Reflections on a year of being a wine geek
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:56 am
My first post on this site was - more or less - a year ago. During that year I've had a great time exploring the world of wine through books and, of course, tasting. I thought it'd be interesting to spend a little time reflecting on what I've learned and how my attitudes and opinions have changed. I became interested in wine almost by accident. Like many people I used to buy wine simply by scouring the supermarket shelves and buying bottles with the biggest discounts. A little over a year ago I hit a seriously prolonged bad patch in the quality of what I was drinking. I decided that it was worth trying to learn a little bit about wine - enough at least so that I could make informed choices about what I was buying. Little did I know what I was letting myself in for. As I started to read and discuss and sample I found the subject more and more interesting and before I knew it, I was hooked!
On Price
As I've started to drink more widely I've found that there is certainly a connection between price and quality, but that the connection is very thin. I recently stocked up on an excellent Shiraz Cabernet which was being flogged off at £4 a bottle. I have also had a number of expensive disappointments. The latter unfortunately seem to outnumber the former, although this may simply be a reflection of my being willing to pay more for wine and the fact it seems less of a waste if you've spent a paltry sum on a poor bottle. On the flip side the very best wines I've had have all been upward of £10 a bottle.
My conclusion is that one can buy very, very good wine at very, very reasonable prices, but to get the top quality you do need to pay and run a very significant risk of paying through the nose for a duff wine. If this is true, no wonder that not many people are willing to experiment.
I have yet to pay over £20 for a bottle. This is due to a mixture of factors - financial constraints, the fact that I will be very annoyed if I get a wine I don't like at that price and the perception that I'd probably be buying a wine which would benefit from significant aging.
My Favourite Wines
I've drunk a number of wines this year. On quality alone (ignoring the price), these three stood out for me:
* Mas d'en Gil 2003 "Coma Vella"
* Chateau La Roche Beaulieu 2002 "Amavinum"
* Loacker 2006 "Isargus" Pinot Grigio
On Storing Wine
It seems to be an absurdly difficult thing to judge how long a wine might benefit from storage. As far as I can tell the usual approach seems to be to buy in a case and open one every year until you've judged the wine has reached it's peak, then drink the lot. If you're not made of money and/or don't have a lot of storage space then this seems difficult advice to follow, and is yet another factor counting against a wider appreciation of wine across society.
I have both issues. I've started to lay down some bottles to age but I don't have space to store more than maybe 12 bottles and conditions aren't ideal. At some point we're planning to have an extension built on to the house, but the potential solutions seems ludicrously expensive, and I'm wondering if I can ask the builders just to leave a hole in the floor I can stuff a couple of cases in!
On Tasting
I have spent a significant number of years working in laboratories surrounded by volatile chemicals - I'm certain that these have affected my sense of taste and smell. My partner is occasionally appalled because I won't be able to pick out what she perceives as strong flavours in food. I am therefore completely paranoid that I am not able to appreciate my wine to the fullest extent and am missing lots of deliciously subtle nuances and writing bad notes. I have no idea whether I can or should attempt to confirm that this is true, and if it is, what I can do about it, but it continues to haunt me every time I open a new bottle.
I have yet to do much in the way of comparative tasting - vertical or horizontal. I'd like to but I can't open a range of bottles just for myself (what a waste!) and I don't belong to any wine groups where such a thing might be possible. Right now, I don't have the time. Even if I did, there are other social activities I'd pursue in preference. One of the things I like about wine as a hobby is that you can do it by yourself I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of information about wine because I've not done this - I can't speak with any kind of authority in terms of comparing different styles or vintages until I do.
On Classification
Whoever invented the AOC system ought to be shot. I get the point - really I do - but it is the most absurdly impenetrable mess. The Italian and Spanish interpretations of it are even worse. Old World winemakers could do themselves and immense favour and increase sales considerably simply by putting the principle grape varieties on the bottle alongside the origin!
I've got to grips with the major regions of France and Spain. Italy and the more obscure levels of classification (especially in places like Burgundy) are proving somewhat more difficult.
