The Wine Etiquette Guide - Your Defense Against Wine Snobbery

By Chuck Blethen

Everything you need to know to live properly in the world of wine - from how to properly how a glass to how to toast at a wedding to how to properly evaluate wines in a restaurant. Contains many educational Appendixes on related topics such as how to read wine labels from major wine producing regions around the world, glossary of terms for winemakers, and wine poetry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Apr 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781456604967

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Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the years of winemaking and wine drinking with friends, family and business associates.

Special thanks to my wife, Jeannie, for her help and hours spent tasting, learning, and building our wine room. She couldn't resist reading my second edition with a red pen in hand, and when she was done, the top of the book bristled with little red tabs! This third printing contains her careful proofreading corrections.

To my son, Brian, I offer my gratitude for his companionship in wine making, mead making, beer making and all the work that goes into those processes. His sense of humor has kept me laughing at myself, and our many mistakes, as we traveled the path of becoming good brewers and winemakers.

My Australian friend, Peter Went, was kind enough to read my book and write the foreword to the Wine Etiquette Guide. I give him my gratitude as well.

I was assured that there had been no trees unnecessarily sacrificed in the proofreading process although there may have been some electrons temporarily inconvenienced.

Foreword

The consumption of wine in the 21st Century may seem greatly removed from the accidental discovery of fermented grape juice during the Neolithic period. Scholars have shown that wine has always been revered as more than a simple beverage. If there is a hierarchy of drinks, then surely wine is at the top!

Ancient civilizations reserved a special place for wine no doubt due to its initial rarity, effect and safety. Wine drinking was indicative of civilization and refinement. From the earliest days, the consumption of wine was associated with rituals and etiquettes which enhanced the enjoyment of this most complex and variable liquid.

The pleasures of wine are visual, olfactory and gustatory. Chuck Blethen’s guide explains the modern conventions for the enjoyment of the multitude of wine styles available to today’s consumers. In truth, these behaviours are the result of an evolution through thousands of years of experience.

All aspects of wine etiquette have been explained. From the selection of a suitable wine and removal of the stopper through to serving temperature, glass shape and size have been discussed with clarity. Here is a concise yet comprehensive guide to the appreciation of wine.

Wine is consumed in many contexts. The appropriate etiquette may vary according to the situation. Chuck has considered the possibilities. Readers will feel comfortable in any wine setting, from a formal dinner function to a casual wine tasting at a winery.

Chuck has presented his work in an entertaining and encouraging manner. The reader will not only learn much about wine and its interaction with food, but will be stimulated to try more varieties and styles from the wonderful world of wine.

Peter M. Went - BSc(Hons), BAppSc(Wine), DipEd

Lecturer and Winemaker

Hunter Institute of TAFE

New South Wales

Australia

What is Wine Etiquette & Why is it Important?

There is no accomplishment so easy to acquire as politeness, and none so profitable.

- George Bernard Shaw

Etiquette is defined as those rules that govern social behavior, and they include socially acceptable rules of behavior to be used by all members of a given society on every social interaction, from saying excuse me when you cough to handling unruly children in the supermarket.

Good manners and use of proper etiquette are a manifestation of your personality. These are not legal rules and they don't have to be followed - but it is these rules that help to keep order in society.

Telling someone thank you for picking up something you’ve dropped, or letting someone get in front of you in your driving lane, can make a person perk up and smile for the rest of the afternoon. Everyone is affected by your etiquette skills whether they are good or bad.

Etiquette comes from the French word etiquette and literally means ticket. The rules and regulations set down by the court in France were written on tickets and posted in castle courtyards for all to observe and obey.

Wine Etiquette

In victory you deserve champagne, in defeat you need it

- Napoleon

Assuming that you have mastered good table manners and learned all about food etiquette (if not, see Appendix A), you are prepared to move on the next level of social sophistication – wine etiquette.

Wine is often the beverage of choice at a dinner party, yet frequently the hosts, as well as the guests, do not have a basic knowledge of wine etiquette & protocol. Some etiquette rules are throwbacks to that stuffy, bygone era when you could not enter the best restaurant in town without a coat and tie. However, there is an explicit relevance to the etiquette of wine.

