INTERNET GUIDE TO WINE

(Frequently Asked Questions and More)

by Bradford S. Brown

with Dri Brown

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All portions of this guide, whether contained in one document or in part are:

Copyright 1995 Bradford S. Brown

1995 Bradford S. Brown

PLEASE READ THE COPYRIGHT INFORMATION AND DISCLAIMERS AT THE END OF THIS GUIDE.

This is the FIRST real version of this GUIDE. It was prepared on April 24, 1995. To all who have sent me suggestions, please note many are not yet contained in this version. There's a lot more to come. Thanks for your help. If I have included your work and forgotten to give you credit, please send me a note.

The authors may currently be reached at bradb@netcom.com

A complete copy of this FAQ can be obtained by dropping us a note or through the WWW at: (US) http://augustus.csscr.washington.edu/personal/bigstar-mosaic/wine.html (Thanks to Jarrett Paschel.) (Sweden) http://130.241.95.77/food/winefaq/index.htm (Thanks to Dr. Sumihisa Aota)

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PREFACE

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Drinking wine is an experience. To drink for the purposes of becoming drunk is not what drinking wine as an experience is all about. Wine is food. Just like the delight which comes from eating your most favorite food, wine, as food can provide similar enchantment.

But drinking wine has somehow also entered into the realm of snobbery. This is a shame for it can (and does) prevent many from getting in on the enjoyment of this marvelous product of nature. For that reason, I have undertaken to prepare this guide, no t as a wine expert (which I am most assuredly NOT), but as an average drinker of relatively good wine. My aim here is to try and explain about wine in a way that is understandable but, I hope, not forbidding. With this intent, I may offend some sensibilities or make some outright mistakes. Remember, I am relying on a little bit of knowledge, and everyone knows what happens with a little bit of knowledge. If I'm wrong about the facts, please let me know. If I get carried away and the tone gets too pompous, pretentious, or downright haughty, also let me know.

Because of the sheer volume of information, I am not following the question and answer FAQ format. A Table of Contents and a comprehensive Index are provided instead. The choice of what to include was made up from the questions I had about wine (and still do), suggestions from others, and from watching the Usenet groups on the subject. Suggestions, comments, criticism and whatever are welcome. While this already seems like a book to me, I've actually tried to cut down on the verbiage. It will probabl y get longer through time.

Living in Southern California means that I get to enjoy the huge diversity of the West Coast of the United States at, perhaps, a somewhat reduced cost. It also means that I can visit the wineries and winemakers that produce these wines from time to time. That is good. Unfortunately it also means that I have virtually no knowledge of the wonderful (and to me, much more expensive) wines of Europe and most of the rest of the world. This guide is a compilation of information, and can grow, through time, t hrough all of your assistance. Please send me comments, information, or anything else you think belongs here. I don't expect early versions to be earthshaking, merely distributed worldwide. What all this means is that if I have the chutzpah to prepare a wine guide as a relative novice, newcomers to wine can realize that they need not be put off by the sometimes arcane world of wine and can join it without fear!

Since the making, drinking and enjoyment of wine is a huge subject (and I certainly don't know all the answers), I've been necessarily superficial in my answers (though perhaps longer, than in many FAQS!). This can lead to argument about the validity of what I have had to say. Since this isn't meant to be an encyclopedia, some sort of brevity is important. Actually, I have received comments that say some of the portions are too long, considering the relevance of particular topic in global terms. The d iscussion about the University of Davis is a case in point. However, this being in nature a FAQ, topics which generate repeated questions or a great amount of replies deserve, in my humble opinion, more attention. Electronic "paper" is relatively cheap.

Many feel that specific great wines of the world have been overlooked. This is true, not just because this--so far--isn't a book, but because I have made a conscious decision to not go too far out on a limb in incorporating information about things about which I truly know NOTHING can't adequately satisfy for myself that the information sent to me is correct. They say that more information is published on the Internet in one week than is set to paper in a year. They don't say how much of it (including, of course, this FAQ) is correct. With this as with everything, caveat emptor--"Let the buyer beware."

In any event, everyone is urged to buy a book or two on the subject and read away. More importantly, drink away and have a good time.

****PLEASE NOTE:

This is a WORK-IN-PROGRESS. Some, but not all, of the mistakes pointed out to me have been incorporated in this version. I'm still working on fixing the errors and will then move on to incorporating new sections that have clearly been areas of discussio n in the Usenet groups I have monitored. In order to get the current, more corrected version out, I haven't done the BEST job of proofreading. I decided to leave that for the next version. The prior version of this FAQ was a "rough draft." This is a l ittle less rough, so I guess I'm calling it version 1. But there is a lot more material to add and I'll clean the entire document up as I go on with the additions. If you have read this FAQ before, you will not find THAT many additions. This represents more of a corrected version from the past.

One final note on the drinking of wine vis-a-vis the information in this Guide. What YOU like is the best rule of thumb. The experiences of others are a handy guide but these experiences often get shrouded in the myths, mysteries and ritual. This is of f-putting and shouldn't be. In some parts of the world, wine is drunk daily as a part of the meal. There's no big conundrum about what glass to serve it in or how long to age the wine (since most is drunk young). In other parts of the world, the United States, for example, wine often is a restaurant's marked-up profit center and the "rituals" of wine are haggled over incessantly. Since this Guide is somewhat of a rulebook by virtue of its existence, I would like to lay to rest the idea that this is wh at I have in mind in creating it. Use this Guide to get into wine, if that is your goal. After that, just have fun.

I would like to acknowledge those who have provided special assistance, and please forgive me (and e-mail me) for anyone I have forgotten! A lot of mail has been received and not all of it has been sifted through, yet. So far, thanks to John Bailin, Ste phen Bainbridge, Mike Christensen, Peter Curran, Thomas Hill, Mark Levesque, Jim Karegeannes, Sandra Kidd, Daniel Harris Lapin, Gloria Mercado-Martin, Matthew Mitchell, David Murphy, Marcelo Portnoy, Bill Rohwer, David Tan, John Thorngate, Roy Wilkinson. Some merely sent me small notes with little additions, others provided large amounts of material. All of it was necessary and appreciated!

A very special thanks to Paul S. Winalski who clearly spent a great deal of time pointing out and providing changes for a number of specific areas of the FAQ. His knowledge of wine and willingness to consistently help out the Internet community is apprec iated and I thank him for myself and on behalf of all those who have learned from him.

Also special thanks to Jarrett Paschel who has made the FAQ available on the World Wide Web (see URL above) and converted the ASCII version to HTML format (links will come at some point in the future).

Cheers!

Bradford Brown



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Formatting note: This document was written in Microsoft Word 5.0 and saved in ASCII format. I used 1 inch left and right margins (except for the formatted WWW links information which has 0 margins). While aesthetically I like to hyphenate, it has been pointed out that in an electronic medium this can cause problems. So for the moment, ragged edges remain.

To do the subject of wine justice, I just wasn't able to come up with a decent way to do the "question and answer" format of most FAQs. I THINK the way I have gone about it is more readable.

Instead I have provided a table of contents keyed to the chapter headings. Set your search function (make sure it is set to "whole word" or the equivalent) to the paragraph level, preceded by an asterisk (for example *2.1.2) and you can move directly to that subject.

Because it IS such a large subject, I have also provided an index of terms. Generally speaking, items in CAPS should also be contained in the Table of Contents. The Index is keyed in the same manner as the table of contents (see above).

This is the first version that has a Table of Contents, so I'm still working on it. I can already see changes in the chapter structure that I will implement in the future. And by the way, if anyone knows if you can use Word in such a way as to automati cally key the index terms to table levels instead of pages, I would be very grateful for the knowledge! The current index was created through a routine written in Visual Basic for Dos which analyzes the Word document and creates the index list.

FOR WORLD WIDE WEB BROWSERS: You may be reading this with proper fonts thanks to Jarrett Paschel. I'm playing with HTML now for the first time and hope to have links to the chapter headings in the more or less near future.

what's new

JULY, 1995

Updates/corrections to assorted sections (I lose track!), and a much larger "removing labels" section.

Specific producer section removed. New section: What's it Worth. Opus one put there.

Other new sections:

Freezing Wine

Other Sweet Wines

Restaurant Wine Prices

Making Your Own Wine (resources)

Wines Around the World (somewhat limited)

APRIL, 1995:

The current version (April, 1995) is, for better or for worse, going to be the first REAL version.

Future versions will undoubtedly contain corrections, which I don't intend to point out (unless they are horrendous AND I can remember what I've done) and NEW SECTIONS which I hope to point out in this area.

