It would be nice to think that our price is right, and that the average price of a bottle of wine (£3.54) is wrong. At this price the true value of the wine in the bottle is probably 60p, and then there's the shipping costs, storage, distribution, marketing, duty at £1.30, VAT and then the small matter of profit. These costs are mainly fixed, so the more you spend: the better the wine. That's why there aren't many truly distinctive wines for under five pounds.



A lot of people ask (many daren't) what makes a wine red or pink? Even white! It's a good question. Grapes come in different colours and shades, their juice and pulp however are nearly* always white (not like milk: colourless).



The colour of wine depends mainly on contact with the grape skins. To turn the must (grape juice to you and I) pink or red the skins 'must' be left in for the colour to leech out. Anthocyanins are responsible for colour, tannin and flavour and will be released at varying rates according to temperature and acidity of the must. Rosé wines are normally left in contact with skins overnight and up to three days. Red wines longer, up to a month, or even more in some cases.

Colour in young wines can depend on the above and the actual cultivar (variety). Cabernet Sauvignons for example will take a bluish red hue where as a Grenache would be more crimson.

Oxidation, age and use of oak will all alter the colour further. Hit this link to get to find out more http://www.essentialwinetastingguide.com/

There are grapes with red flesh and juice these are known as Teinturier grapes. Rare.




There is a lot of confusion about wine tasting - so we thought we'd iron out a few misconceptions…

The perception of taste in a wine is the combination of many thousands of compounds, the interplay of sensory organs, mind-games and experience. To be a good professional taster takes a lot of skill! To enjoy a wine however, requires just a little thought.

The eyes

Hold the wine up to the light or a white background, doesn't it look pretty! Are there any bubbles? Any tears running down the side of the glass? Marvellous, but what was the point?! The basic reasons are to see if the wine is in good condition and also it may give you a clue as to how old the wine is. Let's not get too bogged down! Next....

The nose

Spin the wine round in the glass, get the flavours rising up and then stick you nose in, again we're looking at condition, any off notes? What do you smell fresh, fruity, floral? probably a young wine. Earthy, wood, toasty, 'farmyard' probably a more mature wine. Nearly there....

The Mouth

The main function of the mouth is to assess texture or the dimensions of the wine. The mouth really only 'tastes'; sweetness, bitterness, tannin, acidity and viscosity, the real flavours of the wine are recognised at the olfactory hub in the back of the nasal cavity. Moving the wine around the mouth facilitates the movement of these flavours towards the olfactory hub. In conclusion the mouth can't taste blackberries or chocolate, it is the recognition of the compounds responsible for these flavours that make the wine taste the way it does.

The interaction of the mouth sensations, the amount of alcohol and the quantity of flavours all help to paint a picture of that particular wine. If all of the above senses are exploited then every wine should be an individually hedonistic experience. Rah!

Some Common Flavours:

Almond - usually Italian, especially Soave and Valpolicella wines.

Apple - many dry whites, sweet Loires, and aromatic Riesling ("reesling!").

Apricot - Viognier, various sweet wines.

Asparagus - Sauvignon Blanc.

Banana - young cheap whites, Beaujolais and Pinotage.

Biscuit - mature sparkling wines.

Blackcurrant - Cabernet Sauvignon, less so in Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

Blackberries - Argentine Malbec and Syrah.

Brioche - mature sparkling wines.

Butter - oak matured Chardonnays.

Cat's Pee - French Sauvignon.

Cedar - Cabernet Sauvignons of a certain style.

Cherry - Burgundy, Beaujolais, and a lot of Italian reds.

Chocolate - many medium reds.

Citrus - many young dry aperitif wines.

Coconut - wines aged on new American oak.

Coffee - (not instant!) various reds normally oak aged.

Earth - Loire Cabernet Franc and some very mature great reds.

Eucalyptus - Very ripe Cabernets and Shiraz* 'New World' for Syrah.

Floral - many aromatic whites and desert wines.

Game - northern Rhône Syrah, mature red Burgundy.

Gooseberry - Sauvignon Blanc, especially Loire and New Zealand.

Grape - Muscat.

Green / Bell pepper - Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Carmenère.

Grass - Sauvignon Blanc

Honey - noble rot affected desert wines, also some mature whites

Liquorice - many reds, especially young, tannic full-bodied ones

Leather - Mourèvdre, Syrah/Shiraz.