To be clear, there are oenophiles, those foremost connoisseurs of fine wine, and there are wine lovers, or those who just appreciate wine. The former tend to be more severe in their treatment of wine. The basic tenets of wine etiquette and consumption that follow are for those of us who enjoy a glass or two now and then, perhaps even collect and own a small wine rack or cellar and want to enhance our knowledge, appreciation and, above all else, enjoyment of wine.

Have you ever sat across the table from someone who has atrocious table manners? Like someone who was eating mashed potatoes with their fingers? That is how a well-mannered person with good wine etiquette skills views a person who ignores proper wine etiquette. My intention in writing this book is to provide the reader with sufficient information about wine etiquette to be able to be seen as a well-educated person around wine – not as a person eating mashed potatoes with their fingers.

What is Wine?

Wine gives strength to weary men

- Homer

Wine is usually fermented grape juice. You can make consumable wine from almost any non-toxic fruits, vegetables, leaves, bark, wood, roots, flowers, grains, seeds, pods, honey, and leaf or flower buds. Wine can also be made from sap, nectar, moss, lichen, fungus, algae, seaweed, corn silk, coconut milk, germinated seeds, animal blood, and even animal urine. When I refer to wine in this book it will be the grape variety.

The first mention of wine in recorded history dates back to 5000 BC. The popular drink of the time was mead – honey wine (See Appendix F). As populations grew, so did the demand for mead. The available honey to make mead was seasonal and was fixed by the availability of wild honeycombs in the forests. The scarcity of honey lead to the discovery that grape juice could serve as a source of sugar for the wild yeast to convert to alcohol. Grapes could be planted in large quantities and had a broad geographical growing area. There is a bottle of wine made by the Romans in 325AD that was unearthed in Germany in the late 1800s. There are many references to wine in most religious texts and in ancient writings from all cultures around the world. You can find dozens of books written on wine history alone. You only need to know that it is an old alcoholic beverage that has a long and colorful history that has been ingrained into the cultures of most countries around the world.

Wine consists of water, alcohol, sugar, various proteins, coloring agents, flavors, tartaric acid, malic acid, lactic acid, citric acid, tannins, yeasts, clarifiers, sulphites, and certain types of bacteria. That is a lot of components for a beverage that is thought of as an agricultural product. However, over the centuries, wine has been integrated into our culture.

One should be aware that there are those people who have allergies to wines, or various chemical components of wine. It has been estimated that about 10% of the population at large is allergic to the sulphites in wine. Their allergic reactions can range from a mild headache to a migraine headache to severe throat swelling necessitating a trip to the emergency room of a hospital. Good commercial winemaking methodologies require that wineries have various sulphite compounds added to wine during the fermentation and aging processes. Primarily, it is for safety reasons – small concentrations of these sulphite compounds prevent certain bacteria from growing in the wine that can cause the wine to have a bad taste.

Some bacteria can actually have a positive effect on wines. For example, malolactic fermentation is caused by bacteria that exists in all grape juice in trace quantities. Some wineries do not deal with malolactic fermentation prior to bottling. There would actually be a danger of bottles exploding if malolactic fermentation were allowed to proceed in the bottle. The presence of sulphites prevents this from happening in commercial wines. Sulphites also inhibit the growth of yeasts in the wine. Most experts agree that sulphites also prevent browning of grape musts during the winemaking process and enhance the flavor of the finished wine.

Overall, the addition of sulphites is a good thing in the winemaking process. Just keep in mind that some people cannot drink wine because of the sulphites or other chemical components in wine. Also keep in mind that some people are more allergic than others to the same concentration of these chemical compounds. Most commercial wineries today have sulphite concentrations ranging from 30 parts per million (ppm) to 100 ppm at the time of bottling. US Government regulations require wineries to put a statement on all bottles of wine that contain more than 10 ppm of sulphites that are intended for interstate commerce. This is little comfort to those who are allergic to 1 to 10 ppm sulphites. Local sales of the wine within a state do not require this labeling so beware! There are a few winemakers in the world who do not use sulphites in their winemaking. Look for very small boutique wineries to produce wines that are free of sulphites. Wines made this way are also prone to having a much shorter shelf life and are intended to be consumed soon after bottling.

Tannins also create allergic reactions in some people. Generally speaking, it is difficult for people with this allergy to drink most red wines but they can tolerate many white wines.

