Various, RAMBLING, wine questions from a newbie

Of course I don't know, but if someone put "something" in the soil, might it not affect the taste of the grapes? Seems goofy, though, becuase they would have to put it on acres and acres of ground...

See how much I DON'T know?

Jeff

Guess I had better drink it then. Just checked, Presecco Di Conegliano by "Canella". There is no year on it...

Got it.

...

Resources, such as this NG are

The guy who owns the closest liquor store to me seems to really enjoy wine. Others who are much more knowledgable than me say has a very good collection. So, when he is there, I'll ask him for advice.

I wonder what it's like down there. Actually I have family that lives in the rural south, but they're not drinkers anyway, so they wouldn't know. I'm sure the large cities (Atlanta, for instance) have good selections.

Where hail from, there are no restrictive laws regarding what is sold (just who can sell it), so whatever the store owner wants to buy, he buys. Of course, that usually means, he buys what his customers buy.

If I crossed the river into Pennsylvania, it might be a problem, since the state does the buying.

Actually, I had a wine a month or so back that had those little "crystals" on the cork. I read up on it, and, of course, found out it was no big deal...most lkely happened because the wine got cold. They also mentioned that it happens more often in wines that aren't as mass produced because they aren't filtered as much as the Sutter Home's and such.

Oddly enough, I bought a second bottle two weeks later, and it too had the crystals. Same store, though, so nothing surprising there.

Oh, I will.

Jeff

Stelvin is a type of screw-cap closure. While there are other brands of screw

-cap enclosures, Stelvin is probably near the Kleenex tm mode for tissues.

Hunt

SNIP]

I have no idea what "tangier" is. Maybe someone can clear it up for all of us.

Most of the sensory impressions come from smelling the wine, either via the nose, or after you have swallowed and exhaled, "retronasal." The finish is actaully how long the retronasal impression lasts. Try swallowing and then exhaling through your nose (make sure that you swallow completely!). See how long the impressions last.

The basic drill for tasting (though some don't like to do that - just drink it with food) is to look at the wine in good light, usually over white cloth, a napkin, tablecloth, or at a formal tasting, maybe a white placemat with circles for the glasses. Tilt the glass and study the rim, especially. Some hold the glass to a point light source to see if there is any cloudiness, etc. Next, smell the wine. Next, swirl the wine, and then smell it again. Aromas may well be different between sniffs. Then you're ready to actually taste the wine. Take a small amount of wine into your mouth, and breath in some air. Move the wine around your mouth. Some folk advocate "chewing" the wine, so that it reaches all parts of the mouth. Swallow. Exhale, and see what aromas are picked up in the retronasal maneuver. There are variations on this basic theme, and one will find what they are comfortable with. In a tasting of many wines, one should have an opaque vessel to sip into. The retronasal is a little less intense that way, but still doable.

Let me know if this makes any sense.

Hunt

How do they rate against one another (and against non-wine screwcaps?) If I open a bottle and don't finish it, I usually rebottle it in a smaller bottle and pump it down with VacUVin. But if I can fill it to the tippy top and screwcap it, it should also keep nicely, no?

Does the kind of screwcap matter? Can I use an old EVO (I just learned that one) bottle with no ill effects?

Jose

I've never heard of that. What does the opacity do?

What does opacity have to do with retronasality?

Jose

"Hunt" skrev i meddelandet news: snipped-for-privacy@news3.newsguy.com...

I think it's a city in Morocco ;)

Cheers

Nils Gustaf

How did you know that this wine used a Stelvin screw cap? I thought the review just mentioned a screw cap, but wasn't specific.

It does except for the last bit...The opaque vessel...Are you saying, if tasting many wines, you don't want to get smashed, so you don't swallow them all? The vessel is to spit into? Typo?

Just my guess....

Right ;-)

I meant deep not so fertile soils... The surface roots are routinely cut every year to encourage the vertical development... Also be aware that no irrigation is permitted once a plant is used to produce grapes for wine, so in case of draught the availability of water in deeper layers is key to preserving the plants.

"JR" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com...

Read him again - Tissues often are called Kleenex even then they are not. Same with Stelvin. Anders

"JR" skrev i melding news:asWdnc39NNJZwrPZnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com...

My guess too. You don't want to see a lot of spit floating around... :-) Anders

Well there was some experiment done in Germany a while back (please don't make me find the source guys...) where they buried some containers filled with different kinds of soils and then grew the same variety in them to compare soil difference and its effect on wine flavour. The vines were all the same variety and were all exposed to the same climactic conditions since they were side by side in the same vineyard. Vine management was the same for each container. They subsequently microvinified the fruit from each container seperately and they found that there was not "much" difference from one batch to the other. There were slight differences in pH, titratable acidity, baume`, etc., but these variances could have been attributed to the small scale of the production, shaded bunches vs. unshaded etc. Effectively, the result was that all the wines shared many common traits. The aroma, the length and flavour; all these were shared by all of the resulting wines. What this illustrated for some of the participants was that soil ALONE did not account for wine quality. And in fact the idea of "terroir" isn't wholey dependent on soil.