Since is the first version to contain a TABLE OF CONTENTS, to anyone who has already read the FAQ and wants to know if there is anything new, I would suggest skimming it over to see if anything doesn't look familiar.

There are a lot of new topics to come....

SEPTEMBER, 1994: The first rough draft of this FAQ was released in September, 1994, with a slightly altered version released in October, 1994.

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Wine is fermented grape juice. That's the standard answer. Actually, wine can be made from all sorts of common and not so common foods. Things like fruits, herbs and flowers. Most wine, though, is made from grapes. And no matter what the wine is made from, there must be fermentation, that is, that sugar be transformed into alcohol. If the amount of alcohol is relatively low, the result is wine. If it is high, the result is a "distilled liquor," something like gin or vodka. Or perhaps the ever popu lar 151 rum ("flammable, use with caution").

By the way, as fermentation cannot increase alcohol content past about 16%, for at that level the yeast dies and ends fermentation. Higher alcohol levels are archived through "distillation" (that is a lower alcohol beverage is heated. Alcohol, evaporati ng first, is collected and the vapor re-condensed).

There are red wines, pink wines (also known as "rose" or sometimes "blush") and white wines. By the way, since the inside of a grape is more or less "white," red grapes can make white wine. The color comes from letting the juice mix with the skins durin g the early wine-making process. A good example of this is White Zinfandel. The Zinfandel grape is very red on the outside. So, red grapes can make white wine, but white grapes can't make red wine.

Wines might be "fortified," "sparkling," or "table." In fortified wines, brandy is added to make the alcohol content higher (around 16 to 23 percent). Sparkling wines are the ones with bubbles, like Champagne. Table wine (which can also be called "stil l") are the most "natural." Both table and sparkling wines tend to have alcohol contents between 7 and 15 percent.

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Grapes grow on vines. There are many different types of grapes, but the best wine grape is the European Vitis vinifera. It is considered optimal because it has the right balance of sugar and acid to create a good fermented wine without the addition of s ugar or water. It has been said that the wine is only as good as the grape; a poor winemaker can ruin good grapes, but a good winemaker isn't going to make great wine from inferior grapes.

Now before I say anything else about grapes, let me point out an error I have made in drafts of this document (and for all I know it may persist--proofreading is an art). That is the difference between "varieties" of grapes and "varietals." The word "va rietal" means "of or pertaining to a variety." Types of grapes are "varieties." Wines made from a single variety are varietal wines. So, for example, a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wine is a varietal. The cabernet sauvignon grape, zinfandel grape and merlo t grape are varieties of grapes. (Of course, don't be confused that, for example, United States law allows a wine to be labeled Cabernet Sauvignon so long as it has at least 75% of that variety of grape. Now, is that clear?)

Vines start producing grapes about three years after planting; a useable crop after five years. They reach their prime in terms of crop yield between ages ten and thirty. Vines can grow for a hundred years, though production is reduced as they get older . However, reduced production (which is also caused in other ways--growing in poor soil, lack of irrigation, pruning the vines, climate, etc., the so-called "stressing the vines") can lead to "better" wine. So some very good wines come from "old vines."

Wine has been around for thousands of years, but in 1863, catastrophe struck. French vineyards were infested by Phylloxera.

Phylloxera is a louse that attacks the roots of the grape, causing the leaves to fall off and eventual death of the plant. The bug had come from America where the grapes were resistant to the creature. Phylloxera spread quickly through much of Europe an d would have been completely devastating, except that a "cure" was found. It was possible to take Vitis vinifera and "graft" it to American rootstock. The American rootstock was not affected by phylloxera and the grafted grapes were the European variety .

French grapes grow well in soil rich in lime. Native American grapes don't (and the wine they make is derogatorily described as "earthy" or "foxy"). American grapes were resistant to Phylloxera, the French grapes were not. Why not create a "hybrid" tha t has the best qualities of both? (You could grow the grapes from the hybrid, and this is done is some parts of the world, however most graft the desired variety of European grape onto the hybrid rootstock.)

There are many hybrids, but for California wineries, one particular hybrid rootstock seemed to stand out among all the rest: AxR #1. During the 1960's, wine grape planting in California took off. (Some farmers in the Napa valley saw their relatively in expensive land soar to US $50,000 or so an acre. It's interesting to see the old farmhouses with the shiny new Mercedes parked in front of the homes of the luckier farmers--and no, I don't think all the Mercedes belong to transplanted doctors and lawyers .) AxR #1 was planted all over the place.

Unfortunately, it turned out that there were at least two types of Phylloxera, known as Biotype A and Biotype B. AxR #1 was resistant to the first, but not the second. Type B is now spreading like crazy throughout the state. While there are other roots tocks to chose from, many producers may not be able to withstand the cost of replanting and will close. (It takes five to seven years for new vines to produce grapes--too long to wait for many.)

The grower makes the decision on what stock to plant, but there are those who have heaped a fair amount of blame on the people at the University of California at Davis (UCD) for supposedly "pushing" AxR #1. It had been known by the French for at least 50 years that AxR #1 was not perfectly resistant. It would fail after 10 or 20 years in the ground. While AxR #1 has many good qualities, whether UCD did not make enough of AxR #1's shortcomings remains a controversial topic.

To some, the devil incarnate, to others, scientific saviours. To all, it should be clear that UCD runs a highly-regarded enological program which has brought modern science and technology into the process of making wine (WWW address--http://pubweb.ucdavi s.edu/Documents/WINE/ven1.html). The school, as was explained to me by a graduate of the program, provides higher education in enology (wine chemistry) and viticulture (grape horticulture) and not, specifically, in the art of winemaking. Most students o pt to pursue careers in the wine industry and take "Planned Educational Leave" to obtain first hand experience with a winery. Nevertheless, some criticize that the wines created by UCD graduates are all the same, "text-book chemistry" wines. They claim the UCD learning experience produces predictable, "inoffensive" wine (and, for example, shies away from wild yeast fermentation, a way to make wines with "more character"). All I can say is that I have had truly magnificent wines from UCD graduates AND f rom people who started making wine in a garage without any formal training at all. Wine making is an art, not an exact science. In the end, it will be the SKILLS, TASTE and ARTISTIC EXPRESSION of the winemaker that is crucial. As told to me by the Davis g raduate, it is ironic that a great number of the Davis "bashers" are quite willing to contact the school whenever they have a problem their "art instinct" can't solve. All the arguing hardly matters, if you don't like a particular wine, vote with your po cketbook!

Being a graduate of the University of California, and because it is interesting to me, I have asked why the debate about Davis came about and why it is so volatile. What follows is a rough, LONG summary of ONE person's opinion (not my own, as I have no t rue knowledge at all, at this point). Other people in the know, feel free to contact me with their views!

From the Repeal of Prohibition through the 1960's, Davis excelled at bringing modern science and technology into the process of making wine. For example, Davis promoted the use of stainless steel tanks, proper sanitation. controlled temperature fermentat ions, and provided a better understanding of malolactic fermentation. In short, along with the University of Bordeaux, UCD led the world in improving wine making and answering all the straightforward questions.

At the same time the wine boom came to Napa, bringing a number of new persons (into a formerly family oriented industry) who wanted answers to the harder questions. Davis-trained enologists were trained in a more food-processing approach to winemaking. No doubt some of them also went out into their profession with a "superiority" complex for having "gone to university" when the apprentice approach had previously been the standard. It is probably no surprise that Davis began to get a reputation for sen ding out young bucks who didn't know the first thing about the practical aspects of winemaking. The result was a backlash against the University.

Whereas once a Davis degree was a ticket to success (and certainly Davis graduates occasionally got positions solely due to their degree, not their abilities) as the industry slowed and jobs got more difficult to find the Davis degree didn't work the same magic. Some winemakers then discovered that they could make a name by Davis bashing (THEIR wines weren't just COOKBOOK science, so to speak). About the same time the continuing crisis involving AxR #1 (see above) began.

Davis bashers would point to the European traditions and enjoy reveling in the grand reputation of that tradition and tossing off names of certain selected great wines from certain selected great years (and ignoring the fact that the bulk of European wine tends to be plonk--like U.S. jug wines--and not first growth Bordeaux). Some winemakers had great success with the so-called "wild" fermentations and accused (with some accuracy) Davis of resisting this method. However, for every successful "wild" ferm entation which gained notoriety there probably was a poorly produced wine.

In the end, the science that Davis contributes to the field is a vital and important factor in the growth of the wine industry. It can smooth out the rough edges foisted on the winemaker by variables which are all or part out of his or her control (weath er, pests, soil depletion, etc.). Innate intuition may make good or even great wine, but science isn't going to hurt, especially when the winemaker is open to ALL ideas.

