1 Introduction

Why Do We Taste Wine?

The enjoyment and understanding of wine is enhanced as the taster becomes more skilful and as knowledge increases.

Once you learn to pick out the subtle flavours, and store them in your memory, it will bring a whole dimension to your enjoyment of wine, and you will be more confident when choosing wines.

What Is Good Wine?

A good wine is one that you personally like. Not what someone else tells you is good.

The most important person to please is yourself. Just as not everyone likes the same foods, so people differ in their appreciation of wines. If you like it, drink it. If you like it with a particular food, go on, enjoy. Don’t be fazed because others tell you it doesn’t ‘go’ with that dish. You be the judge.

Educated tasting is a combination of knowledge, experience, and learning the disciplined use of the four senses involved. Wine is best judged according to a set of specifications designed to outline the characteristics of its appearance, smells, taste and feel.

· Sight: the appearance of the wine

· Smell: the aroma and bouquet of the wine

· Taste: the taste, flavour and mouth feel of the wine on the palate

· Feel: tactile sensations (astringency or dryness) detected in the mouth.

Keep Written Notes

1. To provide a personal record

2. To assist in the description of a wine when explaining its qualities or deficiencies to other people

3. To help in the assessment of the quality of a wine in terms of value eg, when making a purchasing decision

4. To monitor the wine’s development and ageing potential.

5. It provides you with a wonderful diary of wines that you have had.

Score Sheets

· 20 point

· 10 point

· 100 point

· even a one-ptuee, two-ptuee, orgasmic.

The tasting sheet used here employs the twenty point system in common use in Australian wine shows. Most likely you will end up modifying one to meet your needs.

Tasting Glass

1. Only a small amount of wine should be poured into a tasting glass, (about ¼ full).

2. Filling the glass more than one-third full makes it difficult to perform some of the tasting operations.

3. The specific odours in wine can be more easily detected if the correct type of tasting glass is used. The ISO (International Standard Organisation) glass is ideal. The narrow top end of the glass helps contain the wine while swirling to concentrate the vapours.

WINE AGING

The positive aging process in wine results when all components integrate, change, and soften with age. Acid and tannins soften colours change; fruit flavours diminish and give way to more complex, bottle-aged characters. Rough edges are rounded.

Wines of different variety, style, and quality age at different rates. The secret is to find young wine that contains all the positive components in equal proportions, then as the wine ages all its components will mature at an equal rate. Understand that flavours and textures praised in a wine's youth will dramatically alter with age. The ultimate question is... do you like the flavours they turn into.

How Wine Flavours Alter with Age

White wine becomes darker in colour, loses acid, and takes on more complex characters of toast and honey. These are not necessarily to everyone's taste.

Red wine loses vibrancy of colour and goes brick red. Tannins soften, and earthy, cedar, and leather flavours develop over time.

WINE

WHEN YOUNG

WITH AGE

Unwooded Semillon

very dry, high acid and low in flavour, 'green' and unripe

soft acid, burnt buttered toast and honey

Riesling

crisp acid, lemon, lime, fruit salad and floral

soft acid, honeyed, with kerosene and toast flavours

Shiraz

dry, high tannin, blackberry and raspberry fruit, crushed pepper

soft tannin, wet leather, cedar, tobacco, wet earth

Cabernet Sauvignon

dry, high tannin, blackcurrant, mint, chocolate, mulberry

soft tannin, cedar, tobacco, earthy

STORING AND CELLARING

Temperature

Temperature should be kept constant with as little fluctuation as possible. Ideal is 12-15^oC, but higher is acceptable as long as it does not fluctuate regularly.

Rack Flat

Bottles should be kept at an angle or flat so that wine touches the cork, ensuring they do not dry out or shrink away from the inside of the bottle and let in air. Humidity is required to prevent corks drying out, preferably 70-80%.

Ventilation and Darkness

Good ventilation prevents build-up of off odours and moulds absorbed through the cork.

Darkness prevents light-damage. Keeping wines in their original cardboard cartons is inexpensive and effective.

Vibration

Vibration should be avoided - you do not need to turn or touch your wine on a regular basis. Aging changes the flavours of wines. They lose their primary fruitiness; acids and tannins soften and they become rounder in character.

SERVING

Over chilling a wine depresses flavour, serving a wine too warm accentuates its hot alcohol feeling. Different wines require different serving temperatures.

Higher Temperature

Lower Temperature

Brings out flavour

Depresses fruit and lifts aromatics

Makes any sweetness more noticeable

Decreases any sweetness

Lessens tannins in red wine

Tannins and bitterness show more in red wine

Increases 'hotness' of alcohol

Accentuates acid dryness

When serving any wine it is better to serve it slightly too cold so it can warm in the glass; rather than having to chill it down further once opened.

Ideal Serving Temperatures

The right serving temperature for a wine is the temperature that makes it taste best. There are no hard-and-fast rules, just guidelines -- and personal preference is important, too. Some people enjoy ice water, while others prefer room-temperature water. Custom, common sense and personal taste all play a role.

Generally, full bodied white wines taste best chilled 11-14^oc, light bodied whites &rosés taste best chilled 8-11^oc and sparkling wines taste best chilled 6-8^oc but not ice-cold.

An hour or two in the refrigerator is plenty of time to chill a bottle. If a bottle has been refrigerated for some time, consider taking it out of the refrigerator 15 or 20 minutes before serving. Serving certain wines ice-cold can deaden their flavours.

Full bodied reds, ports, tokays, & sparkling shiraz taste best chilled 14-18^oc, light bodied reds taste best chilled 11-14^oc, and fino sherries taste best chilled 8-9^oc.

The key phrase for reds is cool room temperature. Most people serve red wines at actual room temperature, 21-24^oc, which can make some red wines taste heavy or out of balance. Try popping a bottle of red into the refrigerator for 20 minutes or so before serving, and see if you find the wine more refreshing and better balanced.

BAUME' (Measuring Alcohol Content)

Baume' is the measure of the sugar concentration in the grape,based on the specific gravity of the juice. A sugary liquid is heavier than pure water, and specific gravity is a measure of this difference in density. The more sugar, the higher will be the specific gravity. Winemaking grapes are picked when the Baume' is between 10 and 15^o Be depending on the type of wine to be made. Some grapes used for Sauternes or Auslese styles may be picked with a Baume' reading as high as 22 to 26^o Be.

The grapes are crushed, and to the extracted juice the winemaker will add yeast. This is allowed to ferment until all the grape sugar has been converted to alcohol. Each 1^oBe of sugar in the grape juice will yield approximately 1% alcohol by volume in the wine. Provided all of the sugar ferments, grapes picked at 12^o Be will make a wine with approximately 12% alcohol by volume.

Although Baume' is the most common measure used in Australia, other wine producing countries may use different measures.

2 Wine Tasting Principles

An exceptionally good wine will evolve, developing its flavour, texture, and aromas during the drinking of it. Much of this takes place in the time it takes to sip and then swallow a mouthful.

The very best wines can change with the suddenness of fireworks exploding, with or the subtlety of a chameleon’s change of colour.

If a lot is happening in the wine, all the time, it is considered to be complex. But not all wines need to function on all cylinders at once—and at all times.

First Impressions are important. When tasting a wine for the first time don’t be talking about the great game you saw on TV last night and get through the first half-glass then realize you’ve no idea what you’ve just tasted! Take the time to really concentrate on the smell and taste when your senses are at their peak.

The notes on the bottle are not only there to make it look pretty, they also present the winemaking team’s opinion on the type of wine they have produced.

There are three major steps in the process, Look, Smell, Taste.

1. LOOK AT THE WINE.

· It is essential to have ample lighting in your tasting area and some form of white background against which to view the contents of your glass. This could be a sheet of paper (the back of your values card), a wall or table cloth.

· Turn the glass gently.

· Tilt the glass away at 45° and view colour and gradation and the clarity of its contents.

What Can You See?

Is it Brilliant? Transparent? clear? Hazy? Is the colour consistent throughout, or is it a different colour nearer the edge than in the centre? Do bubbles appear in the glass? Does the colour appear appropriate for the type of wine? Is there Sediment? Jot down your observations.

· Colours. The colours of a white wine may be water white, yellow, gold, straw yellow, amber, brown, golden yellow, pale gold or other. Aged white wines will have typically deeper yellows and golds. Red wines may be pink, orange, light red, tile red, brick red, ripe plum and many other descriptions. Ageing will show orange and browns.

· Clarity. The wine clarity is essentially how clear the wine is (brilliant, clear, cloudy, dull).

· observe the 'legs' – or how the wine runs down the glass. Thicker rivulets may give a clue as to the wine's higher alcohol or fuller body. Watery wines will not adhere very well to the glass sides as it swirls around.

· Age. You can guess the age of a red wine by observing its "rim." Tilt the glass and look at the wine edge. A purple tint may indicate youth while orange to brown indicates maturity. Note the opacity of the wine which can give a varietal clue: Pinot Noir is usually more transparent, whereas a Cabernet Sauvignon might have an inky-black, opaque centre.

· Sediment often occurs in wines with bottle age where tartrate crystals form (white in white wine, red or black in red wine). Red wines tend to leave additional deposits of tannins. Don't be alarmed – sediment is in no way a fault but requires the wine be decanted first.

2. SMELL THE WINE.

· You might sniff for five minutes before any wine reaches the lips.

· There may be more to learn from smelling a wine than from tasting it.

· The nose is more sensitive than the mouth and can pick up subtle stimuli from a wine. It accounts for about 70-75% of your perceptions.

a) Gently sniff across the top of the glass to pick up the lightest vapours. Breathe out away from the glass.

b) Put your nose right into the glass and get as close to the wine as you can, in order to gently detect the heavier vapour near the surface.

c) For the first time, Swirl the wine and stir up and mix the aromas. Put your nose right into the glass again. Capture all the volatile elements that give wine its delicious aroma.

d) Swirl, sniff, swirl, sniff, again and again and again until you feel you've understood exactly what's rising from the glass.

e) Once tasted, the nose is not as keen as it was before.

What Can You Smell?

· After several short sniffs, stop, then try it again. Try to describe what you smell. Don't resist the answers that your mind tries to give you -- you can't force this, but the responses that swim into your mind are likely correct, even if they may seem odd at first. Even though wine is made from grapes, it may smell of many different things -- every imaginable variety of fruit, from blackberries to bananas; flowers; aromatics like smoke and tar; wood; leather ... who knows?

· Give yourself plenty of time before reaching your conclusions.

· Does the wine smell healthy? (It shouldn't smell mouldy, vinegary or oxidized.)

· Does a Cabernet smells like a Cabernet. Does a Chardonnay smell like one? It doesn't have to, but varietal character is a starting point for analysis.

· Does the wine seem to be in youth, middle age, or old age?

· Does anything disagreeable come up? (You might feel there is too much alcohol or oak, perhaps.)

· Is the aroma pleasing?

· Herby overtones on a red are typical of a Cabernet Sauvignon, while a Sauvignon Blanc is often described as smelling of cut grass or cat's pee. Pino is associated with jam and bananas while Shiraz is typically spicy with touches of leather and smoke. Whoever heard of a wine smelling of lemon or roses, not to mention damp earth or paint thinners! But it is important for you to be able to make those associations.

· Making these initial associations can be tricky. You may recognise something but not be able to put your finger on it. Most professional tasters spend time in the kitchen, going through the fruit bowl, the spice rack, the fridge – sniffing at everything. With time you'll find it easier and easier.

3. TASTING THE WINE.

· Use your palate to decide if the wine contains the elements of acid, sweetness, alcohol, tannin in a pleasing proportion (or well balanced).

· You make judgments as to its age (gushy fruit and lots of tannin indicate youth; weak fruit may indicate the wine is starting to decline).

· Only the palate can register texture, from thin, rich, unctuous, buttery, velvety, to coarse.

· Take a first sip, like a cup of coffee, and make an initial assessment.

· Now take a second sip, but don't swallow. Swish the wine around your mouth so a little of it touches every portion of your tongue and palate.

· Hold the wine in your mouth, make an "O" with your lips, and inhale some air over the wine in your mouth. A kind of gurgle will ensue, but this will make you more sensitive to everything in the wine.

Sip The Wine

· Alcohol in moderate concentrations can be perceived as sweet. High alcohol wines may produce a warm or hot sensation. Dissolved carbon dioxide can be felt as a fizz and astringent wines can cause dryness or puckering in the mouth. Wines high in glycerol appear viscous and give a fatter or thicker feel in the mouth.

· Notice how different flavours seem to be concentrated on different parts of the tongue -- sweetness at the front, sourness (acidity) along the sides, bitterness at the back. Swallow, and take another sip.

· Think about the flavours as done with the aromas. Does the flavour seem consistent with the aroma, or is it significantly different? Notice the flavours that remain in your mouth after you swallow. Is this aftertaste similar to the flavour while the wine is in your mouth, or is it different? Does the aftertaste (finish) last long, or do the flavours diminish quickly? Are the flavours pleasant? Is the wine smooth, sweet, sour, astringent?

Checking The Taste

· Acid. Like most things in wine, your experience of acid will be relative. Generally speaking, too little acid leaves a wine tasting flat and lifeless. Too much will leave it tart. Register acid by concentrating on "sourness" or the prickly sensation along the sides of your tongue.

· Sugar All wines have a certain residual sugar – even those that appear bone dry. Don't confuse fruitiness with sweetness (particularly on the nose).

· Flavour may not be as obvious without the prior knowledge of nosing the wine. Is there a follow-through from the nose to the palate. Are there new flavours showing on the palate?

· Texture How does the wine feel. Does it feel light and juicy or heavy and full-bodied?

· Tannins Do the tannins in red wine leave your gums dry or is there a bitter tanginess? Are they soft or comfortable. Younger reds often have gripping tannins and may need cellar time to soften. Wines made for early consumption usually have softer tannins.

· Balance Consider, too, how these different elements harmonise. Balance between wood, fruit, alcohol, acid and sugar are integral to a fine wine. Is there enough fruit to support a heavily-wooded wine?

· Aftertaste Finally, consider the "finish" – the aftertaste. A longer aftertaste is regarded as a plus. A crisp, clean finish on a white wine is also sought-after.

3 Tasting With The Score Sheet

Once the glass has been filled to the appropriate level, the assessment commences.

The Sense Of Sight

Four features which assist in indicating style and possibly quality in the appearance of a wine:

colour

clarity

effervescence

viscosity

Colour

Observe the true colour of the wine against a neutral background. Describe the colour in your own words. and reds have the tendency to span the entire red/blue range of the spectrum from almost violet to a deep brick red dependent upon varietal and age of the wine.

The one colour point is awarded to wines that logically fall within their "colour boundaries." If a new white wine is deep gold colour, bordering on brown, chances are it's been oxidized and should probably rate a zero. Similarly, if your Cabernet doesn't have as much colour as it should, don't award full credit. Make a note to beef up your red wine maceration program.

· Describe the colour in terms of tones and intensity. Is the colour deep or pale? The colour is best seen on the rim of the wine looking down into the glass (held at an angle) against a white background.

· Describe the clarity. Is the wine bright and clear, or is it hazy, dull or cloudy?

· Check the wine for viscosity and spritz and describe if relevant

· Consider what the colour tells you about the wine. Is it young, old, body, etc?

Colour-White Wines

White wines range anywhere from practically colourless, straw or lemon coloured (with tinges of green in very young wines) through to yellow gold (suggesting bottle age in a dry wine or a sweet style, to yellow brown and old gold (in wines which are very old or oxidised). although a brown wine may have gone bad.

If someone pours you a one-year-old white and it's already deep gold, you can predict with confidence that this wine is prematurely old -- meaning, among other things, it already smells oxidized (like a half-eaten apple left out on the counter overnight) or may soon smell oxidized.

Green is a positive tint in young wines. Subtract ½ point if absent from a young white.

Amber is a desirable colour for old fortified whites but undesirable for white table wines.

Brown is a negative tint, so subtract depending on degree.

Score range:

Straw with green tints (2)

Light to medium yellow (2)

Light to medium gold (2)

Colourless or water white (1)

Colour-Red Wines

Red wines range from a pale red to a deep brown red, usually becoming lighter in colour as they age. They start life dark, with purple tints. Their colour changes from purple to garnet to red-brick to brown and finally with great age become tawny. Tawny is a desirable characteristic in aged fortified reds. Reds tend to get lighter as they age.

Score range:

The wine is given full points unless the colour is too light for the style or is excessively brown.

Clarity

Though it's rare for commercial wines to have a clarity problem, it's pretty common for homemade wines to be less than brilliantly clear or as sediment-free as their store-bought counterparts. When awarding for clarity, feel free to be a little lenient. One way to do it is to refuse a wine the point only when the sediment or haze can't be corrected with decanting or bottle age and is a true defect, even by home winemaking criteria. Again, record the character of the haze or sediment, if there is one.

Grade the wine according to it’s transparency through light.

Brilliantly clear wine will have diamond highlights, and as the clarity reduces, then becomes clear, then dull. As the clarity further degrades, a protein haze may be present, a hint of cloudiness, or a brown tinge may be seen. A crystalline deposit or crust in red wine absorbs the grape skin colour.

Score range:

Brilliant (1)

Clear (0.5)

Dull (0)

The Sense Of Smell

The two sources of smell in a wine are aroma and bouquet. Aromas are odours which are derived from the grape itself. Bouquet is odour derived from fermentation, production or aging.

The aromas of the wine can also be graded as:

primary aromas: fruit

secondary aromas: fermentation

tertiary aromas: ageing.

Aroma/Bouquet

Besides defining the aromas, note the overall aroma picture that the wine's giving you.

Does the wine have any off-odours that render it undrinkable? Then award it a zero.

· If the wine has a slight off-odour like hydrogen sulphide or a bit of a chemical smell but is still drinkable it should be awarded a one.

· A unilateral wine with no distinguishing aromas would rate a two.

· A flaw-free wine with a pleasant aroma characteristic of its varietal should rate a 3.

· It gets a bit tricky when it comes to 4. If your wine is defect-free, has varietal character, and has a nice bouquet, go ahead. Similarly, if your Sauvignon blanc isn’t made to age and you think it smells just like a finely made Sauv blanc should, give it full points.

Nose

· List the aroma components and describe them. Is the aroma characteristic of the grape variety? Is the aroma intense or weak?

· List the bouquet components and describe the intensity. Is the bouquet intense or is it weak?

· Comment on the overall balance and quality.

· Consider what the nose tells you about the wine.

Nose refers to the degree of intensity of character of the wine and is the first point to assess.

The distinctness of the aroma and the bouquet can be assessed within the following score range:

Strong (4)

Medium (3)

Light (2)

indistinct smell (1)

neutral (0)

Faults

With practice, the taster will be able to identify the type of fault in wine, such as volatile acidity (smells of nail polish remover) or faulty cork The degree of fault determines how many points are subtracted.

A number of other compounds such as hydrogen sulphide (H₂S, the smell of rotten eggs), the smell of yeast, excess wood etc, can also cause the taster to deduct points.

If any faults are detected, a maximum of three points can be subtracted from the score range:

no faults (3)

detectable (2)

serious (0)

The Sense Of Taste (Palate)

There is a degree of interaction between taste and smell. The olfactory membranes detect flavour and the tongue will detect taste. The soft and hard palate inside of the mouth can detect feelings.

Taste Perceptions Can Be Affected

There are a number of factors which affect how tastes are perceived.

Fatigue: constant exposure can result in an inability to discriminate between tastes.

Adaption: constant exposure to a particular taste can lead to an inability to see the presence or absence of that taste.

Contrast: if a slightly sweet wine is tasted after a dry acid wine, the second wine will appear sweeter than it really is. An example of contrast: salt applied to one side of the tongue increases perception of sweetness on the other and vice versa. Putting salt on an apple reduces the acid taste.

Reinforcement: ability to taste is helped by reinforcing the taste many times. Keep going back to a wine to learn its different characters.

temperature: sweetness is masked by cold; acidity is increased by cold. As the temperature increases, so does our ability to discern certain characteristics.

time: some tastes are perceived more quickly than others. Sweet tastes are noticed almost immediately, astringent and acidic tastes often appear stronger after the wine has been swallowed or spat out.

