Facts About Wine

What's the deal with "aromas" in wine?

Just because descriptors of fruits, flowers, spices, and vegetables are often used to differentiate wines does not mean that these actual products or their artificial flavor were ever added to the wine. Type of grape, combined with soil type and winemaking technique, are what create specific aromas in wine. Descriptors are simply a way to characterize a wine’s overall aromatic style, the same way you might associate a hot brunette’s spicy perfume with her eccentric personality.

Look out for these commonly used descriptors:
Fruit: Apple, cherry, plum, grapefruit, lemon
Non-Fruit: Violets, thyme, nutmeg, green pepper, tomato vine
Earth/Mineral: Forest floor, mushroom, limestone, wet stone
Oakiness: Cinnamon, vanilla, smoke, nut

What's the right temperature for wine? 

Everyone will have a different opinion about the ideal temperature that wine should be kept and served at, especially when you’re talking about reds. While it won’t ruin your evening if the temperature of your bottle is a few degrees off, there are general guidelines you can follow to help the wine express its highest potential. Good restaurant service will do its best to ensure these expectations are met with temperature-controlled wine fridges.

Here are some ideal temperatures:
SPARKLING: 6-8 degrees Celsius
WHITE WINE: 9-11 degrees Celsius
LIGHT-BODIED REDS & FULL-BODIED WHITES: 12-13 degrees Celsius
MEDIUM-BODIED REDS: 14-16 degrees Celsius
FULL-BODIED REDS: 17-18 degrees

Why does wine need to be decanted?

Decanting, or pouring wine out of the bottle into another wine-holding receptacle (your wine glass, for example), is the process of “breathing” or oxygenating a wine to help its aromas and textures open up by transferring the wine from the bottle to a decanter. To decant or not decant is often an arguable topic, but there are a few situations when you can count on it to help open the wine to its full potential.

The Difference Between Red and White Wine Glasses

Red wine glasses and White wine glasses differ in shape and size, driven by the types of wine they are intended to hold. Typically Red wine glasses will be a bit taller and have a larger bowl than White wine glasses. In general Reds are bigger and bolder wines so they require a larger glass to allow all those aromas and flavors to emerge. "But do I need both types?" While you can certainly get by with one set of glasses, if you expect to drink a number of different varietals you may find that the glassware is holding back your experience, particularly if you opt to drink Red wine out of a smaller White wine glass. Does that mean you won't enjoy your wine? Most definitely not. While the various shapes and sizes can be overwhelming, a proper varietal-glass pairing a proper varietal-glass pairing can make a tremendous difference.

#DrinkAlsace

Let me introduce you to a great french wine région, often not well know: ALSACE ! 

In this post, we ´ll learn you more about the 3 AOC wines of Alsace (Appellations d’Origine Contrôlées), the 51 "Grand Cru" often hard to prononce as well as the characteristics of the main grape varieties grown in Alsace. 

Grapes varieties:

Alsace wine région produce both white and red wines. 

For the whites, they are six: Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Sylvaner, Rielsing, Muscat, Gewurztraminner.

For red ones,  Pinot Noir is the unique varietal. 

Appelations 

- AOC Alsace

The wines of AOC Alsace, in which the grape variety appears on the label, are comprised of 100% of that varietal. Alsace blend wines are rare and are called “Edelzwicker” or “Gentil”. 

The wines are made from grapes grown on parcels with precisely stipulated boundaries, based on historical growing areas.

AOC Alsace represents 74% of the region’s wine production, of which 92% are white wines.

- AOC Alsace Grand Cru 

The AOC Grand Cru features 51 classified areas, defined according to strict geological and climactic criteria (the most exceptionel terroirs). The designation is attributed to wines satisfying a number of quality-related criteria: strict limitations on terroir, highly restricted yields, specific rules of conduct regarding the vines, minimal natural ripeness levels and taste.

With a few minor exceptions, permitted grape varieties to produce AOC Alsace Grand Cru are Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris and Muscat. 

The Grands Crus of Alsace represent just 4% of the total Alsace wine production.