Lemon - many young whites.

Lime - Oz Rielsing and Verdelho.

Lychee - Gewürtztraminer.

Melon - new-world Chardonnay.

Mineral well made whites from cooler climates Chablis or Pouilly-Fumé.

Mint - new-world Cabernet Sauvignon and Coonawarra Shiraz especially.

Nutty - quality oaked Chardonnay and good quality sparkling wine.

Orange - many sweet and fortified wines.

Peach - many whites especially warmer climate whites and sweet wines.

Plum - a less pronounced fruit smell in many reds

Pepper - some Syrah, southern Rhône reds, Grenache and Grüner Veltliner.

Petrol - a sign of a good quality Rielsing.

Raisin - sweet fortified wines and southern Italian reds.

Raspberry - many fruit driven reds, especially dominant in unoaked wines.

Rose - dry Alsace Muscat and Gewurtztraminer.

Rubber - good quality Alsace and German Rielsing.

Smoke - full bodied, oak aged reds. Alsace Tokay-Pinot Gris.

Strawberry - Beaujolais, red Burgundy and Rioja.

Spice - many reds, Alsace whites, any wine that has been oak aged.

Tar - Barolo

Toast - any wine that has been in new oak, mature unoaked sparkling wine.

Tobacco - many reds especially fine Bordeaux and Sangiovese wines.

Vanilla - Wines aged in new French or American Oak.

Violets - Nebbiolo wines (Barolo) and Petit Verdot.




Some popular myths about wine dispelled...

Chardonnay 'boohoo'...

You may or may not have heard this but apparently Chardonnay is 'orrible! To many this may come as a bit of a shock, it was a shock to me that's for sure. Chardonnay is versatile, malleable, and can express the very essence of the place and climate in which it is grown. In short no two quality Chardonnays ever taste the same. Sadly there is plenty of poor quality Chardonnay kicking around. The main culprit is Oak, there is a tendency to put a lot of Chardonnay in Oak barrels or even throw handfuls of Oak chips into the wine and let the Oak do all the talking. The results are often ghastly and had lead to popular disdain.

The French





We've been drinking plenty of overpriced, bad French wine for years. It's only in the face of fruit driven 'new-world' wines that the tide has turned on France. There is overproduction the world over, and ghastly wines in beautiful bottles from every country, but still France gets more of a drubbing than any other country. Is it all the fault of farmer feuding is there more to it?!

On paper France is probably the greatest wine producing country on earth. There is such an enormous diversity of wine styles: you just can't get bored. So forget overproduction, bad winemaking practices and other issues not confined to France, there are as many producers making wine in an intelligent and thoughtful way as anywhere else in the world. They are also world leaders in sustainable practices. The sad truth is there are some retailers buying awful wine with great names and 'mugging' their customers; it is not a true representation of the state of French Winemaking, and when pitted against uber-fruity new-world style wines they don’t stand a chance!

Screwcaps

The cracking of a screwcap will never replace the pop of a pulled cork, but why all the dismay? If a screwcap can keep fresh young wines fresher for longer - good! There may be the risk of cork taint with a cork, but if you use good quality corks this risk is minimal - good! There seems to bit of snobbery about it all though.



"Horses for courses" my old headmaster told me one Saturday morning detention. He knew nothing about screwcaps, but obviously got me thinking! The fact is the use of a screwcap should have no reflection on the quality of the wine in the bottle. It's the winemaker's choice; he's using one particular type of closure over another for the best interest of his wines (fingers crossed!)

As to the ageing debate...only 'time' will tell! (sorry)






The relationships between soil and vine, vine and climate, climate and topography all have an enormous impact on the individuality and typicity of a wine. None of these relationships is an exact science. The sum of all of their parts has been loosely attributed to the French term, 'terroir'. Terroir has its fair share of devotees (terroirists) and sceptics (antiterrorists?) the world over. Those in the middle might agree on the following though:

The vine is unique in its ability to express 'somewhereness' through its fruit. As a carrot will taste better from a rich and healthy soil; so a vine can achieve staggering heights of complexity in its grapes. If the grapes can be handled with sufficient care and respect then this complexity may be carried through to the finished wine. If the winemaker can resist putting his own stamp upon the character of the wine then it has every chance of tasting unique and true.