Tasting and Flavour

The four primary tastes detected in food and drinks are:

sweet

salt

acid

bitter.

And it is thought that all taste sensations are a combination of these four basic tastes.

Besides these four primary tastes, body and flavour can also be detected in wine. The flavours perceived include:

Fruit: the varietal flavour derived from the grape

Alcohol: a hot, mouth filling flavour

Balance: the overall harmony of fruit, acid, sweetness and alcohol

Age: old wines have distinctive flavour of referred to as ‘bottle age

Complexity: wines with subtle flavours harmonising and balancing rather than simple overpowering characters

Oak: Common flavour components of different oaks:

French – Vanilla, German – Nutmeg, cinnamon, American – Coconut, spice

Off Characters: faults in wine which can be tasted as well as detected on the nose

Sugar

This one is simple. If you wanted your Muscat to have about 3 percent residual sugar, and it tastes like it does, award your wine a point. If, on the other hand, your goal was to make a dry Zinfandel and well, it's obviously got a little bit of sugar left, than score this category a zero.

Body

Body is a sensation of fullness (sometimes called "roundness") in the mouth that texturally differentiates wine from water. If a wine has good body, it'll feel less like water and like a wine with substance and should be awarded both points. If your wine is a little lacking in the body department then give it a one or zero. Sugar can give a wine a "fullness" that is really a taste sensation and not a textural one.

· Flavour

List the flavours derived from the grape and describe their intensity and length.

List the complexing flavours derived from the production of the wine and describe its intensity and length.

· Taste

Describe the acid - high, medium, low? Is it balanced? Is the wine dry or sweet? If sweet, how sweet, and is it balanced by acid?

· Mouth feel

Describe the body of the wine.

Describe the tannin in the wine.

Is there any spritz or heat present?

· Balance

Are all the components of flavour, taste and mouth feel in harmony with each other, or is one component present in excess?

Score range:

full flavoured, strong persistence (3)

full flavoured (2)

medium (1)

thin (0)

Most wines will score two 2 points.

Acidity

Very high acidity in a wine will overpower the flavour and leave it unbalanced. Insufficient acidity will give a flat and sometimes soapy taste.

It all depends, again, upon the type of wine. If you've got pretty high acid but a lot of tannin, alcohol, and oak to back it up, then you wine should get all two points. On the other hand, if your wine is too high or too low in acid for its overall composition, award it one or a zero depending upon how off mark it is.

Score range:

high acidity (2)

medium acidity (1)

very high acidity (1-0)

low acidity (0)

Fortified wines should be slightly lower, with medium acidity scoring 2.

Tannin

Tannins come from the skins, seeds, and stems of grapes and oak and are compounds in wine that lend wine, especially red wine, a sense or grittiness or puckering that you can feel on your tongue, cheeks, and teeth. Though it could possibly go under the body category because it's felt as a textural quality, it really belongs in its own group because its presence (or absence) can make or break a wine.

Award a wine a point if the level of tannin is appropriate for the wine. For example if your six-month-old Cabernet has enough tannin to knock your socks off, it's not necessarily a defect. Similarly, if you've a white wine but don't sense a lot of tannin -- which is appropriate for this case -- also award it a one. However, if your red wine is lacking a little oomph, give it a zero.

Faults

Astringency is a touch sensation and bitterness is a true taste sensation, particularly as an aftertaste.

Score range:

no faults (3)

low faults (2)

moderate faults (1)

strong faults (0)

Most wines would score 2 to 3 points. Do not deduct points for a fault which has already marked down under the “nose” section of the score sheet

Overall Quality

Although this comes under the palate score of 10, it relates to the overall impression of the wine. The justification is that quality may refer to the inter-relationship between components as well as to each individual component:

Score range:

very good overall impression (2)

average (1)

poor (0)

A ‘good wine’ is one where the fruit flavours and acidity are in balance. No one character dominates with the possible exception of fruit.

A ‘great wine’ is composed of many different attributes. It is complex in structure. All characteristics are in balance and harmony with each other. No one character dominates, with the possible exception of fruit.

Interpreting And Using The Results

Go through a discussion of each wine. You may elect to analyse each wine as you complete it, or after each flight. Discuss each wine according to colour, nose and palate – share your comments and scores. It helps to have a little wine left in your glass to search for that hint of lime or touch of spice that eluded you the first time.

Now that you've taken a wine through the 20 Point System, tally up all the points. An outstanding wine will score usually between 17 and 20 points, with some weaker and some stronger areas. If your wine scores lower than a 17, check out the areas where it seems to need a little help. Be careful not to fall into the trap of being too absolute in your judgments; if a wine scored an 18, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s that much worse than a wine that scored a 19 or 20. The 20 point system rates many different things, and the numbers are truly meaningless without your notes and comments alongside them.

4 Wine Values Card

*Characteristics*	*Key words* / Comments
APPEARANCE Max 3	Red: purple, purple/red, red, red/brown, brown White: green tinge, pale yellow, yellow, gold, mustard “legs”: None, slight, large Viscosity: sparkle, watery, normal, heavy, oily Sediment: none, slight, distracting
Colour (Max. 2)
*Range:* 2, 2-1.5, 1.5 -1, 1-0
Clarity (Max. 1)	brilliant, bright, clear, cloudy, dull
*Range:* Brilliant 1, Clear .5, Dull 0	brilliant, bright, clear, cloudy, dull
NOSE Max 7	powerful complex pleasant slight none butter, caramel, corky, earthy, flowery grassy, honey, liquorice, metallic, nutty, oaky, salty, spicy, smoky, tannin, vanilla Citrus: lemony, tropical, melon, stone. Fruity: berry, blackcurrant, cherry
Intensity (Max. 4)
*Range:* Powerful 4, Complex 3-2 Pleasant 2-1, Slight 1-0
Nose Faults (Max. 3)	corky, oxidised, yeast, sour, sulphur
*Range:* No faults 3, Slight 2.5-1, Corky; oxidised 1.5-0	corky, oxidised, yeast, sour, sulphur
Palate Max 10	Sweet: Very Dry, Dry, Medium Dry, Sweet, Very sweet Acid: Very Tart, Tart, Refreshing, Thin, Flat Tannin: Astringent, Hard, Dry, Soft Body: Heavy, Full, Medium, Light, Watery Balance: Very Well Balanced, Good, Unbalanced Aftertaste: Long, Lingering, Pleasant, Short Astringent, bitter, harsh, noticeably tart or rough, sour, tapering, slightly bitter, withered
Intensity (Max. 3)
*Range:* 3, 2.5-2, 2-1.5, 1.5-1, 0
Acid (Max. 2)	balanced, flabby, harsh, insipid, raw, slightly low or high, slightly tart, vinegary
*Range* balanced acid 2, acid too high or low 1-0
Palate Faults (Max. 3)	Bitter, Astringent, corky, oxidised
*Range:* no faults 3, detectable 2.5-1, serious 0.5-0	Bitter, Astringent, corky, oxidised
O/all Quality/Balance(Max. 2)	Outstanding, Very Good, Acceptable, Fair, Poor elegant, charming, graceful, stylish, fine, character, finesse, sensitive, sound, no exceptional features, unremarkable cellaring potential
*Range:* outstanding 2, balanced (acid/tannin) 1.5-1

4 Wine Scoring Record Card
Wine 1 Details
Vintage
Appearance (score x/3)	Nose (score x/7)	Palate (score x/10)	Total score
Wine 2 Details
Vintage
Appearance (score x/3)	Nose (score x/7)	Palate (score x/10)	Total score
Wine 3 Details
Vintage
Appearance (score x/3)	Nose (score x/7)	Palate (score x/10)	Total score
Wine 4 Details
Vintage
Appearance (score x/3)	Nose (score x/7)	Palate (score x/10)	Total score
Wine 5 Details
Vintage
Appearance (score x/3)	Nose (score x/7)	Palate (score x/10)	Total score
Wine 6 Details
Vintage
Appearance (score x/3)	Nose (score x/7)	Palate (score x/10)	Total score

5 Aromas & Flavours Of Wines

Aroma Description

Citrus Fruit Apple young unoaked semillon, chenin blanc, verdelho, colombard

Grapefruit cool climate riesling, chardonnay

Lemon young riesling, semillon

Lime young, cool climate riesling

Marmalade botrytis affected wines, viognier

Berry Fruit Blackberry cabernet sauvignon, grenache, sangiovese, barbera

Blackcurrant fully ripe red wine, cabernet sauvignon

Cherry tarrango, pinot noir, lighter grenache, light reds

Raspberry warm climate shiraz, sangiovese, tarrango, light reds

Strawberry pinot noir

Stone Fruit Lychee gewurztraminer, muscat, frontignac

Mango warm climate chardonnay

Peach marsanne, chardonnay, ripe fruit white wine

Plum pinot noir, barbera, grenache, zinfandel

Tropical Fruit melon chardonnay, verdelho, ripe fruit white wine

Passionfruit verdelho, sauvignon blanc, gewurztraminer

Pineapple chardonnay, pinot gris, verdelho

Fruit Salad warm climate white wine, riesling verdelho, chardonnay

Dried Fruit Fig developed, ripe chardonnay

Prune ripe, hot climate, fruit character

Raisin fortified muscat, port

Vegetable Asparagus cool climate sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon

Beetroot pinot noir, merlot, cooler climate reds

Black Olive warm climate reds

Capsicum sauvignon blanc, cool cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc

Green Pea sauvignon blanc, cool climate red, pinot noir

Lantana sauvignon blanc, Semillon, cool climate reds

Mint cabernet sauvignon

Tomato red wine made from cooler climate fruit, sauvignon BLANC

Spice Black Pepper grenache, pinot noir, cool climate shiraz

Cinnamon american oak, aged reds

Cloves american oak, aged reds

Liquorice warm climate red - Chambourcin and grenache, shiraz

Nutmeg american oak, zinfandel, aged reds

Meat Salami aged red, pinot noir

Smoked Bacon aged character in red, wood in warm cimate/aged chardonnay

Other Almond/Marzipan spicey oak

Butter malo-lactic fermentation

Caramel oak character

Chocolate ripe fruit in red wine, slightly aged red wines

Coconut american oak

Earthy shiraz, zinfandel, aged red

Eucalypt cool climate red wines

Garlic wine fault

Honey marsanne, chenin blanc, aged white, - semillon and chardonnay

Oak any wine aged in oak barrels

Smoked Oyster american oak heavily toasted

Soy Sauce aged red

Toast older white wine especially semillon and riesling

Tobacco older red wine, shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir

Vanilla oak aging character

Vegemite quality sparkling wine aged on yeast lees for a number of years

Yeast sparkling wine aged on yeast lees, some chardonnay

6 Wine Faults

Wine faults are divided into three categories:

· visual faults: those that can be seen

· olfactory faults: those that can be smelt

· palate faults: those that can be tasted.

The main faults are bitterness and astringency.

Visual Faults

Visual faults are those that are seen in the glass or in the bottle. They are usually either colour faults, a crystalline deposit, or a haziness or cloudiness.

Crystalline Deposits

The crystalline deposits are generally Potassium Bi-Tartrate or Calcium Tartrate. Tartrates are less soluble in alcohol than in water and during the winemaking process as alcohol is formed, the tartrates are precipitated out of the wine and deposited. These deposits form either in the storage tanks, or in the bottle. The tartrates do not impair the colour, smell or flavour of the wine. The crust which often forms in red tables wines and vintage ports consists largely of Potassium Bi-Tartrate. In red wines, the deposit is often coloured by pigmentation from the wine.

Potassium Bi-Tartrate develops as the grape ripens and large amounts of potassium from the soil are taken up into the grapes. The potassium reacts with tartaric acid which occurs naturally in grapes to form Potassium Bi-Tartrate. These deposits are common in young wines and particularly in white wines. The deposits usually form because the wine has not been properly stabilised.

Calcium Tartrate is similar in appearance to Potassium Bi-Tartrate and is usually formed when the wine comes in contact with unprotected concrete surfaces. Since the advent of stainless steel fermentation tanks and storage tanks, this problem is rarely encountered today.

Cloudiness

The principal reason for cloudiness in wines is protein instability which occurs if the wine has not been fined or clarified. Poor filtration and bottling techniques, or contamination by wild yeasts can also contribute. Wines, particularly white wines bottled at an early stage when unstable proteins are present, can develop a protein haze. Fining is carried out by using mediums such as bentonite, egg white, or gelatine-tannin. The fining medium is mixed into the wine and as it settles, the suspended protein is taken to the bottom of the vat together with the fining medium.

Oxidation

Oxidation in white wine shows as a brown tinge in the wine. This can be caused by poor handling of the juice, allowing excessive exposure to air before fermentation, poor storage of the wine after fermentation and during bottling and cellaring. Wines that are only slightly affected will show a dulling of colour, but severely affected wines become cloudy.

Ullaged Bottles

Ullaged bottles are those which are not full, allowing excess air to come into contact with the wine. Wine in ullaged bottles normally becomes flat and oxidised. Some causes of ullage:

· It was not properly filled in the first place. (The filling machinery was not regulated.)

· The bottle has a poor cork and the wine has started to leak out, allowing air in.

· The cork is over 10 years old and has started to break down, allowing air into the bottle.

· The storage temperature was too high and the heat has caused the cork to shrink allowing wine to leak out or evaporate.

Olfactory Faults

Cork Taints

One of the most commonly detected smells in wine today is the smell of cork. Industry statistics estimate the level of cork taint in wines at 3 to 5 percent. This means that as many as one bottle of wine in every 20 may be contaminated!

Cork taint in wine can be recognised as a musty odour with a sour bitter edge to it. Cork contamination is the result of several factors working together: the chlorine bleach used to clean cork bark, the high moisture content in the cork and the growth of mould spores in the cork. The substance causing the contamination is 2,4,6,trichloranisole (CTCA for short) which the human nose can detect in incredibly small concentrations.

Cork taint is more obvious in white, rose and sparkling wines than in red wines. In reds it tends to be masked by oak and other flavours which develop during barrel maturation.

Oxidised Wines

Oxidised white wines lack freshness. They taste flat and tired. They smell flat, and not unlike Madeira or amontillado sherry. In colour they are dull straw to brown.

Volatile Acidity

Volatile acidity in white and red wines causes them to smell sour and vinegary and to taste sour, and possibly flat with a touch of bitter-sweet caramel character. As both red and white wines deteriorate, they begin to take on the smell of the next stage of oxidation; they become acetic and smell vinegary. At this stage the wine may also smell of ethyl acetate or volatile acidity, a smell similar to nail polish remover. Excess ethyl acetate makes the palate of the wine hard and dry with a noticeably hot finish.

Mouldy Smells

Mouldy smells in wine can come not only from tainted corks, but also from:

· The presence of mould on the grapes when they were picked.

· Wines matured in wooden casks which are mouldy. These may be old casks which have not been cleaned properly, or casks which have been previously filled with water and become waterlogged. If adequate precautions are not taken, slime mould will grow, and wine infected by these moulds are said to be bilgy.

Sulphur Related Smells

There are two quite distinct smells in wines which can be related to sulphur. The first comes from an excess of Sulphur Dioxide (S0₂), the second from Hydrogen Sulphide (H₂S).

Sulphur Dioxide is used as an anti-oxidant or preservative in wine. Excessive use can be detected by its smell and taste. It has a sharp, pungent smell sensed as a ‘pricking’ at the top of the nose and a ‘catching’ at the back of the throat. It can most often be detected when the bottle is first opened and in the first glass poured. The sulphur dioxide smell can be dissipated by a generous swirling of the glass.

Hydrogen Sulphide is a colourless gas with the smell of rotten eggs. Formed by certain yeasts combining with sulphur dioxide, it is most often seen in young dry reds. If allowed to remain in young wine it will combine with other components to form substances called mercaptans, smelling of garlic and stale sweat.

Jamminess

Stalkiness Jamminess or jammy smells result from the fermenting of over-ripe grapes.

Stalkiness

Stalkiness or stalky smell is an oily odour arising from the stems damaged during crushing and fermented with the juice. It is usually a sign of poor wine making.

Palate Faults

Many wine faults are related to nose and palate. Substances which are first detected on the nose also make the palate hard and dry, and hot on the finish.

Cork taint is a good example. Wine with a cork taint is firstly detected by the nose as a musty odour with a sour bitter edge to it, and this ‘hot’ dirtiness is carried through onto the palate.

Harsh Or Bitter

Harsh or bitter taste sensations are detected across the back of the tongue and are generally caused by hot fermentation, or over extraction, or maceration or sometimes all three.

Hot fermentation should not occur in these days of controlled temperature equipment. Fermentation generates heat, and if the fermenting must gets too warm, subtle flavours can be lost.

Over extraction can occur if too much flavour is taken-from the skins, especially during the pressing stage.

Maceration is the soaking of the skins in the fermenting juice and if overdone, extraction of bitter elements can be occur.

Coarse

Coarseness can mean that a wine does not finish cleanly, and lacks elegance or finesse. it is often found in cheaper cask or flagon wines. Coarseness indicates oxidation and incorrect handling of the wine, particularly excessive skin contact and extraction. It is characterised by a harsh acidic taste with a bitter after-palate.

Hard

A hard wine is high in tannin, usually from over extraction. does not finish well and is astringent, sometimes bitter.

Acid

An excess of acid throws the wine out of balance. Some young wines often taste too high in acid, but if there is sufficient fruit, the wine will benefit by ageing. Disagreeable acid tastes in wine may be caused by bacterial spoilage. Lack of acid results in a wine that has no life and finishes flat; it is rather like some food dishes that require salt

Oxidised

Oxidised wine gives the feeling of being old and tired and lacking vinous qualities. In advanced cases of oxidation, the back palate may be quite bitter. Oxidation can be detected in the appearance of the wine, on the nose and on the palate.

Unbalanced

In general terms, many palate faults relate to the balance of the wine. A wine showing too much wood means that the wood flavours dominate to the exclusion of fruit, acid and tannin, and the wine will lack complexity. For a wine to be balanced, all the constituents must be in harmony. Perhaps the only characteristic that may dominate a wine is its vinosity. Wine is made from grapes and should smell and taste as if it is derived from grapes.

7 White Varieties

Chardonnay

The perfect introduction to white wine. This is a fresh, fruity grape and styles vary from light and fresh, to heavily-oaked, buttery, tropical-fruit-flavoured wines, tends to taste like melon, peach, etc. Cooler-climate Chardonnay tastes of grapefruit, lemon and barely ripe pears. Warm climate Chardonnay tends to tropical fruit and stone fruit flavours. With age, Chardonnays take on nutty and toasty qualities. Chardonnay’s original home seems to have been the region of Burgundy and there it is used to make dry white wines. It is also grown in Champagne, where it is often blended with Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. It displays different characteristics in different climates. In Chablis it produces austere flinty wines; in Australia it makes fuller, luscious unwooded wines, with a move to produce early-drinking Chardonnay with emphasis on melon, peach and tropical fruit flavours.

In cooler regions such as south-western Western Australia, Tasmania, Adelaide Hills and Yarra Valley, it produces leaner and higher acid wines. In warmer regions such as Cowra, Hunter Valley, Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale, it makes fuller, softer styles.

Because of its positive fruit flavours Chardonnay lends itself to oak. It is often stored, and sometimes fermented, in small French oak barrels. Differing degrees of wood-char add toastiness, nuttiness and smokiness. As well, full or partial malo-lactic fermentation is used to soften the harder malic acid to softer lactic acid and impart ‘buttery’ overtones. Skin and lees contact are used to give extra complexity.

In Australia it often lacks the acids to age well and most need to be drunk within three years.

Chenin Blanc

This grape makes a light, fruity wine. In Australia it makes light, attractive, easy drinking wine with good acid, and often blended and often used as the base for inexpensive sparkling wine. Mature examples have a nutty, honeyed flavour.

Also known as White Pinot (Pinot Blanco), Chenin Blanc is able to age ten years or more. Best known as the principle variety of Vouvrey wines of Loire Valley in western France.

Colombard

These grapes make a wine with tropical fruit overtones, with light, appley, melon flavours whilst retaining natural acidity. Originally planted in France for brandy production, in Australia this inexpensive variety is usually blended as the backbone for many wines. It thrives in warm climates.

