What Your Need To Know About Wine
There are two pivotal rules for enjoying wine:
1. If you like it, drink it.
2. If you don’t like it, don’t drink it.
*** As long as you remember these two rules, you’ll never feel uncomfortable drinking or ordering wine. Everyone has different tastes; might as well embrace yours!
OTHER IMPORTANT RULES FOR WINE SELECTION
One of the biggest things holding people back from learning more about wine is the fear of looking uncultured in front of more knowledgeable people. First of all, wine does not equal culture. Second, hold your pinky fingers high! Everyone has brought a bad bottle to a dinner party, and everyone has had a server correct their pronunciation of an unfamiliar wine. This brings us to a couple of rules about wine selection:
1. Don’t be embarrassed about what you don’t know.
2. Ask questions!
Snooty sommeliers and wait staff are a dime a dozen. Don’t let them phase you. Pronounce names wrong! Ask what a “dry wine” is! Ask them which wine is most similar to Franzia! Be bold when asking about new wines; just take their attitude with a grain of salt. Remember, you’re the one drinking the stuff, so please refer back to section #1.
A REGULAR PERSON'S GUIDE TO FLAVOR PROFILES
However much you love your favorite wines, you should branch out from time to time. If your local stores are like ours, branching out can be overwhelming. So here’s a handy-dandy list of flavor profiles in the more common types of wine.
Note: This guide is for regular people who like to drink wine sometimes. There are a thousand subtleties to wine’s flavor and aroma, and frankly, that’s way more than our taste buds care about. All you have to do here is pick a couple of types that sound delish, and give ‘em a go.
• Cabernet Sauvignon has warm and yummy flavors, like cherry, currant, plum, vanilla, coffee, spices, cedar, and oak.
• Chardonnay is bright and fruity, balanced with warm and buttery. Think lemon and apple, plus caramel and cinnamon.
• Merlot is fruity but bold: Cherry, raspberry, and plum, with touches of spices, tobacco, cedar, or mocha.
• Muscat Blanc (aka Moscato) is sweet, with easygoing flavors like apple, peach, citrus, ginger, and almond.
• Pinot Gris (aka Pinot Grigio) is a light, easy drink with an occasional surprise thrown in. Imagine citrus, apple, pear, and flowers, with a touch of cheese rind or bitter almond.
• Pinot Noir can be both fruity and earthy: Cherry, cranberry, and strawberry, with notes of beet, mushroom, or leaves.
• Rieslings are most often sweet: Nectarine, peach, citrus, honey, floral and herbal flavors stand out.
• Sauvignon Blancs are tart and interesting: Citrus, melon, exotic fruit, grass, mint, and bell pepper.
• Syrah is a rich, hefty red. How about a combination of blueberry, olive, clove, tobacco, jerky, pepper, chocolate, and violet?
• Zinfandel is known for its sweetness, but it’s not boring. Peach, raspberry, plum, and blackberry get infused with tobacco, licorice, and smoke tastes.
FOOD AND WINE PAIRING NEED-TO-KNOWS
If you’ve kept up with our blog series about wine for everyday people, hopefully, you know that nothing about wine is as difficult as it might seem. You should also know that most wine pairing rules can be broken, so don’t sweat it!
1. Acidic Food Needs Acidic Wine
Who says opposites attract? High acid levels are found in tomatoes and tomato sauces, as well as anything flavored with citrus (including lemon-drizzled fish). To bring out the best qualities of these foods, complement them with an acidic wine like Sauvignon Blanc or Champagne.
2. Steak & Cab: A Classic Duo
Something something something about tannins. All you need to know is that meaty, fatty foods (think steak, prime ribs, and super buttery foods) go nice with bold and slightly bitter wines, like Cabernets.
3. Sweet Dessert Calls for Sweeter Wine
The sweeter and richer your dessert is, the sweeter and richer you’ll want your wine to be. It seems counterintuitive, but sweet Rieslings and ports are best for complementing the flavor nuances of sugary desserts, without making you feel like you’re overdoing it.
4. Cut Spicy Foods with Sweet Wines
Alcohol makes hot and spicy dishes even hotter and spicier, but sweetness helps cut the burn. To keep your guests from clutching their throats, balance out a spicy dish with a sweet, low-alcohol wine like a Riseling or Moscato.
5. You Can Pair Wine with Anything
As in, you don’t have to pair your wine with the meat or the main dish. Use these tips to match your wine selection to the most flavorful dish on the table. (Ever notice how no one talks about wine and chicken pairings? That’s because chicken usually isn’t the boldest flavor on the table.)