Category: Wine Tasting Tips

There are multiple meanings to “hot wine”.  Around Christmas time, it is popular in some circles (not ours) to drink mulled wine, spiced and heated.  The trendy wine that everyone seems to be drinking these days may be called a “hot” wine.  (Non-alcoholic, so-called wines are “hot” these days.  Yecch!)  And wines with a lot of alcohol, that sting your mouth, are also called hot wines. 

In Power Tasting’s last issue, we gave tips on dealing with the alcohol.  In this issue, we want to focus on what’s in the glass rather than who’s behind the wheel. If you are fond of wine tasting trips, as we are, you are more likely these days to encounter wines that pucker your mouth, more so these days than ever before.  So, here are a few things to think about if you’re not a fan of hot wine.

Some grapes just don’t make it.  Photo courtesy of One Green Planet.

• Winemakers are driving up the levels in many areas.  Bordeaux, for example, almost uniformly made wines that were 12.5% alcohol by volume (ABV).  Today, they are in the 14% to 15% level, matching northern California.  One factor was the taste preferences of one man, Robert Parker.  He liked (and presumably still likes) big, bold wines.  Many growers in both Bordeaux and Napa Valley sought his approval and his magazine’s ratings and so pushed both ripeness and alcohol upward. 
• And climate change is another big factor.  It’s no secret that the world is getting hotter.  Winemakers we have spoken with tell of changing to more resistant grapes or moving their vineyards to higher altitudes to keep a better balance of ripeness and alcohol.  It may prove worthwhile, especially at better wineries, to taste the current releases and also try some library wines if available, just to see how the winemakers have dealt with increasing warmth.  Even if a tasting room won’t offer these older wines for sampling, they will tell you the amount of alcohol in some of the older bottles.
• Consider the flavor, not the alcohol level.  There is a rough equation that says more time on the vine means more sugar means more alcohol.  But more time on the vine also leads to greater ripeness of the grapes and thus more flavor.  In areas with naturally high temperatures, such as Paso Robles, alcohol levels can be extreme, sometimes tasting overripe.  At the other extreme, in northern climes such as in Alsace, low-alcohol wines may taste drab and a little flabby.  Vineyard managers and winemakers attempt to find the perfect time to harvest, with maximum savor and manageable alcohol.  As you taste, you are in effect serving as the jury as to how well they did. 
• Alcohol levels haven’t increased everywhere.  Champagne makers still keep their wines in the range of 12% to 12.5%, as do those who make Prosecco.  Rieslings tend to be under 13%.  And many sweet wines have less than 10% alcohol.  (Careful with these latter wines, though.  Many dessert wines, such as Port or Tokay are fortified with additional alcohol.)

We have noticed, in recent years, that the amount of alcohol in the wine we’re tasting (and drinking at home) is increasing.  Now there could be a few reasons for that.  Maybe our tastes have just turned towards more alcoholic and therefore more flavorful wines.  That’s possible, but we don’t remember a shift in the wines we buy, so it’s unlikely.  Perhaps the winemakers for our favorite labels have all decided to make more alcoholic products.  It’s even unlikelier that all of them would do that at the same time.  A more reasonable answer would be that accelerating climate change has made grapes ripen faster, making more sugar in the process.  More sugar turns into more alcohol, so there’s a probable solution.

California always produced a lot of high-impact wines; 14.5% is not unusual.  But wines north of 15% are more common, and those from areas such as Paso Robles venture into the 16% to 17% range.  Even Bordeaux wines that weighed in at 12.5% for decades are now creeping up into the 14% level.

This situation does create a problem for people going wine tasting.  If each bottle contains a higher percentage of alcohol and tasters consume the same amount as they did in the past, they’re taking on more of an intoxicant.  Here are some tips for dealing with the increased alcohol when visiting wineries.

• Ask to see the label of the bottle being served.  This is a good idea anyway, since there’s a lot of information on a label.  One such bit of data is the alcohol level.  Don’t rely on the server to tell you; they usually don’t know.  One problem is that the amount of alcohol is often printed in a teeny-weeny font, and it can be anywhere on the bottle, front or back.  It’s hard to be unobtrusive when looking forward to it.
• Calibrate intake based on the amount of alcohol.  For a particularly big boomer (we’re looking at you, David Coffaro) maybe have two sips of each wine instead of three.  Or if you’re there for, say, the Cabernet Sauvignon it might make sense to skip the Pinot Noir that the winery is not particularly known for.
• Choose wineries to visit with the amount of alcohol in mind.  If the plan is to visit a few places that specialize in Zinfandel, for example, it’s clear that there will be big alcohol involved.  That grape is so sweet anyway that wines made from it are usually quite potent.  So maybe another winery ought to be one that specializes in sparkling wines, which generally are lower in alcohol, in the 12% range or even lower. 
• No, white wines are not lighter than reds.  Plenty of Chardonnays pack a punch.  There’s a Chardonnay from Lewis Cellars, for example, that weighs in at 14.7%.  So white wine lovers have to be just as careful as those who prefer a meaty Merlot.