Crouchen

For many years incorrectly called ‘clare riesling’ in Australia. A neutral, uninteresting variety used in bulk wine.

Flora

Little grown aromatic variety with powerful aromatic flavours sometimes used in sweet wine production.

Frontignac

Also known as muscat blanc, petits grains, white frontignac, frotignan, brown Muscat. A warm

climate, high sugar variety used in the making of inexpensive, sweet, spicy white wines.

Marsanne

Produces full-flavoured, fleshy, honeysuckle style wine. A vigorous variety, marsanne has its history in the Rhone Valley of France where it is often blended in small amounts into red hermitage (shiraz) wines. Introduced in to Australia in the 1860’s, it was for a long time mistaken for chardonnay. Australia now has the largest plantings of marsanne of any wine-producing country - approximately 250 acres. It is mainly grown in the warm Goulburn Valley region of Victoria with potential to take some bottle aging.

Muller-Thurgau

An early-ripening hybrid variety developed in Germany in 1882 as a cross of silvaner and riesling; it produces high yield, and wine with low flavour and acid.

Muscat

Muscats vary from rich, sweet and fortified to light, floral and dry. This is a very grapey-tasting grape that doesn't ripen easily. The wine actually smells of the grape itself.

Pinot Gris

Pinot gris makes deep-coloured, full bodied, soft, gentle, aromatic wines with savoury, nutty and mineral overtones. In Australia’s warmer climate it often has overtones of marzipan, peach, and pear. A pink-skinned version of pinot noir, it is known as pinot grigio in Italy.

Riesling

Rieslings range from dry, light and apple crisp to rich, sweet and honey flavoured. In colder regions such as Tasmania, the Adelaide Hills, Eden Valley, Clare Valley, high country Victoria, and southern regions of Western Australia, Riesling has overtones of lime and grapefruit, some floral and mineral flavours and a zesty crisp backbone of acid. Wines from these regions can age 15 years, taking on more complex toast and honey and kerosene characters.

In warmer regions, such as McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley, Goulburn Valley and the MIA, acid levels are lower and fruit flavours tend toward floral and pineapple qualities. They age faster and usually reach their peak in 5 years.

Riesling probably has its origins in Germany, on the banks of the Mosel and Rhine Rivers. It was first recorded as being cultivated in 1435. German Rieslings have delicate complexity and are made with varying degrees of sweetness. Alsace, in north-eastern France, is also famous for its Riesling wines. They are more generous than German Rieslings and are often bone dry.

Australia makes world class Riesling, mostly dry but sweet too. Whilst preferring cooler climates Riesling will tolerate warmer regions and produce a fruitier, early drinking style. Winemaking usually includes controlled cold fermentation (10-12C) in stainless steel tanks for an extended period. This helps retain delicacy and fruit flavour. It is never oaked.

Sauvignon Blanc (Fumé Blanc)

has a delightful fresh, tangy style with distinctive flavours of gooseberries, elderflower and asparagus. when grown in Western Australia, Adelaide Hills and Orange, Sauvignon Blanc exhibits grassy, green capsicum and gooseberry characters; in the warmer regions of McLaren Vale, Cowra and the Riverland it tends toward passionfruit and pineapple flavours. It is not a variety that ages gracefully and takes on flavours like canned asparagus on toast.

With its distinctive green herbaceous aromas and flavours, Sauvignon Blanc is probably the easiest of all the premium varieties to recognize. The finest expression of Sauvignon Blanc as a dry wine is the flinty whites of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume of France’s Loire Valley. Its finest sweet styles come from the Sauternes region of Bordeaux where, blended with Semillon, it is made as a botrytised wine.

Dry Sauvignon Blancs are almost always fermented at cool temperatures in stainless steel tanks. The object is to preserve the fresh fruitiness of the variety. Occasionally some producers (especially in New Zealand where the high-acid character of the wines means that some softening would be of benefit) ferment small parcels in oak for blending into their base wine. An extreme form of the oaked style was developed in California in the 1970s when Robert Mondavi developed what he called Fume Blanc. Many consider the best New area for Sauvignon Blanc to be New Zealand.

Semillon

Sémillon Ranges from dry, light lemon-flavoured to sweet wines with aromas of barley sugar and peaches It has a grassy, "figgy" flavour.

Australia is the only premium wine producing country that produces quality white wine solely from Semillon. In the Lower Hunter Valley it is often picked ‘green’ (less than fully ripe) and the wine is not normally aged in oak. In the Barossa, Clare and McLaren Vale regions however, the wine is usually matured in new American oak casks. Western Australian Semillon is often blended with Sauvignon Blanc to make a fresh and herbaceous style. In the Riverina, botrytis affected fruit is used to make excellent sweet wines.

The Lower Hunter region is the cradle of Semillon in Australia. It was one of the first varieties planted and was traditionally made in large old oak casks that contributed no wood character to the wine. Nowadays stainless steel tanks are used. The Hunter’s climate, with heat, humidity and rain at vintage time encourages early picking. The grapes are relatively low in sugars and make wine correspondingly low in alcohol. They are fresh with plenty of acidity and light lemon-flavoured with tastes of grapefruit and green apple. With bottle age these wines soften and take on hints of honey, toast and roasted nuts, barley sugar and peaches. They can age 10-15 years.

Semillon from South Australia is usually picked riper and makes bigger softer wines that tend to a more honeyed flavour, qualities reinforced by oak treatment; this style is much quicker developing than Hunter Semillon.

In the south-western tip of Western Australia Semillon produces grassy wines of good structure that often resemble Sauvignon Blanc in flavour.

In Bordeaux Semillon is used to make both sweet (Sauternes) and dry wines. It is nearly always blended with Sauvignon Blanc.

Traminer (Gewurztraminer.)

Dry or sweet, an intensely aromatic spiciness, with a floral taste with nutty tones. The prefix ‘gewurz’- means spice. Wines are easily distinguished by their pungent characters of lychee, rose water and hair oil, with “smells sweet, tastes dry” overtones.

Gewurztraminer fruit has quite dark skin. It has the potential to produce high sugars with low acid. These attributes tend to impart grapes grown in warmer regions with deep colour, sweet overtones and low acid, and are not for aging. Gewurztraminer is never aged in oak, and whilst wines from Alsace and Rheinpfalz are dry and will take some age the new style is toward sweeter (traminer-riesling) wines that sometimes have cloying overtones. This has led to an unfair reputation in Australia as the base for sweet, simple white wines one step up from generic ‘moselle’.

Verdelho

Never aged in oak, in Western Australia it makes vibrant, crisp, early drinking, dry white with tropical fruit salad and guava overtones. In warmer climates such as the Hunter Valley in NSW acid is lower, wines are fuller, richer and softer. Verdelho is said to have originated in Portuguese for making in dry, crisp white wine. It is also used in the production of the sweet, port-like wine of Madeira. Verdelho in Australia has been cultivated since mid 1800’s but has only recently found popularity.

Viognier

Noted for spice, floral, citrus, apricot, apple and peach flavours. It typically produces medium bodied wines with relatively high acids and fruit. It has full, spicy flavours somewhat reminiscent of the Muscat grape, and violets. Viognier in Australia often shows powerful ‘marmalade’ and apricot flavours with good acid, it often lacks complexity. Best known as a variety grown in the northern Rhone region of France.

8 Red Varieties

Barbera

A low-tannin grape known for its tarry, savoury, liquorice and earthy flavours. Barbera is best known in the wines of the Piedmont region and most of northern Italy. It usually produces an intense red wine with deep colour, low tannins and high acid, and is used to provide backbonefor so-called jugwines. It is becoming more popular in cooler regions of Australia.

Cabernet Franc

Has overtones of raspberry and dusty spice. Cabernet Franc is similar to cabernet sauvignon and is particularly suited to cooler, damper climatic conditions. It is widely grown in the Loire region of France and large areas in the southwest of that country; Bordeaux wines commonly contain a proportion of this variety in their blend, a practice increasingly being followed in Australia, New Zealand, and California.

Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon Arguably the king of red grapes, has an intense blackcurrant, blackberry and cedar flavour. Its wines have strong blueberry, blackberry, black current overtones, are relatively tannic and are deeply coloured. While it likes a moderate climate, excessively cool ones such as Tasmania and parts of New Zealand produce leafy herbaceous flavours and thin, light-coloured wine. Hot climates spoil the varietal character of Cabernet. In Australia it is widely cultivated and produces a broad range of styles, best epitomized by the luscious mulberry wine of Coonawarra. In the Barossa Valley it produces high tannin full-bodied wine, while in the Southern Vales it takes on a chocolate blackberry character. In Central Victoria its mint eucalypt quality is a hallmark. The fleshy blackcurrant and plum wines of Western Australia’s Margaret River region are arguably equal to those of Coonawarra.

Cabernet Sauvignon’s spiritual, and possibly actual, home is the Medoc region of Bordeaux. There, Cabernet Sauvignon has traditionally been blended with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot. Its tannic toughness is modified by the softness of these varieties and they fill the ‘hole-in-its-middle’ palate. (Cabernet has a long palate with noticeable initial and final flavours).

Cabernet Sauvignon has small, thick-skinned berries.

Chambourcin

Makes vibrant coloured, light tannin, and early drinking reds with plum, fruitcake and earthy flavours. A Franco-American hybrid developed in France in the early 1960’s and used for red wines with fruity flavours and low tannin. Due to its resistance to mould it is well suited to warmer, more humid Australian regions such as Hastings Valley near Port Macquarie and Coolangatta near Shoalhaven in NSW.

Dolcetto

Usually made into fast maturing, fruity and robust dark red wine with faintly bitter flavour Best known in the Piedmont region of Italy. It is starting to find favour in limited regions of Australia.

Durif

Is used as the backbone for hearty port, and it produces solid, high tannin, long-living red wine. Mainly grown in the Rutherglen region of Victoria where some red table wine is made. Also used in the Rhone Valley of France, and the Douro River region in Portugal for port making.

Gamay

Has cherry and raspberry-flavours. A light-bodied, thin skinned, cool-climate variety used for the production of light red wine in the Beaujolais region of France.

Grenache

Grenache Produces velvety-ripe, fruity wines, especially rosés, tending to be sweet and fruity, with little tannin. famous as part of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape blend. Grenache is the second most widely planted wine grape in the world. Best known in the Rhône Valley in Central France, it is used in spicy blends. Up until recently Grenache had a largely undistinguished career in Australia and was used to produce low quality rose, bulk reds and port. It is a naturally heavy cropper and when its vines are young and highly irrigated Grenache will produce light red wine especially rosés with simple spice-fruit flavours and low colour.

When Grenache vines are older and sparsely irrigated they yield a fruity spicy wine with supple tannins. It thrives in regions such as McLaren Vale and Barossa Valley and if vigorously pruned produces medium-bodied red berry wines with white pepper qualities. Occasionally it can be made as a full-bodied tannic red (Hardys ‘Tintara’ Grenache is an example). It is a variety that needs plenty of sunshine and heat and is well suited to a hot Mediterranean climate. It was one of the first varieties brought to Australia and it found a home in our warm winegrowing regions.

It is often blended with Shiraz and Mourvedre, to make robust Rhone-blend red wines.

Malbec

Creates a neutral wine, fruity and soft. A lesser member of the ‘Cabernet’ family used in blending; very limited plantings in Australia where it tends toward low flavour and ‘green’, hard tannins

Merlot

A grape with soft, black cherry and blackcurrant flavours with gentle hints of honey, and sometimes mint. It has less tannin than some of its red cousins. On its own it tends to produce simple, early maturing red wine with plum and tobacco flavours, though lacking depth.

In Australia it is most often blended with cabernet sauvignon to fill out the centre palate, and add softness to the finish of a wine.

Merlot is best known in the clay soils of Bordeaux, France especially the regions of Pomerol and St. Emilion where it is usually blended with one-third cabernet franc; it is also grown in Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, New Zealand, Chile, South Africa, California, Hungary. It is thinner skinned with lower tannins and higher sugar than cabernet sauvignon.

Mourvedre (Mataro)

Best known in the wines of Rhone where it is blended with shiraz and grenache in C6tes-du-Rhone and Chateaueuf-du-Pape wines. In Australia it is also used in blending - usually with shiraz, to give an anise overtone and to add tannin.

Nebbiolo

This is a late ripening grape that's known for being tannic, pruny, tarry and chocolaty. It is notoriously difficult to grow. Nebbiolo is responsible for the huge, long-lived, fine red wines of the Piedmont region of Italy, with such great wines as Barolo, Gattinara, Barbaresco. Plantings are just starting to appear in Australia.

Petit Verdot

A grape grown in limited amounts mainly in the temperate Bordeaux region of St-Emilion where it is used to make red wine later blended with cabernet sauvignon and other Bordeaux varieties.

Pinot Meunier

A clone of pinot noir and widely grown in the Champagne (Aube) region of France where is blended with more popular pinot noir and chardonnay to make world famous sparkling wines of the region. Many consider it too hot in Australia for the variety.

Pinot Noir

Good young Pinots are light, silky and fruity and smell and taste of raspberries, strawberries and plum jam, with a suggestion of sweetness. Mature Pinots often have an intense aroma of game and truffles. Occasionally, Pinots are unreliable and insipid.

As wines mature they acquire leathery complexities with cigar box and tobacco leaf qualities, plus pungent truffle and mushroom-like perfumes.

Our best Pinots come from our cooler areas, such as Pemberton in Western Australia, several districts in Tasmania, Victoria’s Geelong, Yarra Valley, Mornington and Bellarine Peninsula regions and South Australia’s Adelaide Hills and Eden Valley. Warm regions like the Hunter Valley are not suited to the variety.

As a variety Pinot Noir is thin skinned, low in colour and high in acid. Not only is it an early ripening variety it requires quite specific climatic conditions to thrive and will often show a large and frustrating swing in quality from vintage to vintage. Because of its lower fruit flavours it responds best to being aged in older French oak and for a shorter time than other richer red varieties.

Pinot Noir makes the Burgundies of France; many wine lovers believe its best pinots are the greatest reds in the world. It is troublesome enough to grow and vinify there and seems intent upon providing even more problems for producers elsewhere. Pinot Noir is not only made into dry red wine; it is frequently used to make sparkling wine and is one of the three varieties grown in Champagne.

Many consider that Pinot’s true potential in the Southern Hemisphere lies in New Zealand.

Great Pinot Noir reds are rarely more than medium bodied, and often relatively light. But they have complexity and structure.

Sangiovese

Sangiovese produces medium-bodied reds with rich cherry or plum-like flavours and aromas with herby, fruity flavours. It is best known in the Tuscany region of Italy where it is used to produce the Chianti and other light, attractive, everyday wines. It is just becoming appreciated and cultivated in Australia in cooler regions of Victoria.

Shiraz (Syrah).

A velvety grape that produces rich, full-bodied wines with fruity, spicy overtones. Tends towards a minerally, blueberry, or sometimes spicy and peppery type of flavour. In the Hunter, Shiraz mostly makes a midweight wine that with age becomes silky and soft. That is why it got the name ‘Hunter River Burgundy’. Its raspberry red cherry flavours with fruity, spicy overtones take on an earthy sweaty character as it gets older.

In the Barossa it makes full-bodied blackberry reds that are often tannic and heavily oaked. In McLaren Vale its wines are equally big, just as alcoholic, but mostly much softer; their blackberry jam and plum fruit flavours often have a mocha-like quality. The Margaret River region of south-western Western Australia is showing it can produce splendid Shiraz; there, it makes a medium to full-bodied red that typically tastes of red and blue plums. In the cooler districts of Victoria it makes wines that have a distinctly crushed black pepper element in their blue and red berry flavours.

Shiraz is one of the few varieties that showed itself suitable to the warm humid climate of Sydney’s Farm Cove when planted there by JAMES BUSBY in the early days of the colony. He had travelled back to Europe to collect cuttings, unsatisfied by the stock brought from the Cape of Good Hope by the First Fleet. His Shiraz cuttings came from hill of Hermitage in the northern Rhône region of France and he planted vines in his land grant in the Hunter Valley. It is from there that many of Australia’s vineyards acquired their first Shiraz.

The variety probably originally came from the vineyards of the ancient Persian city of Shiraz, then made its way through Egypt and northern Africa to France.

With heat and sunshine Shiraz is a co-operative vine and it has been successfully grown in most regions in Australia.

Shiraz is remarkable in its adaptability and its myriad forms make it Australia’s leading red variety. Penfolds Grange usually comprises 95% Shiraz.

Tarrango

Produces light-bodied, low-tannin red wines for early drinking A unique Australian hybrid developed by the CSIRO, from crossing red touriga with white sultana varieties. It was first commercially produced in the mid 1970s specifically to be grown in warmer climates.

Zinfandel

Good zinfandel has suggestions of ‘berries’ with cherry jam and red jelly overtones. The wines can be fruity or spicy, depending on age and have a distinctive taste of ripe-berried fruits Best known as the workhorse red variety of California and used there as Australian winemakers use Shiraz. Zinfandel produces high sugars and if let ripen too far will produce jammy, raisiny red wines low in acid and high in alcohol. Zinfandel is not widely cultivated outside California; there are small plantings in South Africa, Italy, NSW and Western Australia.

9 Sweet Varieties

Sweet wines cover a range of styles dictated by grape variety, sugar level, alcohol content, and wood aging. A combination of these factors will determine whether a wine is straightforward, sweet and simple - or more complex and luscious. One of the biggest influences on good quality sweet wine is the mould - Botrytis Cinerea - better known as ‘noble rot’.

Semi-Sweet Style

Wines contain an amount of added residual sugar (10-30 grams per litre), are light-bodied, with simple fruit flavours. Aromatic grape varieties such as Frontignac, Muscat Gordo blanco and Traminer are often used in production. These styles should be drunk young.

Sweet Styles

Non botrytis-affected

Fuller-bodied in flavour and higher in sugar (30-100 grams per litre) of sugar. These wines are often made from grapes left to further ripen on the vine allowing natural sugars to build and concentrate. To further increase sugar levels - and induce berry-shrivel - canes with grapes attached are cut from the vine and left to hang on trellising wires. This process is referred to as cane-cut.

Botrytis-affected

The fruit is used to produce high quality, complex-flavoured sweet wines that often have overtones of marmalade, butterscotch, dried apricots, and toffee. Best known in sweet French Sauternes-style and German auslese wines, botrytis is a specific fungus that attacks fully ripe grapes causing them to shrivel, and concentrate sugars. It settles on thin-skinned grape varieties - such as riesling, Sémillon, and sauvignon blanc - puts down roots through the grape skin causing water to evaporate. Grapes shrivel; and up to 80% of the grapes’ weight can be lost before harvest. Natural glycerol and volatile acid levels also increase. In Germany, more delicate riesling grapes are used and not aged in oak barrels; in the French region of Sauternes, robust Sémillon and sauvignon blanc or often blended and aged in wood.

Fortified sweet wine

In certain regions of France and Italy sweet wines are produced by taking unfermented juice from white grapes, fortifying it with brandy to between 15.5 and 18.0 alcohol, and then aging the ‘wine’ in old wooden barrels for a number of years. Well-known styles of this wine are Muscat de Beaumes-deVenise from the Rhône Valley region in France, and Passito in Italy, where the grapes are first laid out to dry - and concentrate - grape sugars.

10 Sparkling Varieties

What is Sparkling Wine?

Sparkling wine is any wine that has carbon dioxide dissolved in it to form gas bubbles. A sparkling wine can be white or red, dry, or sweet. There are a number of important factors that determine the eventual quality of a sparkling wine:

· Grape quality, variety, and growing conditions

· How bubbles gets in the wine

· Single variety or blended

· Whether the wine is aged on yeast lees, and for how long

Champagne And Sparkling Wine - What Is The Difference?

Champagne is a sparkling wine style unique to the Champagne region of northern France, and produced from classic varieties of chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot Meunier. A committee consisting of grape growers and Champagne producers stringently control laws governing region, grape varieties, production, and minimum bottle aging. Only wine from the region of Champagne meeting these requirements can carry the name ‘Champagne’.

There are three recognized levels for Champagne with strict controls on time spent aging in the bottle on yeast lees prior to disgorging and release:

· Non-Vintage: made from a blend of wines from a number of years (vintages) and aged for at least 15 months on yeast lees.

