Wine Tasting Week 3

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Wine Tasting Week 3

• January 2006

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Outline

• Wine Essences
• Pop Quiz!
• Rieslings
• Syrah/Shiraz

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Essences
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Sweetness

• Always good, but shouldnt over power the wine
• All wine contains sugar anywhere from .5 to
  10-14.
• Brix sugar content of the grape at the time of
  harvast
• This is fructose, a sugar that occurs naturally
  in grapes

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Bitter

• Dry red wines have bitterness that gives them an
  aftertaste.
• Often confused with sour
• Sensed on the back of your tongue
• This is actually caffeine!

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Sour

• There are over 100 different types of acid in
  wine
• The tart tangy tastes of wine is the acidity
• This taster is made with Malic acid

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Smooth

• Wines are most sour when a wine is young
• To take the edge off, wine is put through a
  second fermentation process that produces lactic
  acid.
• Smooth essenses heighten others, especially the
  bitter essense.
• If we were rich, we could try sour, smooth and
  bitter in one
• This is lactic acid

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Acetic

• New wines contain .02 to .03 acetic acid.
• This acid enhances the development of a wines
  bouquet
• Too much acetic acid can turn wine to vinegar
• We are tasting 1.8 acetic acid.

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Flowery

• Heady fragrances are found in many wines,
  especially whites
• This flowery esense is like one you would find
  in a Riesling or Saturnes
• Make sure to smell this one more than taste it.

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Fruity

• Zinfandels are prized for their rasberry scent.
• Cabernets for their black currant and cherries
• This is another smeller
• And a secret

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Oak

• Whites are aged for short periods of time in
  order to give them oak nuances
• Reds are matured for several years
• Different oaks give different characters such as
  vanilla or caramel
• This has oak chip extract!

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Tannin

• Tannin is derived from the skins and stems of
  grapes
• More of a touch than a taste
• Tart, Puckering sensation that is felt on the
  gums when sipping a young red wine
• This Tannin Essence kills the taste buds
  sensation of subtle things so try this one last

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Chardonnay Quiz

• 2003
• Drought conditions, unusually warm and dry year
• Heat can decrease acidity, increase vegetal
  flavors
• 2004
• Favorable weather long growing season
• Mid-season heat wave mean less ideal than 05
• 2005
• Ideal growing season
• Peach, melon tropical fruits aged
• in oak

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Rieslings
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Riesling

• Prefers cold climates
• Germany (esp. Rhine Mosel Valleys)
• Alsace, France
• U.S. (Washington, Oregon, California, NY)
• High natural acidity
• Balances high levels of sugar
• Ages well
• Outside of Germany, often labeled Johannisburg
  Riesling
• Aromas/flavors floral (rose, violet), fruits
  (apple, pear, peach, apricot), minerals, petroleum

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Riesling Food Pairings

• Can be paired with everything
• Light grilled dishes (fish seafood, chicken,
  pork)
• Spicy and Asian foods
• Desserts

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German Rieslings

• Worlds northernmost wine growing regions
• Grapes seldom completely ripen
• Elegant delicate wines
• light body
• low alcohol
• high acidity
• Precision finesse
• No commercial yeasts
• No malolactic fermentation
• No oak
• Never blended with other grapes

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German Rieslings

• Most are dry (trocken or halbtrocken)
• Kabinett or spätlese
• Famously known for sweet Rieslings
• Auslesen, beerenauslesen (BA), trockenbeerenausles
  en (TBA), eiswein
• Botrytis cinerea
• The Mosel
• Flavors slate, minerals, wet stone
• The Rhine
• Richer, rounder, earthier, fruitier
• The Pfalz
• Generally fruitier, but wide variability

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Alsace

• Less delicate than German rieslings
• Generally very dry
• Flavors flint minerals, peaches, green fruit
  citrus
• Become richer and honeyed with age

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North American Riesling

• California
• Often sweet, late-harvest dessert wines
• Oregon
• Mostly light nondescript, with notable
  exceptions
• Washington
• Riesling commonly planted
• Snappy, peachy minerally
• Dry to sweet
• New York
• Come in all styles from dry to eiswein

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Syrah/Shiraz
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Syrah- Orgins

• Competing claims to the origin of this variety
  gave credit to it either being transplanted from
  Persia, near the similarly-titled city of Shiraz
  or to being a native plant of France.

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Origins

• University of California at Davis and the French
  National Agronomy Archives in Montpellier proved
  syrah is indeed indigenous to France. DNA
  profiling proved syrah to be a genetic cross of
  two relatively obscure varieties, mondeuse blanc
  and dureza.

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Modern Orgins

• More than half the world's total Syrah acreage is
  planted in France, but it is also a successful
  grape in Australia (called Shiraz or Hermitage),
  South Africa and California

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Description

• Syrah forms intense wines, with deep violet,
  nearly black color, chewy texture and richness,
  and often alcoholic strength, with aromas that
  tend to be more spicy than fruity

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