly legal to call a Pinot Noir/Meunier blend just Pinot Noir. It's also cheaper to manufacture. It tastes fine but if you want the pure stuff, be sure to ask for it.
- Peter Slywka, www.skurnikwines.com
Ever wonder why a wine bottle is long and skinny?
Cork. It was only after cork was developed as a bottle closure in the late 17th century that bottles were lain down for aging. Wine bottles used to be much shorter and more bulbous.
Now that cork tops bottles, if you don't lie the bottle down, the cork will dry up, probably break into little pieces, fall into the wine, and destroy the wine.
So thanks to cork, and the necessity to store them laying down, wine bottles are tall and slender.
Most cork comes from Portugal
Lots of cool stuff going on there in Portugal.
Thirty-three percent of the world's 2.2 million hectares of cork forests are in Portugal.
The dark green color of the bottles is a Brit's doing
We're sure Sir Kenelm was much more handsome.
The dark green wine bottle was the work of Brit Sir Kenelm Digby, who in the mid 1600s was a Catholic polymath and diplomat, and who also managed his family's coal-fired gasworks.
Sweeter wines usually come from warmer climates
Sarkozy on vacation in warmer weather
As a general rule, grapes grown in warmer climates ultimately produce sweeter, fruitier wine, Peter says.
So for example, California and New Zealand, where it's usually sunnier, provide climates for grapes to become more ripe. As a result, they yield wines that are likely sweeter than wines from France, Italy and Spain.
- Peter Slywka, www.skurnikwines.com
"Dry" wine means there is an absence of sugar
Most people think that it's tannin that dries your gums out after drinking a "dry" wine.
Tannins are a a type of bitter plant product, that can also act as an astringent.
The wine may or may not have had tannins in it, says Peter, but it was actually a lack of sugar that gave you that dry feeling, not tannins.
- Peter Slywka, www.skurnikwines.com
Don't hate on the tannins
Without tannins, we might not even have enough grapes to make the wine.
Grapes produce the tannins to deter hungry caterpillars, so pucker and smile.
Tannins help keep the number of caterpillars to a minimum because they produce free radicals and quinones, two types of molecules which are potentially damaging to nutrients in the gut and to insect tissues. More tannins = fewer caterpillars.
- The Telegraph and a study submitted to the U of Michigan
Just be glad you're not living in the 20s, making bootleg wine from grape juice
They also had "medicinal" wine back when wine was "illegal"
Some US grape-juices manufacturers during prohibition put labels on their bottles with wine-making instructions that were masked as warnings.
''CAUTION! Do not add these grapes to five gallons of water and five pounds of sugar with yeast, or it will ferment into wine, which is ILLEGAL.''
And check out the label from a vintage prohibition wine bottle. They also had "medicinal" wine back when wine was "illegal."
For the math nerds
1 grape cluster = 1 glass
75 grapes = 1 cluster
4 clusters = 1 bottle
40 clusters = 1 vine
1 vine = 10 bottles
1200 clusters = 1 barrel
1 barrel = 60 gallons
60 gallons = 25 cases
30 vines = 1 barrel
400 vines = 1 acre
1 acre = 5 tons
5 tons = 332 cases
Now, would you like to know more about Whiskey?
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/sound-smart-wine-2010-6#ixzz0qTY6bYOQ