We love wine.  We love tasting it, drinking it with meals, talking about it, reading about it and writing about it.  But we can’t overlook the fact that wine is a product that contains alcohol.  So when people go wine tasting, they need to be aware of the effect that the alcohol is having and will have on them.

Photo courtesy of Metro Parent.

Here are some tips that can help wine tasters to avoid excess when they are visiting wineries.

• Know your capacity and limit the number of wineries you visit in a day accordingly..  Before the era of seated tastings, visitors could step up to a tasting room bar and sample only one or two wines that they were interested in.  Now, especially with the higher cost of wine tasting, each winery tends to serve more.  Take that into account in choosing your destinations and keeping the number within a reasonable range.
• Sip, don’t drink.  There is probably no more important advice to wine tasters than this.  If you are wine tasting, you only need a sip or two to know what a wine is like and if it’s for you. Oh, there’s still wine in the glass?  Pour it out.  That’s what those buckets are for.  Professional wine people don’t even swallow; they put some in their mouths, taste it and spit it out.  They have to, because they taste so many in a single session.  Learn from the pros: You’re there to taste, not drink. 
• Share a tasting.  A good way to limit your intake without cutting into your tasting pleasure is to share the wine.  The server will not mind you asking just for one glass even if you are two people, saying that you will share the tasting.  After all, you are going wine tasting not wine drinking.  Believe us, no one will care that you are being prudent and you will appreciate your time in Wine Country all the more.
• Consider in-town tasting.  There are excellent locales for wine tasting (such as Santa Barbara, Montepulciano or Los Olivos) where you can visit a tasting room, walk to the next and all the nexts after that, finally walking back to your hotel.  You can slacken your inhibitions a bit because you won’t be driving.  Of course, a day in town followed by a drive back home doesn’t work.
• Let someone else drive.  If, in an honest analysis, you realize that almost any amount of wine is going to impact you too adversely to drive, plan in advance not to get behind the wheel.  Maybe there’s someone in your party who won’t taste and can be the chauffeur.  Or you could take a tour.  In lots of places, you can call for an Uber or you can hire a car and a driver for the day.  Just don’t be a risk to yourself and others around you.

The best way to get to know the wines of any section of Wine Country is to travel there and taste those wines in view of the vineyards.  Essentially, that’s what Power Tasting is all about.  But most of us don’t have the wherewithal to jet off around the globe, just to check out the latest trends and vintages. 

So, you can go to your local shops and buy a bottle from a region you may have read about.  There are a number of problems with that approach.  You’re at the mercy of the distributors who supply that shop and may not have a good selection from the region you’re interested in.  (Since this issue is focused on Austrian wines, let’s use that country as our example.)  The wine store may have two Grüner Veltliners, a Blaufränkisch and that’s it.  You don’t know too much about these wines either, so it’s a crap shoot that you’re not likely to win.

Wallse in New York, our favorite Austrian restaurant.  Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Another alternative is to visit a restaurant that specializes in the food from the region you’re interested in.  It surely has some of the wines you’re interested in and someone who knows a bit about them.  But it’s not that straightforward, either.  So here are a few tips for doing your wine tasting in a restaurant.

