 
What are the sparkling crystals you sometimes find floating in wine?
Someone at a wine tasting stated that a Meritage has to be made of the 5 Bordeaux grape varieties. I argued that a Meritage could be any 3 of the 5 varieties. Please settle this. What are the major differences between California and Burgundy Chardonnays in terms of climates, winemaking, flavors and agability? I have been amazed at the different tastes and nuances that I have been able to pick up in red wines. What causes a red wine to taste like tea, mint, or especially, chocolate? Is there an easy way to remove wine labels for storage with my tasting notes? What's the difference between a double magnum and a jeroboam? I keep reading about soft tannins, or pleasant tannins, or lots of tannin. My question is simple: What are tannins? My question is, don't you need to swallow the wine in order to judge the length and complexity of the finish? I am planning a wine tasting for friends interested in red wines. Any suggestions on appropriate cheeses and hors d'oeuvres to serve? How can we define a second label--Opus One is Mondavi's second label or Rothschild's second label and Pavillon Rouge is Margaux's second label, right? What is the significance of wine made from a single vineyard. Is it always better than a blend from multiple vineyards or even growers? Why is Sauvignon Blanc usually so much cheaper than Chardonnay? What exactly is claret? What is noble rot?
What are the sparkling crystals you sometimes find floating in wine?  Someone at a wine tasting stated that a Meritage has to be made of the 5 Bordeaux grape varieties. I argued that a Meritage could be any 3 of the 5 varieties. Please settle this. I'm not aware of any grape requirements aside from these: the spirit of Meritage is to allow winemakers to blend Bordeaux varieties, red or white, to achieve a desired wine style. For reds, they can use Cabernet, Merlot, Malbec, Petite Verdot and Cabernet Franc or they could use just one or two, or more, depending on the year and/or desired blend. With whites, the grapes are Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. What are the major differences between California and Burgundy Chardonnays in terms of climates, winemaking, flavors and agability? The major differences are climate and soil, i.e., where and under what conditions the grapes are grown. There are also differences in vineyard and winemaking techniques, based on the wine growers' experiences with their grapes. Most vintners would say it's the climate and soil that distinguishes the two and in fact there are significant stylistic differences both within Burgundy and California. As for wine styles, great white Burgundies are known for their earthy richness, complexity and finesse. California Chardonnay, depending on where it's grown, is perhaps better known for its ripe, complex flavors. In blind tastings, the wines often are quite comparable. The best way to learn more about this is to buy some of the wines and try them. Then the stylistic and regional characteristics will be more apparent than they might seem in print. I have been amazed at the different tastes and nuances that I have been able to pick up in red wines. What causes a red wine to taste like tea, mint, or especially, chocolate? Wine is an incredibly complex beverage which can contain scores of different volatile elements -- the aldehydes, esters and miscellaneous compounds which make up the elements we interpret as flavors. Some of them share exactly the same molecular structure as elements present in other foods, such as cinnamon, vanilla, and butter, so you might say we are actually tasting "vanilla" in the wine. Other elements, either alone or in combination, simply resemble aromas that we associate with other objects, from gum drops to sweaty gym socks. The "chocolate" flavor probably results from a combination of these effects. What's amazing to me is how often different tasters independently discover the same complex taste associations in a wine. Is there an easy way to remove wine labels for storage with my tasting notes? One simple way is to soak the bottle in hot water with a dash of ammonia. Make sure the bottle is full of hot water also. Another method is to apply wide Scotch tape across the label, rub thoroughly with a solid, flat object , then pull the tape off & trim the edges. Some labels just will not come off, no matter what you do! What's the difference between a double magnum and a jeroboam? Although bottle sizes are standardized in many countries, there is some regional variation in the names associated with bottles of different capacities. In Bordeaux, a double magnum is traditionally considered to be 3 liters , while a Jeroboam is 4.5 liters . In Champagne and Burgundy, however, the Jeroboam is generally understood to be 3 liters , and the term "double magnum" is not often used. I keep reading about soft tannins, or pleasant tannins, or lots of tannin. My question is simple: What are tannins? Tannins are substances that get into the wine from the grape skins and seeds. They can be bitter and can add rough texture to a wine--think of overbrewed tea, which has lots of tannin in it--but they benefit wine, too, by preserving it from early oxidation. Good winegrowers know how to manage the tannins in the vineyard and the winery to strike the right balance, so that a wine has a pleasant velvety, soft texture, instead of being too rough. As wine ages in the bottle, some but not all of the tannin will drop out of solution and form sediment. My question is, don't you need to swallow the wine in order to judge the length and complexity of the finish? As far as analytic tasting goes, swallowing is not essential. By breathing out through mouth and nose after spitting, virtually all of the flavors and aromas can be experienced and judged. And the gain in concentration makes up for whatever small loss there is. But as far as pleasure is concerned, swallowing is highly recommended! I am planning a wine tasting for friends interested in red wines. Any suggestions on appropriate cheeses and hors d'oeuvres to serve? In my Cabernet menu in the January 1997 issue, the cheeses I ended up with were Parmigiano-Reggiano, Brie and Gruyere. The menu also featured a sandwich made of eggplant around a few slices of roast lamb, which would make an excellent hors d'oeuvre. How can we define a second label--Opus One is Mondavi's second label or Rothschild's second label and Pavillon Rouge is Margaux's second label, right? You're right on the Margaux-Pavillon Rouge connection. But Opus is not a second label for Mondavi--it's a joint venture between Robert Mondavi Winery and Chateau Mouton-Rothschild. Usually a second label is a winery's lower-priced, lesser-quality wine sold under a different brand name than the primary label. But there are no hard-and-fast rules, as some wineriers have so-called parallel brands--wines that are not second labels. Example: Joseph Phelps Vineyards and Phelps Vin du Mistral. What is the significance of wine made from a single vineyard. Is it always better than a blend from multiple vineyards or even growers? Better, as always, is in the taste buds of the beholder. However, individual vineyards do tend to show more idiosyncratic character than wines that are blended to be more consistent. It is this personality, if you will, that makes individual-vineyard wines desirable--assuming you like the personality in question, of course. Single vineyards also often produce less wine than a winery's blend, and therefore, being rarer, can command higher prices. That is a simplified explanation, but if I went any further I'd be talking about terroir. That's another topic. Why is Sauvignon Blanc usually so much cheaper than Chardonnay? Prices for wines have as much to do with image and demand as they do with production costs. However, Sauvignon Blanc grapes cost less than Chardonnay grapes--partly because of higher yields--and the wines require less investment in new oak barrels. Also, Sauvignon Blancs are ready to drink after four to eight months; Chardonnays generally take one to two years before release. Time is money, too. But mostly, it's the perception of SB as less aristocratic than Chardonnay--although some California SBs are getting up there around the $20 mark. What exactly is claret? "Claret" is a conventional term that traditionally refers to red wine from the Bordeaux region of France, but it has no official, legal definition and is often used as a generic term to refer to dry red wines. It derives from "clairet," the name for a certain type of light red wine that was exported from Bordeaux in the Middle Ages and became quite popular in England. The wine, because of its light color, was known as "vinum clarum," "bin clar" or "clairet." It bore little resemblance to the wines that are characteristic of Bordeaux today--but the name endures. What is noble rot? Noble rot--known in France as "pourriture noble" and in Germany as "Edelfaule"--is the common name for Botrytis cinerea, a beneficial mold that grows on ripe white wine grapes in the vineyard under specific climatic conditions. The mold attacks the grapes and dehydrates them, leaving them shriveled and raisinlike, and concentrates the sugar content in the berries. The wines from these berries have a rich, complex, honeyed character and are often high in residual sugar. The botrytis mold contributes to the unique flavors of wines such as Sauternes from Bordeaux, beerenauslese and trockenbeerenauslese Riesling from Germany, and an array of late-harvest wines from other regions.
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