- AOC Crémant d'Alsace 

AOC Crémant d’Alsace is the sparkling wines produced in Alsace. Fresh and elegant, Crémant d’Alsace is predominately made from Pinot Blanc, but also from Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Riesling or Chardonnay. This high quality sparkling wine is produced by the traditional method (like in Champagne!)

Crémant d’Alsace is currently the top AOC sparkling wine to be consumed in homes across France. It has also earned considerable international recognition. 

AOC Crémant d’Alsace represents 22% of the region’s wine production.

Visit it, you gonna like it! For sure... 

  Pairing food and wine : how to succeed ?

When you organize a meal, the more difficult is the choice of the wine which corresponds with the dish.

                                             Meat?      Red?      Yes, but a bordeaux?

                         Fish? White?      Yes but côte du rhone? alsace? bandol?

Here are a few explanations which will facilitate the choice of your wine for your an exceptional meal with your friends.

The aromas of the wine and the flavors of a dish are different.

In the wine found the notions of sugar, acid, fruit, tannin and alcohol.

In the foods we find the concepts of fat element, acid, salt, sugar and bitterness.

The success of a pairing food and wine is the wealth, the complementarity and the textures of the elements of wine and food.

Now that you are better in the wine and the tasting, you can follow the following items for a perfect pairing food and wine:

       5 element to know to pairing food and wine:

Here are some element that we found in our food which must be in agreement with the wine to have a good meal:

Fat element

Many of our favorite foods contain fat elements like dairy products and meat. The wine fat element free, but for having a perfect pairing, it must know that the acidity accentuated the balance, the tannin cut the sensation of fat elements and alcohol accentuates the wealth.

Example: a steak is very good with a cabernet franc: the beef fills of proteins and fat element softens the wine in the mouth and dry tannins.

Acidity

Acidity is an element in both the food and the wine. In the wine, the acidity add a note of freshness. In this way, this freshness may be added to the food. When you are looking for a wine to pairing with a dish, you must ensure that the acidity of the wine is equal to the acidity of the food, or the wine will bland.

Salt

Is not afraid to mix sweet wine with salt dish, you would be surprised of the results : Bleu de Bresse with a Sauternes. Also the sparkling wines with fried food.

Sweetness

For a dessert the sweet wine is the wine to select, but attention there is a rule:

There are degrees of sweetness.

- For a salt dish with sweet sauce (fruit, cream etc. ), a white wine such as chardonnay made the case. The alcohol in the wine white accentuate the effect of softness.

- For a dessert, the taste of wine must be more sugar that the dessert, otherwise the wine will lose its sweetness and be able become bitter. A few example: dessert in dark chocolate, uses a sweet wine or late harvest like Zinfandel. A dessert less bitter than the chocolate cake like fruit cake, with a dry wine is very delicious.

Texture

For the texture, use a heavy wine with a heavy dish and light wines with light dish. This is the best way to not deceive.

            However, the most important rule of all, is to trust your own palate, so enjoy!!!!!!!

Need help to started? Here are a few great pairing :

Red wine

Pork chops with a Pinot Noir

Rice salad with mushrooms with a Cabernet Franc

Fillet of duck breast with caramelized apples with a red Burgundy

Lamb shanks with olives with a Beaujolais

Lamb with apricots with a St-Joseph

Moussaka and Agiorgitiko

Steak frites with a Zinfandel

Rosé

Tomato salad with a Bandol

Tuna and eggs with a Tavel

Bouillabaisse with a côte de Provence

White wine

Mussels provencal with a Sauvignon Blanc

Vietnamese dish with a Gewurztraminer

Roast Chicken with a Vouvray

Tomato Gazpacho with lavocado and lobster with a white Bordeaux

Champagne and sparkling wine

Smoked salmon and caviar with blanc de blanc.

Liver paté with a Champagne rosé

Fillet of duck breast with Spaetzle, mushrooms, and spinach puree with a great champagne.

Did you know?

Champagne Boosts Brainpower

Researchers serve bubbly to lab rats and see improved memory; two studies look for links between alcohol and cancer.

Champagne may bubble with more than deliciousness. According to research from a team at the Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy department of the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, organic acids in the French sparkling wine actually increase brainpower. 