· Vintage: made from a blend of wines from a single year and aged on yeast lees for a minimum of three years.

· Prestige: can be blended from wine from a single year, or a blend of years, and aged on yeast lees for a minimum of five years.

Other Champagne Styles

· Rosé Champagne made by blending some still red wine with the white base wine.

· Blanc-De-Blanc made only from Chardonnay grapes.

· Blanc-De-Noir made solely from pinot noir, or blended with pinot Meunier.

· Coteaux Champenois. Still wine made from champagne grapes, can be red or white.

Sparkling Wine covers all other carbonated wine. Many of Australia’s best sparkling wines are produced by joint ventures with French Champagne Houses but cannot carry the name Champagne, as their fruit is grown outside that region. Many French wines are made by the ‘champagne’ method but because they are produced outside of the Champagne region they are not allowed to carry the word ‘Champagne’.

The Colour Of White Champagne

A Champagne colour can vary from pale gold to green gold, from amber to yellow gold, from old gold to grey gold. But all these differences are not simply pleasures for the eye, they reveal much about the wine’s character, the length of time it has been aged and the grapes that have been used. A light wine will have a clear colour, a powerful wine will be darker. Wines become darker with age.

The Colour Of Pink Champagne

The alluring rosé colour of pink Champagne is usually obtained by adding red wine to white wine. Our pleasure is both aesthetic and psychological as the attractive tints evoke a wealth of tender feelings, and this makes pink Champagne the chosen partner for moments of tenderness. Just like the whites, the colour may range from light to dark, and the flavours from the lightest and most elegant through to the most full-bodied of all Champagne wines.

Brut, Vintage, Rosé, Blanc De Blanc, Prestige, Cuvée

Behind all these different names hides a different wine with different characteristics and tastes. Each wine depends on choices made during the three stages of production.

The Blend:

This stage of the production process is when the taste and character of Champagne is determined. The blending process takes place on three levels: the blending of still wines from different growing areas, blending of the three grape varieties, and blending from different years

Dosage:

At the end of the aging period, the winemaker removes the yeast deposit from the bottle and adds a liqueur (solution of wine and sugar). The addition of sugar, according to the different wines, creates a scale of ‘sweetness’ from extra-dry to sweet.

Brut Champagne

Brut Champagnes are very dry. They are perfect for most occasions. This is why they are the most popular today A small amount of sugar is added at the end of the vinification process. Brut Champagnes contain the least sugar.

Demi-Sec Champagne

Demi-sec wines are slightly sweeter than Brut. More sugar is added to Demi-sec Champagnes than to brut Champagnes. This gives them a sweet taste, very popular during the 18th Century, and they are a suitable match for many desserts At the end of vinification, a greater amount of sugar is added than to brut.

Aromas

When young (15 months to 3 years), they give off white flower, citrus and fresh fruit aromas.

When mature (3 to 5 years) bold summer flowers or ripe/stewed fruit aromas dominate.

At their peak, with five years or more maturing, they begin to produce bouquets of dried flowers and grilled nuts.

Grape Quality and Variety

As with still wine, much depends on the quality of grape variety selected and fruit yield. Sparkling wines require early-picked, high acid fruit.

· Inexpensive sparkling wines are often made from high yield, lower flavoured varieties such as Chenin blanc, Colombard, Trebbiano, and Muscadelle.

· Medium-quality wines tend to be made from Sémillon and high yield chardonnay grown in warmer climates.

· Premium Australian sparkling wines are best when made from a blend of colder climate, low volume chardonnay and pinot noir.

Production Methods

Carbonated Wines

Usually made from high volume, inexpensive fruit. After primary fermentation the wine is placed in a large, refrigerated and pressurized stainless steel tank; carbon dioxide is pumped in, the wine is then bottled under pressure. This style of wine is inexpensive, low flavoured, and often sweeter in style.

Charmat Method

When carbon dioxide is formed by a secondary fermentation. Wine is placed in a large, pressurized, refrigerated, stainless steel tank and controlled amounts of sugar and yeast are added. Secondary fermentation takes place, with carbon dioxide being produced plus a small quantity of alcohol. The wine is then filtered to extract any dead yeast sediment, and bottled.

Transfer Method

Where primary fermentation takes place in sparkling wine bottles with a crown seal. After fermentation the wine is aged a minimum of six months in the bottle in contact with yeast lees sediment. Bottles are then emptied into a pressurized tank, filtered to extract any sediment, then bottled under pressure. Wines produced by this method are often labelled as bottle fermented, or fermented in the bottle.

Traditional method (Methode Champenoise)

Secondary fermentation occurs in sparkling wine bottles with a crown seal. After fermentation the wine must be aged for a minimum of nine months in contact with yeast lees sediment. Prior to release the bottle is disgorged.

Disgorging is where yeast lees sediment is removed from the wine by neck freezing. Bottles are placed upside down in a freezing solution; a small plug of ice containing sediment is formed, the bottle is then turned right way up, the crown seal removed, and natural pressure contained in the wine expels the ice ‘plug’ - along with sediment. The wine is then topped up and resealed.

Blending (Assemblage, Cuvée)

Much of the art in good quality sparkling wine is the assembling or blending of a number of still wines prior to secondary fermentation. Many wines are not only a blend of varieties, but also from grapes grown in a variety of regions, often from different vintages. The aim it to produce a consistent style with minimal variation from year to year. This is often known as a ‘Cuvée’ (blend). In Australia chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot Meunier dominate:

Classic Grape Varieties

· Chardonnay gives acid structure and elegance to sparkling wines allowing them age gracefully. Wines made solely from chardonnay are often referred to as ‘Blanc de Blancs’ and are usually lighter, more delicate and aperitif in style.

· Pinot Noir is lower in acid and contributes middle palate fruit flavour, fullness, and length. Wines made solely from pinot noir, or blended with pinot Meunier are often referred to ‘Blanc de Noirs’

· Pinot Meunier is extensively planted and used in Champagne, but only in small quantities in Australia. Least flavoured of the three classic varieties it is best suited to colder climates.

Aging On Lees (Autolysis)

Good quality sparkling wine it is often left to age on yeast lees for an extended period prior to disgorging. This process softens acids and imparts savoury and more complex flavours often described as yeasty, bready, doughy, vegemite, cashew, characters. It is a matter of personal taste whether these flavours are preferred to more fruity characters found in younger wine.

Remuage

Remuage takes place after secondary fermentation has completed and the now sparkling wine has been allowed to age in bottle on yeast lees for a period of time. Traditionally A-shaped wooden racks were used to store bottles, and over a period of some weeks they were gently shaken, rotated, and inverted until all sediment collected in the neck. Nowadays this is labour-intensive process is often performed by machine and gyro-palettes.

Aging In Bottle

Most sparkling wines are made to be drunk within 1-2 years of release. Whilst some wines will age for a number of years they are liable to lose their gas (it can leak out between cork and bottle). Natural acids and fruit also diminish and toasty flavours start to appear in the wine, the better the wine the longer it will age in bottle.

11 Fortified Varieties

What is a Fortified Wine?

· Has alcohol added (boosted to 15-23%)

· Maybe dry or sweet

· Historically deliberately oxidised and ‘fortified’ with extra alcohol to help prevent further deterioration (oxidation) from exposure due to air during storage and transportation.

Sherry

· Loosely used generic term

· The wine of Jerez, Spain

· Flavour change caused by flor yeast

· Aged in barrel

· Usually the blend of different wines from different vintages

· Manzanilla and Fino (from Sanluca de Barrameda, and Jerez respectively) are the finest and driest and derive flavour from flor yeast, bone dry with ‘nutty’ acetone characters.

· Oloroso style is darker in colour, may be semi-sweet or dry and typically have a nutty taste.

Cream Sherry

· Always sweet and dark in colour, in the style of Rutherglen tokay.

Port

Vintage Port

· From the fruit of a single vintage

· Matured in small oak barrels as red wine for 18-24 months

· Ages and matures in bottle, not cask - must be bottled two years after the vintage.

· Benefits from extended bottle maturation

· Initially deep purple, rich with blackberry, liquorice, fruit sweetness, balanced by tannins. The older the vintage port, the more complex the flavours.

· Often throws a sediment and requires decanting

· Medium-to-full bodied, with a power and richness not found in other forms of port. Vintage ports need to be a minimum age of 10-15 years from the vintage date prior to serving. Vintage ports can age for a considerable time – 30-40 years is not an uncommon length of time to age vintage ports in a cellar

· Doesn’t keep well after opening (2-3 days)

· Young vintage ports are served with stilton and walnuts. Their more forceful presence also lend themselves to richer chocolate and/or fruit courses, or with coffee/espresso.

LBV (Late Bottled Vintage) Port

· LBV Port is produced from a single vintage, and a true vintage port except that lbv’s are bottled after four and up to of six years of aging in cask. Both the vintage date and the bottling date must appear on the label. Also, lbv’s must say "late-bottled vintage"

· These wines retain the full-bodied ripeness and flavours of a true vintage port.

· they are drinkable when they reach the market.

· Lbv’s are classically served with quality blue cheese and freshly shelled nuts, or with coffee.

· With lush fruit and noticeable sweetness, these are sometimes served lightly chilled as a summer aperitif, or mixed with lemon.

· It can be enjoyed with fresh pears poached in port wine and similarly fruity-sweet dishes.

· They are very stable and last reasonably well after opening. (3 months)

Tawny Port

· "Tawny" comes from their mahogany-like hue. They are usually produced by combining various older port wines together in a system of fractional blending.

· The two major kinds of tawny ports are those with no specific statement of age e.g.: nv. Tawny port, or an older tawny port with a specific statement of age. The only ages permitted are: 10-, 20-, 30- and 40-year old.

· The older the tawny, the more pale the colour, the more elegant the bouquet, the more delicate the flavour, the drier the style and the more expensive the bottle. Tawny ports, like Ruby ports, do not improve with added bottle age and are very stable once opened.

· Blended from wines from several vintages

· Aged in large old oak vats for many years, not in the bottle

· Sometimes an average age of the blended wines is shown on the label

· Does not benefit from bottle age, ready to drink once they reach the marketplace

· Tawny gold colour, nutty caramel sultana flavours

· Doesn’t need decanting

· Keeps well after opening (2-3 months)

· Tawny ports are often served either alone or with more delicate flavourful desserts. Shaved chocolate, fresh raspberries, aged gouda or light blues. Dried apricots and walnuts.

· Older, lighter, and noticeably drier than ruby ports.

Ruby Port

· "Ruby" stems from the bright ruby-garnet colour of these young wines.

· Short maturation in wood.

Muscat

· Brown muscat grapes

· From Rutherglen region, Vic. And Griffith region, NSW

· Aged in wood

· Golden tawny colour; rich, sweet, liqueur - style palate; sultana, grapey, fruity, tea leaf flavours

· Similar in style to a tawny port only much sweeter

Tokay

· Muscadelle grapes

· Same winemaking techniques as muscat

· Rutherglen, Vic.

· Darker than muscat; rich, sweet, liqueur-style palate; raisins, sweet tea, coffee, toffee, treacle and caramel flavours

· Similar in style to muscat but not as sweet.

Vermouth

· A sherry style infused with herbs including orris root, bitter almond, cloves, nutmeg, coriander, angelica root, orange peel.

Marsala

· A thick, heavy syrupy wine made by adding flavouring and concentrated grape juice to a very sweet base wine.

12 Quality Versus Price

The Big Picture

Because of its warm climate Australia is known for being able to produce consistent, high volume, inexpensive wine for general consumption for both domestic and overseas markets.

Larger Australian wine companies are attempting to meet an ever-increasing world demand by producing wine from high volume, hot climate fruit, and multi-regional blends. This is sound business practice, but has the effect of often relegating regional and varietal identity and complexity to a secondary role.

The Little Picture

Smaller wineries by definition do not have the financial, and physical, capacity to produce large volumes of wine. Instead they rely on:

· An ability to recognize regions that have unique climate and soil

· Select varieties best suited to their region

· Use specific viticultural techniques to maximize fruit quality

· Restrict yields

· Often hand pick their fruit at optimum baumé

· Rely on more traditional winemaking techniques to extract flavour, colour, and texture

· Use only the best oak barrels for aging

· Often hold back wine for bottle maturation

Some of the questions most frequently asked are:

· Do you get better wine when you pay more?

· Does value increase in proportion to cost?

· How can I tell what is good value?

· What factors determine the price of a bottle of wine?

Variety

Chardonnay, for instance, is in greater demand than Semillon and commands higher prices. Merlot is in greater demand than Grenache. Premium Margaret River Chardonnay can cost $3,000 per tonne. Riverland Chardonnay might typically command $1,000 per tonne.

Yield

· High yield equals lower quality and cost

· Low yield equals higher quality and cost

Region, irrigation, soil, climate and variety affect yield. High yielding vines from hot irrigated areas produce grapes of lower flavour concentration and lower acidity. They are cheaper but produce lower quality wines.

Vine Age

Vines become financially viable after 5-7 years. Due to damage by machinery and old age, vines’ vigour decreases after 40+ years. If cared for correctly older vines produce lesser quantities of fruit, but with more concentrated flavour. This can be seen as a positive for producers of high quality wine, but a negative for bulk wine producers.

Mechanisation

Mechanical pruning and mechanical harvesting are cheaper but damage vines and fruit. Hand pruning and harvesting are expensive but end in higher quality fruit.

Scale

Vineyard size, volume and winery size mean big differences in cost. Boutique wineries’ wines often cost more due to high capital investment for small production.

Region

The geography of a grape growing area helps determine vigour, quality and ease or difficulty of harvesting, hence cost.

Oak

Oak barrels are expensive. Oak dust in permeable bags, oak chips and oak staves are less expensive alternatives. Quality small French oak barrels cost approximately$1,500 each. American oak barrels of the same volume (225 litres) cost $750 each.

Packaging

‘Bag in a Box’ casks are cheaper than bottles. Bottles themselves vary in quality and price. Heavy glass punted (podger) bottles cost approximately 65 cents each; lighter glass flat-bottomed bottles cost approximately 25 cents. Quality inscribed capsules cost some 15 cents each; one colour plastic capsules cost approximately 5 cents each. Cardboard boxes that contain 12 bottles vary in price from $1.75 to $3.00 each.

Maturation

Producers forgo immediate cash when they hold wines back and incur the expenses of storage. This has to be recouped when older wines are eventually sold.

Marketing and Advertising

Advertising is expensive but hopefully brings sales. Along with in-store tastings and promotions, all are financed through a percentage of predicted gross profits.

Freight

Delivery in major city CBD areas costs between $2 - $5 per case; to far-flung corners of Australia can be as high as $18 per case.

Agent

Agents distributing wines to retailers and restaurants charge anything between 20% and 30%.

Tax

Australia is the highest taxed wine producing company in the world.

The ‘Goods and Services Tax’ (GST) on wine currently stands at 10%.

There is a further Federal Government ‘Wine Equalisation Tax’ (WET) of 30% in addition to GST.

Retailer

Retailers add something like 33% to the landed cost of wine.

13 All About Glasses (Riedel)

· It is the responsibility of the glass to convey the wine’s “message” – it’s appearance, bouquet, and taste - in the best manner to the human senses.

Johann Riedel was the first Riedel in the trade of luxury glass goods, born in 1678.

In 1973, Claus Riedel developed the world’s first series of machine produced gourmet wine glasses. These wineglasses have since become the world benchmark and the most successful series of handmade glasses in the world.

Each glass is individually made, the upper parts hand blown into a mould and the stem and base hand crafted using traditional methods.

This meticulous craftsmanship produces wineglasses of impeccable quality from 24% lead crystal.

These wineglass designs reflect that the shape of a wineglass influences the perception and drinking pleasure of alcoholic beverages, and that the bouquet & taste depend on the form of the glass.

Type

A wine glass should be:

· colourless	· transparent
· unadorned	· thin-walled
· with a cut and polished lip	· egg-shaped
· stemmed	· made of lead crystal

Shape

· The content determines the shape

The shape and volume of the glass, the diameter of the rim, and its finish (whether it is cut and polished or rolled edge) as well as the thickness of the crystal and the roughness of the glass are responsible for the flow of the wine and consequently where it touches the various taste zones of the tongue.

As you put your wine glass to your lips, your taste buds are on the alert. Once the tongue is in contact with the wine three messages are transmitted at the same time: temperature, texture and taste. Wine is composed of different elements: fruit, acidity, mineral components, tannin and alcohol. The combination between the sense of smell and taste leads into the wonderful world of flavour.

Size

The size of a glass is important, showing the quality and intensity of aromas.

The evaporation space has to be chosen according to the "personality" of the wine or spirit. The suggested appropriate serving quantities will help.

Serving Quantities

· Approximately 85ml for white wine

· 120-150ml for red wine

· 30ml for spirits.

General Rules

· Red wines and their character require large glasses.

· White wines medium-sized glasses.

· Spirits small ones in order to emphasize the fruit character and not the alcohol.

Wide open glass shapes require us to sip by lowering the head. Narrow rims roll the head backwards and the liquid flows because of gravity. This delivers and positions the beverage to different zones of the palate. Drinking in big sips to quench the thirst will diminish the influence of the vessel, and only the aftertaste will offer flavour. The resulting nerve message is delivered at a speed of 400 m/sec to our brain where it leaves a lasting first impression. In most cases we would be disappointed if the sweet fruit flavours were lacking, and tart components dominated the taste picture. If this occurs, the blame is usually put on the quality of the wine but never on the shape of the glass.

The quality and intensity of aromas are determined by the "personality" of a wine and the relative affinity of the glass shape. Bouquet can only develop in a range of temperatures. Low temperatures temper the intensity, whereas high temperatures push mainly alcoholic fumes. When wine is poured out, it starts to evaporate and the aromas quickly fill the glass in layers according to their density and specific gravity. The lightest vapors are at the rim, the heaviest on the bottom. Consequently the size and the shape of the glass can be fine-tuned to the typical aromas of a grape variety.

The lightest, most fragile are those which resemble flower and fruit aromas. Slender, egg-shaped glasses emphasize this kind of aroma.

The middle is filled with green vegetal aromas and earthy mineral components.

The heaviest aromas are those of wood and alcohol.

When swirling the glass, the wine moistens additional surface which increases the evaporation and intensity of the aromas. However, it does not allow layers of bouquet to blend together. It is for this reason that the different qualities of aroma noted in a variety of glasses are amazing. (The same wine may have fruit aromas in one glass and green and vegetal herbiness in another). To eliminate this effect, you would have to move the layers vertically and shake the glass. Only then would you discover the same bouquet in all glasses!

· The correct choice of glass enhances the flavours of wine.

Sommeliers series (1973) original series in 10 sizes, 32 glasses. Modernised in 1991 to become world famous. 24% lead crystal, mouth blown, hand made.

Vinum series (1986) 28 glasses, is based exclusively on the characteristics of grape varieties. 24% lead crystal machine made.

Wine series 9 glasses, has decorative light catching stems and popular bowls from Vinum series. Lead free, machine made.

Ouverture series (1989) 6 glasses, is an uncomplicated beginner range, Lead free, machine made.

Vinum Extreme series, 8 glasses, further modernisation reflects the higher quality of present wines, and the improved glass technology available. 24% lead crystal machine made.

Cleaning Glasses.

The surface of these glasses is coarser than ordinary glass and creates a large surface, which has the advantage of conveying more intense aromas. On the other hand the surface is softer, more delicate, easily scratched, and quickly absorbs environmental odours, maybe the wood of your cupboard or a cardboard smell.

· If the glasses are not used frequently, nose them before serving.

Hand Washing

Step 1.

Wash under warm water, lightly scrubbing as required. detergent is not necessary.

Step 2.

Place glasses on linen for time being.

Step 3.

For extra shine, steam over boiling water.

Step 4.

Polish using 2 linen tea towels.

· Never twist the base and bowl.

· Hold base and polish base and stem.

· Hold and cradle bowl in left hand, and polish with right hand.

Holding A Wine Glass Correctly

It might sound stupid to say there is a correct and incorrect way to hold a glass, but it is true. The glass should be held by the stem, although some pretentious wine wan*ers will hold them by the base.