Wine has become part of our daily rituals and traditions. To be comfortable around wines, one should have a basic understanding of what wine is, how wine is made, and be familiar with all of the historical background that surrounds winemaking today.

Anytime you get a group of wine drinkers together, there is always someone who will bring up the health benefits derived from drinking wine. There have been countless numbers of studies conducted over the last century regarding the impact of wine drinking on one’s health. Wine, like any other item ingested, should be taken in moderation. Just like eating 8 pounds of chocolate a day or consuming 15 bags of potato chips for lunch is unhealthy, so would drinking 8 bottles of wine every day.

Many prominent cardiologists have noted that drinking wine reduces coronary heart disease incidence. This was known as the French Paradox for a while, because doctors couldn’t figure out why the cream-loving French weren’t dying from heart attacks frequently. Wine consumption was the answer.

So what exactly does wine do to our body? It alters blood lipid levels, lowers total cholesterol, and raises the high density lipoprotein (HDL) levels thus keeping the blood vessels clean. The polyphenols in red wine, especially Cabernet Sauvignon, keep arteries clear.

It also has beneficial effects on glucose levels, that may help to reduce the risk of diabetes, a major contributor to heart attacks. The tannins, quercetin and the phenols are antioxidants that may help fight free radicals that often lead to cancer and heart disease.

Wine also helps prevent stomach ulcers. In a recent medical study of 1800 people, scientists tested for presence of helico bacterpylori - a bacterium which causes ulcer infections. Compared to non-drinkers, people who drank one glass of wine a day had 7% fewer of these bacteria. People who drank two glasses a day had 18% fewer bacteria. People who drank 3 or more glasses of wine each day had 33% fewer bacteria.

So wine does have a positive impact on your health – if consumed in moderation. The next time you lift a glass of wine you can truly say Here’s to your health and mean it – literally and figuratively!

Wine Experts & How to Use Them

Where there is no wine there is no love

- Euripedes

There are a number of specialized terms used to describe various grape/wine experts. Some work in the vineyards, some work in the wineries, and some work in wine shops and/or restaurants in the hospitality industry. The following terms and their meanings are offered to provide a basic background about the various grape growing/wine experts:

A Viticulturalist is the grape grower who plants, prunes, and picks the grapes. He/she is skilled in irrigation, fertilization, soil chemistries, understanding the effects of weather on grapes, various grafting techniques and propagating grapevines as well as specialized pruning, application of trellising methods, pollination and cluster thinning. They also know how to identify and prevent various diseases that can impact healthy grapevines.

An Oenologist (or enologist) is the technical name for a winemaker who uses his/her skills to make the wines from the various grapes grown by the viticulturalist. He/she is skilled in grape tasting, fermentation processes, wine chemistry, zymology (growing yeasts), bacteriology, use of testing instruments in the laboratory, crushing, maceration, pressing, racking, cooling, use of clarifiers, blending, bottling/corking technologies and wine evaluation. The best ones use their taste buds and their observation of grape seeds to determine when the grapes are ready for picking.

A Vigneron is a special designation you may hear from time to time around small, boutique wineries. The Vigneron grows his own grapes and makes wine from the grapes he grows, thus having total control over the total winemaking process from vine to wine. A vigneron has to have a much broader knowledge of all things grape and wine to be successful in making good wine.

A Sommelier is a French term for the individual who has been trained in how to match each wine on a wine menu with the various foods on a restaurant menu. In finer restaurants you can recognize the Sommelier by the taste vin (small, nearly flat tasting cup) that hangs around his/her neck on a large decorative chain. The shallow indentation in the metal cup allows the Sommelier to evaluate the robe (color) of the wine, the nose or bouquet of the wine, and the flavor of the wine before it is served.

A Master Sommelier is a member of an elite group of individuals who have been trained to a higher degree of wine knowledge. Master Sommeliers usually associate themselves with a particular winery, wine shop or restaurant (their sponsor) and teach wine evaluation classes.

You may see or hear of a Member of the Court of Master Sommeliers. Members of this group specifically work in the service and restaurant arena. Instead of concentrating solely on wine, they also study food pairing with beer, spirits, and even cigars!