As has been oft stated, a consumers pocket book should make the judgment. UCD makes recommendations based upon the best scientific evidence it can accumulate. This might run counter to the anecdotal results of a single winemaker's recollection or to th e idea that a winemaker is an independent iconoclast, unfettered by "rules." Free spirits may make good wine, so can science.

The chemistry of wine is extremely complex and a great deal of ego is involved on both sides of the Davis debate. One thing is, however, certain. Davis does not dictate winemaking. Davis is merely a tool to be used by people who want to make wine. How they use that tool is up to them and to their abilities.

Weather is a major factor is determining whether a year is going to be a "good vintage" (or "year"). For example, was there enough heat during the growing season to lead to enough sugar? At harvest time, the short term effects of weather are quite impor tant. To produce great wine, the fruit should be ripe (but not overripe), and have a high (but not overly high) sugar content ("brix"; typically about a 22 brix for table wine). Think of raisins. As the fruit dries, the water evaporates. What is left is the sugary fruit. If it rains just at the point the wine grapes are ready, and before the grapes can be harvested, the additional water will cause the water level to increase, and the brix will go down. Not good. (You might ask, why not just add som e sugar in the wine-making process? Some do. Also considered "not good.")

Every year the wine grape grower plays a game of chance and must decide when to harvest. Simplistically, if you knew it wasn't going to rain, you would just test the brix until it was just right, then harvest. If you harvest too soon, you will probably end up getting a wine too low in alcohol content (there won't have been enough sugar to convert to alcohol). These wines will be "thin." If you delay harvest, there may be too much sugar, which leads to too low acid content. This also affects the taste (and the aging possibilities) of the wine.

During the harvest of 1989 I was in the Napa/Sonoma areas of California, where there was scattered rain. Winemakers in the area were not a happy bunch. As it turned out, this turned out to not be a great year "overall." But, it depends. In some areas rain was not a factor, in others it was. So you can't make a blanket statement that for ALL wines it was a poor year.

Grapes can (and might still) be crushed by stomping on them with your feet in a big vat. But a more practical way is to use a machine which does the job (and at the same time, removes the stems).

What you get may or may not get immediately separated. Skin and seeds might immediately be removed from the juice. Separation may not immediately occur (especially for red wines), since skins and stems are an important source of "tannins" which affect w ine's taste and maturity through aging. The skins also determine the color of the wine (see WHAT IS WINE).

Maceration (the time spent while skins and seeds are left with the juice) will go on for a few hours or a few weeks. Pressing will then occur. One way to press the grapes is to use a "bladder press," a large cylindrical container that contains bags that are inflated and deflated several times, each time gently squeezing the grapes until all the juice has run free, leaving behind the rest of the grapes. You can also separate solids from juice through the use of a centrifuge.

Aside: When I first started drinking Chardonnay, my tastes ran to wines with heavy flavors of oak (introduced in the barrel aging process by storing in wood barrels). Then I was lucky enough to be at the Acacia winery in Sonoma during harvest. The frie ndly people there had me take a wine glass and hold it under the device that was extracting juice from the grapes. Fending off the bees, which were very attracted to the sweet fluid, I got a taste of absolutely fresh unfermented Chardonnay grape juice. It was wonderful. I then knew what Chardonnay actually tasted like! From that point on my tastes have run to a different balance of oak and fruit flavors in the wine. The best way to learn about wine is to drink it. Sometimes it even helps if it isn't even wine yet . . . .

Grape juice is turned into alcohol by the process of "fermentation." Grapes on the vine are covered with yeast, mold and bacteria. By putting grape juice into a container at the right temperature, yeast will turn the sugar in the juice into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The grape juice will have fermented.

Yeast gives flavor to wine. However things on the outside of a grape are not necessarily so good for the production of good wine (for example, acetic bacteria on the grapes can cause the wine to turn to vinegar). The winemaker commonly eliminates unwant ed contaminants by using the "universal disinfectant," sulfur dioxide. Unfortunately, the sulfites which remain in the wine may cause a lot of discomfort to some wine drinkers. (See ALLERGIC REACTIONS TO WINE.). Some winemakers prefer NOT to do this, a nd purposely create wines that are subject to the vagaries (and different flavors) of yeast that is "wild," that is not a commercial yeast strain used by the winemaker ("wild yeast fermentation"). By the way, some have said that these wild yeasts are fou nd on the grape, but a number of people have written to say that there is no documentation that any wild yeast living on the skins of grapes leads to alcoholic fermentation. They propose that these "spontaneous" fermentations occur due to commercial yeas t p opulations that live in the winery and have become "wild" over several generations--and have not been cleaned away or otherwise eradicated.

The winemaker has many different yeast strains to choose from (and can use different strains at different times during the process). The most common wine yeast is Saccharomyces.

This is a good point to stop and mention "Brett," also known as the Brettanomyces strain of yeast (which can be added or come from wild yeast fermentation). Found in some beers, it is considered by some (especially in California) to be almost completely undesirable in wine. (Some say it is linked to development of 4-ethylphenol.) Mostly this depends on your taste, it certainly IS found in some French wine (but is never good in excess). Look for meaty/gamy/smoky/sweaty socks or perhaps metallic notes.

That's the short answer about Brett, but the fact is that this is one of the more controversial discussions for it brings into play several favorite areas of contention--The University of California and the idea of just what is winemaking, art, science or what?

A little (but not a lot) of Brett can let a wine become distinctly individual. Somehow, however, it seems that many California vintners consider any Brett at all a major flaw. Naysayers like to say that this is due to the influence of the University of California at Davis (UCD) which, they say, somehow causes their students to produce standardized "cookie-cutter" wine. Brett is definitely found is some French wines, especially Burgundies and some Rhone wines. Nevertheless, finding Brett for some is a major problem--even a defect making the wine unworthy of purchase.

For some reason whether or not Brett can be found in a wine has generated a huge amount of cyber-rattling. (Could I have just invented a phrase?) That finding Brett in a wine is a "problem" that taints a winery (and, I guess, for that reason only gives them something to talk about). The more down-to-earth wine enthusiasts merely say they don't care where the taste comes from: if they like it, fine, if not, don't drink it. Whether or not something is a "problem" is very much a matter of individual tas te.

To eliminate Brett does mean that any of the characteristics it imparts will also not be present. Does this make the wine less interesting? Does it make the winemaker less individualistic? Since, in the end, you can find the wine of your choosing in al l the varieties produced both in California and world-wide, why not just vote with taste buds and pocket book?

One more thing about "wild yeast fermentation." The process gives the "aura" of a hand-craft product. It is important to remember that not ALL hand-crafted products are quality products!

Well. Back to the process. . . .

As yeast works, it causes grape juice ("must") to get hot. But if there's too much heat, the yeast won't work. One modern way to deal with this is to put the juice into large stainless steel containers that have refrigeration systems built around the si des. The winemaker can regulate temperature precisely.

A less modern, but still wide widely used way to ferment wine is to place it in small oak barrels. "Barrel fermentation" is usually done at a lower temperature in temperature controlled rooms and takes longer, perhaps around 6 weeks. The longer fermenta tion and use of wood contributes to the flavor (and usually expense) of the wine.

The skins and pulp which remain in a red wine vat will rise to and float on top of the juice. This causes problems (if it dries out, it's a perfect breeding ground for injurious bacteria), so the winemaker will push this "cap" back down into the juice, u sually at least twice a day. In large vats, this is accomplished by pumping juice from the bottom of the vat over the top of the cap. Some winemakers use a screen to keep the cap submerged at all times.

Eventually the yeast is no longer changing sugar to alcohol (though different strains of yeast, which can survive in higher and higher levels of alcohol, can take over and contribute their own flavor to the wine--as well as converting a bit more sugar to alcohol).

After all this is completed what you have left is the wine, "dead" yeast cells, known as "lees and various other substances.

The winemaker may choose to allow a wine to undergo a second fermentation which occurs due to malic acid in the grape juice. When malic acid is allowed to break down into carbon dioxide and lactic acid (thanks to bacteria in the wine), it is known as "ma lolactic fermentation," which can impart additional flavor to the wine. A "buttery" flavor in some whites is due to this process. Since malic acid is perceived as more sour than lactic acid, the process also reduces the perceived acidity of the wine.

Malolactic fermentation is much more prevalent in red wines than in whites, with the smell of apples in white wine denoting the presaging the presence of malic acid.

After fermentation, there still may be a lot of stuff floating around in the wine which some winemakers want to remove. There are various ways for the wine to undergo this "clarification" (for example, strain the wine through something like cheesecloth, called "filtering"), but the most common way is called "fining."

