WHITE - Chardonnay grapes produce vanilla laced full-bodied fruit-forward wines (sometimes oaky). Pinot Gris/Grigio makes a bright and acidic white wine. Sauvignon Blanc makes a crisp herbal and mineral style of wine with medium to high acidity. Riesling grapes make wines of dry fruitiness and sometimes of slight sweetness with medium body and moderate acidity.
Here you'll find the grape and wine basics along with Wine and Food Pairing information.
There are a lot of elitists out there that would like you to remain a novice on wine. It makes them feel important and forces many to pay more than they should for wines they might not otherwise purchase. The fact is that we've elevated some people to god-like status for their ability to taste things that some of us cannot or have not learned to taste. We buy magazines that cost too much to learn about wines we can't afford. We allow wine shop employees or restaurant sommeliers to tell us what we should drink. Why? Because there is a lot to know about wine and most of us either don't have the time or the motivation to learn enough about it to choose a decent wine for ourselves.
I believe that if you learn a little bit about wine and go to as many free tastings as you can possibly attend without developing a new problem for yourself you should be able to select good wines for the money and you will be the go-to wine buyer for every party your friends throw. On the News page of this site you will find updated Wine Picks that feature great wines for the money. I'm not interested in spending $60 or more for a good wine. It's just not necessary and frankly it's a rip-off one way or another. Use this website as a tool to enjoy the best that wine has to offer without going broke to pad the pockets of middle-men and professional tasters.
I believe that if you learn a little bit about wine and go to as many free tastings as you can possibly attend without developing a new problem for yourself you should be able to select good wines for the money and you will be the go-to wine buyer for every party your friends throw. On the News page of this site you will find updated Wine Picks that feature great wines for the money. I'm not interested in spending $60 or more for a good wine. It's just not necessary and frankly it's a rip-off one way or another. Use this website as a tool to enjoy the best that wine has to offer without going broke to pad the pockets of middle-men and professional tasters.
Terroir
The French word terroir (ter-war) refers to the influence of the environment - climate, location and soil - on the growing of grapes and the finished wine. Terroir so affects the grapes and the wine that in France, Italy and Germany you are only allowed (in Italy and Germany it's more like strongly encouraged) to grow certain grapes in certain locations. Some of the best grapes for wine are grown in places where the vines have to struggle to thrive and some need to be pampered to produce great wine.
Most Common and Important Grapes
There's a Lot to Know About Wine
RED - Cabernet Sauvignon is a red grape that usually produces a tannic and powerful wine with dark fruit and earthy qualities. Merlot is a grape that typically creates a very soft plum-like fruit-forward wine. Pinot Noir is a red grape that makes wines that are some of the most sought after in the world - soft wine with full body and notes of fruit and herbs and earth with low to moderate tannins. Syrah (called Shiraz sometimes) is a grape that makes peppery wines with tannins and dark fruit sometimes very powerful and sometimes medium bodied and mistaken for Cabernet. Sangiovese is the grape that goes into Chianti and the Super Tuscans. Nebbiolo is an Italian grape high in acid and tannins and carries fruity and floral notes with an earthy and woodsy backdrop, it goes into Barolo and Barbaresco. Zinfandel is a grape that makes jammy and earthy wine with medium tannins and medium to high acidity.
| Highly seasoned or grilled Steaks, Barbecue, Burgers, Chilli etc... | Zinfandel, Syrah, or possibly a Barolo or Barbaresco |
| Tenderloin, Roast Beef, Prime Rib, etc... | Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay |
| Roasted or Barbecued Chicken | Zinfandel, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay |
| Chicken with strong seasoning or sauces | Riesling, Pinot Grigio/Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc |
| Turkey and other game like Duck | Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Viognier or Merlot |
| Ham, Veal or Pork | Chardonnay, Viognier, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Gewurztraminer |
| Lamb or Venison | Cabernet Sauvignon, Rioja (Spanish Red), Zinfandel, Syrah, Chianti or Barbera |
| Salmon, Trout, Swordfish, Shrimp | Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris |
| Oysters, Crab, Lobster | Champagne, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc |
| Pasta | Any red sauce - Barbera, Nebbiolo, Barolo, Barbaresco, Chianti or other Sangiovese wine. White sauce - Chardonnay, Tocai, or white wine blend form nothern Italy. |
Wine and Food Pairing
Many people are searching for food and wine pairing information and so here we've added some. However, if you read through this page and the 'More Wine' page, you'll find more information to help make sense of wine and food pairing.
