Top 10 Questions about Wine: 3 & 4

Welcome to our second in a series of blog posts that answers the “top questions asked about wine on Ask.com.” Today we sort out a question about Port wine and another about bottle quantities. In case you missed it, Ask.com compiled a list of the inquiries that the internet search engine receives on the subject of wine on a daily basis. We’re taking them on two at a time, giving you the ammunition you need for a more wine-savvy you! Without further adieu, here are questions number three and four.

#3. What is Port wine?

Very simply, Port is a fortified wine. Fortified wines are made by adding spirits (in this case brandy, a spirit made from grapes) to wine in order to stop fermentation and add alcohol strength. When fermentation is halted early, not all of the sugar has yet been converted to alcohol, resulting in some degree of sweetness in the finished product. Port is traditionally made in Portugal (pretty easy to remember, aye?) in the Douro region near the city of Oporto. Although not authentically Port, other wine regions, including California, are making Port wines these days. Port has about 20% alcohol versus approximately 13% for unfortified wines.

On the surface, Port seems like a nice, simple alcoholic beverage to enjoy after your meal or with dessert. Open the door of knowledge, however, and the intricacies of Port come hurtling in. Here’s the (somewhat) simple breakdown according to how the Ports are aged, which makes the biggest difference in flavor profile.

Bottle Aged Ports: Bright, ruby colored, fruity wines.

Vintage Port – Made only in the best vintages (declared vintages) and aged 15-50 years or more. Rich & fruity.

Single-Quinta Port – Made from grapes from a single vineyard, usually made in undeclared vintages. Aged about 10 years. Forward & fruity.

Port Aged in Large Wooden Vats: Full-bodied with some forward fruitiness.

Ruby Port – Aged for 2 years and bottled while still bright, sweet, fruity, and fresh.

Late-Bottled Vintage Port (LBV) – Made from grapes from a single vintage (declared or otherwise.) Aged 4 to 6 years; sometimes referred to as a higher quality Ruby Port.

Port Aged in Small Wooden Casks: Tawny in color, less fruity, more complex.

Tawny Port – Aged 3 to 4 years. Light but not as sweet and fruity as Ruby Port.

Aged Tawny Port – Blend of Ports that have been aged for 10 to 40 years. When a label specifies 10, 20, 30, or 40 it refers to the average age of the blend in the bottle. Expect complex flavors & a silky texture.

Colheita Port – From a single, undeclared vintage and aged for a minimum of 7 years. The two dates on the label refer to the date the grapes were harvested, and the date the wine was bottled.

#4. How many bottles of wine are in a case?

A standard case of wine contains twelve 750 ml bottles. There are some exceptions for different sized bottles or more rare and expensive wines, which can come in cases of 6 bottles or even 3. For example, the cult California wine, Scarecrow, is packaged in a case of 3, magnums (1500ml bottles) generally come in cases of 6, and half bottles (375ml bottles) are commonly presented in cases of 24.

When shopping for wine, the consumer can feel comfortable assuming a case means 12 bottles. Retail stores sometimes offer a case discount, which means you get a percentage off if you purchase 12 bottles. A mixed case means you can mix and match 12 different wines as opposed to being required to buy 12 bottles of the same wine.

Tomorrow the fun continues as we discuss Marsala wine (surprisingly making the top 5!) and the age old question about what goes best with America’s favorite white meat. Happy Passover y’all!

Top 10 Questions about Wine: 1 & 2

Although we were not shocked to find that Ask.com (the online search engine) receives thousands of queries a day on the subject of wine, we were surprised at the most popular questions asked. Ranging from mundane matters such as calorie counts and wine stains to more obscure topics including gods of wine and Marsala, the wine drinking public is looking for answers. Well, this week we give the people what they want as we tackle the “top questions asked about wine on Ask.com” (insert booming, echoing voice-over here.) Today, we embark on the top 2 questions which concern calories in wine and making wine.

#1. How many calories are in a glass of wine?

A bit of a loaded question, the answer depends on what type of wine you are drinking and what you consider a ‘glass of wine.’ Let’s just assume that most people, in the privacy of their own home, are pretty heavy handed when it comes to pouring a glass of wine (if you get approximately 3 glasses of wine out of a bottle, this means you.) Restaurant and bar pours can range from the delicate and swirl-ready to the fill-it-to-the-rim tumbler sized pour. For the purposes of this exercise, we’ll be referring to a generally large pour, i.e. the glass is more than half full. The answer lies somewhere between 150 and 200 calories per glass. For comparison purposes, a pint of lager is about the same, as is a double shot of gin or vodka. Some approximate examples:

White Wine - 150

Red Wine - 160

Champagne - 180

Lager - 160

Guinness - 170

Pilsner – 180

Gin & Tonic - 180

#2. How do I make wine?

