More people are enjoying wine now than any time history. Millions spend billions on wine, and unfortunately most lack the most basic knowledge of evaluation, and standards when sipping a glass of wine.

People buy wine for reasons that have little or nothing to do with taste, i.e appealing label, shape of bottle, or a recommendation of a friend, or a salesclerk in the store, or a wine writers’ column in a magazine or newspaper.

Wine buying, unlike anything else, is fraught with unknowns because you cannot see the liquid clearly in the dark glass bottle, or taste it.

The best way is to taste and find out how the wine pleases you. A few wineries take this route successfully.

But even if the wine fails to please your palate it may still be a very well made wine. It all depends on your palate, and educational and gastronomic background and upbringing.

It is well known that English like slightly oxidized champagne, and old Bordeaux wines, whereas North Americans prefer upfront fruity and slightly sweet or off-dry wines.

To make fine wine, the following criteria must be met. Proper grape variety for the soil in consideration Terroir (soil, climate, aspect and slope of the vineyard) Care of vineyard management, pruning, soil maintenance, harvesting, transportation, yields Skill, knowledge and interest of the winemakers, and equipment in the winery. Grapes harvested must be fully ripe, carefully sorted, appropriately crushed, fermented at the correct temperature. In the case of red wines press wine must be collected separately to blend back after assemblage.

White, rose, red and sparkling wines have different tastes and textures.
White wines may of may not be barrel aged. Some are barrel fermented and aged in barrel.

Barrel fermented and aged wines exude complex bouquets and cellar longer, as do sweet and high acid wines from Germany, and partially of Ontario.

Fine whites wines must smell of fruit pending on variety used (viognier smells of peaches and apricots; chardonnay of apples and pears and minerals; gewurztraminer (exotic fruits), sauvignon blanc (cut grass and gooseberries or flinty) in the mouth the wine must be smooth, balanced, possess a refined, elegant, refreshing. Layered taste and finish with a long and pleasant aftertaste. The longer the finish the better is the wine.

Sparkling wines must be fragrant. Light in texture, with small numerous bubbles, refreshing, and possess a long aftertaste.

Sweet white wines must smell of fruit (icewines of dried fruits i.e peaches, apricots) never be cloying, well balanced, harmonious, smooth and finish long. Some are full bodied, others light, elegant and refines, pending on terroir, style and wine making philosophy.

Rose wines must be pale red pr lighter, brilliant, smell of fruits, light to mid-weight in the mouth, refreshing, balanced, evocative and equipped with a reasonably long aftertaste.

Red wine making differs from white wine in that after crushing, the skins and pips are left in the must, while fermentation starts. During fermentation, colouring pigments are leached due to elevated temperature. Skins rise to the top of the tank and must be punched down to induce oxygen into the must, or the fermentation will stop.
Once the fermentation stops, some red wines are channelled into huge stainless steel tanks to rest for a few weeks or moths. They are then clarified or filtered, and bottled.

Others are run into barrels and aged anywhere from six to 24 months or longer during which time a slow oxygenation process takes place through the pores of the wood, changing the aroma. During this barrelling period the wine also acquires characteristic flavours from the wood, and pending on the toast level of the barrel, a pleasant, generally smooth, textural change. Toasting levels range between light, medium, and heavy.

Red wines may be varietal or blended or generic. Blended wines may or may not contain some pressed wine, which is generally very dark, and in many cases quite tannic.

A fine red wine (varietal, blended or generic) smells of fruit (berries), pending on varietal, is brilliant, and may be purple or garnet in colour. In the mouth, it must offer a taste in layers ranging from tobacco, chocolate, tar, pencil shavings, and grilled bread, and must be smooth and balanced, medium to full bodied, and finish with a long aftertaste.

According to experts 80 per cent of all wine produced in the world is poorly made, or inferior quality, 15 per cent acceptable to fine, and five per cent great.

Price often indicates quality, though not always. Some wines are effectively overpriced but sell well because of their fame. In my opinion they are outstanding wines, but fail to represent value.

The locations, company, and occasion, change the perception of taste, as do service temperature, glass shape and size, and food.

It is important to rest a wine for an appropriate length of time under appropriate conditions for it to mature and evolve to it true potential.

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