My favoured regions for wine so far seem to be Chablis, Rioja and left-bank Bordeaux.
On New vs Old World
Seems very simple to me. Old world wines tend to be more complex, New world wines tend to be more intense. Finding both in a bottle seems to be a very rare treat, although this might be a reflection of the price cap I've set myself. Neither seems "better" than the other to me, and I get slightly annoyed by people who espouse the idea that complexity is more important than intensity and sneer at one-dimensional new world wines.
On Varietals
Before I started wine has a hobby I would buy on the basis of varietals and had particular favourites - Sauvignon Blanc for white and Tempranillo and Merlot for red. After experimenting more widely I can no longer say that I have any real favourites - different varietals and regions go well with different experiences and moods.
I've yet to try but I'm fairly convinced I could now spot a small number of varietals in blind tasting. In particular:
* Sauvignon Blanc, because it seems to have a number of fairly unique flavours such as grass, asparagus and the infamous "cat pee" that are rarely found in other wines.
* Dolcetto, because it always seems to taste of almonds to me and has a difficult-to-describe "bright" acidity about it.
* Pinot Noir, because no matter how ripe and carefully cultured the grapes are the wine always seems to have a background note of mouldering leaves.
On Wine and Food
I don't really do wine and food. This is largely because I have a toddler running round the house and wine at family mealtimes would be an accident waiting to happen. I'm also vegetarian and put off by the constant refrain of meat dishes to go with wine and the general pro-meat attitude that prevails in discussions of wine and food matching.
This does not however seem to have stopped me enjoying and appreciating a wide variety of wine. So I get pretty cross when I hear people saying that it's pointless to drink wine without a meal. I do wonder what I might be missing out on sometimes though.
Where Now
After a year I find my interest in the subject waining slightly, although I remain delighted by my newfound knowledge. The main reason for this is that I don't know where to "go" from here - I can't store wine, can't afford more expensive wine, can't do comparative tastings and have learned the major characteristics of the major regions and grapes. However it's still fun to sit down with a glass of something new and take enough time and care over appreciating it to write a tasting note. I doubt that'll ever change.
I'm looking forward to the summer because I've thusfar not been through too many whites, as I tend to hold them for the hotter weather. There are a number of bottles I've got stashed away representing the white wines of regions and grapes I've yet to try.
Beyond that, who knows?
On Price
As I've started to drink more widely I've found that there is certainly a connection between price and quality, but that the connection is very thin. I recently stocked up on an excellent Shiraz Cabernet which was being flogged off at £4 a bottle. I have also had a number of expensive disappointments. The latter unfortunately seem to outnumber the former, although this may simply be a reflection of my being willing to pay more for wine and the fact it seems less of a waste if you've spent a paltry sum on a poor bottle. On the flip side the very best wines I've had have all been upward of £10 a bottle.
My conclusion is that one can buy very, very good wine at very, very reasonable prices, but to get the top quality you do need to pay and run a very significant risk of paying through the nose for a duff wine. If this is true, no wonder that not many people are willing to experiment.
I have yet to pay over £20 for a bottle. This is due to a mixture of factors - financial constraints, the fact that I will be very annoyed if I get a wine I don't like at that price and the perception that I'd probably be buying a wine which would benefit from significant aging.
My Favourite Wines
I've drunk a number of wines this year. On quality alone (ignoring the price), these three stood out for me:
* Mas d'en Gil 2003 "Coma Vella"
* Chateau La Roche Beaulieu 2002 "Amavinum"
* Loacker 2006 "Isargus" Pinot Grigio
On Storing Wine
It seems to be an absurdly difficult thing to judge how long a wine might benefit from storage. As far as I can tell the usual approach seems to be to buy in a case and open one every year until you've judged the wine has reached it's peak, then drink the lot. If you're not made of money and/or don't have a lot of storage space then this seems difficult advice to follow, and is yet another factor counting against a wider appreciation of wine across society.