When you make jellies, the recipes may sometimes call for adding egg whites. The materials that cloud the jelly are captured by the egg and you get a nice, bright result that looks really good in glass jars. It's the same with wine, even down to using e gg whites. Except that the most common materials used for fining are gelatin or bentonite (a type of clay).

When and where to use heavy filtering and fining is highly controversial, since removing these substances prevents the wine from obtaining flavors from them, affecting the character of the wine. You are certain to hear complaints about "over fined and fi ltered wine." The implication is that such wines will have less flavor. For this reason some wines will say on the bottle that they are "unfiltered."

The winery may then keep the wine so that there can be additional clarification and, in some wines, to give it a more complex flavor. Flavor can come from wood (or more correctly from the chemicals that make up the wood and are taken up into the wine). When wood aging is used, wines are stored most commonly in oak barrels. It it is considered by many that French oak barrels give the best flavor and that they must be replaced after several years of use. American oak is used by some producers and you ca n usually tell the difference. Other producers will buy the older, used French oak barrels and create wines that some feel are inferior (but they probably ARE less expensive). Some wines may never see anything but stainless steel and the glass that they are bottled in. In any event, using oak barrels puts an "oakiness" characteristic in wine. The wine may be barrel aged for several months to several years.

Ignoring any additional processing that might be used, you could empty the barrels into bottles and sell your wine. However, during the barrel aging, the smaller containers may develop differences. So the winemaker will probably "blend" wine from differ ent barrels, to achieve a uniform result. Also, the winemaker may blend together different grape varieties to achieve desire characteristics. For example, blending a little Merlot into a Cabernet Sauvignon can give is a more "mellow" taste. This proces s also temporarily creates very purple stained teeth in the red wine maker. Other blends may seem unusual. Recently I had a blend of 50% each Chardonnay and Viognier. (I liked it.)

At some point the wine will be placed in bottles. Producers often use different shaped bottles to denote different types of wine. Colored bottles help to reduce damage by light. (Light assists in oxidation and breakdown of the wine into chemicals, such as mercaptan, which are undesirable.)

Bottle sizes can also vary:

Applying generally to wines other than Champagne:

split 187.5 ml

1/2 bottle 375 ml (aka Fillette)

bottle 750 ml

magnum 1.5 liter (2 bottles)

Marie-Jeanne 2.25 liters (3 bottles) (Red Bordeaux)

double magnum 3 liters (4 bottles)

jeroboam 4.5 liters (6 bottles)

imperial 6 liters (8 bottles)

Applying to Champagne:

split 200 ml

1/2 bottle 375 ml

pint 400 ml

bottle 800 ml

Magnum 1.5 liter (2 bottles)

Jeroboam 3 liters (4 bottles) (& Burgundy)

Rehoboam 4.5 liters (6 bottles) (& Burgundy)

Methuselah 6 liters (8 bottles) (& Burgundy)

Salmanazar 9 liters (12 bottles)

Balthazar 12 liters (16 bottles)

Nebuchadnezzar 15 liters (20 bottles)

Just prior to filling the bottle, the producer may insert nitrogen, which will sit above the liquid preventing contamination by oxygen. A capsule will be placed over the top of the bottle. Originally made from lead foil, fears of lead poisoning (and U.S . law) have brought about the use of other metals or even plastic.

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Most people assume that the longer that you keep a wine, the better it will get. So probably the most commonly asked question you hear is, how long do I keep the wine before drinking? (Since its best to store wine under certain conditions, like in a coo l damp underground cellar, this is known as "cellaring" wine.)

It is a misconception that you MUST age wine. The fact is, throughout the world, most wine is drunk "young" (that is relatively soon after it is produced, perhaps 12 to 18 months), even wines that are "better" if aged. While some wines will "mature" and become better over time, others will not and should be drunk immediately, or within a few years. Eventually ALL wine will "go over the hill," so even the wines meant to be kept for many, many years should be drunk before its too late.

Wines which are expected to be matured in the bottle before drinking can go over the hill faster if not properly stored. If someone is giving you a very good deal on an old red wine that you would otherwise expect to be great, start to wonder how it was kept! And a famous name on the label is no guarantee whether a wine will age well (sometimes they make mistakes, or the grapes that year ("vintage") just won't produce wines suitable for extended aging ("cellaring").

Tannin is a substance that comes from the seeds, stems and skins of grapes. (For a taste of heavy-duty tannin, try a strong cup of tea.) Additional tannin can come from the wood during barrel aging in the winery. It is an acidic preservative and is imp ortant to the long term maturing of wine. Through time, tannin (which has a bitter flavor--"mouth shattering"?) will precipitate out of the wine (becoming sediment in the bottle) and the complexity of the wine's flavor from fruit, acid and all the myriad other substances that make up the wine's character will come into greater balance. Generally, it is red wines that are the ones that CAN (but do not have to be) produced with a fair amount of tannin with an eye towards long term storing and maturation. The bad news is that you shouldn't drink it young since it will taste too harsh (and probably cost too much, besides). The good news is that (with a little luck) after a number of years, what you get is a prized, complex and balanced wine.

Remember that red wines get their color from the stems and skins of the grape. This gives the wine tannin and aging capacity. White wines may have no contact with the stems and skins and will have little tannin (though some can be added, again, through barrel aging). Therefore most white wines don't age well. Even the ones which do get better through time will not last nearly as long as their red cousins. A fair average for many "ageable" whites would be about 5 to 7 years (some might go 10). On the other hand, really "ageable" reds can easily be kept for 30 years and longer.

So, how do you figure out how long to keep a wine before drinking it? We'll get to a summary, but it IS just a summary. Check out other sources for the particulars..

Two wineries, side by side, producing the same grapes and the "same" wine. One ages considerably longer than the other. Why? While they are the "same" grapes, perhaps the soil or microclimate (small variations in the local weather due to terrain; what the French call "terroir") is just a bit different. Maybe the vines are older. The winery may have processed the wines differently (for example, heavy filtering). (In fact, even the size of the bottle matters--a 1/2 bottle ages faster than larger bottl es.) There are lots of reasons, so general rules are just that--general.

In any event, the red French Beaujolais Nouveau is meant to be drunk within days. Its a light, fruity wine.

White wine is the next least aged wine. But here there is a range from a light wine like Sauvignon Blanc or a light Chardonnay, to more ageable "complex" Chardonnay of good White Burgundies. Probably drink the former within a few years (aging isn't need ed, and the latter from 3 to 7 years). Dessert wines like Sauternes or other late harvest wines (Riesling, Gewurztraminer, etc.) should be aged. Sauternes get better over a VERY long time: 10, 20, 30, 40 or more years!

Then come the reds. While the vast majority of wines produced today CAN be drunk immediately, a good number of red wines will benefit by SOME aging and some will benefit from a LOT of aging. The ones that you open now that taste like road tar may very w ell be fantastic in 5 or 10 or 20 years. Look to some French Bordeaux (maybe up to 30 years) or Cabernet Sauvignon.

[Getting more specific about some red grapes, rules of thumb MIGHT be for the very best wines: Cabernet, 10 to 15 years; Merlot, 4 to 7 years for many; Nebbiolo, 10 years or more; Pinot Noir, about 5 years to start.]

Some people contend that while California wine won't "go bad" in the bottle, it doesn't get any better--unlike French wines that mature (get better) with cellaring. Don't ask me to explain this controversy as I have had plenty of California wine that see med to me to be better after aging (but then, I said I wasn't an expert. On the other hand, I know I like it when I drink it.)

So much for the summary. Didn't help much, did it? As you learn more and more about wine, you get a feel for which wines are produced to be aged. That doesn't mean that you still know when it is the BEST time to drink the wine. You need to check aroun d. Ask fellow wine drinkers (and, any unbiased wine merchant with whom you can establish a relationship). Get a book that gives opinions. Read the magazines. These resources have the ability to tell you what happened when THEY drank the wine. Was it still good, is it starting to go over the hill, is it gone? At least one correspondent tells me that Australian wines seem to mature faster in Australia than in Europe, even if kept at similar temperatures and humidities. Just one more reason why it is best to ASK (and taste) about individual wines.

Lucky ones (like wine critics or friends of expansive people with big cellars) can get to be part of "vertical tastings." A "vintage" is the year in which a wine is produced. Line up a particular wine on a table with a bottle from each vintage, say, 197 1 through 1992 and what you get is a "vertical" of that wine. A young wine, designed to age, can taste harsh (from the tannin). As you sample older and older bottles, the wine will mellow. Flavors come into balance. The oldest wines will lose their ta nnin and their fruitiness and eventually have a flat taste. Somewhere in there is the vintage which tastes the way YOU like it. That part is up to you, not to the pundits. But their comments can help. There are lots of resources (see Learning About Wi ne) which can help you get an idea which wines should be drunk when.