If you're ever completely lost or in a big hurry and you just don't know what to do and you've found your way to this page needing something easy to remember you can take my humble opinion and get a red Zinfandel or a Napa Valley Cabernet to pair with anything meat. For poultry grab anything, like a California or Australian Chardonnay or a Pinot Noir from Oregon. For Seafood grab a Sauvignon Blanc or a Pinot Grigio.
Quicky
Simple Pairing Table
Here are some general things to keep in mind when trying to select a wine for an evening or when aiming to pair a specific wine with a certain food. If you'd like to try to pair a red wine with your seafood try to pick one that is low in tannins and has high to moderate acidity like a Barbera from Italy or a Beaujolais. You can guess what the rule for a white wine with a savory red meat dish would be - choose a sturdy white with less acid and more body like a white Burgundy (Chardonnay) or maybe a California Chardonnay. Cheese is best with cheaper wines because the cheese helps coat your tongue with fat and other things that block a lot of the rough tannins. Dessert should not be very sweet even when pairing with something like Port. An overly sweet dessert will make the wine seem much drier than it is and it may get lost among the residual sugar and flavor the dessert has left behind in your mouth.
Also good to know - a bottle of wine (750ml) should yield five glasses of wine. Therefore a good rule of thumb for buying wine for a party is 1 bottle for every 2 people. If your friends really like wine you may want to increase the ratio.
Also good to know - a bottle of wine (750ml) should yield five glasses of wine. Therefore a good rule of thumb for buying wine for a party is 1 bottle for every 2 people. If your friends really like wine you may want to increase the ratio.
Using the ideas you read above, about the logic behind matching a red with seafood or a white with savory dishes, you can begin to understand the relationship between food and wine. You can choose a wine that will continue the theme and flavor of the dish or a wine that will provide balance. You can pair delicate wine with delicate food and strong or powerful wine with robust meals or you can use wine as a palate cleanser or contrast. Something with high acid like certain Chardonnays, a Pinot Gris, or even a Barbera or Chianti (reds with a good level of acid) will balance out a salty or sweet dish. Something savory and fatty will need a strong red wine to cut through and not be lost among the flavors of the meal - in this case you want something like a red Zinfandel or a Cabernet Sauvignon or red Bordeaux.
Try to keep in mind that a tannic red wine will make sweet foods taste less sweet, the wine itself will seem softer if paired with foods rich in protein or fat and will seem astringent when drunk with a spicy meal. Wines with some sweetness will seem fruitier when paired with salty foods and the salty food will become even more tasty. More acidic wines like many whites and few reds will seem less acidic when paired with salty or sweet foods, they'll bring out the saltiness in whatever you're eating and balance well with fatty or oily foods.
Try to keep in mind that a tannic red wine will make sweet foods taste less sweet, the wine itself will seem softer if paired with foods rich in protein or fat and will seem astringent when drunk with a spicy meal. Wines with some sweetness will seem fruitier when paired with salty foods and the salty food will become even more tasty. More acidic wines like many whites and few reds will seem less acidic when paired with salty or sweet foods, they'll bring out the saltiness in whatever you're eating and balance well with fatty or oily foods.
More About Pairing Wine With Food.
To read more about wine regions click the More Wine link!
I'm sure at least some people would like to know how the wine they enjoy was made. I'm also sure that some could not care less. As with the other beverages we discuss here at BeanLeafGrape, much of enjoyment of wine lies in the understanding of what makes wine what it is.
As you may have learned by now from what you've read on this website and from some other reading or research you've done (or wine experts who've rambled in your ear) wine grows great in some places and not so great in others. There's more to this than mere location. What am I talking about? I'm saying that Pinot Noir grapes grown on the Central Coast of California has a good chance of making good wine. Now, let's take that a step further. If you grow these grapes on a hillside and the hill faces south and is near a valley where you receive lots of fog at night in the morning, plus the drainage is great, you may have a location that will help you turn your Pinot Noir grapes into excellent wine instead of just good wine. This is because everything about your location will affect the resulting harvest and the wine you produce from it (terroir, again). Having said this, now you know how important location is for the vineyard and winery.
At harvest, depending on the size and location of the vineyard, grapes are picked either by hand or machine and then crushed. The crushing can be done by punching the grapes down with paddles, treading on them barefoot, or in a machine or wine press.