• Choose the right cuisine.  This should be obvious, but it’s worth stressing.  If you don’t enjoy the food, you probably won’t be thrilled with the wine either, no matter how well-chosen the list.  So if wiener schnitzel and goulash aren’t your thing, maybe wine tasting in an Austrian restaurant won’t work out well for you.
• Sit at the bar.  Even if you do like the cuisine, it’s a bit much to have to pay for a meal just to sample the wines.  Most restaurants have a by-the-glass list; this is a good way to take a preliminary tour across the grapes and vintages that are made in the restaurant’s native country.  There are some drawbacks to this approach, however.  The wines on the by-the-glass list are generally not the best and are often among the least expensive of their types.  So while you may taste a broader variety, you may not get to sample the qualities that are associated with a particular type of wine.
• Don’t taste alone.  This is good advice for wine tasting in general, but where you’re interested in an introduction to the variety of a particular region, you shouldn’t be knocking back full glasses, much less whole bottles.  Of course, those quantities are how restaurants sell wine, so if you’re with someone with whom you’re comfortable sharing, you’ll try more and drink less.
• Get help.  If you don’t know anything about the wines or the labels, ask the sommelier or the bartender for the one wine that would serve as a good introduction to what that country produces.  It’s a good question, not easy to answer.  (Could you pick just one wine that typifies California, for instance?)  The sommelier might be able to give you a few sips to help him or her understand your taste in wine, thereby giving you a broader sample right up front.  More important, you’ll get your feet – er, your lips – wet right at the start.
• You can come back.  If you find you like what you’ve tried, you can always dine or drink at that restaurant again.  And if you are tasting at a restaurant far from home, you’ll have a basis for sampling at some other restaurant near you.

There is a cycle to life from infancy to youth to adulthood to old age.  In information technology, we speak of a systems development life cycle.  The Museum of Modern Art in New York recently presented “Life Cycles: The Materials of Contemporary Design”.  Well, there’s a life cycle for wine tasting – at least for wine tasting visits – that enthusiasts ought to think about.  Here are the phases of that cycle.

• Anticipation.  For us, we start looking forward to our next visit to Wine Country almost as soon as we return home from the last one.  Of course, Wine Country is a large place, so we first have to decide where to go next.  We generally try to go to California at least once a year, but that state is a large place with many wine-tasting destinations itself, so we have to choose. 
• Planning.  Once that decision is made, we have to plan our next visit.  If we’re going to a place we’ve been before, do we return to old favorites or try to find new ones?  If we’re heading to somewhere new, we have to study maps and lists of wineries, most of which are just names to us.  In that case, we need to consult the internet for reviews, recommendations and some descriptions of the wines and wineries in the region we are to visit.
• Tasting.  This is the best phase of the life cycle but, alas, the shortest (unless you are a professional wine taster).  So we savor every moment of it.  Everything tastes a little better when we look at a vineyard while we sip, but we think we retain enough objectivity to recognize quality from plonk.  If we’ve done a good enough job in the planning phase, there isn’t any poor wine at all.
• Remembering.  This is the longest phase.  Some people – not us – have good enough taste memory that they can precisely recall what they tasted.  We rely on the bottles we shipped home, the clubs we’ve joined, the wines that we order in restaurants and a general recollection of what we liked and what we didn’t. 
• Sharing.  A corollary to remembering is sharing our memories.  We have some friends who are interested, but we recognize that most people don’t care about the interesting Pinot Noir we tried in some faraway place that they’ll never see.  Of course, sharing is what Power Tasting is all about, so we hope you enjoy our memories.

And so it starts over again, as is the nature of cycles.  Every wine tasting trip is unique, even if we return to the same regions and wineries repeatedly.  Sometimes a wine tasting trip is akin to visiting family and old friends.  There are few surprises but there are always changes, some subtle and some rather more extensive.  As with wine, there are excellent years and less good ones.  (Rarely are there truly bad ones.)  Then there is the excitement of visiting new friends, who over time become old ones.  Yet another cycle.

There are two kinds of places: those you know and those you don’t.  And every place you do know was new to you at one time.  And some of those places you don’t know make wine, some of which you don’t know anything about either.  This was our situation when we set off to visit the Santa Rita Hills, but the same could be said for our first times in any of the world’s winemaking regions.

We had a great time that day, as we have had on numerous other occasions when we have discovered new corners of Wine Country.  There are certain tips that should be considered if you are going wine tasting somewhere you haven’t been before. We have written before about planning for such a trip, but these tips are about maximizing your pleasure while you’re there.

The Santa Rita Hills.  Photo courtesy of Wine Spectator.

