Wine Instruction

This is a great article because it discusses what you should really care about or bother to remember when you are drinking wine, that way when you are looking for it again, (and if you like it you will look for it again) you have enough information to let the wine store staff help you. read on for what you need to remember, how you can communicate to your local wine store so they can help you. Read on and get more great wine instruction.

Many people are willing to try a new wine but when they try to recall it later all they can come up with is a vague memory of what the bottle's label looked like. I can't tell you how many times I've had people walk into my shop and say, "I had this great wine last week. It was white and the label had a blue dog, or a white dog on a bluish background..." No matter how individual a label may seem when it's sitting on your kitchen counter, when you go to the shop all of the hundreds of labels look disturbingly similar. Marketing people still claim that many of us buy wine based upon how the label looks - that may be true and there is a lot of money spent on designing interesting labels - but label design is no way to remember a wine.

Here's how to remember that wine you liked.



As a start, take a moment with your first sips of any wine to notice, really notice how it looks, smells and tastes. Bright or dark in the glass? Clean or intriguing and powerful in aroma? Clear and fresh? Fruity? Tart? Rich and full bodied? Long lasting? Experience the wine briefly with all your senses. Most of what we think is taste is actually our sense of smell. The average human can distinguish about 10.000 distinct aromas and our olfactory bulb feeds those sensations of smell directly into the part of our brain that governs memory and emotion. That's why, on a basic level, we all really enjoy good experiences of aroma and taste.



Look at the label. The design may be interesting or fun but there are three details that are way more important.



1.) What grape type is used to make the wine? Most labels today do indicate the grape or blend of grapes that are used in the wine making. Outside of Europe this is universally true, except in the case of some very unusual blends, but many European wines today reveal the grape type on the front label if not the back label.



There are hundreds, no, there are thousands of different grapes used all over the world to make wine, but all you have to remember is one or two with any single wine. I think of different grapes as having different personalities of aroma and flavor. If you're at a party meeting a lot of new people it may seem overwhelming but you meet and talk with one person at a time. If you run into the same grape again later you can recall that you've met before, especially if you can recall the name. In time, you'll start to recognize each grape's personality and you might start to seek out particular ones that you like.



Practically speaking there are about thirty grape types that are used to make the vast majority of the world's wines. They have names like Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Sangiovese. They are all members of the same vine family (genus) Vitis Vinifera. They're like brothers and sisters. They make all the white, red, pink and sparkling wine in the world. Some are closer cousins than others. For instance, Cabernet Sauvignon is a genetic offspring of Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc. Some have unusual names but it's no big deal. You can get to know them over time. Just remember, each time you meet one, shake their hand and try to imprint their name on your memory.

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