To truly learn how to make wine, you will need to read much more than this blog post. However, for the purposes of explaining the process, let’s start from the point where you have the grapes and are ready to craft yourself some vino. The first step is usually to sort the grapes, discarding any damaged grapes and likely removing the stems. This can either be done by hand (lots of work as you can imagine) or by machines aptly called sorters and destemmers. The grapes are then crushed, or cracked, to release the juice. When making white wine, the grapes are subsequently pressed to squeeze out the juice, leaving the skins and other solids behind before fermentation begins. For red wine, the grapes are crushed – but not pressed – before moving on to the fermentation phase. Grapes for red wine are pressed after fermentation; fermenting the grapes with their skins and other solids adds color and structure to red wines.

Fermentation is usually done in large tanks and the process converts the sugar in the grapes to alcohol. The chemical process of fermentation is set in action either by the natural yeasts found on grape skins or by the addition of yeast cultures to the fermentation vessel. During the fermentation process, the concoction in the container can be punched down, pumped over, stirred, and/or left alone depending on the wine maker’s methods and the type of wine they are trying to make. When fermentation is complete, the wine is transferred to a separate container for ageing. In as little as a few weeks, or as long as a few years depending on the wine, you will have finished wine and you can pour yourself a big ol’ glass (see #1.)

Stay tuned; tomorrow we take on Port Wine and case sizes. Cheers!

Rose season is on the way!

The new rose wines are arriving and will soon grace the shelves of wine stores everywhere. Rose has had an unsteady reputation, from its "White Zin" days to gracing the lips of celebrities, and back again. Rose wines can certainly be light, rather insipid juice, but they can also be lovely, refreshing spring/summer wines, as well as beautifully crafted, rare gems to savor.

What's your opinion of rose and what puts you in the mood to drink it?

Drinking For Good

The wine business may not be the most altruistic of professions, but we like to do our part when we can.

Sadly, our friend Julie lost her father to Lymphoma this past August. She is gearing up for a 100 mile bike ride around Lake Tahoe on June 6th as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. We met Julie through the wine business but she has become a dear friend – and an inspirational biking buddy as well. She recently joined one of our distributors, The Barterhouse, a specialist in fine artisan wines, and that got us all to thinking…there must be something we can do to help Julie honor her dad and raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma.

To that end, California Wine Merchants and The Barterhouse are partnering to offer our friends and customers an amazing wine -- the 2005 Highway 12 David Foote Limited Edition No. 10 Bordeaux Blend from Sonoma – for a song for a limited time. California Wine Merchants and The Barterhouse will donate all the profits from the sale of this wine to Julie's fundraising efforts for Team in Training.

A mere 50 cases of this limited edition wine, a lush blend of 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc , 6% Malbec, and 6% Petit Verdot is arriving soon from Sonoma. David Foote Limited Edition "No.10" is a collaboration between artist David Foote and Highway 12 Winery based on David's painting "No.10". The wine has an elegant profile, soft cherry fruit, a velvety texture, and enough luscious acidity to complement a good meal.

Normally the wine sells for $50, but we are offering it for as low as $22.99.

Visit cawinemerchants.com or call the store at (212) 785-7285 to find out more and join us as we help raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training and raise a glass to Julie's dad!

Cheers.

2007 Jules Melange Vin Rouge

The 2007 Jules Melange Red Blend is one of the most beloved wines here at the store. We generally receive great feedback on all of our wines, but this wine begets adoring e-mails, elaborate praise, and plenty of repeat purchases.

The Jules behind the Jules Melange is Julianna Corley. We met Julianna out in California when she was working with her mother-in-law’s wine company, CrauforD. CrauforD changed hands in 2006 and Julianna went on to create her own wine label in 2007.

We too are crazy about her Jules Melange Vin Rouge (Red Blend), a literal mélange of 48% Cabernet Franc, 33% Merlot, and 19% Syrah. It takes a lot to impress us with the amount of wines we taste, but this one turned our heads with the first sip.

Julianna’s wine background lies mostly in the vineyard. She has worked in the vineyards for Robert Mondavi and held positions in vineyard management companies and as a vineyard consultant. Her experience with various vineyards in Napa and Sonoma has helped her to focus in on specific sites for the grapes that go in to her Jules Melange wines. Julianna’s winemaker-husband, Chris Corley, assists her in making the wines.

There were only 156 cases produced of the 2007 Jules Melange Red Blend. The wine is juicy with lots of blackberry and black cherry flavors and notes of white pepper. The balanced acid and silky tannins make this a complete and well structured wine. $32.99 at the shop. Drink up!