The reasons for holding it by the base are simple; if you hold it in your hand, it will warm up the warm fairly quickly and if the wine gets too warm, the volatility increases and accentuates the alcohol.

In the case of big Ozzie reds, many of them are better drunk slightly cooler, rather than at room temperature, which can be quite hot. Even at 22 degrees, sometimes the wine will not show as well as it would at say 20 degrees. (It is perfectly acceptable to throws a bottle of red in the fridge for half an hour to cool it down.)

Also, if you keep pawing the bowl, you will leave unsightly smudge marks on the glass, especially if you are eating finger food at the same time.

If its winter and the wine is cold, there is nothing wrong with cupping the bowl in the palms of your hand for a couple of minutes to take the cool edge off the wine.

14 An Everyday Wine Cellar

13 Wines for Any Occasion

Do I run out and buy a bottle of wine every night for dinner, or each time I need a cupful to make a sauce? Heavens, no! I keep a little stash. It's very basic: a little of this, a few bottles of that, all tucked into a simple hardware-store wine rack in the bottom of my pantry. I keep one bottle of sparkling wine and one bottle of white ready to drink in the refrigerator (neither stays longer than a week or two); between that and the 12 in the rack, I'm ready for anything.

It's easy and inexpensive to put together a cook's stash of 13 bottles:

2 Bottles Of Sparkling Wine.

They needn't be expensive. One goes in the rack, the other in the fridge for a spur-of-the-moment celebration or even just a festive aperitif when an unexpected friend drops by.

3 Bottles Of All-Purpose White And 3 All-Purpose Reds.

These should be simple and inexpensive, wines you'd be just as happy drinking with a weekday dinner as you would using to make a quick pan-sauce. For whites, sauvignon blanc is a good choice; if it doesn't have too much oak, it pairs with everything and works in any sauce. For red, pinot noir, soft merlot, inexpensive Italian red, or Beaujolais are versatile to cook with and easy to drink.

1 Bottle Of Special-Occasion White

such as a chardonnay you've been dying to try or a white Burgundy.

1 bottle of special-occasion red

for when you pull out all the stops making dinner. A heritage blend, an interesting cabernet, a red Bordeaux, Burgundy, Brunello or Hermitage -- whatever most excites you. -- it doesn't have to be a special occasion to drink it; maybe you just feel like treating yourself after a rough week.

1 Bottle Of "Wild Card" White

Something that stands up to ethnic or spicy foods. Rieslings go wonderfully with Asian flavours.

1 Bottle Of Rosé

These are terrific with casual foods, cold cuts, grilled chicken and vegetables -- just about anything. They also work well with spicy foods.

1 Big Red

One bottle for that night you feel like plopping a steak on the grill. Or lamb chops. This can be Cabernet, Heritage, Shiraz, red Bordeaux, -- whatever chewy red you like with red meat.

Now, that's a stash you can use. The beautiful part is you get to have wine on demand, and you only need to replenish it as the stash gets low. In the meantime, enjoy!

15 Tasting Exercises

"Guess Which Wine" Game.

To play "guess which wine", use a guest's empty glass, and while they cover their eyes, pour a sample of one of the wines into their glass. The guest has to guess which wine you poured into their glass. They can refer to their notes to help pinpoint which wine they were given.

A number of different tasting exercises can be set up at home to show how wine and food selections can either combine or clash.

Potential Pitfalls

Acidic food will leave an unmatched wine tasting flat and lifeless.

Sweet food will make the wine appear dryer than usual.

Salty or spicy dishes should be paired with wine touched with sweetness, or it will completely overwhelm the palate.

1. Flavoured Popcorn

Set up an ingenious and fascinating tasting using popcorn rolled in canola oil and various flavourings (honey, salad herbs, salt and chilli). Each popcorn and flavouring is compared with different wines (a light bodied dry white, a full bodied wooded dry white, a light bodied semi-sweet white, a light bodied dry red and a full bodied dry red). Each taster is asked to show on the assessment sheet whether the combination is balanced, in harmony, or contrasted.

2. Five Basic Flavours

Arrange the following taste samples in little bowls:

Sour: lemon juice or vinaigrette dressing

Bitter: black pepper sauce (not too strong or it will numb your palate)

Salty: Soya sauce or feta cheese

Savoury: a combination of flavours, such as chicken liver pâté

Sweet: Sweet pie apple or pineapple slice

The Wines

Taylors Riesling Clare valley. 2002 aromatic floral, very light acid, acid finish, spritzig

Mt Pleasant Elizabeth H Valley Semillon. (3yo) fruity lime, acid, good mouth ,lasting thin

Tahbilk Marsanne 2001 fleshy honeysuckle, lemon honey peach, long finish crisp

Knappstein Cab merlot 1999 fruit cake, softer long length

Rothvale Tilda’s Shiraz 2000 savoury pepper liquorice spice mushroom, rounded oak cherry

Peter Lohmann Barossa Cab Sav 2000 blackcurrant cedar intense, long finish full body fine oak

The Taste

Pour the full complement of wines and provide each taster with a sample of each food. Starting with the vinaigrette dressing or lemon juice, taste a paddlepop stickful before trying the first. Work your way through the rest of the wines, each time sampling the dressing. Move on to the black pepper sauce, comparing it to each wine, and so on.

Jot down your impressions after each sample, noting which tastes and sensations dominate, which work well and which bring out the best in the other. Note how the wine and food interact in terms of acidity, sugar, texture, body and weight.

3. Scallops, Fish And Beef

A tasting comprised scallops, fillet of sole and a fillet of beef with three wines: white Zinfandel, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. The scallops were sautéed in vegetable oil.

The scallop:

The Chardonnay tasted quite bitter and lost its fruit character. The Cabernet became a little leaner, but kept its fruit character and the white Zinfandel did not change.

With a squeeze of lemon and some salt on the scallops, the Chardonnay was much better (acid or tart foods mellow wine). The Cabernet also matched up well with the scallops with lemon and salt

The sole:

It brought out some tannins in the Cabernet and highlighted some bitterness in the Chardonnay.

With some lemon juice and salt, the balance was restored. With the Cabernet, the scallops tasted sweeter and juicier. The Zinfandel with the scallops tasted much the same whether or not the lemon juice or salt were added. Slightly sweet Rieslings, Chenin Blanc or Gewurztraminer would react the same way as the white Zinfandel.

The steak:

The Cabernet became firmer although it kept its fruit character. The Chardonnay remained unchanged and the white Zinfandel became softer and sweeter. Aged beef has a level of acidity that can soften acidities perceived in wine.

When a little extra virgin olive oil was drizzled on the meat with a squeeze of lemon, the Cabernet mellowed out perfectly. The effect was the same as if a chef allows some maitre d’hotel butter to melt on a steak - it adds fat for lubricity and lemon to mellow the wine.

Making Smell Standards

Novice tasters often complain that they cannot smell anything or can't describe the aroma of wine. Fortunately, it is easy to train our noses and brains to connect and quickly link terms with odours.

The fastest way is to make physical standards to illustrate important and major notes in wine aroma. To do this, with few exceptions, materials available from the grocery store are all you need. (One of the few standards that cannot be provided is the linalool aroma of Riesling, Gewurztraminer or Muscat wines; for this, get Handiwipes: the distinct floral, citrus aroma is Linalool; Put an opened Handiwipe into an empty covered glass. alternatively, bring some Frootloops and put them dry into an empty wine glass. Sounds silly, but it makes a good linalool standard)

WHITE WINE AROMAS

start by selecting some wines with large differences in flavour. For example an oaky, buttery Chardonnay, an unoaked Chardonnay, a "vegetative" Sauvignon blanc, a floral Riesling, a Gewurztraminer.

Then make 9 standards in a neutral white wine (a cheaper jug white will be adequate). The approximate recipes are provided below, but they all need to be tweaked. Add more "stuff" if the aroma is not identifiable; dilute with the base wine if it is too strong.

The 10 standards for white wines would then include (per 50ml glass of wine standard):

· BASE WINE (the unadulterated white wine used for making standards)

· Asparagus (several drops of brine of canned asparagus)

· Bell Pepper (tiny piece of bell pepper - don't leave in too long)

· Vanilla (drop of vanilla extract)

· Butter (drop of butter extract)

· Clove (one clove, don't leave in too long)

· Citrus (teaspoon or so of a mixture of fresh orange and grapefruit juice)

· Peach or apricot puree or juice (teaspoons)

· Pineapple (teaspoons)

· Honey, (needs quite a bit per glass)

RED WINE AROMAS

For red wins, include a Pinot noir, a Cabernet Sauvignon, a black peppery Shiraz, a Sangiovese.

The 12 standards for red wines would then include (per 50ml glass of wine standard):

· BASE WINE (the unadulterated red wine used for making standards)

· Asparagus (several drops of brine of canned asparagus)

· Bell Pepper (tiny piece of bell pepper - don't leave in too long)

· Vanilla (drop of vanilla extract)

· Butter (drop of butter extract)

· Clove (one clove - don't leave in too long)

· Soy sauce (few drops, great for older reds; try molasses separately)

· Berry (mix of fresh or frozen berries and/or berry jams - experiment!)

· Strawberry jam (for the Pinot noir) 1-3 tablespoons OLD strawberry jam)

· Artificial fruit (add few crystals of red Kool-Aid powder)

· Black pepper (few grains black pepper)

· Anise, black liquorice (use few drops of extract)

*Each first 5 components are common but in both red and white wine bases.

put the standards in labelled wine glasses, and cover them with plastic dish lids, or even glad wrap will do. This will increase the intensity of the aromas and prevent contaminating the entire room.

From this point on, anything goes: smell the wines first, smell the standards, start to see which Smelling the BASE WINE makes it really easy to identify the spiked aromas by contrast.

SPARKLING WINE AROMAS

Sparkling wines need different terms. In addition to citrus and berry standards

Standards for sparkling wines: (Per 50ml glass of white still wine)

· Lime (a few drops of lime juice concentrate or fresh squeezed lime juice)

· Apple (experiment using apple juice)

· Toasted hazelnuts (nuts in an empty glass)

· Sour cream/yoghurt (a tablespoon in empty glass or in base wine)

· Malt extract (tablespoon Malt syrup )

· Vermouth (Few drops to a teaspoonful)

· Vegemite (Tiny amount in wine glass, then add base wine)

· Cherry/strawberry (a few drops to 30ml of cherry or strawberry flavoured juices or extracts)

· Nutmeg (few grains)

· Caramel (crush one Kraft caramel in base wine)

· Vanilla (drop of vanilla extract).

16 Wine In A Restaurant

How To Choose

First, resist the urge to order a cocktail. If you'd like to enjoy a glass of something before you commit to a bottle, try a glass of sparkling wine or a light Riesling or sauvignon blanc. You'll enjoy your food more than if you indulge in a heavy, palate-numbing cocktail.

· After you decide what you're eating, take a look at the wine list or ask the server to suggest something by the glass.

· For a bottle, if you know whether you'd like white or red, you're halfway there. In better restaurants, often the staff will know what will complement what you've ordered.

· If the list is overwhelming but you know you want say, a red, simply find any red in your price range, point to it and tell the server, "I was thinking about this one -- but maybe you have an idea of something that would work better." A sensitive server should steer you to something appropriate that's within your budget.

What if yours is a party of four, all of whom are eating different things. What do you do?

· The best plan is to choose an all-purpose wine. A crisp white, such as a not-too-oaky sauvignon blanc, will go with everything from salads to fish and chicken to pastas to veal and pork. A light or medium red - a pinot noir, for example - will be delicious with many fish, especially salmon and tuna, as well as just about any pasta, chicken or meat dish.

· In a pinch, if you can't find one bottle that satisfies all, you can always order two half-bottles, one white and one red. Or a glass or bottle of white first, then a glass or bottle of red.

How To Check The Wine

· When the server shows you the bottle, you don't have to admire it, just check that it's the right wine in the right year. When he or she opens it and gives you the cork, just put it on the table. If you want, you can feel it and murmur, "humpf," and leave it to the server and your companions to wonder what you mean.

· Now the server pours the wine for you to taste. Why? Not to find out how much you like it, just that it's in good condition. Give it a swirl and a big sniff. Smell okay? Not weird or musty? Then it should be okay. You're not required to offer an opinion - just nod or say it's fine.

· That accomplished, the server pours all around, your glass last.

How Much To Pour

· Ask for no more than ⅔rd full for a glass of red, and no more than or ¼ full for a glass of white. The server will just be trying to load up your bill, but why spoil your enjoyment of freshly poured top-ups?

· Remember that white wine starts to change it’s aromas and tastes after only about 10 minutes in the glass.

· That's your cue, start having fun!

Some Basic Wine And Food Recommendations

DISHES

WINE AND WINE STYLE

Hors d'oeuvres canapés

Dry aperitif wines, sparkling wines, vermouth (chilled), fino sherry (chilled)

Fish, crab, lobster
*without sauce
*with sauce

*fried

Dry white wines (non-wooded),
Chablis (classic dry white), Chenin blanc, Semillon, chardonnay, lightly wooded white wines
Riesling, sauvignon blanc (high acid)

Chicken or turkey

White wine or rose, light red styles

Pork or veal

Medium bodied dry whites, rose, light sparkling reds

Ham

Chardonnay, Semillon (wooded), light reds

Beef, lamb, pork
*lighter dishes
*Grilled fillet

*full flavoured dishes – roasts,
Casseroles, rich sauces

Dry reds
Pinot noir, medium bodied dry reds
Cabernet/merlot etc., burgundy, cabernet sauvignon, full bodied shiraz

Full bodied sparkling burgundy, full bodied dry reds

Venison and game dishes

Mature full bodied dry reds

Pasta, pizza dishes

Soft Australian reds, Chianti, Valpolicella, Lambrusco, Italian wines

Thai, spicy foods

Gewurztraminer (traminer), late picked frontignac or riesling, light sweeter white wines (moselle style)

Asian foods (stir fried)

Riesling, traminer, aromatic light white wines

Cheese (after main course)
Soft cheeses (brie, camembert etc)

Balance of red from main course, old mature reds

sweet dessert wines

Desserts
* puddings, pastries
* fruit

Sweet dessert wines, botrytis whites, demi-sec champagne spatlese, auslese, trockenbeerenauslese, sauternes

Coffee, petit foures, chocolate

Port, muscat, tokay, old sweet whites (fortified)

Dishes

Sparkling Wine Styles

Aperitifs

All styles of sparkling wines including chardonnays and champagne

Soup

No sparkling wines recommended

Shellfish

Dry sparkling wines with some complexity and champagne

Fish dishes

Dry sparkling wines and champagne

Poultry

Dry sparkling wines, rose sparkling wines, rose champagne, sparkling burgundy

White meat dishes

Dry sparkling wines with some complexity and champagne

Red meat dishes

Sparkling burgundy, lambrusca, champagnes

Desserts

Asti spumante, spumante, demi-sec champagnes and sparkling wines

17 Wine With Food (the details)

There is no mystique behind the marriage between wines and food, but there must be some basic compatibility between the two.

Whenever a group of people taste and discuss the relationships between wine and food there will a great diversity of opinion. Possibly half of the participants will agree on which wines match with specific foods, and the other half will wholeheartedly disagree.

3 Simple Rules for Pairing Food and Wine

Many people mistakenly believe that they will ruin the whole meal if they make the "wrong" wine choice. The good news is that it's impossible to ruin a good meal if you select a wine that you enjoy regardless of what the "wine experts" say. Remember, the wine experts are not eating your dinner.

If you want to talk "rules" of wine and food pairing, the oldest one in the book is red with meat, white with fish or fowl. But rules are meant to be broken. In recent years, we've gotten bold and have said it's okay to have Pinot Noir, which is a light red wine, or even Merlot with salmon.

Having said that, there are some general guidelines you may find helpful when selecting a wine to enhance your meal.

1. Light-Bodied Wines With Light Food, And Fuller-Bodied Wines With Heartier Dishes.

Pinot Noir works beautifully with fish because you are matching light to light. Otherwise a full-bodied, heavier wine will overpower a light, delicate dish, and similarly, a lighter style wine will not even register on your personal flavour meter if you sip it with a hearty roast. You may as well drink water.

2. Consider How The Food Is Prepared. - Grilled, Roasted Or Fried, And What Sauce?

For example, chicken with a lemon butter sauce will call for a more delicate wine to play off the sauce than chicken cacciatore with all of the tomato and Italian spices, or a grilled chicken breast.

3. For Every Food Action, There Is A Wine Reaction.

When you drink wine by itself it tastes one way, but when you take a bite of food, the wine tastes different. This is because wine is like a spice. Elements in the wine interact with the food to provide a different taste sensation like these basic reactions:

· Sweet Foods like Italian tomato sauce, Japanese teriyaki, and honey-mustard glazes make your wine seem drier than it really is so try an off-dry (slightly sweet) wine to balance the flavour (Chenin Blanc, White Zinfandel, Riesling).

· High Acid Foods like salads with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, soy sauce, or fish served with a squeeze of lemon go well with wines higher in acid (Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir). White Zinfandel, although not as high in acid, can provide a nice contrast to high acid foods.

· Bitter and Astringent (Tannic) Foods like a mixed green salad of bitter greens, Greek kalamata olives and charbroiled meats accentuate a wine's bitterness so complement it with a full-flavoured forward fruity wine (Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot). Big tannic red wines (like many red Zinfandels, and Shiraz or Syrah wines) will go best with your classic grilled steak or lamb chops, as the fat in the meat will tone down the tannin (bitterness) in the wine.

Food Changes Wine

What does the food do to the wine? Sour or acidic foods for example, tend to soften the acidity in wine. A taster who likes that acidity may tend to think that the food has ruined the wine, while another taster may prefer the wine after the acidity has tamed it. The effect will be predictable, but individuals will react differently to it. It may be useful to ask what will happen to a wine when a particular food is served with it.

Time Delays

The palate does not receive the four elements of taste simultaneously, and nor do the flavour components linger equally long in the mouth. Sweet flavours are detected almost immediately, but can last for less than ten seconds. Acidity and saltiness are also detected very quickly, but linger longer on the tongue. Bitterness takes time to build up, and is detected on the palate after the other taste sensation. Once the build-up of bitterness is fully developed, it tends to persist far longer than any other taste.

Flavour Reinforcement

The primary flavours also act on each other in various ways. Bitterness is reinforced by saltiness; acidity can temporarily conceal bitterness but enhances the perception of sweetness; sweetness can reduce the impression of acidity; and saltiness and bitterness reduce acidity. With these concepts in mind, it is important to consider why wine is consumed with food and how suitable combinations can be achieved.

Matching Wine and Food

Sweets for the Sweet

The most important thing to remember, when choosing wine for food, is your tongue. It perceives the four basic tastes in food and wine both, and it's those tastes that govern the realm of food-and-wine matching: sourness, sweetness, bitterness and saltiness.

Sourness. You may have heard people say that wine doesn't go with salad. The reason this wrong idea gets such wide play is that the acid in salad dressing can wreak havoc with some wines. But if you serve an acidic wine with that salad, the wine's sourness is negated by the salad's sourness--leading to a pleasant, successful match. Remember: Pick acidic wines, such as dry German Riesling, dry Vinho Verde or red Sancerre, for acidic foods. Acidic wines also are terrific for salty foods; briny French oysters are insanely good with crisp Muscadet, a dry white wine made near Brittany in France, and smoked salmon is a miracle with tart Mosel Riesling (made in one of Germany's most northerly regions, the Mosel).

Sweetness. During the main part of your meal, and at dessert time, the same like-with-like principle applies: Sweet food makes sweet wine taste less sweet. If you have, say, a California Chardonnay that's a little sweet, as many of them are, it may taste oddly sweet with a piece of grilled swordfish. But put a little mango-red pepper salsa on the fish, and the wine will now taste miraculously dry. At dessert time, a mildly sweet wine can be wiped out--turned to disagreeable lemon juice--by a very sweet dessert. But if you make sure the dessert wine is at least a little bit sweeter than the dessert itself (such as Sauternes with a light pound cake), the wine will retain its sweetness (desirable at dessert).

Bitterness. Once again, like-with-like is the key: Wines with a little bitterness make foods with a little bitterness taste less bitter. Let's say you love charred steak on the grill but don't love the slight bitterness that the grill imparts. Young Cabernet from Bordeaux or California also has bitterness from tannin, a substance found in grape skins, seeds and stems that finds its way into many young reds. The solution is at hand: Serve them together and watch the bitterness of each one disappear.