When we first started learning about wine, we bought way too much white wine, which somehow we still have. Some of it--which was wonderful when purchased--can now best be described as awful. Since you'll hear the old cliche that you should cook only wit h wines you would drink, that wine isn't even good for cooking. I plan on trying to turn it into vinegar.

ASIDE: One of the first really "good" wines we had was a 1984 Acacia Winery Lake Chardonnay. We bought a case of it and drank it slowly (like I said, we've got a lot of white left over). A few years back we asked the winemaker how it would be. His ans wer was "never open it . . . just remember the way it was, you'll be happier." We're glad to say he was wrong. As this is being written, that bottle was opened last night (it was 10 years old). Past its prime but still pretty good! So even the winemak er may not always know, either.

When you are just starting out, it probably doesn't pay to buy many wines for aging ("laying down"). First off, you are going to want to drink some of them, and the ones that are "good" won't be so good this young, and they'll cost too much besides. The re are plenty of wines that are good NOW. As you drink these wines, you'll get an idea of what types of wine you like. With a little learning, you'll get an idea of the style of wine you want to put away. And you may not make the mistakes we did, besid es. (On the other hand, we DID manage to get a few wines that did age well and we are just drinking now. So much for rules.)

Don't forget, how you store the wine will affect how long it lasts as well. Even the size of the bottle will change its life. Getting good advice about particular wine is the only good idea here.

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What is the best way to cellar wine? If it is a wine that is meant to be drunk within a year or so, you probably don't have to keep it in any really special place (like an expensive refrigerator style wine cellar--check the ads in the back of wine magazi nes for examples), other than it should be relatively cool and out of the light. Some DO say, "panic at 70 degrees" Fahrenheit.

For wines that should be aged, a cellar should have proper:

--Temperature which does not have rapid fluctuation. 55 degrees Fahrenheit is a good, but you can live with 50 to 57 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 14 degrees Centigrade). Wide swings in temperature will harm the wine. Having too high a temperature will age the wine faster so it won't get as complex as it might have. Having too low a temperature will slow the wine's maturation.

--Humidity. About 60 percent is right. This helps keep the cork moist. The wine will oxidize if the air (and its oxygen) gets to it. If the cork drys out, it can shrink and let air in. This is another reason to keep the bottles on their sides. The w ine itself will help keep the cork moist.

--Lack of light.

--Lack of vibration.

--Lack of strong odors. Whatever it is that is causing the odor stands a good chance of getting through the cork and into the wine.

If you live in or have a cave, you probably are all set. For the less fortunate, you can buy (or even build) a wine cellar. Also, in some places, commercial storage cellars exist. Every once in a while you can go visit your wine. There are also "wine jails," wrought iron wine storage cages that can be locked for people, I guess, who live in caves?

You should know that some people have not followed the temperature rules and it is their opinion that the wines have not suffered. They have found that SLOW temperature swings from relatively cold to relatively warm (but not really hot) have not drastica lly affected the wine. Nevertheless, consistently storing wine at warm temperatures is going to age it faster and breaking the other rules probably isn't going to help.

Why not just use an old refrigerator? To start, refrigerators are too cold. Though this can probably be remedied by a new thermostat, there still are other problems. Wines prefer humidity, but refrigerators are designed not to be humid. If you get aro und this challenge, there still is the fact that refrigerators take no effort to dampen the effect of the compressor turning on and off. The vibrations throughout the appliance are not considered a good thing for long term storage.

Air conditioners aren't really meant to run at the lower temperature needed by wine. If you manage to get the unit set to such temperatures, the coils may "ice up." You also need to deal with the humidity (get a humidifier). With enough home ingenuity, some common sense and knowledge, and some homework, you can convert an entire room into a wine cellar.

See the BOOKS section for assistance. Can this be done? Sure. The biggest hint is that you should build BIG. There is the natural tendency to buy wine at a faster rate than you can drink or store it. So while you're already at it, build for the futur e.

Large amount of wines tend to get lost around my house so the computer comes in handy. Personally, I use a standard database program which I have tailored to my needs. It only took about five minutes to set up the database. There are wine specific soft ware programs available (some even including descriptions and lists of particular wines). I have not seen any of them, but will list those mentioned.

--WineBase available from ken.tripp@blaze.bbs.net.au

--WinWine. Windows based package. 1-800-WINWINE.

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Room temperature. Well, that's what you always hear. The problem is that, at the very least, it is a bit inaccurate, and at the worst (as demonstrated by a whole lot of restaurants around where I live) you wouldn't want to drink it at 80 degrees Fahrenh eit ("it's the room temperature, isn't it?")

As cool wine warms, vapors rise off the wine. Since your sense of smell is a very big part of what things taste like, getting those vapors into your nose is important. Try drinking a bottle of wine that has been heavily refrigerated. In some ways, it w ill taste a lot like water, or at least tasteless alcohol. On the other hand, if you serve a little below room temperature, you'll get the benefit of the vaporizing effect. So one rule of thumb is to serve the wine 1 or 2 degrees below room temperature.

But, there IS a limit to the warmth. To some extent, you can use the following:

--The BEST red wines; "big" red wines: 59 to 61 degrees Fahrenheit, 14 to 16 degrees Centigrade.

--Lesser reds, rose, and "complex" white wines: 50 to 54 degrees Fahrenheit, 10 to 12 degrees Centigrade.

--Less complex white wines: 46 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, 8 to 10 degrees Centigrade.

--Sweet white wines, Champagne: 43 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit, 6 to 8 degrees Centigrade.

If the wine is too cold, can you warm it in the microwave? I wouldn't think so, but one correspondent tells me that he saw (they call this hearsay, don't they) a notable wine expert do it with an old and expensive bottle, so . . . . Personally, I find t hat holding the glass with my hands usually gets it warmed up pretty quickly.

You can tell a little about the wine even without opening it. Besides a moldy cork (see below), perhaps the "fill level" known as ullage, is lower than you expect. If the bottle was low to begin with (I'm told not uncommon in some Italian wines), you do n't have to worry about it. But there are other causes. If the wine has been subjected to high heat, the wine can expand and liquid may be forced out through the cork. Since the heat wasn't good for the wine, this can be an indicator of problems to com e. On the other hand, increase in ullage is natural over a long period of time and even can be a selling point at auctions. Other problems that could cause bottle leakage would be damaged corks or storage in a very low humidity environment, which can ca use the corks to dry out.

Most corks are made from cork. Since cork is expensive, some wineries are experimenting with making corks from plastic or other high-tech materials. Since the idea of the cork is to keep what's inside the bottle inside, and what's outside the bottle out side, it doesn't seem to matter what the cork is made of. It is questioned by some, however, whether a non-cork cork might allow the material it is made out of to leech into the wine with harmful side effects to the wine and to humans. A screwcap (gasp! ) probably is better than a cork since it does the same job and can't "cork" the wine. Screwcaps are now coming on the market in somewhat more upscale wines (they've been on jugs for years--and don't forget that a lot of wine comes out of "milk carton" t ype cardboard containers that certainly don't have corks).

When you remove the "capsule" (which may or may not be made from some sort of metal foil) from the bottle, you may find a cork which is discolored or even has a lush growth of mold growing on top. If whatever it is hasn't gotten into the wine (also check the "fill level"--if wine has leaked out it is a further indication of trouble), then all you need do is wipe the cork off with a damp rag, towel dry it a bit and remove the cork. Wipe off the top of the bottle. Read on about "corked" wine.

Sometimes you may see something that looks like on the bottom of the cork (or sometimes in the wine). Assuming no true contamination from the winery, these crystals are probably the result of tartaric acid in the form of potassium bitartrate (cream of t artar). While I don't vouch for accuracy of the information is this document, I'm told that this is tasteless and harmless.

A handy use for leftover corks is to clean knives. Keeps your fingers away from the blade, but lets you exert enough pressure to get the blade clean.

There are lots of different types of devices which will remove a cork. Some are a lot easier than others. To me, one of the harder types is the one that is invariably used by the waiter in a restaurant. I once asked a waiter why he didn't use something easier and he told me that the manager thought it made the place look more "professional." The only benefit I can see from those sorts of corkscrews is that they are useful when pulling a cork from a bottle of wine that is sitting in a cradle (and they have a built in knife for cutting the capsule).