• Getting there and coming back are parts of the trip.  Pay some attention to the scenery, the homes, the stores, even the industrial sections.  (Of course, pay more attention to the road, if you’re the driver.)  The places you pass are the places where the wine people live.  Part of the pleasure of visiting Wine Country rather than opening bottles at home is to get a sense of the people who live there, not just tasting the wine.
• Geeting a little lost is okay.  The only way you can have serendipity is if things don’t quite go as planned.  Note that we say, “a little lost”.  You might discover a great little winery just down the wrong lane.  But if you find yourself on the highway with no vineyards in sight, maybe it’s a good idea to turn around.
• Factor in the weather.  In some ways the coldest, nastiest months are the best time to visit someplace you’re already familiar with.  There are no crowds and tasting rooms have lots of space for walk-ins.  If one of those months is when you are discovering a new place is in, say, January, make the most of it.  Snow on the vines can make a pretty sight.  Of course, you’d rather be there when the sun is bright and fruit hangs from the vines, so make every minute count at those times. 
• Open yourself to that particular experience.  There’s no need to compare what you are seeing to what you have seen before.  The Santa Rita Hills, for example, have their own beauty just as does Chianti or the Barossa Valley or St. Emilion or… Enjoying what you see and taste for its own merits will give you more pleasure than thinking that somewhere else is better.
• Think about how you will tell the folks back home about your visit.  Attempting to verbalize what you are seeing, feeling, tasting and doing helps to lock all those things into your memory.  It is certainly the technique we use in writing the articles in Power Tasting.  Try it out when you’re doing something fun in your own neighborhood.  You’ll see how much more vivid it makes every fun thing you do.

If someone were to ask, “Where should I go to taste the best California wines?” most of us Americans would probably point the questioner to the Napa Valley.  But if that question was applied to France, the only reasonable answer is “It depends”. 

Virtually every part of France produces wine.  Burgundy is renowned for wines made from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.  In the region around the city of Bordeaux, the grapes are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Semillon.  The Rhône Valley produces Grenache, Syrah, Roussanne and Marsanne grapes.  Which is the best?  Well, it depends on what you like.

The town of Gaillac in Southwest France.  Photo courtesy of Ville de Gaillac.

And we could complicate matters by pointing to Riesling and Gewurztraminer in Alsace, Gaillac (made of Duras and Fer grapes) in the Southwest and Malbec in Cahors (known locally as Côt).  If all of this is confusing, it needn’t be.  Winemaking in France arose from many different histories and ecosystems.  If you’d like to travel around France, just enjoy whatever you find that’s produced locally.

We Americans are used to a lot of these different grapes grown in the same general vicinity.  (Well, maybe not Duras or Fer.)  But the differences are not as deeply rooted in the culture of each location.  So if you’re wine tasting in France, keep a few things in mind.

• There are laws in France requiring certain regions to make wine from certain grapes, and in certain blends, if they want  to be able to claim AOC (appellation d’origine contrôlée) status.  So, while you will find some Cabernet Sauvignon in Russian River, you won’t be able to do the same in the Burgundy’s Côte d’Or, for example.
• There are regions where vignerons (French for winemakers) grow the “wrong” grapes.  For example, Château Canet in Minervoix makes Merlot and Malbec (but can’t label them Minervoix, because different grapes are required there).  For another example, Mas de Gourgonier in Les Baux de Provence has a Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah blend, which is fine in Australia but not in France.  If you don’t get hung up on the rules, you can enjoy some interesting alternatives while you are in various parts of France.
• You can take a chance with some grapes you’ve never heard of.  We’ve already mentioned the virtually unknown grapes in Gaillac wine, which is readily available in Toulouse.  There’s Melon grapes in the Jura mountains, Auxerrois in Alsace or Chasselas in the Savoie.  You may never get another chance to taste wines made from these grapes, so if you’re in the area, give them a try. 
• On the other hand, you might find a familiar wine by a different name.  In the 1860s, Francois Durif, a French botanist, had a vineyard growing Peloursin and Syrah.  The two cross-pollinated and he found himself with a different grape entirely.  He made wine from it and named it after himself.  If you happen to find a bottle of Durif, it may seem familiar, because in the US we call it Petite Sirah.

The overall messages are that a) If you travel in France you’ll encounter great wine wherever you go.  b) Enjoy what each region is famous for, but keep your mind (and your mouth) open for new and unexpected experiences.

As reported elsewhere in this issue, there are 25 wine tasting rooms in Santa Barbara.  If you live there or nearby, you can take it easy on a weekend afternoon, stop in one or two of them, have lunch, visit the sights and head home.  But for those of us for whom a visit to Santa Barbara is either a vacation or the extension of some other trip, we don’t have the luxury of trying lots of wineries over an extended period of time.  Whatever wineries we’re going to stop at, we’re going to have to visit over just a few days.

The bar of the tasting room at Happy Canyon Vineyard.