Saltiness. There are no salty wines, but there are plenty of wines that relieve the saltiness of salty food. Serve acidic, un-oaky (see below), low-alcohol wines, such as Vinho Verde from Portugal or Galestro from Italy, with salty food. It's the same principle you see around the world in the service of fish: The classic mate for briny stuff from the sea is lemon, because acidity cuts salt.

Tannin, Alcohol, Oak and Fruit

There are a few elements in wine (not in food) that also contribute to the roster of principles: tannin, alcohol, oakiness and fruit.

Tannin, a bitter, astringent substance in wine, is good with fatty, grilled meats.

Alcohol is not a friend of food; generally lower-alcohol wines are flexible with food (heaven is a dry white below 12% alcohol).

The taste of new oak turns up in many wines today, because the wines are stored in new oak barrels to impart flavour. Oaky wine, however, is rarely a friend of food.

Lastly, fruit is an important concept. All wine comes from fruit, of course, but some wines taste "fruitier" than others. Wines are fruitiest when they're young, then lose that fruit as they age. The fruit of white wine can be almost oppressive--sometimes it tastes like fruity bubble gum--and can get in the way of food. Young white wines tend to be very fruity. But the fruit of young red wines, which is subtler than the fruit of young white wines, is often a boon in food-matching. In young reds, the fruit tends to cover up some of red wine's food-difficult elements (like tannin and bitterness), actually making the red wine even better for food.

Lingering Palate

The flavours in wine and food are never constant in the mouth. The flavours peak and then fade away. If the flavour is strong, the trailing away results in a long and pleasant lingering palate, and it is at this point that the complementary factor of food or wine is introduced. The introduction of the wine or food must be sufficient to overcome the remaining flavours. However, the wine must not dominate the following mouthful of food, and vice versa.

Trailing Flavour

The characteristics of both the wine and the food are changed due to the intermingling effect of the trailing flavours. Therefore, never take wine into the mouth while it is still full of food; appreciate the trailing flavour sensations of the food before taking in the wine.

It is important to ensure that the wine and food have similar characteristics of complexity, levels of flavour and quality. In most instances the wine should be matched with the food, not the food with the wine. Although the food can be planned around a special wine or wines.

If All Else Fails

One question remains: How can you tell which wines are high in acid, low in tannin, free of new oak treatment? It isn't easy, and labels don't give you any help. With experience, you will intuit which wines have which profile. Until then, a good wine merchant or sommelier can be a fine guide.

If all else fails, choose a young, fruity, crisp, low-alcohol, un-oaked red wine to go with your food. It will go with practically anything but dessert.

Intensity of flavour

Intensity of flavour, often allied to weight, can be decisive in either food or wine. Some wines can be used as a contrast to cut through rich foods, or they may complement intensity of food flavour. When considering a specific food, take account of its acidity, saltiness, sweetness and bitterness. A dish with strong acid elements - a lemon sauce or one served with a squeeze of lemon - needs a wine with acidity to match, otherwise the wine will taste flat. Food that is sweet or has discernable bitterness tends to make wine taste drier and exaggerate any tartness or astringency. Food that is salty or sour tends to make wine taste milder.

The old adage ‘red wine with red meat, white wine with white meat’ is somewhat outmoded today, though it still makes some sense. In fact the seasonings and sauces will play a more dominant role in matching up with the wine than the main ingredient. Excessive use of some seasonings can overpower the taste sensations of the wine.

Competing Acids

Vegetable acids can compete with wines, particularly the acids in asparagus, spinach, sorrel, artichokes etc. Lower the effect of these acids by using sweet spices, or sauces containing cheese, cream, mayonnaise or other dairy products.

Some foods, especially some cheeses, have a mouth-coating effect that will naturally affect the perception of the wine being consumed at the time.

Texture

After considering weight, intensity and specific flavours, the texture of the food must be considered. When texture is linked to weight, it is unlikely that a delicate Riesling would be chosen to eat. Serving old vintage wines with such a simple food allows the taster to better appreciate their complexities and elegance.

Food Serving Sequence

The sequence in which food is served should be taken into account when selecting appropriate wines. ft is best not to begin the meal with highly spiced dishes, particularly hot chilli dishes - it is better if the flavours grow progressively; serve salty dishes before sweet ones; do not use too many starchy foods as a garnish; and do not serve too many dishes with heavy sauces.

Wine Serving Sequence

The sequence of serving wines during a meal or a tasting is also governed by some general recommendations. Where possible, commence with the youngest wines (which tend to be less complex) and go on to the older wines; proceed from the lightest to the most full-bodied, that is from the lowest in alcohol to the highest, and from dry to sweet; and where possible, drink white wines before red and table wines before fortified.

Summary

1. Wines must be selected to complement each other and the food.

2. Wines should be selected in order of weight and complexity. It is inappropriate to commence a meal with a big, heavy-bodied Shiraz and then move on to a light, delicate Riesling.

3. Complex food flavours should be accompanied by simple, uncomplicated wines.

4. Fine matured wines, particularly reds, need to be accompanied by simple foods. The finer the wine, the simpler the food.

5. Be careful when serving wines with dishes that are served with a salad. The vinegar in the salad dressing can have a negative effect on the wine.

6. Sweet foods tend to make a dry wine taste sour and acidic.

7. Sour, acidic foods will make dry wines taste flat and lacking in character.

8. Young, slightly rough and astringent wines may complement sweet and savoury foods.

9. Highly acidic wines ie young Rieslings may be a good match for sharp-flavoured dishes.

10. In general, desserts should be less sweet than the wines being served with them.

11. Too few wines are better than too many.

18 Wine and Food No-Nos

For some people, it's not easy to just say no. They've grown up hearing all about the dreaded foods that don't work with wine, and wouldn't be caught dead ordering a glass of wine with salad, with artichokes, with soup. Their fear is a blend of imagined gastronomic disaster and imagined social disaster.

· It is impossible for general rules to make any sense in the complicated business of food-and-wine matching-especially because all the "rules" you've heard were formulated 150 years ago, when wine was incredibly different.

· The "rules" developed, for the most part, around very high-calibre wines, and were meant to "protect" those wines from the wrong foods.

The reason we're supposed to keep our leafy greens from our grapy drinks is in the dressing: the acid of a vinaigrette will most definitely change the perceived character of a wine. Something acidic makes wine taste sweeter--and if you're drinking a great wine, balanced on the head of a pin, why would you want to alter your perception of it?

If the wine is thin and acid to begin with, with no fancy "balance", the miracle is that an acidic dressing will make your wine taste sweeter, richer, fuller, fruitier, better! With that wine, you shouldn't avoid salad with vinaigrette--you should go out of your way to serve it.

Certain Foods Have Long Been Notoriously Resistant To Wine Partnerships.

· Artichokes lend a tinny or metallic flavour. Anything will taste sweeter after an artichoke

· Oily fish like sardines coat the mouth, needs a white wine high in acid to cut through the oil.

· Salad dressings with stringent vinegar are trouble, rather go for a mature balsamic which is sweeter and less raspy.

· Hot chilli is the nemesis of wine, numbing the palate.

· Chocolate is a notorious no-no.

· Cheese

The longstanding canon that red wine naturally marries with cheese is one not to get stuck on. The idea that cheese and wine are perfect companions is a myth, but there are certain conventions to follow.

Goat's milk cheese usually pairs well with Sauvignon Blanc.

Soft cheese with Chardonnay.

Pungent blue cheese with A rich dessert wine.

Hard cheese like cheddar complements Red wine.

Smoked cheese is best served with Shiraz.

Stilton with Port is an institution best respected.

Roquefort with Sauternes is a celestial partnership.

· Soup and wine

The thinking was that wine with soup is wrong. But, this would only be a problem if you're sipping consommé and even then there are ways around it (like serving a richer, fortified wine or something bubbly, like Champagne.) Lots of rich soups, crammed with goodies, have come into our lives. Don't be scared by the broth! Just take a good look at what's in there, and go about wine-matching as if this thing was not a soup at all.

The main requirement is to match the weight or body of the wine with the food. Stronger flavoured wines are better with stronger food; more delicate wines are better with foods of a more delicate seasoning or texture; spicier wines are often enhanced by similar spicy accents in food; wines with big, coarse flavours are better matched with coarser or simpler foods.

19 Cooking With Wine

Alcohol Content.

As alcohol evaporates quickly in a dish which is being heated, adding wine to a dish before or during cooking will not increase the alcohol content The only change is in the flavour.

In stews, casseroles or gravies, red wine, sherry or port can be used to add flavour and complexity to the dish. Too much wine can overpower other flavours, so it should be used with discretion - half a cup is plenty in most dishes.

A small amount of wine on the barbecue plate when cooking can also enhance flavours. (reds on meats, whites on white meats and some fish).

If the wine does not taste good, that is, it has ‘off flavours’, do not use it for cooking. The off flavours could be transferred to the dish. On the other hand, many of the off flavours are volatile substances which quickly boil off during the cooking process, leaving the base wine flavour in the finished dish.

Wine is as much an ingredient in cookery as herbs, spices, stocks and other condiments. Although generally red and white wines produce a general vinous flavour in the dish rather than a distinct varietal flavour, the use of some fortified wine styles have a more specific effect on the flavour of the dish.

Port

Port is frequently used in the preparation of sauces and glazes for meats, game, pate and poultry. The various styles of port impart quite different flavours in the finished dish.

tawny port

A good tawny port in a sauce could almost adequately be replaced with a spoonful of sugar. This is about all that remains after the years of developed characters in the port have been evaporated up the kitchen exhaust!

Ruby port

Will impart some degree of colour; sweetness and a fruity vinous quality. Best of all for enhancing a sauce calling for the addition of port would be vintage port. The robust, full fruit character of vintage port imparts colour and flavour to the resultant sauce.

Rich liqueur muscats,

Frontignacs, tokays, or an old oloroso sherry are also excellent in sauce preparation as the full flavours are retained in the dish. In all cases, reserve about 25% of these fortified wines to add about two to three minutes prior to the completion of cooking (to the sauce, not the cook!).

Marinades

A marinade is one of the oldest forms of preserving foods. There are many forms of marinades including brines, fruit juices, vinegar, wines and an infinite variety of mixtures containing many flavouring agents.

Marinate a dish for as long as possible; a few hours is better than half an hour. Casseroles can be marinated overnight, preferably in the refrigerator, before being cooked. A small amount of wine added in the last 10 minutes of cooking will lift the flavour of most dishes. The quality of wine in cooking is important, and most Australian cask or bulk wines are good enough for most cooking purposes.

Tenderiser.

Wine marinades are used today primarily for flavour, though they are often mistaken as a tenderiser. Although the acids in wine attack the cellulose sacs which bind the tissues of the meat, most marinating operations are not sustained long enough to have any perceivable effect on meat and poultry. Tough meat is usually the result of hard-working muscles which have less fat than the more tender cuts, and as fat carries up to 80% of the flavour of meat, high fat meats like pork, lamb and goose are strong in flavour compared to lean meats such as beef, venison and kangaroo.

Moisture.

Fat also makes the meat appear more moist. This is not due to a higher water content or water retention in the meats; rather it is the viscosity and resultant mouth feel of fatty meats. An analogy could be drawn with the difference between eating dry bread and buttered bread. This is also why lean meat is best not overcooked, as it is more difficult to digest.

20 Australian Wine Region Maps

Principal Regions

Wine grapes are grown in every Australian state and territory, but mainly in:

South Australia New South Wales Victoria Western Australia Tasmania.

The Queensland wine industry is still at an early stage of development even though vines have been cultivated for wine in the Roma district for well over a century.

The one commercial vineyard in the Northern Territory (Chateau Hornsby, in Alice Springs) produces only a small quantity of grapes and at this stage is of little more than novelty interest.

Climate

The climate of each grape growing region has a major influence on both the quantity and quality of grape production.

· Water supply is a major factor limiting yield. Most areas have winter-dominant rainfall, and soil depth is rarely adequate to store a full year’s requirements. The highest yields are obtained under irrigation.

· The varietal spectrum has been limited and there is little regional specialisation of specific varieties. Older regions have high proportions of varieties which are more useful for fortified than for table wine production.

· Most viticultural districts have low fungal diseases due to low rainfall & humidity during the growing season. The Hunter Valley is an exception.

· The majority of Australian vineyards are found in hot to very hot regions. Scope exists for more vineyard expansion in warm to cool regions.

The viticultural regions in Australia can be classified as:

· Hot climates producing average quality, cheap fruit.

· Warm climates producing medium quality fruit in hot seasons, and high quality fruit in cooler seasons.

· Cool climates producing high quality fruit when ripening conditions are favourable.

Even in the coolest Australian regions, latitudes are lower than most European areas. In Australia there is an Antarctic influence on the weather, and the coast does not have the benefit of a warm ocean stream. The result is that Australian summer temperatures at equivalent latitudes are lower, yet the season is just as long as areas of similar latitude in Europe.

The location of the first plantings in what are now major viticultural regions was historical accident in most instances. Vineyards were usually planted to provide wine and fresh fruit for the local population. Gold mining in many instances provided the stimulus for vineyard development in Bendigo, Great Western, Ballarat and Rutherglen in Victoria, and Mudgee in NSW.

21 Wine Bottle Names

*Name*	*Volume*	*# of bottles*	*Where it came from*
Split	200 ml	0.26
Half Bottle	375 ml	0.5
Fillette	375 ml	0.5	Means "little girl"
Bottle	750 ml	1	Sometimes referred to as a "fifth"
Magnum	1.5 litres	2	Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy
Marie-Jeanne	2.25 litres	3	Bordeaux Reference to Marie-Jeanne Ozanne (1734-1786) from Bordeaux
Double Magnum	3.0 litres	4	Bordeaux
Jeroboam (sparkling wine)	3.0 litres	4	Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy Actually Jeroboam II, King of Israel during the year of Rome's founding (753 BC)
Jeroboam (still wine)	4.5 litres	6
Rehoboam	4.5 litres	6	Champagne, Burgundy A son of Solomon, Rehoboam became king of Judah in 933 BC
Imperial	6.0 litres	8	Bordeaux
Methuselah	6.0 litres	8	Champagne, Burgundy Methuselah was a patriarch from the Old Testament described as having lived for 969 years
Salmanazar	9.0 litres	12	Champagne, Burgundy Salmanazar 1 was an Assyrian monarch who reigned around 1250 BC
Balthazar	12.0 litres	16	Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy Balthazar (King of Treasures) is the traditional name of one of the Three Wise Men, the other two being Melchior (King of Light) and Gaspar (The White One)
Nebuchadnezzar	15.0 litres	20	Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy Nebuchadnezzar, originally nabu-kudurri-usur meaning ‘Nabu protect the boundary’ became King of the Chaldean Empire in 604 BC. He was actually the second Nebuchadnezzar as a less famous one preceded him by 500 years.
Melchior	18.0 litres	24	Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy Melchior (King of Light) is the traditional name of one of the Three Wise Men, the other two being Balthazar (King of Treasures) and Gaspar (The White One)

22 Wine Glossary
Abgang (see-aftertaste)	Expresses the total sensation following swallowing, not only in the palate and throat but stomach etc.
Acetaldehyde	An essential step in the production of alcohol formed during fermentation from pyruvic acid.
Acetic (see-ascescence)	All wines contain acetic acid - (ie: vinegar) Normally the amount is insignificant and may even enhance flavour. At a little less than 0.1% content, the flavour becomes noticeable and the wine is termed acetic. Above 0.1% content is considered a strong fault. A related substance, ethyl acetate, contributes the smell.
Acidity	Used to indicate the quality of tartness or sharpness to the taste, the presence of agreeable fruit acids. The main acids in wine are tartaric and malic. Balanced acidity is desirable and gives crispness in white wines. Sour and tart are synonyms.
Aftertaste (see-finish, length, abgang)	Term used to describe the taste left in the mouth after swallowing the wine. Both character and length of the aftertaste are part of the total evaluation. May be harsh, hot, soft and lingering, short, smooth, tannic, or nonexistent.
Age/aged (see-maderised, rim)	White wines tend to turn from a greenish hue in young wines to a yellowish caste/tone to a gold/amber colour as they age. Reds usually possess a purple tone when young, turning to a deep red - (Bordeaux wines) - or a brick red colour - (Burgundy wines) - detectable at the surface edge in a wineglass as they age. Rose's should be pink with no tinge of yellow or orange. Cellar aged red wines at their peak will show a deep golden-orange colour as it thins at the surface edge. If the wine colour has deepened into a distinctly brown-orange tint at the edge it usually indicates a wine past its peak and declining.
Alcohol (see-legs, tears)	This constituent of wine is a natural by-product of fermentation. It is one of the main pillars of perceived flavour. The presence of these components define a wine that has "good balance". For table wines the wine label must by law, state the alcohol content of the wine within the bottle, usually expressed as a percentage of the volume. Table wines do not usually exceed 14% alcohol content - (11% to 12.5% is generally considered the optimum amount) Sweet dessert wines fall in the same range. Fortified wines - range from 17% to 21% alcohol content.
Amontillado	Sight Smell Taste. A Spanish term for a type of flor sherry not as pale as fino, with more bouquet and characteristic sherry flavour and usually older. It is usually dry or nearly so.
Amoroso	Sight Smell Taste. A Spanish term for full-bodied, dark and sweet sherry, lighter in colour and body than oloroso.
Angular (see-austere, crisp, fresh)	The total effect of dominant, tart-edged flavours and taste impressions in many young dry wines. Has opposite meaning to round, soft or supple.
Aperitif	A French term for appetiser, taken before meals to stimulate the appetite, eg. dry sherry or vermouth.
Appellation D'origine Controllee	A system of control of wine in France which guarantees the origin of the grapes and other conditions used in the making of wine. ft is not a guarantee of quality.
Appley	Refers to smell or aroma of a wine, usually carrying additional modifiers. "Ripe apples" describes a full, fruity, clean smell associated with Chardonnay. "Fresh apples" does the same for Riesling. "Green apple" however, is almost always reserved for wines made from barely ripe or unde ripe grapes. "Stale apples" applies almost exclusively to flawed wine exhibiting first stage oxidation.
Aroma (see-bouquet, nose)	Smell. The smell of a wine. If no particular aroma is present, the wine is described as vinous. Aroma and bouquet are sometimes used synonymously. Some tasters apply aroma to the smell of the grape and bouquet to the smell of the wine acquired during aging. Some grapes and the wines made from them are aromatic, eg. Muscat, Gewurztraminer.