For red wine, the juice stays with the skins and stems. This is where the tannins and color come from. The heat and alcohol generated during fermentation help the wine to take tannins and coloring from the skins (for the most part, the juice starts out clear). Depending on the grape and the winemaker, the stems may be removed early on because the grape itself is already high in tannins, the same may be said for the skins. This mess of juice with skin, seeds, stems and pulp is called must.
Now it is time for the yeasts to take action and begin the fermentation process. This used to be done mostly in large wooden vats but today many wine makers use stainless steel tanks where they can control temperature and even what kind of yeast gets into the must. Many things happen at this time - fermentation causes heat and carbon dioxide which lifts the skins and anything else in the tank to the surface. For red wine, the more it is in contact with these skins the more color and tannin it extracts. Often the floating mess is pushed back down, gently, into the fermenting mixture with long tools that look like rakes or by pumping the wine from the bottom over the top of the tank. The winemaker keeps a close eye on the temperature because if it gets to high the more delicate flavors of the wine can be 'burned off'.
When fermentation is complete (usually when the alcohol level has reached between 8 and 13 percent) the wine is separated from everything else in the must and then the wine is put into barrels for aging. Wine cannot naturally reach more than about 16 percent alcohol because the alcohol at this level will kill the yeast that is creating it. Red wine is usually racked to some degree at this time. This is the process of letting any solids settle at the bottom and then pouring the wine off, leaving the sediment behind. Sometimes, during the barrel aging, malolactic fermentation happens. This is a natural process in which tart acids turn to lactic acid with the help of benign bacteria. Later, the winemaker may do something called fining - a process that helps reduce tannins if there is too much. This is done by using bentonite or a protein coagulant like casein, gelatin, or even egg whites. The tannins and other things that may be floating around in the wine will be attracted to the substance used for fining and will bind until heavy and it all sinks to the bottom where it stays and the wine is poured off (just like racking).
As you may have learned by now from what you've read on this website and from some other reading or research you've done (or wine experts who've rambled in your ear) wine grows great in some places and not so great in others. There's more to this than mere location. What am I talking about? I'm saying that Pinot Noir grapes grown on the Central Coast of California has a good chance of making good wine. Now, let's take that a step further. If you grow these grapes on a hillside and the hill faces south and is near a valley where you receive lots of fog at night in the morning, plus the drainage is great, you may have a location that will help you turn your Pinot Noir grapes into excellent wine instead of just good wine. This is because everything about your location will affect the resulting harvest and the wine you produce from it (terroir, again). Having said this, now you know how important location is for the vineyard and winery.
At harvest, depending on the size and location of the vineyard, grapes are picked either by hand or machine and then crushed. The crushing can be done by punching the grapes down with paddles, treading on them barefoot, or in a machine or wine press.
For red wine, the juice stays with the skins and stems. This is where the tannins and color come from. The heat and alcohol generated during fermentation help the wine to take tannins and coloring from the skins (for the most part, the juice starts out clear). Depending on the grape and the winemaker, the stems may be removed early on because the grape itself is already high in tannins, the same may be said for the skins. This mess of juice with skin, seeds, stems and pulp is called must.
Now it is time for the yeasts to take action and begin the fermentation process. This used to be done mostly in large wooden vats but today many wine makers use stainless steel tanks where they can control temperature and even what kind of yeast gets into the must. Many things happen at this time - fermentation causes heat and carbon dioxide which lifts the skins and anything else in the tank to the surface. For red wine, the more it is in contact with these skins the more color and tannin it extracts. Often the floating mess is pushed back down, gently, into the fermenting mixture with long tools that look like rakes or by pumping the wine from the bottom over the top of the tank. The winemaker keeps a close eye on the temperature because if it gets to high the more delicate flavors of the wine can be 'burned off'.
When fermentation is complete (usually when the alcohol level has reached between 8 and 13 percent) the wine is separated from everything else in the must and then the wine is put into barrels for aging. Wine cannot naturally reach more than about 16 percent alcohol because the alcohol at this level will kill the yeast that is creating it. Red wine is usually racked to some degree at this time. This is the process of letting any solids settle at the bottom and then pouring the wine off, leaving the sediment behind. Sometimes, during the barrel aging, malolactic fermentation happens. This is a natural process in which tart acids turn to lactic acid with the help of benign bacteria. Later, the winemaker may do something called fining - a process that helps reduce tannins if there is too much. This is done by using bentonite or a protein coagulant like casein, gelatin, or even egg whites. The tannins and other things that may be floating around in the wine will be attracted to the substance used for fining and will bind until heavy and it all sinks to the bottom where it stays and the wine is poured off (just like racking).
