If you like even love the taste of wine but you seem not to make a head or tail about it by simply smelling its aroma, that’s understandable.
Untangling the subtle filaments interlaced into multifaceted aromas of wine takes time and experience. This means you’ll learn more as you taste more.
It is not very different from appreciating art or music; pleasure is proportional to the work you make. Appreciating wine and understanding its nuances has a lot to do with the ability to use your senses – smell, taste and sight. When that time comes, all your hard effort will be rewarded.
There is nothing wrong about having favorites and preferences, but it is also important not to limit yourself especially because there is a world of wine out there for your discovery. Initially, however, you have to set aside wine prejudices. Start with a clean slate.
If you are eager to know what these prejudices are, Paul Gregutt’s Wine Myths Debunked, posted in Wine Enthusiast, offers you biases that can fence you in.
- Expensive wines are better wines. While it is undeniable that it is easy to find a good-quality wine in high-end wines, there are also good wines that are more affordable. Since factors such as ads and endorsers, producers and source can impact the price, wines from less popular sources and produced by smaller winemakers can be cheaper, but their prices can be lower.
- Big corporations only make good wines, never great wines. Big winemakers have resources that can afford to
make boutique-style wines in facilities used for mass-production. Not every corporation can meet the challenge, there are those that can.
- Boutique wineries make wines that are more authentic. Wine enthusiasts are ready to pay whatever it costs for authentic wines, which makes boutique wines command hefty prices. Know that boutiques make “authentic” wines since they make wines in small lots. That certainly makes their wines different, but better? Not necessarily.
- Serious, age-worthy wines are always sealed with cork. Technically, it is not true. The quality of the wine has nothing to do with whether it is sealed with cork or screwcaps. In fact, even those being imported by the United States are sealed in screwcaps.
- Big, tannic wines just need more time to age. Balance is the key for a wine to age perfectly. This means it must not be excessively tannic, acidic or alcoholic.
Aside from these, Gregutt there are wines that taste perfect when young. It is undeniable that there are types that are cellar-worthy or need to be aged. The best, rare ones can be aged for a decade to be most perfect.
You must not judge the quality of the wine based on its packaging – massive bottle and nice-looking label and box. These only mean that the winemaker splurged on packaging exactly to elicit that reaction from buyers.
Ice wines, sauternes and trockenbeerenausleses are not just for new enthusiasts. They are certainly great-tasting, decadent and cellar-worthy even wine connoisseurs can appreciate.
Great and poor wines can be made in every region. This means great quality wines can be made from great and poor vintages, as well as poor quality wines can be made even from great vintages. Ultimately, the quality of the wine is an influence of the winemaker and not the not the workings of the climate.
While there are more reds that are worth aging, there are also whites, such as vintage Sauternes, German Rieslings, Champagne, and some dry white wines Western Australia, Loire Valley, and southern Spain that are as worthy.
Just like the sun will rise in east and set in the west, there will always be bad wines as well as good wines. Differentiating the two will not be easy to spot early in your “career.” It can be due to bad winemaking, poor cellaring or bad cork. Just like any wine connoisseur (even a budding one), you would want to avoid buying and aging unworthy ones. Unfortunately, this has to happen occasionally because that’s part of learning. Don’t fret; you’ll get better in time, just like wine.
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