Ascescence	"Ascescence" is the term used to mark the presence of acetic acid and ethyl acetate. Detected by sweet and sour, sometimes vinegary smell and taste along with a sharp feeling in the mouth.
Ascorbic acid	An acid found naturally in grapes. Ascorbic acid may be used in Australia to adjust the acidity of grape juice to be made into wine.
Astringency	Taste. A sharpness derived from tannin and sometimes acid at high levels. An astringent wine makes the mouth and face pucker-up; it is a tactile response where the lubricating factor in the saliva is lost.
Attack (see-light, thin)	The initial impact of a wine. If not strong or flavourful, the wine is considered "feeble". "Feeble" wines are sometimes encountered among those vinified in a year where late rain just before harvest diluted desirable grape content.
Attractive	The wine taster liked it anyway. A veiled criticism of expensive wines, a compliment for others.
Auslese	Taste. Wine made with selected bunches of very ripe grapes harvested late in the vintage.
Austere	An austere wine does not lack good qualities, but has a high tannin or acid content which tends to obscure the wine's taste and bouquet
Backbone (see-body)	Refers to big, full-bodied red wines with evident tannin and/or acidity.
Backward	Describes a wine that retains youthful characteristics despite considerable aging. This usually indicates that it will take longer to reach maturity and requires even more aging in the bottle or barrel. Opposite of forward.
Balance	Denotes harmonious balance of wine elements - (ie: no individual part is dominant)Wine not in balance may be acidic, cloying, flat or harsh etc.
Baume	An old French term used to indicate dissolved solids (mainly sugar) in wine and grape juice. One degree Baume' is equivalent to 1.8 per cent sugar and by fermentation converts to approximately I % alcohol (by volume) in a dry wine; thus grapes picked at 11 Baume' will ferment out to approximately 11 % alcohol (by volume)
Bead	Sight The bubbles in sparkling wine.
Beerenauslese	See-Auslese
Beeswing	Sight A filmy sediment which occurs in old bottled ports.
Berrylike (see-herbaceous)	Equates with the ripe, sweet, fruity quality of blackberries, raspberries, cranberries and cherries. The aroma and taste of red wines, particularly Zinfandel, are often partly described with this adjective.
Big	The overall flavour of a wine, white or red, that has full, rich flavours. "Big" red wines are often tannic. "Big" white wines are generally high in alcohol and glycerine. Sometimes implies clumsiness, the opposite of elegance. Generally positive, but context is essential
Bitter (see-salty, sour, sweet)	Taste. A fault in some wines in which the after-palate has a lingering bitterness, not to be confused with acidity in red table wines.
Body	Taste. A term used to describe weight or substance of a wine in the mouth. A wine with high (or full) body is a wine with pronounced taste. usually experienced from a combination of alcohol, glycerine and sugar content
Botrytis	"Botrytis Cinerea", a mold or fungus that attacks grapes in humid climate conditions, causing the concentration of sugar and acid content by making grapes at a certain level of maturity shrivel. On the Riesling grape it allows a uniquely aromatic and flavourful wine to be made, resulting in the extraordinary "Beerenauslese" style of wine.
Bottle-aged	Smell Taste. Denotes that the wine has been stored in bottle for a prolonged period, resulting in a mellow, matured character difficult to describe. In white wines the colour becomes golden and the fresh grape flavour and aroma becomes replaced by a more mature and complex vinosity. Some wines, notably vintage ports, require bottle age for their full development On the other hand, fino sherries, for example, do not benefit from bottle aging.

Bouquet (see-nose)	Near synonym for "aroma". Term generally restricted to description of odours from poured bottled wines.
Brawny	Term used mainly to describe young red wines with high alcohol and tannin levels. The mild epithet "tooth-stainers" is sometimes applied to this style of wine, denoting respect for strength.
Breathe/breathing (see-open-up)	Denotes the act of allowing the wine to "breathe"; ie: when wine is poured into another container, such as a wineglass, the admixture of air seems to release pent-up aromas which then become more pronounced, in many cases, as minutes/hours pass.
Breed (see-complex, elegant)	Term reserved for wines from the best grape varieties, the so-called "noble grapes". Denotes wines judged to have reached classical expectations of aroma, balance, structure and varietal character.
Briary	Denotes a wine having an aggressive, prickly taste best described as "peppery". Sometimes combined with the adjective "brawny" to characterize a young red wine with high alcohol and tannin content.
Brilliant (see-cloudy, hazy, unfiltered)	Very clear (and transparent in white wines) appearance with no visible particulates or suspensions. May be sign of flavour deficiency in heavily filtered wines.
Brix	Measurement system used for sugar content of grapes, wine and related products. A reading of 20 to 25 deg. Brix is the optimum degree of grape ripeness at harvest for the majority of table wines. A quick conversion method for users requiring Specific Gravity units of measurement is to take the Brix reading, deg. Brix (as Sucrose, for which most refractometers are calibrated), and multiply by 0.00425 and then add 0.9988 to the resulting number. This will give a close approximation to the equivalent figure for the S.G of Sucrose at 20 deg. C. Ex: A Brix reading of 18 equals S.G. 1.074. Using the conversion technique above gives a figure of 1.075 which is close enough for most users.
Browning (see-maderised, oxidized, rim)	Denotes aging in a wine. Young wine colour tints show no sign of such "browning". If possessed of good character and depth, a wine can still be very enjoyable even with a pronounced "brown" tint. In average wines this tint, seen along the wine surface edge in a tilted glass goblet, normally signals a wine is "past its peak", although still very drinkable.
Brut	Taste. A French term describing the driest classification of champagne, containing usually less than 0.5 per cent sugar. Increasing degrees of sweetness are extra-sec, sec and demi-sec. Originally brut champagne was unsweetened.
Buttery (see-malo lactic fermentation)	Describes taste sensation found in better white wines, particularly Chardonnay.
Candy like	Refers to the perfumed fresh fruit aromas and flavours of the grape which can be attractive in wines made for early consumption. These include pink Rose style, "nouveau" Beaujolais etc. Many consider it a less desirable characteristic in longer-aging reds and better whites.
Caudilie	Term defined in time-seconds. (Eg. 10 "Caudilie" = ten seconds of time)
Cedar (see-cigar box)	Aroma component often found in fine red wines.
Character	Smell Taste. Combination of vinosity, balance and style.
Charming	A comment applied to wines that don't quite fulfil the first expectations. Means detecting a slight flavour lightness. Sometimes used to describe wines made from the Chenin Blanc grape styled after a type of wine originating from the Loire region of France.
Chewy	Refers to a high total tannic component of a wine. Figuratively, one cannot swallow this wine without chewing first.
Cigar box	Near synonym for "tobacco" aroma detected in the nose, especially if a "cedar wood" component is present. Spanish cedar wood is the traditional material for making cigar boxes.
Citrusy	Describes aroma and flavour reminiscent of citrus fruits. Most common is a perception of "grapefruit" content. Most often detected in white wines made from grapes grown in cooler regions of California or other countries.

Clean	Smell Freedom from any foreign (or 'off) odour or flavour, but not necessarily indicating high quality.
Closed-in (see-dumb, open-up)	Term descriptive of currently poor character definition but with all the correct characteristics. Usually expected to develop with age. Applies mainly to young, intense wines vinified for long life expectancy.
Cloudy (see-brilliant, hazy)	Sight Colloidal haze and particulate matter Opposite of clear.
Cloying (see-sweet)	Taste. An excessively sweet wine, usually too low in acidity.
Complex (see-elegant)	Almost a synonym for "breed". Possesses that elusive quality where many layers of flavour separate a great wine from a very good one. Balance combines all flavour and taste components in almost miraculous harmony.
Condition	Sight Refers mainly to the clarity of a wine. A cloudy or hazy wine is referred to as being out of condition.
Corked	Smell Taste. The off-flavour in wine derived from a defective or mouldy cork Wine has unpleasant "wet cardboard" taste/smell caused by inadequately sterilized cork stopper
Creamy	Refers to "silk-like" taste component of wines subjected to malo lactic fermentation as opposed to the "tart/crisp" taste component of the same wine lacking the treatment. Almost a synonym for "buttery". Opposite of "crisp".
Crisp	Wine has definite but pleasing tartness, acidity. Generally used to describe white wines only, especially those of Muscadet de Sevres et Maine from the Loire region of France.
Crust	Sight Sediment adhering to the inside surface of bottles of old wine, usually red. Consists mainly of pigment and tartrate crystals.
Decanting	A method by which cellar-aged bottled wine is poured slowly and carefully into a second vessel, usually a glass decanter, in order to leave any sediment in the original bottle before serving. Almost always a treatment confined to red wines. The traditional method uses a candle flame as the light for illuminating the neck of the bottle while the wine is passing by. The low intensity of the light is ideal for viewing since it does not strain the eyes. Care must be taken NOT to allow the flame to heat the wine while performing this ritual.
Delicate	Any wine demonstrating somewhat mild, but attractive characteristics. Occasionally used to describe well-made wines from the so-called "lesser grape" varieties.
Dem i-sec	Taste. Seen on champagne labels, meaning that the wine is medium sweet
Depth, deep (see-lingering)	Refers to a premium wine that demands more attention, it fills the mouth with a developing flavour, there are subtle layers of flavour that go "deep."
Dessert wine	Fortified wine - eg: Sherry - where alcohol is added in the form of Brandy or neutral spirits. Sweet or very sweet wines of any alcohol level customarily drunk with dessert or by themselves and usually in small amounts.
Diesel (see-petrol)	Aroma constituent reminiscent of diesel/petrol/gasoline engine fumes. Occasionally detected in botrytis affected sweet or semi-dry wines such as Riesling. Considered a flaw if too obtrusive.
Direct (see-easy, simple)	Everything present in this wine is immediately obvious.
Dirty (see-yeasty)	Describes any of the undesirable odours that can be present in a wine that that was poorly vinified. A characteristic imparted by improperly cleaned barrels or various other processes performed incorrectly. Usually detected first in a wine by the smell of the cork stopper or from a barrel sample. Not to be confused with corked wines where the stopper is thought to be responsible.
Dry	Taste. Denotes absence of sugar and opposite of sweet Dry wines usually contain less than 0.2 per cent sugar, but wines containing up to 0.5 per cent usually still taste dry.
Dull	Sight A definite colloidal haze, easily revealed by passing a strong beam of light through the wine.
Dumb	Characteristic description of a young wine with yet-to-develop aromas and flavours. A synonym for "closed-in". Named so because it seems "unable to speak".

Earthy (see-nose, stoney, vegetal, yeasty)	Covers situations where a "mother-earth" component is present. Earth is soil-dirt, but an earthy wine is not dirty as in "DIRTY" above. The term appears to be applicable to wine thought, by some, to be made from certain young varietal grapes obtained from vines planted on land previously used for growing vegetables containing components which "marked" the soil in some way. European tasters use the term in a broader sense to describe "terroir" characteristics.
Easy (see-direct, simple)	Undemanding but pleasant, doesn't require good taste, just tastes good.
Elegant (see-complex)	What to say when there is great balance and grace in the wine, but you can't quite find apt words of description. Almost a synonym for "breed".
Essence (see-nose)	Used occasionally by wineries to describe a late harvest, sweet red wine. Most frequently appears on bottle labels for Zinfandel red wine made from grapes picked at 35 deg. Brix or higher sugar content.
Ethanol	See-ethyl alcohol.
Ethyl acetate	A substance which contributes the smell associated with acetic acid content.
Ethyl alcohol	The alcohol produced by the fermentation of grape sugar by yeast It is the only alcohol which is not poisonous to the human system.
Extracted	Refers to the colouring imparted to wines during the fermentation process by the skins of the grapes used. Can occur in the further step known as "maceration" where new wine is allowed to steep with the skins again. This second step usually results in a "highly extracted" style of wine, deeply coloured with strong flavours and tannin. Rose's, (aka "blush" wines), are normally made by limiting contact with the skins, the opposite of "extraction".
Fat	Fills the mouth in a positive manner. The wine "feels" and tastes a little obvious and often lacks elegance but is prized by connoisseurs of sweet dessert wines. Not quite desirable in a late harvest Moselle Riesling, but appropriate in a classic Sauternes. Fatness/oiliness is determined by the naturally occurring glycerol - (aka glycerine) - content in the wine.
Fermentation	The process of converting sugar into ethyl alcohol.
Filtered	Wines that have had suspended particulates resulting from the fermentation process removed. Important for future clarity and stability of a wine.
Fined	Use of various materials for clarifying wines. These materials precipitate to the bottom of the fermentation process vessel carrying any suspended particulate matter with them.
Finesse	A term denoting a wine of high quality and style.
Finish (see-aftertaste)	Taste. The taste remaining after the wine leaves the mouth.
Fino	Sight Smell Taste. A Spanish term for a delicate dry sherry made by the flor-yeast process.
Firm	A term usually applied to the finish of a wine, and denoting the impact of tannin and possibly acid.
Firm (see-austere)	Attacks the palate with acid or tannic astringency. Suggests that the wine is young and will age. Nearly always a positive comment and very desirable with highly flavoured foods.
Flat	Taste. A sparkling wine which has lost its gas or a low-acid still wine which has lost its freshness.
Fleshy	Refers to both body and texture. A fleshy wine tastes fatter than a meaty wine, exhibiting some excess oiliness if too pronounced. Often suggests great smoothness and richness.
Flint/flinty	Synonym for "stoney". Derived from French phrase "gout de pierre a fusil", literally a smoky, whiff of gunflint, almost acrid taste. These terms are presumably metaphorical approximations based on the flavour sensations allegedly present in wines made from grapes grown on a limestone/silica rich terroir. "Flinty" describes an initial evaluation indicating a young white wine made from cool region grapes under cold fermentation conditions. Characterized by high acidity, a tactile "mouth feel" that is filling and yet has a flavour sensation that is cleanly "earthy".

Floral/flowery (see-nose)	Smell Suggests the aroma or taste, usually aroma, of flowers in wine. "Floral" usually employed as an adjective without modifier to describe attributes of white wine aromas. Few red wines have floral aromas.
Fortified	Wines with added grape spirit as a preservative; increasing the alcohol content of wine.
Forward	Opposite of "closed-in" or, as used by some, backward. Means presence of "fruitiness" is immediately apparent. Usually employed as a term denoting that the wine is in peak condition and on its plateau of maturity.
Foxy	Smell Taste. The methyl and ethyl anthranilate odour of Vitis labrusca grapes and wines made from them. Rarely encountered in Australian wines.
Fresh	The wine has a lively fruity acidity, maybe a little bite of acid, as found in youthful light reds, rose's and most whites. All young whites should be fresh. The opposite is flatness, staleness.
Fruity	Smell Taste A fruity wine has an "appley", "berrylike" or herbaceous character. "Fruitiness" usually incorporates the detection of a little extra sweetness as is found in really fresh grapes or berries.
Full-bodied	As opposed to "thin" or "thin-bodied". Fills the mouth, has a winey taste, alcohol is present, the wine has "weight on the tongue".
Funky	Defies precise definition. Appears to be a 1970's cannabis culture derived word sometimes used by N. American west coast wine tasting reviewers when describing vegetal/ yeasty/yeast like aromas so complex that individual identification is difficult. Can have positive or negative connotations depending on context.
Gamey (see-nose)	Descriptive term for one of the aromas/aromas considered particular to Burgundian style Pinot Noir red wines. Reminiscent of taste and flavour associated with cooked wild duck and other "gamey" meats. Thought to be caused by contamination with "brett" - (brettanomyces strain of yeast)Sometimes referred to as "animale" by French winemakers or "sweaty saddle" by Australians. Considered a major flaw when flavour is overly-pronounced.
Gassy	Sight Smell Taste. A wine charged with carbon dioxide. See-Spritzig.
Geranium	Smell Taste. An unpleasant smell sometimes encountered in red wines containing sorbic acid and in which bacteria have grown.
Glycerol/glycerol	Gives a sweet taste on the tongue tip. Higher concentrations are found in high-alcohol and late-harvest wines, leading to sensations of smooth slipperiness giving a sense of fullness to the wine body. Is a natural by-product of the fermentation process.
Gnarly (see-extracted)	Perceived as rough-edged, overly extracted young wine that has been left too long in contact with the grape skins. Applies only to red wines.
Grapefruity	Grapefruit flavours are characteristic of cool-climate Chardonnays. See-citrusy above.
Grapey	(see-
Grassy	Slightly vegetal-tasting undertone often part of the overall character of Sauvignon Blanc and certain other grape varietals. European tasters sometimes use the word "gooseberry" to describe this flavour. In minute presence it can enhance flavours. As it becomes more dominant the more it loses appeal leading to unattractiveness.
Green (see-angular)	Strictly applied refers to the taste of wines made with unde ripe fruit. More loosely used it refers to some white wines, especially Riesling, possessing the greenish colour tint indicating youth; does not necessarily mean the sour and/or grassy taste of unripe fruit content as well.
Hard	Taste. High acidity and/or tannin content leading to a sensation of dryness in the mouth, and a fault in red wines. Characteristic preferred in dry white wines that will accompany shellfish.
Harsh	Very astringent wines, usually with high alcohol component, often have this rough, rustic taste characteristic. May become more tolerable with aging but may not be worth the wait.
Hazy (see-brilliant, cloudy, filtered)	Refers to wines with slight particulate content when viewed against the light. Occurs most often in unfiltered or unfined wines where there is no need to worry. If the haziness is intense enough to cause loss of clarity however it may indicate a flawed wine

Hearty (see-sturdy)	Most often applied in description of full, warm qualities found in red wines with high alcohol component. Examples are found in the sturdier so-called "jug wines", some California Zinfandels, lesser French Rhone or Algerian red wines and in the occasional lesser Australian Shiraz.
Herbaceous (see-grassy)	Adjective used in description of wine with taste and aroma of herbs, (usually undefined)Considered to be a varietal characteristic of Cabernet Sauvignon, and to less extent, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc grapes.
Hollow (see-aftertaste)	Missing middle between "attack" and "finish". Caused by too many grapes on insufficiently pruned vines. If very noticeable, called "empty".
Hot (see-aftertaste)	Defines a wine high in alcohol and giving a prickly or burning sensation on the palate. Accepted in fortified wines, but not considered as a particularly desirable attribute in Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay. Positively undesirable in light, fruity wines, (eg: Moselle Rieslings)
Hydrogen sulphide	Smell The smell of rotten eggs occasionally found in table wines and resulting from the reduction of sulphur dioxide or elemental sulphur. Less than one part per million is detectable.
Infusion	A method of flavouring by soaking various additives in a liquid eg. as a tea bag is added to water.
Jam like/Jammy	Smell Taste. Excessively ripe grape-derived flavours.
Lactic acid	An acid in wine produced as a result of fermentation.
Leafy (see-yeasty)	Somewhat analogous to "vegetal". Desirable in minute detectable amounts, if adding to notes of complexity in the wine.
Lean (see-body, thin)	More body would be good, sort of thin in the mouth, often too much astringency, sometimes a compliment for certain styles.
Lees (see-nutty)	Smell Taste . The term refers to the odour of wine stored too long on the lees, Refers to residual yeast and other particles that precipitate, or are carried by the action of "fining", to the bottom of the fermentation vessel. Derived from French term "lies" as in "sur lies".
Legs (see-tears)	Term used when referring to the liquid rivulets that form on the inside of a wineglass bowl after the wine is swirled in order to evaluate the alcohol concentration present. Usually the higher the alcohol content, the more impressive the rivulets appear because of reduced surface tension effects. (Some still cling to the erroneous belief that glycerine content causes these rivulets)Valuable technique when used in "blind" tasting competitions.
Lemony	Descriptive of a somewhat acidic white wine. These wines contain flavours reminiscent of that fruit. Apart from that, may be well balanced in all other respects, sometimes with a touch of extra sweetness.
Length (see-aftertaste)	Denotes the capacity of the wine flavours to linger in the mouth and palate after the wine has been swallowed.
Light	Smell Taste. Lack of body, otherwise pleasant. Used as a tasting term, "light" is usually a polite expression meaning "watery".
Limpid	Sight Crystal clarity, synonymous with brilliant.
Lively	Almost a synonym for fresh. Implies detection of barely discernible spritzyness. Applies most often to white wines, but some reds qualify.
Lush (see-sweet)	Describes impression of wines with high amounts of residual sugar. Adjective almost entirely reserved for sweet dessert wines.
Maceration	The process of softening an additive by soaking in liquid - used in vermouth making.
Maderised	Sight Smell Taste. Oxidative change in white wines brought about by prolonged hot storage, so that colour and flavour come to resemble Madeira.
Malic acid	An acid found in grapes.
Malo lactic fermentation	Secondary fermentation occasionally detected in bottled wines. Its action converts the naturally occurring Malic acid into Lactic acid plus Carbon Dioxide gas. Reduces total acidity by this action. Since the gas is contaminated with undesirable odours, if it remains trapped in the bottle it becomes a minor fault unless allowed to dissipate. Malo lactic fermentation is a commonly used technique for reducing the sharpness of cool climate Chardonnays and the Lactic acid component gives an admired "creamy" or "buttery" texture.