Some people don't like putting a hole into their cork (I guess they figure they're going to use it again?) and use a cork puller known as an "Ah-So". The device is made of two metal prongs which you wriggle back and forth so that the prongs move down the side of the cork (sometimes pushing the cork into the wine). When you hit bottom the tension lets you pull the cork back up.

There are EXPENSIVE corkscrews, like the US $100+ Leverpull (tm) which works, as many times as I have seen it in operation, quite well. (It is the sort of thing you'd bolt to a countertop.) But I don't actually see why you need to spend the money on it. I've gotten pretty good at using the Napa motel free giveaway corkscrew (you can get them for about US $1). At home we like to use the approximately US $20 Leverpull which has a Teflon coated screw and a nice long mechanism that extends at a 180 degree angle at the top which you can push around with your finger when the mechanism is extended (to distinguish from a slightly less expensive model that you twist with your hand). Some people say "don't let the screw go through the bottle of the cork." It does with the Leverpull, but it does it so neatly there never are any particles that come loose (at least so far!).

The first real rule is that you don't want shake up the wine (well, most wines) very much. Get something that lets you get the cork out easily and smoothly. Its a nice idea to find something that doesn't break the cork off in mid-pull (there ARE little hooks that will help you fish out a cork you've been forced to push down into the bottle).

With fancy old red wines, it can get a bit more complicated. As wines mature, sediment (which is tannic), described by some as "crud in the bottle" will come out of the wine. If the wine is laying on its side, the sediment will be along the lower edge o f the bottle. The best thing to do is stand the bottle upright a day or two before you plan to drink it. Then the sediment can fall to the bottom of the bottle. Handle the bottle very carefully. You don't want to mix the sediment back through all the bottle. When you pour, stop before any sediment comes out.

If you haven't managed to get the bottle upright in advance, you can serve the wine from a cradle which inclines the wine at about a 45 degree angle. If you carefully open and carefully pour, the sediment will stay along the bottom edge and out of your g lass.

Just because there was no discoloration or growth along the top of the cork does not mean that is isn't possible that the cork hasn't caused a problem with the wine, or that there isn't some other problem. It is useful to smell the wet end of the cork be fore drinking the wine. Sometimes it will give you advance notice that there is something wildly off about the wine, including that the wine may be "corked." To me corked wine has the flavor of wet, musty cardboard. Once you have really tasted a corked wine, you'll know what it is--it is not subtle. Some people think that 1 out of every 12 wines is corked. At least in the circles I drink in, I can only remember finding 2 corked wines over the last 10 years. But then, I can't afford a whole lot of re ally OLD wine. All in all, most wine isn't corked. (If you aren't "lucky" enough to have a real corked wine, apparently you can buy the odor of the stuff from enterprising entrepreneurs. One advertised business is: The Wine Trader, attn: "Corky," P.O. Bo x 1598, Carson City, Nevada 89702.)

A wine might also be "madeirized." A poorly stored bottle, exposed to heat or oxygen can end up smelling and tasting like, well, like Madeira (or Sherry). It will not have the right color and probably has lost it's fruitiness.

This is where you pour the wine out of the bottle into another container (a "decanter"). Properly decanting a bottle lets you get rid of sediment. Use a candle behind the neck of the bottle to see when sediment gets to the neck (I'm repeating the standa rd line here---Assuming you don't get it close enough to heat up the wine, is there some reason you can't use a light bulb?). Stop pouring as soon as you see the sediment. Not all wines have sediment, but old vintage Port does and is always decanted for this reason. Some people will decant through cheesecloth, wire mesh placed in a funnel or even coffee filters.

Some wines will say on their label that they are "unfiltered." (See the section on fining and filtering.) If you find that there is sediment in such wine, go ahead and decant, but just because a wine is unfiltered doesn't necessarily mean that there wil l be sediment.

There are other reasons to decant wine. For example, some young white wines may be have a sulfurous quality which can be removed by spirited decanting. Decanting also lets red wine "breathe," giving any bad but very volatile chemical compounds in the wi ne a chance to evaporate ("blow off") so they're not there when you serve it.

Some wines (for examples some Burgundies and Bordeaux) when young are "accessible," meaning that you can detect the bouquet and flavors that are and will be in the wine. But then chemical reactions take place and the wine closes up (becomes "closed"). W hat was there before is harder to perceive. The wine gets, as they say, "dumb." Aging the wine causes the wine to again open up (tannin, a bitter flavor, turns to sediment and won't be tasted--if it isn't poured into the glass!), and is more "complex." Since letting oxygen in the air get to wine can help to open it up, decanting will help this process along, though not as much as aging it would.

Be forewarned, however. Not all wines benefit from this airing (known as "letting the wine breathe"), for example, fine Burgundies). Also, you can allow a wine to breathe too much. While oxygen helps to open up the wine, it also oxidizes the wine, whic h will eventually ruin it. Finally, a wine that is "over the hill" isn't going to get anything from breathing, since it is already "gone." Experience is important here. In any event, if you don't know, don't decant. While there are those who advocate letting wine breathe, most don't, or when they do, advise a relatively short period of time (an hour for young reds, 2 to 3 hours for older fine reds; and some say don't decant until just before drinking).

Some people will let a wine breathe by opening up the bottle, but not decanting it. This really isn't of much use since not much oxygen is going to get down that small neck.

Aside: I knew one wine expert who swore that he could "age" fine young red wines as if they were laid down for a decade, merely by vigorously shaking the wine up and down and pouring them back and forth between containers. I've done it. It "seems" to w ork.

Due to improper production, handling or storage, there ARE a fair amount of things that can go wrong with wine--most of which should be cause to return a wine if ordering in a restaurant. As mentioned in the section on CORKED WINE, how often that flaw oc curs is controversial. It may also be that some people attribute ALL flaws to "corked" wine. In any event, a flaw IS a flaw, by whatever name. A non-exhaustive list follows.

--Brettanomeyces (Brett). Earthy and/or manure type smells caused by the Brettanomeyces strain of yeast. Liked by some (for example particular French wines), disliked by many California vintners. In small amounts, can add "character" to a wine. Too mu ch, and forget it.

--Corked. Smells like musty cardboard or a damp basement, caused by trichloranisol (TCA) 2,4,6, a compound released by molds that can infest the bark from which corks are made. One theory: you can't get TCA without chlorine, which is used to bleach cor ks (for aesthetic reasons). If corks aren't properly rinsed and dried this problem can occur.

--Dekkera. Another wild-yeast caused flavor of fresh dirt or cement. Liked by some (for example in some Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone and Italian red wines), disliked by many California vintners. Dekkera can also come from contaminated equipment and barrel s.

--Madeirized. Wine subjected to oxygen or heat through poor storage which ends up tasting like Madeira or Sherry. No fruit flavor left. Off-color.

--Mercaptan. Smells of garlic or onion or even of skunk. I'm told that this is much of the cause of the "foxy" flavor produced by grapes native to North America. It is said that the term "foxy" came about because there wines were often made from the Fo x grape, where the flavor was first seen.

--Sulfur. Burnt match smell caused by too much sulfur dioxide (used in the winemaking process) and rotten egg smells caused by hydrogen sulfide from bacterial contamination. Depending on what it is, it might go away if you air the wine for a while.

--Volatile Acidity. Smells of vinegar. May go away if you air the wine for a while.

There are long lists of flaws and descriptions in How to Test and Improve Your Wine Judging Ability (see BOOKS section), and Elements of Wine Tasting (American Wine Society Manual #11).

5.5 DESCRIBING THE WINE

Lots of terms have grown up on how to describe wine. When you hear them tossed about and you don't know anything about them, you can feel lost AND the people using them may sound more than a bit lofty. But after a while you'll find that you'll start usi ng the terms too! I think that Dri kinda fell off her chair the first time I said the wine had a nice "nose!"

There are a lot more terms than I'm going to talk about, but here's a sample (get a good book, or check out the World Wide Web site listed below):

--Austere : The wine is kind of stiff or tight, sort of hard. Hard to tell other traits.

--Balance : Describing the relationship between tannin, acid and alcohol. You want to drink a "well-balanced" wine.

--Big: A strong, perhaps alcoholic wine. It is a good wine that can get better.

--Buttery: A sort of smooth feel and taste, like butter. Most often seen in white wines which have undergone malolactic fermentation.

--Dry: If sugar remains in the wine it is sweet. When it isn't sweet, its dry.

--Flabby: A bland tasting wine that isn't going to get any better.

--Hard: A wine that has a lot of tannin still in it, like a young fine red. The tannin keeps you from tasting the other qualities of the wine which will come out through maturation.

--Grassy (or herbaceous): Smells like grass. Often seen in Sauvignon Blanc.

