Crusted Wine - Why?
April 14, 2008
Why is crusted wine called as such? - Meg in Portsmouth, VA
Crusted port wine is a type of ruby port. It is also an inexpensive version of vintage port, and in turn receives it’s curious name from being unfiltered. This leads to a very interesting natural sediment that builds up over time from grape skins, twigs and seeds, hence the “crusted” in crusted wine. Appetizing no?
Definitely and absolutely, crusted port wine should be decanted. If not, you might take a sip and end up snacking on something that isn’t quite edible. However, what’s good about crusted wines is that you can enjoy them at a much younger age vs. a good vintage port, some of which can take decades to mature, where they can be fully appreciated.
Keep in mind that when you see the date on the bottle, this is alluding to the bottling date and not the actual year in which the grapes were grown. Cheers!!
Corked Wine How to Tell
March 5, 2008
How do I know for sure that I have corked wine? This past weekend when I went to open a nice bottle of 2004, Santa Alicia Cabernet Sauvignon it tasted incredibly horrible and smelled like a wet basement after a flood. Is there anything I could possibly do to salvage this bottle? - Clara in Midland, TX
Unfortunately Clara, this is not much you can do other than toss it. Corked wine or corky wine is a broad term referring to a set of undesirable smells or tastes found in a bottle of wine. This can only be detected after bottling, aging and opening. The main cause of cork taint is the presence of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA) in the wine.
Corked wine containing TCA has a characteristic odor, variously described as resembling a moldy newspaper, wet dog, or your case “a wet basement after a flood” and gives it a corked wine taste. This makes the completely undrinkable and is what has happened to your cherished bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Depending on how long ago you bought the wine you should return it back to the store you got it from. Most wineries completely stand behind their product and will work to ensure customer satisfaction. Getting a bottle of corky wine is something that is rare nowadays but this is the risk we take when we have our hearts desire set on the perfect bottle.
The Wine Negociant
March 5, 2008
My friends and I were wondering what a wine negociant was, could you give us some history about them and what they do? Thank you Wine Virgin! - Melissa in Rome, NY
Great one Melissa. I’ll do my best to answer it for you. Long ago, imagine being an owner of a few small vineyards in France. You are able to grow the grapes but can’t afford to buy all of the products necessary for wine making. This is where the negociant comes in. In many cases, they take the grapes from these vineyards and oversee the production and bottling of the wine.
Negotiants will buy up finished wine from smaller producers and market it themselves or sell it in bulk to others. Also, here’s some wine trivia for you. A negociant-eleveur is someone who actually owns vineyards and controls the growing of the grapes vs a negociant who strictly brokers the wine products needed.
Through bringing many grower’s wines to a winemaker for aging and bottling, a negociant was able to become very efficient on a scale that small growers were not able to. This made it possible for the wine get to market at a lower price and through the negociant’s blending expertise, they were able to produce a conistantly better wine.
Companies in the US that buy grapes and ferment wine in a winery and those companies that purchase and blend bulk wines are often licensed as wholesalers and may own the brand name. They use a winery to perform the blending and bottling services and because of this it is often difficult to tell exactly which company or winery made the wine.
However, there are still many companies out there that are strictly wine negociants who provide their expertise in bringing the best varieties of wine to market which makes the enjoyable task of being a lush all the easier.
Bottle Your Own Wine
February 29, 2008
Wine Virgin, I want to know how you bottle your own wine but I don’t know where or how to start. What’s your advice and can you help me? - Holly in Myrtle Beach, SC
Of course I can Holly. You will need a few bottle supplies but just follow the steps listed below to bottle your own wine and you can put a few away for that special occasion like breakfast, lunch… or dinner even.
First off, you will need bottles, corks and a corker. You can find all these online without much trouble and after you have acquired everything you need, here is what you do.
Step 1:
If the bottles are new and unused, rinse them with hot water and dry them. But if you are using recycled bottles, soak them in a cleaning solution recommended by a wine-making supply shop. Then rinse them with water and dry them but make positive the bottles are completely dry.
Step 2:
Prepare new corks by soaking them in water for 1 to 2 hours, then rinsing them several times with warm water. But again, if you have used corks prepare them by soaking, bring them to a quick boil and then rinse the corks with hot water. After that, finish with a cold-water rinse.
Step 3:
Now after you have prepared the bottles, place one below the wine container.
Step 4:
If you are going to bottle your own wine at a local winery then there will be a siphon that will allow you to pour the wine into the bottle. Holly this is the fun part, suck on the other end of the tube until the wine begins to flow. Then insert the notched end of the siphon tube into your bottle but make sure the tube isn’t touching the very bottom. When you’re bottling your own wine, fill up the bottles to 3/4 inch below the bottom of the cork and after that use your corker to insert the corks into the bottles.
See, all you needed were a few bottle supplies and the skills you already possessed to get the wine inside your chosen container. How cool is that? And there you go; you’re now officially a wino!!