Terroir incorporates a whole bunch of variables, like traditional vineyard and winemaking techniques, climate, exposure, local varieties, management, oak etc. and not just whether the soil is deep enough for the vine to draw water through the dry months of the year, or whether there are the full complement of elements for the vine to access. Irrigation does not negate terroir, though some might like to say it does, (even New World producers like Randall Grahm). Some producers don't believe in terroir and emphasise vine balance (through canopy management, controlled irrigation etc.) as being more qualitatively significant. Basically, they put it down to photosynthesis being the first and final quality influencing factor. If you can maximise PS per leaf, per bunch for the variety you've chosen according to heat summations, rainfall averages etc. of your particular plot, then you have a pretty good chance of making seriously drinkable wine, and who would have the right or the means to say that it didn't express the true nature of your vineyard's terroir?

Basically, you can mess with a whole lot more than soil and dramatically change the wine you'll eventually bottle.

I love the "idea" of terroir, but you have to give you're vines every chance to express it, and that takes lots of trial and error, and increasingly these days -- science.

Marcello

PS. I know, almost ad infinitum nauseamque... But that's a wrap!

I do not know the answers to either. Some in the group have much experience and knowledge regarding the various producers of screw-cap enclosures for the wine industry.

In very limited tests, I've re-sealed the bottles of white "under" Stelvin ( don't even know if they are OFFICIALLY Stelven), and stuck 'em back into the fridge. They did not leak, so the experiment succeded. Unfortunately, the wines never hung around long enough to really test their effectiveness. I still Vacu-Vin my non-Stelvin bottles, and refrigerate them with little ill effect. So far, I have not encountered any reds with Stelvin, so I cannot comment. I still might Vacu-Vin them though - just out of habit.

Hunt

Probably an assumptive mistake on my part. As has been pointed out, there are many different brands of screw-cap-type of enclosures, and I just applied the "generic" (to me, at least) Stelvin to it.

Hunt

Er-r-r, just a typo. Nothing to see here folks, move along. Sorry, it should have read "SPIT into." Dang, I hate when the mind out paces the fingers. Opacity should have NOTHING to do with the retronasal maneuver.

It took me a moment to even understand your misunderstanding, then I saw it. Even if this news reader had spell-check, which it doesn't, it would not have caught it.

I suppose that I could have just said that it was an April Fool's joke, but am not that quick of wit.

Hunt

Your guess is a good one! Wish there was a prize, but alas...

Hunt

Interesting read Marcello. And a latinist to boot.

OK...

I managed to locate a place that sells Pillar Box Red, bought a bottle, $11, more than what was mentioned, but no big deal...

For those of you who can't recall the review that was posted...here it is...

=============== inserted text below ==================== Ok Hunt --- here's the wine jargon version for Pillar Box Red 8-) Approx USD 8.00 - 9.00.

"A fabulous value, this 20,000 case blend, assembled by renowned Barossa winemaker Chris Ringland, is composed of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Shiraz, and 11% Merlot, primarily from young vines. Ringland has rarely worked with such huge quantities, but he kept the wine in tank with a little exposure to American and French oak, bottled it unfined and unfiltered, and finished it with a screw cap. It boasts luscious black currant fruit intermixed with smoke, herbs, and cedar. Richly fruity, opulent, and medium to full-bodied, it is one of the great wine bargains of the world. Consume it over the next

"A blend of 57% cabernet, 32% shiraz and 11% merlot) Ruby red. Aromas of smoky grilled meat, dark cherry, plum and licorice candy are lifted by alcohol and show a distinctly herbal cabernet tone. Fat and broad in the mouth, with sweet, candied berry, plum and cherry flavors complicated by hints of cracked pepper and violet pastille. Finishes on a tangier, red fruit note of cranberry, with no noticeable tannins." (IWC)

============== inserted text above ============== OK...I was very excited to try this out, having read this newsgroup the last few days, and "how to taste", etc....

I ended up being a little disappointed (not with the wine, though, I still like it, a lot)...This was going to be my first little "project"...I was taking notes, looking at color, smell, taste, clarity, etc.

First of all, I don't know what generic "herbs" smell like, nor currant..candied berry, cherry, smokey meat...none of these were detectable by me. Am I supposed to smell these or taste them (knowing that it all is linked to smell anyway)....

My main thing I can not get over (and maybe it's a cheap wine thing),...when I have a mouthfull of wine, and then breathe in...makes the wine "bubble", the alcohol is overwhelming to me, to the point of, it's uncomfortable, makes me cough, almost like inhaling rubbing alcohol...Is that the reasonable way to "airate" wine to detect taste? Are better wines a little bit more reasonable in this regard?

But here's my little SUCCESS! I smelled, and tasted, licorice. What I do NOT know is, did I smell/taste it because I read a review that mentioned it, or did I really taste it? As it went along (wine sat out longer, I went back to taste it later), I could detect licorice more, or easier, but that might again be because I was thinking abotu it, or, perhaps, because I had already had a glass.

The question for me is, is this common, happens a lot, or do you have to develop your taste somehow. I mean, I really tasted nothing (other than the slight sweetness of the licorice)...

I think that the taste of the wine changed with how long it was opened before I drank it, and also what I ate (or, maybe just because I ate)...

Gotta tell ya...I liked the wine, but the whole experience was a little bit of a let down...I'm not going to stop trying, but, I'm a little disappointed....

Jeff

Of course, I never found all of the flavors as described but really enjoyed the wine. I was able to find the screw cap, thought. And I believe that the OP already found the unfiltered part (sediment).