Vigneron grows his own grapes and makes wine from the grapes he grows, thus having total control over the total winemaking process from vine to wine. A vigneron has to have a much broader knowledge of all things grape and wine to be successful in making good wine.
A Sommelier is a French term for the individual who has been trained in how to match each wine on a wine menu with the various foods on a restaurant menu. In finer restaurants you can recognize the Sommelier by the “taste vin” (small, nearly flat tasting cup) that hangs around his/her neck on a large decorative chain. The shallow indentation in the metal cup allows the Sommelier to evaluate the robe (color) of the wine, the nose or bouquet of the wine, and the flavor of the wine before it is served.
A Master Sommelier is a member of an elite group of individuals who have been trained to a higher degree of wine knowledge. Master Sommeliers usually associate themselves with a particular winery, wine shop or restaurant (their sponsor) and teach wine evaluation classes.
You may see or hear of a Member of the Court of Master Sommeliers. Members of this group specifically work in the service and restaurant arena. Instead of concentrating solely on wine, they also study food pairing with beer, spirits, and even cigars!
At the top of the hierarchy is a Master of Wine, the top level of certification by the Institute of Masters of Wine that takes many years to complete. Members are tested on a broad range of knowledge about wine and wineries. It is truly an achievement to reach this certification level. Only 233 people in the world had this certification in 2004.
Then there is the oenophile – or wine connoisseur. These are common folk who have made it their hobby to develop a serious streak when drinking wines. They insist on having their wine served at the correct temperature, in the correct wine glass, and paired perfectly with the meal they are about to enjoy. They can discuss vineyards, vintages, remember tasting wines from decades past and fill the evening with wine related trivia that will amaze and entertain you.
There are several notable professional oenophiles who have made it their business to taste thousands of wines each year and write about them for the benefit of those of us who have neither the time, money nor inclination to endure the rigors of serious wine tasting. Robert Parker is our country’s most famous professional taster. He publishes a monthly newsletter called the Wine Advocate in which he shares his personal tasting notes on 10,000 wines each year. He has been referred to as the man with a million dollar nose.
Wine Types and Winemaking
“Be careful to trust a person, who does not like wine”
- Karl Marx
Winemaking is essentially turning an agricultural product – grapes - into an alcoholic beverage. The primary steps of winemaking include crushing the grapes to expose the yeast to the sugar inside the grape, fermenting the must (grape pulp, juice, seeds, stems, leaves, etc.) until it is wine and then bottling it. (Take it on good faith that this is a gross over-simplification of the winemaking process.) Making variations in the process produces different wines.
Wines can be sweet (containing a noticeable amount of residual sugar, usually ranging from 1 to 3%) or dry (no detectable amount of sugar). It has been my personal observation that wine drinkers’ tastes in wines change over the years. Most Americans begin by drinking sweet wines. As their tastes mature and their knowledge of wines increases, they gradually migrate towards the dryer wines. No matter what your tastes in wine, there is a plethora of wines available to suit everybody’s personal preferences.
White wines are made from white (green) or pink grapes. The color comes from the grape skins. White wines are crushed and fermented away from the skins and seeds.
Blush wines are made from pink, red or black grapes. They are fermented in contact with the skins for a very short time to allow the wine to leach out just a little of the color.
Red wines are made from red, purple, and black grapes and are fermented in close contact with the skins and seeds for an extended amount of time to allow the wine to leach out the maximum amount of color. This extended time results in a deep purple/red color you see in a red wine.
Sparkling wines are made in the same fashion as the white or blush wines mentioned above. The difference is the manner in which sparkling wines are made to take on a high concentration of carbon dioxide to give them their characteristic bubbles when opened. Some wineries inject carbon dioxide at the time of bottling. The original French process requires very exacting secondary fermentation in the bottle (See Appendix E).
Fortified wines like sherries (made from white grapes) and ports (made from red grapes) have had sugar added to the must to make a wine with a higher concentration of alcohol. Sometimes there is a direct addition of alcohol to the wine to immediately give it a higher alcohol concentration. Cognacs are made by double distilling the wines from the Cognac region of France.
Grappa is Italian “white lightening” or “moonshine”. If you spend any time around winemakers (especially the Italians) you will hear about grappa.
Grappa is also known by other names. It is called Marc in France, Aguardiente in Spain and Portugal, and in Germany it's known as Tresterschnapps. When making wine there is a small amount of left-over fermented material. This material – sometimes called “pomace” or the “lees” - contains 9% to 15% alcohol. Putting it through a still concentrates the alcohol to about 40-50 proof for a single-pass grappa, about 80-90 proof for a double-pass grappa, and 150-160 proof for a triple-distilled grappa.
Italians from the old country are always looking for a perfect grappa – one that retains the essence of the grape from which it is distilled. Some grappas do have a slightly distinguishable flavor of the grape… but like all wines, grappa is a distilled product and there are very wide ranges of “flavors” and alcohol content. Some people put various herbs in their grappa to give it a specific flavor. I have tasted grappa with anise, dill, basil, and other herbs – these are purported to be good digestives.
Anyone who has spent a lot of time around winemakers, especially Italian winemakers, will have run into grappa. It is also served in coffee (1 shot of grappa to a cup of coffee with cream and sugar) to make “cafe correcto.”
Bottles
“Wine is light, held together by water”
- Galileo
Bottles have a mouth, a neck, an ogive (shoulder), a body, and a bottom. Some bottles have a concave indentation in the bottom called a punt. This structure provides added strength to bottles and makes separation of any sediment easier in older wines. There are three basic shapes of bottles on the market today - a Bordeaux bottle, a Burgundy bottle and an Alsace or Mosul bottle.
These bottle shapes help identify the type of wine contained inside. There are many variations of these shapes in the market place to help spur sales of wine by uninformed wine buyers or to build a market identity. We also would be remiss if box wines were not acknowledged as an alternative wine container.
Box wines are typically quaffing wines that are to be consumed quickly and are designed to be stored in a refrigerator. There is a convenient spigot that allows a glass to be filled without removing the box from its place in the fridge. Also note that there are current experiments and market research studies being conducted for using cans for wine – similar to beer or carbonated beverages.