--Nose: The totality of what you smell.

--Thin: A watery sort of wine.

I have been told that the book "Masterglass" by Jancis Robinson contains an excellent, unpretentious list of terms. I have not seen the volume myself. Also see the Internet Resources list elsewhere in this FAQ. There is a World Wide Web glossary of win e terms available.

Its one thing to learn about wine, buy it and drink it. Ah, but then comes the restaurant. There's all those RULES! Who do you talk to? How do you do it? What do you do when they stick the cork down in front of you. (And what happens when you're sur e you want to drink a Gewurztraminer [geh-vertz-tra-MEEner], but can't pronounce it let alone, spell it?)

The evening's fun starts with the wine list. If you're lucky they've brought it to you. If you're VERY lucky, they've brought ALL of them to you. [I can recall eating in one of the "best" restaurants in a capitol city of one of the United States. The waiter never mentioned that they had a "special" wine list with the "better" wines on it. He had only brought the short, less-expensive list of decent but not as fine wine. One wonders if they didn't intend to sell the good stuff? Maybe it was how I lo oked.]

An informative wine list will tell you the type of wine, the producer of the wine, where it was grown (though with some wines, that is inherent in the name), and the vintage (year) that it was grown. Since there can be considerable variation in vintages (or the wine may be just too young), this is an important piece of information. If the wine list doesn't say, ask!

[OK, so I'll admit it. When we first started drinking wine in restaurants, we brought along a little pocketbook guide that told us what were good wines. We'd sneak a look at the guide, then confidently and boldly order--hoping that we got the pronuncia tion right.]

Now lets say you don't know about the wines on the list (and haven't sneaked in your handy guide). Once again, ask. In a good restaurant, the waiters will have a good working knowledge of the "wine list." And in some restaurants (more in Europe than in the United States), there will be an individual (the wine steward or Sommelier) who's only job is to work with the wine. Often this person can be invaluable in choosing a wine for you that perfectly matches the food. A word of warning: Sometimes their job is to point out the most costly wine they think they can get you to pay for. I'm not saying this is the norm, but caveat emptor always applies.

Personally, we decide on what we are having for dinner before we order the wine. This seems to perturb most waiters and wine stewards who always seem in a rush to have us order. While they MIGHT be trying to do the right thing by getting the bottle open ed as soon as possible, we're usually more interested in the food to start. The waiter can wait. Some people may find a particular wine that they wish to drink. That is certainly fine and then they can choose a food that matches the wine.

When your wine comes, look at it. Make sure it's the bottle (and vintage) you ordered. Busy staff can and DO make mistakes. The server will remove the capsule (which traditionally was made of lead foil but is giving way to supposedly less toxic materia ls like aluminum or even plastic). The top of the cork should be wiped off (it can be moldy or have other contaminants), then removed.

The cork is usually then given to the person who ordered the wine. Why? What do you do? This is where some people start to squirm. Don't worry, there IS a reason for this. And it even makes sense. Once you know the reason, you know what to do.

So what's the reason? Alright, actually I've heard two equally plausible stories. Both sound correct, or at least useful. The first is that if you take the cork and sniff it you may note some off-smells. This can be your first indication that the wine has problems. If it is corked or has turned to vinegar, you'll not likely want to keep the wine. (There are other, sometimes more subtle things that can go wrong.) The second is the idea that someone between the winery and the consumer may figure that unknowing wine neophytes couldn't tell or wouldn't complain about a wine no matter what. So they SWITCH the wine by opening the bottle, replacing the good stuff with something cheaper and then re-cork it (I guess with a different cork). So the cork is shown to you so that you can see that it has the marking of the winery that produces the wine you ordered.

Certainly you can check the cork to see if it is moldy (though usually you can spot this from a block away, and it doesn't necessarily mean that the wine is bad). You can see if it is moist. If it isn't it might mean the wine wasn't stored properly (but doesn't mean the wine isn't bad, so I don't know how this may help at this point). One wag recommends that as the cork is placed before you, you pull a cork out of your pocket and hand it to the server. The point being, I guess, that there is little us efulness in the cork ritual. Most people are going to sip it anyway. Some revel in the standoff of leaving the cork completely ignored and deciding if the server thinks you either imbecile or expert. Another wag relates the story of dining with a frien d in an elegant restaurant. When the friend was presented with the cork, he ate it. A lot of people have written to say they think the whole cork ritual is useless.

The person who ordered will then be poured a small amount of the wine for tasting. Having smelled the cork, you may have a good idea if there is something wrong. Give it a small sip. If the wine is bad, there is no reason for you to drink it. Send it back. Most restaurants will accept back a bad wine gracefully. But . . . , one should not be hyper-critical. Many people will tell you that only 1 in a 1000 bottles is bad, others place it at 1 in 50. Some go so far as to say 1 in 12. Our personal ex perience is that it has been a fairly rare occurrence. DO NOT send back a wine that "is good" but you don't like. You ordered it. The same applies to particularly older wines that you know darn well might not have survived. Though you CAN distinguish this last by recognizing the difference between a bottle that has gone "over the hill" and one which is corked, oxidized or otherwise bad. You shouldn't have to pay a restaurant for something that is bad for reasons beyond your control.

You probably have seen people "swirl" wine around in their glass. Is that another part of arcane ritual? Sure, but it ALSO has a good reason. Swirling releases the smells of the wine, which are very important to enjoying the full experience of drinking it. You can swirl the wine around, stick your nose in it, even suck it through your teeth. All these things "bring out" the wine. I LIKE to swirl, then sniff, then sip. Sometimes I manage not to swirl it onto the tablecloth, too. (See the section on glasses.)

Check out the discussion on what temperature of a wine should be when served. There's nothing that should keep you from insisting that a restaurant do the same for you. That's what ice buckets are for. I've been in plenty of "fancy" restaurants that ha ve brought out a fine red wine at 70 degrees or so, Fahrenheit.

An interesting point was sent to me by a correspondent which I think is worthy of reproduction (almost) in full: "Incidentally, you don't usually need to taste a wine to tell it is off. The nose is enough. Just give the glass to the server and ask him w hat he thinks if you're not sure. Most aren't confident enough to assert that the wine *is* OK to your face." And whether they are knowledgeable enough or not, "turning the initial tasting from confrontation to discussion will probably improve your chan ces of getting good wine."

I have learned not to have any compunctions about making it quite clear how I want to drink wine in a restaurant. It is a fact, of course, that I'm paying for it. One particularly expensive San Francisco establishment that supposedly prides itself on it s wine list sent out a red wine that was clearly too warm. As I mentioned above, there are way to deal with this, if you want to. When the waiter was informed that we wanted the wine cooled, he looked at us like we were the idiots we apparently were, to ld us that he certainly wouldn't want the wine to "close up" and was generally nasty. When I asked him just what temperature the wine had been stored at, he came up with 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Now this is about 5 degrees too cold (on average) of what th e "perfect" cellar temperature would be (and I would expect perfection from this place.) Since it was clearly not that cold and was, in fact, too warm, we decided that we besides believing in the strength of our convictions, we would never again visit th is establishment. We insisted on what we wanted and made sure his tip represented our displeasure.

Another poor restaurant practice is the one of overfilling the glass. I haven't yet figured out if the majority of these errors are due to unskilled servers or from training designed to move a greater volume of wine through the cash register. Perhaps th ey don't want me to pour the wine since I'll probably stain the tablecloth with drops my red wine (and I do). Maitre d's and servers scurry to my table in horror when I pick up the bottle. I have found, however, that there are very few restaurants that know how to keep a perfect fill level in a glass and that I am willing to risk their wrath and insist that I pour my own. Just by way of contrast to the prior restaurant horror story, I can say that there are some places that do know what they are doing. A very good restaurant, associated with a winery) in California's Napa Valley not only kept the fill level at just exactly the right level throughout my meal, they did it without my even noticing. A rare treat, in my experience.

For many years and in many places, the cost of wine has been a standard mark-up of the retail cost, say two to three times retail. But in many cases a restaurant probably isn't paying retail--in fact, the price to them is often less than what it would co st you at the winery. The huge mark-ups paid by the customer are an incredible amount to pay for wine and often means that there is more profit in the wine than in all the other food combined. Certainly if the restaurant can get customers to pay such in flated prices (and perhaps by doing so subsidize their otherwise perhaps fine cuisine), then so be it.

But personally I think that it is time to not give in. There are several ways to go about this:

--Learn the better buys. For example, where I live, (Red) Zinfandel is not nearly in as much demand as Cabernet Sauvignon. The bargains are better (and I like it anyhow). Lesser known wines may be just as good or better than the more expensive "name" b rands.

