What makes wine taste like it does? In the ether, there are a few hundred long chain hydrocarbon molecules which we can taste. Of major importance among them are several alcohols. The nuances of taste and aroma come from numerous esters and hydrocarbons which symbiotically interact with those alcohols and residual sugars that make up wine. To a degree slightly higher alcohol levels in wine serve to enhance those tastes. Big vat wine producers destroy many of the kinds of exquisite flavor components that come from specific grapes and specific soils and specific oak barrels and can best be coaxed into a bottle in small batches and by frequent and talented tasting and blending. Small lot, Vineyard Designated winemaking is the high taste game in which superwine oenophile/vintners are today playing and succeeding. Rosé The people who market wine in America's supermarkets, have figured out that wines called rosé don't sell, so they invented the term blush wines. Lest someone figured out that blush is a synonym for rosé, the labels call the wine white. But even a child can see that White Zinfandel is really pink. The blush wines that call themselves white are fairly sweet. Wines labeled rosé can be sweetish, but some wonderful rosés from Europe, like our Contessina, are more semi-sweet. Although a lot of hard-core wine lovers hardly ever drink rosé wine, we love to drink Contessina in the summer. Even if a rosé wine is dry, most people will assume that it's sweet, because the common perception among Americans is that rosés are sweet. Yet lots of people who drink White Zinfandel believe that they're drinking a dry wine, because it's not called rosé. It has been said that wine is mankind's most ancient medicine. Cheers to that indeed! There are a few passions in life that are both enjoyable and beneficial to health at the same time. It is perhaps why wine drinking is becoming such a fad in even the non-traditional Asia region. While there were initial claims that the benefits of wine were folklore created by wine makers to propogate wine drinking, increasing research by many reputable research centers have concluded that it is indeed no folklore. In fact, they discovered many other benefits of wine as well! Here are some of them: Heart Disease Wine is a vasodilator that helps reduce the risk of cardiac diseases including angina and stroke. It helps in two ways. Red wines have HDL (a good cholesterol) that drives the bad cholesterol from the arteries. Red wine also contains an antifungal compound called Resveratrol that can lower serum cholesterol. Digestion Wine stimulates flow of gastric juices to enhance the digestive processes. It has also shown that wines kill cholera bacteria and can combat typhoid. Vitamins and Minerals Wine contains utilizable minerals of potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, Vitamin B and P. Viruses Red wines have polyphenols that are effective against some viruses. Aging Elderly people who drink moderate amounts are less prone to disability due to mental illness. Some attribute it to the mineral boron which helps older women to maintain their oestrogen which in turn enables them to absorb calcium. Cancer Red wine contains a strong anti-cancer agent known as quercetin which becomes active in the body when the grape juice ferments or the body digests food. Wine also contains gallic acid, an acknowledged anti-carcinogenic. Stress Wine is a mild tranquilizer that can help reduce stress, which in turn can help prevent certain forms of cancer. Kidney Wine can enhance the alkaline reserves, effectively combating kidney acidosis. Migraine Red wine inhibits an enzyme called PST-P which detoxifies all sorts of bacteria in the stomach. The absence of PST-P is linked to migraine.

Sparkling Wine Foaming? To prevent a sparkling wine from foaming out of the glass, pour an ounce, which will settle quickly. Pouring the remainder of the serving into this starter will not foam as much. "Nectar of the Gods" Wine is often called the nectar of the gods, but Sangiovese is the only grape named after a god. Sangiovese means “blood of Jove.” "Wine is the most civilized thing in the world." Ernest Hemingway "A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover." Clifton Fadiman Galileo said “Wine is light held together by water”. Simple as this may appear, our perception of this unique blend of light and water has become somewhat tipsy. Pleasures of the vine can seem cumbersome due to the snobbish rituals imposed upon us by those trendy bistros. But, in fact, the proper service of wine can be painless and easily put to use. The only real necessities in your pursuit are clean glasses and a corkscrew. Two wine glasses are always better than one. The journey through a great bottle of wine is certainly not a solo mission. Some of the most pleasing aspects of the wine are exposed when it is shared. Let’s begin with the basics, the stemware you choose need not be exotic nor fancy, you can find perfect glasses for under five dollars at even the swankiest of spots. The capacity of the bowl should be at least ten ounces or so, this gives you plenty of room to “swirl” the wine to release it’s bouquet when tasting. All the different shapes of glasses sometime seems overwhelming but, as a rule of thumb, choose a glass with a basic “U” shaped bowl. These are the most durable and can be very versatile as everyday drinking ware. If you really decide to splurge and surround yourself with different glassware for each style of wine, tall thin flutes are for sparkling wines, smaller glasses that seem to curve in at the rim are for young wines, while those fish bowls with stems are for big, robust red wines. Just a hint, when seriously tasting wines, real veterans hold the glass by the stem, don’t touch the bowl of the glass with your hands. Experience tells us that the heat from your fingers warms the chilled wine and fingerprints inhibit the visual examination. Just remember to keep a good grip, wine always tastes better from a glass versus the rug! Corkscrews Corkscrews are like doorknobs, they have all different personalities but seem to have a singular task. When selecting this important piece of equipment, realize you may be using this tool for many vintages to come so you may as well choose a quality one. The coil that is inserted into the bottle should be at least two inches long. A shorter coil won’t be able to penetrate the dense corks used by some of the finer vineyards. The coil should also be wide or open down the center; this insures a good grip on the cork when pulling it through the neck of the bottle. Coils that resemble more a drill bit do nothing more than bore a hole through a soft cork. In this situation, one would need a straw. Most pulls are equipped with a folding knife on the side. This is used to cut the capsule off below the neck of the bottle so the wine doesn’t touch it as is it's poured. A true wine snob would refer to this procedure as “de-flowering” the bottle, while some of us call it “cutting the top off”. Ideal Wine Serving Temperature The proper temperature for serving wine is basic and straight forward although often debated. Dry white wines like Chardonnays or Sauvignon Blancs are normally chilled to keep them fresh and crisp. Red wines are best at room temperature so you can enjoy some of their more concealed layers of flavor. Dessert wines or after dinner cordials like Port, Sherry or late harvest Germans fall somewhere in between, depending on taste. (Your taste by the way, not your waiter’s.) Wine Breathing If you’ve ever had a long wait for your entree at your favorite restaurant, I’m sure there has been a clever server to explain the mystery of letting the wine “breathe” before dinner. This isn’t altogether a simple stall tactic. Uncorking a young red gives the surface of the wine exposure to air and this softens its puckery tannins and makes it smoother and much more drinkable. To achieve the best results when letting a wine aerate, pour it into a carafe or a decanter. If no container is handy, at least pour the wine into your glasses a couple of minutes before serving. The exposure of wine to air in each glass is considerably greater than if it simply remains in an open bottle. Make the enjoyment of wine fit your lifestyle, it can be as laid back as jeans and a T-shirt or as elegant as a top hat and tails.