Winemaking - The Short Version
Making white wine is a little bit different from making reds. During harvest more care is taken with the white wine grapes because if the grapes are bruised or punctured the juice may start to get some tannins in it. White wine with lots of tannins is rough and this is not what we want (trust me). Sometimes, for freshness sake, the grapes are chilled before the process begins. There are crusher-destemmers and bladder presses for getting the juice out without keeping the skins and stems with the juice like we do with the red wines. For the most part the days of the old basket press are done. The grape juice, once it is about as stem and skin free as can be, is either put into settling tanks so that sediment and solids can settle at the bottom and removed or by centrifuge, fining or filtering.
White wine, like red wine, will ferment on its own with naturally occuring and ambient yeasts in the atmosphere. Some winemakers will use a yeast culture that makes the fermentation process easier for them to control. White wine will ferment at a lower temperature than red wine because we are not trying to get color from skins but we want to preserve the fruit flavors. Winemakers use stainless steel tanks that are cooled by running a coolant between the inner and outer walls of the tank or by having a system where cold water runs down the sides almost like a water fountain pumps water from the bottom the top over and over. At some point a winemaker will place their wine into oak barrels if it will benefit from this kind of aging. Many whites do not do well with oak but some, like Chardonnay and Viognier, do. Sometimes a white wine that gets aged in oak will sit sur lie or on the lees, which are used-up yeast cells that the tannins from the wood cling to. At some point something called cold stabilization happens - this is when the wine is brought down to nearly freezing temperatures so that tartrate crystalizes. This is mostly done so that it doesn't happen later in the bottle if the bottle is refrigerated.
Before we leave the wine making topic you may want to know that filtering is a bad word to some people in the wine world. Also, something called Chaptalization is also frowned upon by many. This is a process where sugar is added to the juice before fermentation when the harvest is not quite ripe enough. This helps get more alcohol out of the fermentation than would have been possible with the underripe grapes. There are other bad words in the wine world and if I remember them I'll add them in right here.
White wine, like red wine, will ferment on its own with naturally occuring and ambient yeasts in the atmosphere. Some winemakers will use a yeast culture that makes the fermentation process easier for them to control. White wine will ferment at a lower temperature than red wine because we are not trying to get color from skins but we want to preserve the fruit flavors. Winemakers use stainless steel tanks that are cooled by running a coolant between the inner and outer walls of the tank or by having a system where cold water runs down the sides almost like a water fountain pumps water from the bottom the top over and over. At some point a winemaker will place their wine into oak barrels if it will benefit from this kind of aging. Many whites do not do well with oak but some, like Chardonnay and Viognier, do. Sometimes a white wine that gets aged in oak will sit sur lie or on the lees, which are used-up yeast cells that the tannins from the wood cling to. At some point something called cold stabilization happens - this is when the wine is brought down to nearly freezing temperatures so that tartrate crystalizes. This is mostly done so that it doesn't happen later in the bottle if the bottle is refrigerated.
Before we leave the wine making topic you may want to know that filtering is a bad word to some people in the wine world. Also, something called Chaptalization is also frowned upon by many. This is a process where sugar is added to the juice before fermentation when the harvest is not quite ripe enough. This helps get more alcohol out of the fermentation than would have been possible with the underripe grapes. There are other bad words in the wine world and if I remember them I'll add them in right here.
Oak Barrels. Why is wine put into oak barrels? It has been found that no other wood, when it comes in contact with wine, has as good an effect on the wine. Not every wine benefits from sitting in an oak barrel. There are a lot of chemical and scientific things that happen between the wine and the wood that I could explain here with a very detailed book on my lap to guide me through...but I don't think there are enough people that want to read about that. If you do there are many extremely detailed books about wine and winemaking that will explain the relationship between oak and wine very thoroughly. Have fun.
A Little Blurb About Oak
Storing wine is simple. You want to keep the wine around 55 degrees fahrenheit or about 12.5 degrees celsius lying on its side out of direct sunlight. It is pretty easy to find wine caves (refrigerators) if you do not have a cellar or basement or if you live in an apartment. Remember that most wine is not really made for long term storage - most wine today is made to be drunk within a few years. If you have a great Burgundy or Bordeaux or maybe a nice Super Tuscan or an expensive Napa Valley Cabernet you can store it for ten or more years possibly.
Wine Storage
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