--Some restaurants (as limited by local law) who are not allowed to sell wine may allow you to bring your own. It would be a good idea to ask for details before showing up, however.

--Some restaurants (as limited by local law) will allow you to bring your own (even if they have a wine list) and charge you a "corkage" charge for the privilege. If you have some special wines at home, the corkage charge is rarely going to come close to the cost of the same wine, were it on the wine list. Note that it is bad form to bring a wine that is on the wine list. At least one Internet poster claimed that there was not a "single true gourmet restaurant in New York, Boston, or Washington" which allows customers to bring their own wine. While I'm willing to doubt the statement, I know for a fact that this just plain not true in Southern California. In any event, it would be a good idea to ask for details before showing up, however.

--Boycott the restaurant (or boycott buying wine in the restaurant). When doing this is probably will have a much better effect if you let the restaurant know what you are doing.

Some restauranteurs are truly devoted to a fine evening at prices that are not horrendous mark-ups. The meal may not be inexpensive for fine ingredients are expensive, but the mark-up over cost is certainly not fixed. There is something to be said for t he cost of cellaring the wine (and keeping good glassware--which breaks--to serve it in). Also, local laws may mean that the restaurant isn't necessarily paying anything less than retail. However, there are enough fine restaurants in this world that one should seek out and promote the ones who are willing to present a fine meal without gouging. In so doing, they will do even more business and will "make up," at least to some degree, profits "lost" from not over-charging on the wine.

Some will ask: "how much is gouging?" I don't have an answer for that. But I can tell you that one local restauranteur (in one of the best restaurants in California) would rarely add more than a fixed amount (say $8 for the more expensive wines) over w hat he paid. Not a fixed percentage, merely an amount that was about the same as his corkage fee (and less for the less expensive wines). It seemed fair to me.

There are those that like to bring up the mark-up on carbonated beverages (where it is oft stated that the cost of the container is higher than the cost of the liquid itself--and in any event can be measured in pennies). It is said that if you don't comp lain about that outrageous mark-up you have no right to complain about wine mark-ups. Personally, I won't order carbonated drinks for that reason. In any event, I don't buy the argument, however. $1 is a lot more affordable than $50.

While restaurants are in business (and it can be a very risky business) to make money, some restaurants are willing to charge less. There are those who make cogent arguments that high prices for wine are merely the way that a restaurant can stay in busin ess--and they are entitled to make as much as then can. But I am friendly with enough restauranteurs (and good ones, for that matter) who feel that a more reasonably priced wine list is part of the way that they want to do business. For that reason, I s pend more in such places overall. I'll usually leave the over-priced places to those who are willing to pay.

Supply and demand is controlled by the buyer. A restaurant which puts emphasis on a good and fairly-priced wine list may find that it will attract a great deal more customers. We, the wine-buying public, should seek out such establishments and prove it.

One interesting sidelight to this discussion: It has nothing to do with those restaurants who cater to people who have all the money in the world--and act like it. I doubt I would be comfortable in such a place. Well, I know I'm not, having tried a fe w--and I don't think wanted me there, either.

[Reserved. Much longer discussion of restaurant etiquette.]

The size and shape of the glass can contribute to the enjoyment of drinking wine. Whether you need to spend a fortune on your glasses (which I tend to break a lot of when cleaning up) is another story altogether.

Generally speaking a glass with a long stem lets you swirl the wine more easily (swirling helps bring out the smells of the wine, which is very important to the tasting process). The long stem also keeps the heat of your hand away from the wine. (Of cou rse, with the way I've been served some wines, you have to grasp the bowl of the glass firmly and often just to warm it up!) In order to capture the scents, its nice to have a glass that is more narrow at the top than the area below (in other words, a la rge bowl). In this way there is a larger surface area of wine in the bottom and the bouquet of the wine can get trapped by the narrowing of the glass. (Which reminds me how often I have to stop restaurant servers from filling my glass of wine--even in p laces where there is very nice stemware, many servers just don't know how to pour.)

Riedel produces an expensive line of glasses, none of which I own. Supposedly each glass (and there are different shapes for different types of wines) is designed to maximize taste and aroma by delivering the wine to the right part of the mouth, as well as being shaped properly to catch and concentrate the scents of the wine. How you may ask, can this be?

In terms of acidity, tannins, fruit flavors, aromatic components, and the like, different types of wine have different palate profiles. These are sensed by different parts of the tongue, nose and throat. Supposedly, wine glasses can be designed to chann el the wine as you sip it to the parts of the mouth where you will get the optimal tasting experience. It is said that there is a different place in the mouth for each wine, hence the different shapes for the glasses. This centuries-old concept in wine glass design, but whether you really need five sets of wine glasses (or for some even one set of really expensive glasses) is left to your own sensibilities. A non-statistical, admittedly unscientific sample size of public postings tells me that some swe ar that these Riedel glasses make a large difference, especially after side-by-side tastings between Riedel and non-Riedel glasses, and others don't. Decide for yourself!

The International Standards Organization (ISO) in the United Kingdom sets forth a design for a wine glass which can be inexpensive but very useful. They are smaller and less exciting than the fancy, expensive glasses, but are a lot cheaper to replace whe n smashed by host, guest or dishwasher. Many people find them to be perfectly adequate, however do admit to liking glasses with somewhat larger bowls. Personally, I like the latter, but haven't found it necessary to get really expensive stemware.

Wine drinking is an adventure. Think about it. If you had an especially good wine experience, was it just the wine? Or was it also the events surrounding the drinking of the wine? Two IDENTICAL wines could seem different merely by the activities that surround its consumption. A romantic dinner? While the glass you use may or may not have an impact, I suggest that other peripheral items may be much more significant.

Washing glasses somehow has gotten controversial. Seems some people object to the dishwasher. Probably one should merely watch out (whether washing by hand or machine) about using too much soap or detergent which might leave a residue that will affect t he wine.

Storing glasses is also something to think about. I tend to break them (no, not drunk, just clumsy the next day). The cost of expensive wine glasses is going to add up if you are ungraceful, so there may be the temptation to store them in the cardboard box that they probably came in. If you do this, wash to glasses before use. If the cardboard as gotten at all damp, it may get moldy and contribute off flavors to the glass and to the wine.

Wine deteriorates in the presence of oxygen. The most practical thing to do is finish the wine. When this isn't sensible, the idea of buying smaller bottles (or taking home unfinished bottles when drunk in a restaurant--you don't HAVE to leave them--tho ugh in California, make sure you take it home in the trunk of your car), when available, can be a better solution. You can cook with leftover wine, or even turn it to vinegar (why buy when you can have homemade?).

But, there is always the time when you want to try to preserve the quality of the wine for as long as you can. To do this, you want to prevent as much oxygen as you can from getting to it.

One of the better ways is to fill the bottle with an inert gas. There are several different systems which do this, but they tend to be relatively to extremely expensive. Nevertheless, for the serious aficionado, this is probably the best solution.

Another product, the Vacu-vin (tm) is a small pump device that comes with rubber stoppers and a small hole in the middle of the stopper. The idea is that you can suck a fair amount of air from the bottle, thus reducing the effect of oxygen. Some, but no t all, people feel that it might add 2 or 3 days to the life of the bottle.

Other cheap and interesting ideas: Get a bunch of glass marbles. Clean them, then put them in the bottle until the liquid is to the top, then cork. Or, just transfer the wine to a smaller bottle. Or both.

Initially I wrote "one economical wine lover suggests freezing as a means of longer term storage. I haven't tried this and probably won't; freezing should alter the character of the wine. Cooking with leftovers is probably a better bet."

However, there have been a fair number of people who claim positive results with the process--not only with freezing, but even by nuking the wine (gently) in a microwave to thaw it (at least part of the way).

These people very happy with the results. A few have noted that in some wines there are radically increased precipitates, mostly potassium tartrate. (Increased precipitates result because the water freezes at higher temperatures, therefore the concentra tion of alcohol and soluble items--such as potassium tartrate--are higher in the liquid portion [the water turning to ice]. Things which will precipitate out easily, will do so, and probably won't dissolve back into the wine so quickly. Now, one possibl e effect of this is that a wine will taste less acidic--which may or may not be a desirable effect. Another effect is that the constituents of the wine which make up taste and color can be affected. But then, if it works for you . . . .

I think I'll still stand by my original statement that "generally speaking, most stored wine, no matter what you do to it, won't be as good as when you opened it." Nevertheless, those who like the idea of freezing wine seem to think it works better than most of the other storage methods.

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Nobody can tell you that, since what YOU like is the best test. The more you taste different wines, the more you will come to know