At the top of the hierarchy is a Master of Wine, the top level of certification by the Institute of Masters of Wine that takes many years to complete. Members are tested on a broad range of knowledge about wine and wineries. It is truly an achievement to reach this certification level. Only 233 people in the world had this certification in 2004.

Then there is the oenophile – or wine connoisseur. These are common folk who have made it their hobby to develop a serious streak when drinking wines. They insist on having their wine served at the correct temperature, in the correct wine glass, and paired perfectly with the meal they are about to enjoy. They can discuss vineyards, vintages, remember tasting wines from decades past and fill the evening with wine related trivia that will amaze and entertain you.

There are several notable professional oenophiles who have made it their business to taste thousands of wines each year and write about them for the benefit of those of us who have neither the time, money nor inclination to endure the rigors of serious wine tasting. Robert Parker is our country’s most famous professional taster. He publishes a monthly newsletter called the Wine Advocate in which he shares his personal tasting notes on 10,000 wines each year. He has been referred to as the man with a million dollar nose.

Wine Types and Winemaking

Be careful to trust a person, who does not like wine

- Karl Marx

Winemaking is essentially turning an agricultural product – grapes - into an alcoholic beverage. The primary steps of winemaking include crushing the grapes to expose the yeast to the sugar inside the grape, fermenting the must (grape pulp, juice, seeds, stems, leaves, etc.) until it is wine and then bottling it. (Take it on good faith that this is a gross over-simplification of the winemaking process.) Making variations in the process produces different wines.

Wines can be sweet (containing a noticeable amount of residual sugar, usually ranging from 1 to 3%) or dry (no detectable amount of sugar). It has been my personal observation that wine drinkers’ tastes in wines change over the years. Most Americans begin by drinking sweet wines. As their tastes mature and their knowledge of wines increases, they gradually migrate towards the dryer wines. No matter what your tastes in wine, there is a plethora of wines available to suit everybody’s personal preferences.

White wines are made from white (green) or pink grapes. The color comes from the grape skins. White wines are crushed and fermented away from the skins and seeds.

Blush wines are made from pink, red or black grapes. They are fermented in contact with the skins for a very short time to allow the wine to leach out just a little of the color.

Red wines are made from red, purple, and black grapes and are fermented in close contact with the skins and seeds for an extended amount of time to allow the wine to leach out the maximum amount of color. This extended time results in a deep purple/red color you see in a red wine.

Sparkling wines are made in the same fashion as the white or blush wines mentioned above. The difference is the manner in which sparkling wines are made to take on a high concentration of carbon dioxide to give them their characteristic bubbles when opened. Some wineries inject carbon dioxide at the time of bottling. The original French process requires very exacting secondary fermentation in the bottle (See Appendix E).

Fortified wines like sherries (made from white grapes) and ports (made from red grapes) have had sugar added to the must to make a wine with a higher concentration of alcohol. Sometimes there is a direct addition of alcohol to the wine to immediately give it a higher alcohol concentration. Cognacs are made by double distilling the wines from the Cognac region of France.

Grappa is Italian white lightening or moonshine. If you spend any time around winemakers (especially the Italians) you will hear about grappa.

Grappa is also known by other names. It is called Marc in France, Aguardiente in Spain and Portugal, and in Germany it's known as Tresterschnapps. When making wine there is a small amount of left-over fermented material. This material – sometimes called pomace or the lees - contains 9% to 15% alcohol. Putting it through a still concentrates the alcohol to about 40-50 proof for a single-pass grappa, about 80-90 proof for a double-pass grappa, and 150-160 proof for a triple-distilled grappa.

Italians from the old country are always looking for a perfect grappa – one that retains the essence of the grape from which it is distilled. Some grappas do have a slightly distinguishable flavor of the grape… but like all wines, grappa is a distilled product and there are very wide ranges of flavors and alcohol content. Some people put various herbs in their grappa to give it a specific flavor. I have tasted grappa with anise, dill, basil, and other herbs – these are purported to be good digestives.

Anyone who has spent a lot of time around winemakers, especially Italian winemakers, will have run into grappa. It is also served in coffee (1 shot of grappa to a cup of coffee with cream and sugar) to make cafe correcto.

Bottles

Wine is light, held together by water

- Galileo

Bottles have a mouth, a neck, an ogive (shoulder), a body, and a bottom. Some bottles have a concave indentation in the bottom called a punt. This structure provides