In their report, published in the journal Antioxidants & Redox Signaling, the authors explain that research showing certain chemicals in foods can improve memory is extensive, but there is a lack of data on phenolic acids. The team served Champagne (equivalent to a glass per day for people) to lab rats for six weeks and found the rodents showed an improvement in spatial working memory, thanks to improved cell-cycle regulation in the cortex and hippocampus, the part of the brain that controls learning and memory. 

Lead researcher Dr. Giulia Corona said the tests show promise for humans as well. "Daily supplementation with a low-to-moderate doses of Champagne for six weeks led to an improvement in memory," Corona told Wine Spectator, "indicating phenolic compounds in Champagne may interact directly with nerve cells, improve the communication between cells and encourage nerves that carry electrical signals in the brain to regenerate."

 

 

FINE OF 4 MILLION EUROS FOR CASTEL. NEW RECORD FOR THE FRENCH COMPANY.

Bordeaux wine giant Castel Frères has been hit with a fine of 4 million euros for having deliberately neglected to inform the French competition authority it had acquired Burgundy's Patriarche group in 2011.

It’s only the third time in its history that the authority has sanctioned a company for failure to notify. The two previous fines were ten times lower than that imposed on Castel Frères, at 392,000 euros and 400,000 euros.

In imposing its fine on Castel’s parent company, Copagef, the competition authority (L'Autorité de la concurrence) said it wanted to stress the “gravity” of the failure and the way that “Castel Frères had deliberately ignored its obligations in order to quickly complete the transaction.”

The level of the fine took account of the company's size.

Castel bought six companies from Patriache in May 2011 without advising the authority, which is primarily charged with verifying that acquisitions do not infringe French laws on competition.

The authority noted at the time that the entity created by the acquisition owned “several labels from this category (notably Vieux Papes, La Villageoise, Cambras, Cramoisay, Champlure and Lichette), some of which seem to be ubiquitous."

While validating the acquisition, the authority had doubts about the way it had been conducted and reserved the possibility of imposing a financial penalty.

It has now ruled that the Bordeaux company “knowingly exempted itself” from the obligation to notify which applies to this type of transaction. As a result, Castel committed a “serious violation” which “obstructs the control of mergers,” the authority said.

“Castel’s violation is even less excusable when it’s explained by an approach where the sole aim was the rapid achievement of the merger,” it added. “The evidence indicates the adoption of a deliberate strategy” on the part of Castel, which “formally decided against verifying its obligation to notify.”

That just happended…

Château Lynch-Bages, Château Beychevelle, Château Bouscaut, Château Figeac, Domaine de Chevalier, Château l'Olivier, Champagne Veuve Cliquot, Domaine Marcel Deiss... to taste in a same place, THE place to be in Bordeaux this week end:

" BORDEAUX TASTING " By Terre de Vins

Focused on discovering and sharing meanings & emotions, Bordeaux Tasting democratizes the access to the greatest Bordeaux wines.

During these two days, Bordeaux Tasting:

- hosted 5200 people : a net increase of affluence since last year (4000 people)

- offered 6500 Riedel glasses

- openned 3000 bottles 

--> A total of 120 great Bordeaux wine, twenty houses and wineries of Champagne and ten great guests had traveled to meet (and for our biggest pleasure!), ten days before Christmas, the wine lovers from Bordeaux and the South West. 

Our favorite? 

Domaine de Chevalier 2009, Grand Cru Classé - Graves  

Also a great moment of tasting always respecting the objective of this event which are discovering and learning with moderation (Who is he?).

For Rodolphe Wartel, director of Terre de Vins "Consumers drink less but drink better". Indeed, french drink about 50 liters per capita per year against 120 in the 60s: oui, Oui, OUI, our grand parents drank more than us! More and more, people want to know the wine history and geography and understand wines & dishes pairings.

The third edition of Bordeaux Tasting is already announced for the 13th and 14th December 2014 and will still take place in the awsome Palais de la Bourse.

SO SEE YOU THERE NEXT WEEK!

... or sooner ! Indeed, thanks to the success of this second edition, "Terre de Vins" announced the launch of "Lille Tasting" on 6 and 7 June. An event intended to introduce these wines to the public of Nord Pas-de-Calais and of Belgium.