So many wineries, so little time.

Here are a few tips for optimizing your time, in Santa Barbara or any other in-town tasting destination.

• Start with a winery you know.  At the very least, you’ll be assured of finding at least one spot where the wines are familiar to you and, we assume, that you like.  For example, we began our most recent excursion at Au Bon Climat, where we have been before and whose wines we often buy.  And then the big question: We asked our server where else she would recommend in the area.  Her tastes might not be the same as ours (they weren’t) but at least we weren’t picking places at random.
• Leave some time for serendipity.  Now for the contrary advice.  If you are in a region where all or most of the wines are unknown to you, pick one and try it out.  So, for instance, we were at that point in the day when we’d ask ourselves, “One more or call it a day?”  Opting for the first alternative, we passed Longoria on State, which has more of a vibe of a night club than a tasting room.  We enjoyed it greatly and will publish a review in a future issue.
• Too many is too much.  Just because there are ten tasting rooms within three blocks of each other doesn’t mean you have to try them all.  In fact, if you did try ten in a day you’d be a menace to your own health and to those around you.  For goodness sake, don’t get behind the wheel of a car.  Or jaywalk, for that matter.  Even if you’re walking from place to place, set a limit on how many tasting rooms you’ll enter and the stick to your intentions.
• Enjoy the ambience as well as the wine.  Whether you’re relaxing in a well-appointed room, such as at Happy Canyon Vineyard, soaking up the sun on a terrace or partying in the Funk Zone, you don’t have to bolt as much wine as you can as fast as you’re able.  The whole premise of Power Tasting is that the experience of wine tasting can be as important as the wines themselves.
• Take advantage of the rest of what the city or town has to offer.  Yes, you’re there for wine tasting, but have a nice lunch and see the sights.  And don’t soak up so much alcohol during the day that you haven’t got the room for a good bottle of a local wine with your dinner, if you’re staying over.

Tasting wine all by yourself isn’t that much fun.  There’s no one to exult with when you discover an unknown gem.  Or sneer at a loser.  Or just keep you company.  And wine tasting alone at home leads to all kinds of problems.  Still, there are times when you’re traveling alone and you’re in a place where vineyards are nearby.  In some cases, you may be in a place where you are already familiar with the wines, so passing up a tasting trip may be easy to accept.  But if you are in a distant, previously unvisited location you may feel that you simply must take advantage of the occasion.  So if you may be considering a solo wine tasting adventure, here are some things to consider.

Photo courtesy of Waiheke Island Tours

• Try not to go alone.  On a business trip, there may be a client who would go with you.  Or a fellow conventioneer.  Or a relative you’ve been meaning to call anyway.  If you are organizing a meeting, you might add on a wine tasting day, for team-building purposes. Before you leave home, give some thought to who you might meet.  Only when you’ve exhausted all the other possibilities should you think of the logistics of tasting by yourself.
• Take a tour.  We don’t often recommend wine tasting tours.  In general, they go to the wineries that are convenient, that allow large groups or are highly commercial.  Rarely will you encounter the top vineyards in the area you’re visiting.  But they know where they’re going and they do the driving.  If you have no particular knowledge of the region and its wines, everything you taste will be new to you anyway.  Tour companies rarely advertise where they stop, but if they do feature small groups (not a 50-passenger bus) and knowledgeable guides, they’re more likely to provide better quality.
• Take a taxi.  You can ask a driver how much he would charge for an extended ride.  You probably want to have a map and choose a few wineries in advance, so the driver can know where you want to go.  In general, ask for a half-day price.  Even if you plan on being out for a day, it’s best to plan for a shorter trip and ask for more time than the reverse.  Either way, it can be expensive.  But getting behind the wheel yourself in an area unknown to you, with alcohol to be added, may not be any bargain.  You really don’t want to deal with foreign police or worse, be involved in an accident. 
• Limit your consumption.  It’s best not to drink too much, no matter who’s driving.  Don’t embarrass yourself in front of a cabbie or a tour guide.  And if you decide to drive, prudence is a necessity.  So sip sparingly; don’t gulp.  Use the pour buckets.  Only ask to try wines you are more likely to enjoy rather than everything on the list.
• Talk to the people you encounter.  It’s always more fun to share an experience, even if you’re sharing it with strangers.  Engage with the person serving you.  In most places, the servers speak at least some English, as is likely the case with the other passengers on the bus.  And if you want to get to where you want to go, make certain you can talk with the taxi driver.