I have both issues. I've started to lay down some bottles to age but I don't have space to store more than maybe 12 bottles and conditions aren't ideal. At some point we're planning to have an extension built on to the house, but the potential solutions seems ludicrously expensive, and I'm wondering if I can ask the builders just to leave a hole in the floor I can stuff a couple of cases in!
On Tasting
I have spent a significant number of years working in laboratories surrounded by volatile chemicals - I'm certain that these have affected my sense of taste and smell. My partner is occasionally appalled because I won't be able to pick out what she perceives as strong flavours in food. I am therefore completely paranoid that I am not able to appreciate my wine to the fullest extent and am missing lots of deliciously subtle nuances and writing bad notes. I have no idea whether I can or should attempt to confirm that this is true, and if it is, what I can do about it, but it continues to haunt me every time I open a new bottle.
I have yet to do much in the way of comparative tasting - vertical or horizontal. I'd like to but I can't open a range of bottles just for myself (what a waste!) and I don't belong to any wine groups where such a thing might be possible. Right now, I don't have the time. Even if I did, there are other social activities I'd pursue in preference. One of the things I like about wine as a hobby is that you can do it by yourself I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of information about wine because I've not done this - I can't speak with any kind of authority in terms of comparing different styles or vintages until I do.
On Classification
Whoever invented the AOC system ought to be shot. I get the point - really I do - but it is the most absurdly impenetrable mess. The Italian and Spanish interpretations of it are even worse. Old World winemakers could do themselves and immense favour and increase sales considerably simply by putting the principle grape varieties on the bottle alongside the origin!
I've got to grips with the major regions of France and Spain. Italy and the more obscure levels of classification (especially in places like Burgundy) are proving somewhat more difficult.
My favoured regions for wine so far seem to be Chablis, Rioja and left-bank Bordeaux.
On New vs Old World
Seems very simple to me. Old world wines tend to be more complex, New world wines tend to be more intense. Finding both in a bottle seems to be a very rare treat, although this might be a reflection of the price cap I've set myself. Neither seems "better" than the other to me, and I get slightly annoyed by people who espouse the idea that complexity is more important than intensity and sneer at one-dimensional new world wines.
On Varietals
Before I started wine has a hobby I would buy on the basis of varietals and had particular favourites - Sauvignon Blanc for white and Tempranillo and Merlot for red. After experimenting more widely I can no longer say that I have any real favourites - different varietals and regions go well with different experiences and moods.
I've yet to try but I'm fairly convinced I could now spot a small number of varietals in blind tasting. In particular:
* Sauvignon Blanc, because it seems to have a number of fairly unique flavours such as grass, asparagus and the infamous "cat pee" that are rarely found in other wines.
* Dolcetto, because it always seems to taste of almonds to me and has a difficult-to-describe "bright" acidity about it.
* Pinot Noir, because no matter how ripe and carefully cultured the grapes are the wine always seems to have a background note of mouldering leaves.
On Wine and Food
I don't really do wine and food. This is largely because I have a toddler running round the house and wine at family mealtimes would be an accident waiting to happen. I'm also vegetarian and put off by the constant refrain of meat dishes to go with wine and the general pro-meat attitude that prevails in discussions of wine and food matching.
This does not however seem to have stopped me enjoying and appreciating a wide variety of wine. So I get pretty cross when I hear people saying that it's pointless to drink wine without a meal. I do wonder what I might be missing out on sometimes though.
Where Now
After a year I find my interest in the subject waining slightly, although I remain delighted by my newfound knowledge. The main reason for this is that I don't know where to "go" from here - I can't store wine, can't afford more expensive wine, can't do comparative tastings and have learned the major characteristics of the major regions and grapes. However it's still fun to sit down with a glass of something new and take enough time and care over appreciating it to write a tasting note. I doubt that'll ever change.
I'm looking forward to the summer because I've thusfar not been through too many whites, as I tend to hold them for the hotter weather. There are a number of bottles I've got stashed away representing the white wines of regions and grapes I've yet to try.
Beyond that, who knows?