Matchstick	Describes the odours of Sulphur Dioxide gas, described by some as similar to the smell of "burnt matches", found in minute amounts very occasionally trapped in bottled white wines. Dissipates with airing or decanting.
Meagre (see-thin, watery)	Lacks "body" and "depth". Has definite feeling of flavour dilution. Seems to occur in some select varietal wines vinified from grapes subjected to late season rain, although there are other explanations as well.
Meaty (see-fat, oily)	With much body as though you could chew it. The reference is to lean meat, so indicates less body present than "fleshy".
Mellow	Taste. Soft, ripe, well-matured: designates sweet sherry as distinct from medium and dry sherry.
Mercaptan	Smell An onion-like aroma in wine, due to the presence of ethyl mercaptan and ethyl sulphides and derived from hydrogen sulphide; sometimes referred to as organic sulphide smell.
Meso-climate	The climate within the vineyard site.
Metallic	Taste. Not quite bitter - certainly a hard finish and a flavour of metal, usually iron or copper.
Methode champenoise	Method of producing sparkling wine by a secondary fermentation in the bottle.
Micro-climate	The climate within the grape canopy.
Mouldy	Smell Taste. Off-flavour derived from mouldy grapes or storage in a mouldy cask
Mousy	Taste. An undesirable flavour and persistent taste reminiscent of mice resulting from bacterial growth in sweet dessert and table wines. in most evident on the after palate. The causative compound is 2-ethyl-8-I -piperadeine.
Mouth-filling	Wines possessing intense flavours which seem to affect every sensory nerve in the mouth. Usually slightly high glycerine component, slightly low acid.
Msg	Acronym for Monosodium Glutamate, a common additive used in Chinese food recipes. known as an ingredient in the tastiness factor called Umami, identified with certain amino acids and nucleotides such as sodium inosinate and sodium guanylate. Recently found to be a fifth taste detectable by human tongue taste receptors (ie. see-"Nature" magazine, April 2000)
Musty (see-dirty, corked)	A wine that displays unpleasant "mildew" or "moldy" aromas. Results from improperly cleaned storage vessels, moldy grapes or cork.
Neutral	Smell Taste. A wine lacking distinctive or recognisable character, related to vinous.
Nose	Smell. near synonym word for "aroma" and includes "bouquet". Strictly applied it refers to the totality of the detectable odours, (grape variety, vinous character, fermentation smells), whether desirable or defective, found in a wine. One would speak of a mature wine as having, for example, "varietal aromas, flowery bouquet and hint of vanilla oak combining to give a balanced nose".
Nouveau .	Indicates young, immediately drinkable wine - (eg: "nouveau Beaujolais")
Nutty (see-maderised, oxidized)	Smell Table wines that have been exposed to air display this aroma which resembles that of certain sherry wines. Considered a flaw by some in red wines, but a desired flavour component in certain white wines by others, (eg: Chardonnays with extended "lees" contact in the fermentation vessel)
Oaky	The taste or aroma of freshly sawn oak. A wine, especially a red, is considered as correctly "oaked" when the "nose" carries a bare whiff of vanilla aroma. Sometimes oak flavours overpower other component wine flavours in which case it is considered over oaked. Oak flavour is introduced from contact with storage barrels made from that wood. New oak barrels contribute stronger flavour to a wine than older storage barrels. The "oaky" components encountered include "vanillin", and so-called "toasty", "charred" or "roasted" elements. "Vanillin" comes from the character of the hardwood. The three others derive from the "charring" of the barrel that occurs from heating the broad iron rings which hold the barrel staves in place after contraction and the flaming of the interior.
Oenology	The study of wine making.
Oily (see-fat, glycerol)	Describes the vaguely fat, slippery sensation on the palate in contact with the combination of high glycerine and slightly low acid content. Mostly encountered in high quality Chardonnays and late harvest sweet wines.

Oloroso	Sight Smell Taste. A Spanish term for old, rich, semi-sweet to sweet, full-bodied sherry.
Open-up (see-closed-in)	Some bottled cellar-aged red wines possess the peculiarity that, when the cork is first pulled and the wine poured, the full flavours do not immediately make an appearance. However, after the passage of several minutes in an open glass goblet, the wine develops unsuspected flavour characteristics that can verge on the sublime. This phenomenon is referred to as "opening-up". Conversely, these flavours can disappear just as fast in just 30 minutes, leaving a subsequent impression of a flat, stale, "over-the-hill" and/or mediocre wine.
Over ripe	A grape precondition necessary for making certain styles of Californian Zinfandel wines. Left on the vine to dry in the sun, certain grape varietals will develop the desirable "raisiny" character and concentrated sugar necessary for making specialty wines such as the Hungarian "Tokay".
Oxidised	Sight Smell Taste. A wine which has been exposed to oxygen, resulting in loss of flavour and development of coarseness. Oxidised wines usually contain higher levels of acetaldehyde.
Peppery	Term almost solely applied to "spicy" wines, such as Gewurztraminer among the whites, or the red Rhone Syrah and Australian Shiraz wines. Is a component which can almost be described as pungent in quality, being reminiscent of anise, cinnamon etc.
Perfumed (see-candy like, flowery)	Synonym for "floral". Implies a degree of extra residual sugar.
Petillant (see-spritzy)	Sight Slightly sparkling; less than 1.5 atmospheres pressure.
Petrol (see-diesel)
Phylloxera	A louse or aphid which attacks the roots of the vine and eventually destroys it.
Plump	Less than "fat", but otherwise nearly a synonym.
Ponderous	Even less balanced than a "hearty" or "sturdy" wine. The sole impact is one of high alcohol and "body" character. Little or no acid/tannin content. An everyday red wine, similar to a French "vin ordinaire" country wine sold by alcohol content, can be an example.
Poor	Smell Taste. Not necessarily faulty but of little merit.
Potassium metabisulphite	A salt of sulphur which releases sulphur dioxide (a compound containing germicidal and anti-oxidant properties) to protect grape juice and wine.
Powerful	Close to being a synonym for BRAWNY.
Precocious	Smell Taste. Suggesting rapid (and unhealthy) development
Pricked	Smell Taste. Having excess volatile acidity arising from the growth of acetic acid bacteria, and containing more than about ISO milligrams per litre of ethyl acetate.
Pruney	Overripe, sun-dried grapes can induce an undesirable pungent quality into table wines; sometimes compared to "the taste of dried prunes".
Pungent	Smell Very aromatic - often earthy.
Racking (see-filtered, fined)	Traditional method of wine clarification. Sequential transfer of wine to several containers, each transfer leaving behind some particulate matter.
Raisiny	Mildly rich flavour due to excessive heat in the growing area which dries out grapes still on the vine. Considered a fault in most dry table wines.
Rancio	Smell Taste Word normally used to describe a flavour perception found in tawny brown, wood-aged and heated fortified wines such as some "Madeira". Refers to the peculiarly blowsy overly-ripe fruit aroma, analogous to over ripe bananas, admired in Port-style fortified wines but considered a fault in dry table wines where the detectable presence of oxidized components is frowned on for the most part.
Refined	Term for well-balanced wines. Mostly refers to reds, such as Zinfandel, that normally turn "powerful" in the barrel. Almost a synonym for "elegant".
Residual sugar (see-sweet)	Taste. Applied usually to wines which are not quite dry. Sugar (glucose and fructose) above about 5 grams per litre can usually be tasted.

Rich	Giving a full, rounded flavour impression without necessarily being sweet. Richness supplied by alcohol, glycerine and oak vanilla nuances in dry wine. The sweeter wines qualify for this adjective if characterized by ripe, fruity flavours.
Rim (see-age, legs)	Refers to edge of wine surface as seen through a "balloon" (goblet) style wineglass held at an angle of about 30-40 deg. from the vertical and viewed against white piece of paper or cloth using natural light. Used in evaluation of wine age. In "blind" tasting is about the only way to get an informed perception about the probable life and/or condition of the wine from that date on.
Ripe	Favourable adjective bestowed when the varietal characteristics of the grape are optimally present in a well balanced wine. Ripe-tasting wines tend toward being slightly more fruity and sweet than otherwise normal wines.
Robust (see-brawny)	Vigorous, full with a lot of heart, a big scaled wine.
Rotten egg	Smell of Hydrogen Sulphide gas in wine. Thought to be a characteristic imparted by certain yeast strains. A decided flaw.
Rough (see-astringent)	Taste. Astringent, coarse, tannin taste in red wines, indicating lack of balance and maturity.
Round (see-refined)	Taste. A well-balanced wine showing body and fruitiness.
Rubbery	Smell A peculiar aroma resulting from hydrogen sulphide and related to organic sulphides.
Rustic	Synonym for "rough".
Salty	One of the basic taste sensations detected by the receptors in the human tongue.
Sec	Taste. French term meaning dry; usually applied to sparkling wines containing a small but detectable quantity of sugar.
Sharp (see-crisp, hard)	Excess acid predominates, disturbing the otherwise balanced flavours.
Simple	Normal, everyday, well-vinified table wine of straightforward character.
Smoke/smoky (see-oaky, toasty, vanillin)	1 in the same sense as the smell/flavour that separates smoked (anything) from ordinary (anything)Or 2 Refers to aroma contributed by the charred oak wood in barrels. It can have a variety of impressions - (eg: such as the remains of a burnt-out fire)Needs a variant, such as "wood-smoke" or "barbecue smoke" or "sooty" to fully convey the meaning.
Soft	Taste. Wine with a pleasing finish, without being hard or aggressive. Usually applied to wines low in acid and slightly sweet
Soft (see-light)	Generally has low acid/tannin content. describes wines with low alcohol content. Consequently has little impact on the palate.
Sour (see-crisp, sharp)	Taste. Disagreeably acid, but not a term used for wines showing volatile acid. Opposite is flat
Spatlese	Smell Taste. A German term indicating wine made from grapes picked late in the season and higher in sugar content. In Australia it refers to a sweet white table wine.
Specific gravity (see-brix)
Spicy	Almost a synonym for "peppery". Implies a softer, more rounded flavour nuance however.
Spritzig (see-lively, petillant)	Sight Smell Taste. A German term indicating the presence of some carbon dioxide bubbles in the wine, but insufficient to produce froth in the glass. Corresponds to about 2 grams per litre.
Stale (see-tanky)	Wine with lifeless, stagnant qualities. Usually found in wines that were kept in large vessel storage for an excessive length of time.

Stoney (see-flint/flinty)	Describes a set of perceptions that seem to indicate a relatively young white wine fermented from ripe, but not overly so, grapes under cold fermentation conditions. Classic examples are made from Chardonnay grapes in the Chablis region of France. High acidity coupled with a tactile, mouth-filling sensation that has a cleanly "earthy" flavour characterize this type of wine.
Structure	Term for overall flavour. Used to suggest complete impression of the wine. Needs a modifier in order to mean something - (eg: "brawny" etc)
Sturdy (see-hearty)
Stylish (see-lively)	The style is distinctive and characteristic of the grape(s) used. Carries a connotation of briskness or jauntiness. Commonly used to describe an Australian or New Zealand wine.
Sulphide	Smell. The disagreeable odour of hydrogen sulphide and mercaptans evident above about 0.1 mg/L
Sulphur dioxide	Smell. A suffocating sulphurous smell resulting from too much being added to the wine. Sulphur dioxide added to wine separates into free and chemically bound, and only the free can be smelt, usually at levels of above about 40 mg/L depending on acidity of the wine.
Supple	Term often used for young reds which should be more aggressive. More lively than an easy wine with suggestions of good quality. The near synonym "amiable" is sometimes employed but does not quite emphasize the extra connotation of "leanness" implied.
Svr	Spirit Vinous Rectified or fortifying spirit: produced usually from wine lees or more in a continuous still.
Sweet (see-cloying, rich, ripe)	Taste. More than fruity, distinctly sweet due to the presence of sugar. Wine aromas require a descriptive term to identify the source of the perceived sensation - (eg: "ripe", "lush")
Tanky	Synonym for "stale".
Tannin (see-astringent)	Taste. A naturally occurring substance in grape skins, seeds and stems. Is primarily responsible for the basic "bitter" component in wines. Acts as a natural preservative, helping the development and, in the right proportion, balance of the wine. It is considered a fault when present in excess.
Tarry/tar like	Descriptive term used when comparing odours detected in the "nose" of a wine with similar odours retained in a memory trained by the use of a comparison kit of scent essences. Such kits include tar, mercaptan, apricots, mushrooms and other flavouring essences isolated from wines.
Tart (see-sharp, sour)	Taste. Too high in acid, but high acid wines balanced by residual sugar do not taste tart.
Taste	Refers to the basic sensations detectable by the human tongue. Current scientific opinion defines these as "sweet", "salty", "sour", "bitter" and "MSG" (Monosodium Glutamate) flavours all registered by the tongue taste receptors. The traditional view of the tongue having four distinct surface zones to register those tastes has recently been revised by a report of new research discoveries (ie. see-"Nature" magazine, April 5, 2000)
Tawny	Sight Applied to wines which have turned from red to brownish during maturation, a style of port matured in cask
Tears (see-alcohol)	Synonym for "legs".
Terroir (see-earthy, flinty)	Taste. French language term for all the characteristics of the vineyard site thought to be imparted to a particular wine. It is a term that includes geographic, geological, climatic and other attributes that can affect an area of growth as small as a few square metres.
Thin (see-light, meagre)	Taste. Lacking in body, almost watery.
Tight (see-closed-in, hard)	A term for young wines. Almost an synonym for "dumb".

Toasty (see-oaky, smoky)	Other, similar descriptors are "caramel" and "toffee". Some add spicy flavours, such as "cinnamon" or "cloves".
Tobacco	Descriptive term, used by some, to describe a flavour component resembling the taste of raw tobacco leaf in the finish of certain red wines. Seems to mainly apply to Cabernet Sauvignons from Bordeaux, France or the Napa region of California. "Cigar box" is a common term often used as a near synonym especially if a cedar-wood note in the aroma is detected. (Non-smokers may have trouble with this word and its implication)
Trockenbeeren-auslese	Sweetness in wine derived from grapes that have been covered with the mould botrytis.
Under ripe (see-acidic, green)	Resulting flavour when grapes that failed to reach optimum maturity on the vine are used in the vinification process.
Unfiltered	Opposite of "filtered". However, does not exclude other clarifying processes such as "fining" etc.
Vanillin (see-sweet, tar like)	Component contributed by oak wood barrel staves. Considered to add a degree of "sweetness" to red wines when present in barely detectable amounts, so adding to a desirably complex style prized by connoisseurs.
Varietal character (see-herbaceous, grapey)	The particular flavour characteristics associated with a grape picked at optimum maturity - (eg: distinctive "berrylike" taste of California Zinfandels, "blackcurrants" of Cabernet Sauvignon etc)
Vegetal (see-earthy, leafy, yeasty)	Considered a flavour flaw when present in distinctive amounts over and above that occurring naturally in the grape. "Grassy" has somewhat the same connotation.
Vinous (see-simple)	Taste. Akin to "amiable". Nothing basically wrong with the wine, just has no impact on the taster. Implies good "character" in that characteristics of a certain grape fruitiness are detectable but apparent lack of other flavour nuances amount to a dull experience.
Viticulture	The study of grape and vine production.
Vitis Vinifera (see-elegant)	The premier grape species used for the world's most admired wines. referred to as the "European vine".
Volatile (see-harsh)	Powerful aroma. Denotes high level of acidity, alcohol and/or other flavour faults.
Warm	Possesses high alcohol flavour offset by counterbalancing flavours and other desirable qualities. Unlike "hot", is a positive attribute.
Weeper	A bottle showing signs of a leaky cork
Weighty (see-body)	Well-structured/balanced wines with an implication of mildly excessive flavour or "heaviness".
Well-balanced	Contains all of the essential elements - (ie: alcohol, flavours, acid or astringency etc) - in good proportions.
Wine thief	Sampling tube made from clear glass or plastic tube having a narrowed opening at either end. The tube is lowered into the wine container, usually a barrel, allowed to fill to a predetermined level and is then withdrawn, keeping the upper end sealed with a finger, so collecting a sample of wine. The wine sample is then disgorged into a wineglass or shallow "tastevin" cup held ready for use by the taster. (Cooks will recognize the similarity to the kitchen implement known as a "turkey baster")
Woody	Smell Taste. The presence of oak (Quercus) aroma and flavour. Sometimes hardwoods are used which leave an undesirable character. implies an overstay in a wooden container, absorbing other wood flavours besides "oak".
Yeasty (see-dirty, earthy, nutty, vegetal)	Smell Taste Term describing odours deriving from varietal yeasts carried on grape skins, molds etc. Includes both desirable and undesirable characteristics. Examples would be the presence of "brett", (brettanomeyces), a strain of yeast that produces "gamey/smokey" odours that are considered to add to the character of the wine when barely detectable.

23 Australian Wineries on the web

Winery	Wine Region
Abbey Vale Vineyard	Margaret River
Abercorn	Mudgee
Ainsworth Estate	Yarra Valley
Alambie Wines	N West Victoria
Albert River Wines	Gold Coast Hinterland
Aldinga Bay Winery	McLaren Vale
Alkoomi	Frankland River
All Saints Estate	Rutherglen
Allandale	Hunter Valley
Allanmere	Hunter Valley
Andersons Winery	N East Victoria
Andrew Garrett	McLaren Vale
Andrew Harris Vineyards	Mudgee
Andrew Peace Wines	Central Victoria
Angoves Wines	The Riverland
Annvers Wines	Langhorne Ck
Arakoon
Arlewood Estate	Margaret River
Arras
Arrowfield Wines	Hunter Valley
Audrey Wilkinson	Hunter Valley
August Hill Estate	Sern Tasmania
Auldstone Cellars	N East Victoria
Austin Barrabool Wines	Geelong
Avonbrook Wines
Bago Vineyards	Hastings River
Baileys of Glenrowan	N East Victoria
Bainton Family	Hunter Valley
Balgownie Estate	Central Victoria
Ballandean Estate	Granite Belt
Balnaves of Coonawarra	Coonawarra
Bannockburn	Geelong
Banrock Station	The Riverland
Barnadown Run Winery	Central Victoria
Barossa Valley Estate	Barossa Valley
Barrymore Estate Winery	Mornington Pen
Barwang Vineyard	Hunter Valley
Basedow Wines	Barossa Valley
Baskerville Winery	Swan Valley
Belgenny Vineyard	Hunter Valley
Bell River Estate
Bellarine Estate	Geelong
Bellendena Vineyard	Sern Tasmania
Bellingham Vineyard	Nern Tasmania
Beresford Wines	McLaren Vale
Berri Estates	The Riverland
Berrys Bridge Vineyard	Pyrenees
Bethany Wines	Barossa Valley
Bianchet Winery	Yarra Valley
Bilyara Vineyards	Barossa Valley
Bimbadgen Estate	Hunter Valley
Birdwood Park Winery	Pemberton
Black George Wines

WINE	WHEN YOUNG	WITH AGE
Unwooded Semillon	very dry, high acid and low in flavour, 'green' and unripe	soft acid, burnt buttered toast and honey
Riesling	crisp acid, lemon, lime, fruit salad and floral	soft acid, honeyed, with kerosene and toast flavours
Shiraz	dry, high tannin, blackberry and raspberry fruit, crushed pepper	soft tannin, wet leather, cedar, tobacco, wet earth
Cabernet Sauvignon	dry, high tannin, blackcurrant, mint, chocolate, mulberry	soft tannin, cedar, tobacco, earthy

Higher Temperature	Lower Temperature
Brings out flavour	Depresses fruit and lifts aromatics
Makes any sweetness more noticeable	Decreases any sweetness
Lessens tannins in red wine	Tannins and bitterness show more in red wine
Increases 'hotness' of alcohol	Accentuates acid dryness

DISHES	WINE AND WINE STYLE
Hors d'oeuvres canapés	Dry aperitif wines, sparkling wines, vermouth (chilled), fino sherry (chilled)
Fish, crab, lobster without sauce with sauce *fried	Dry white wines (non-wooded), Chablis (classic dry white), Chenin blanc, Semillon, chardonnay, lightly wooded white wines Riesling, sauvignon blanc (high acid)
Chicken or turkey	White wine or rose, light red styles
Pork or veal	Medium bodied dry whites, rose, light sparkling reds
Ham	Chardonnay, Semillon (wooded), light reds
Beef, lamb, pork lighter dishes Grilled fillet *full flavoured dishes – roasts, Casseroles, rich sauces	Dry reds Pinot noir, medium bodied dry reds Cabernet/merlot etc., burgundy, cabernet sauvignon, full bodied shiraz Full bodied sparkling burgundy, full bodied dry reds
Venison and game dishes	Mature full bodied dry reds
Pasta, pizza dishes	Soft Australian reds, Chianti, Valpolicella, Lambrusco, Italian wines
Thai, spicy foods	Gewurztraminer (traminer), late picked frontignac or riesling, light sweeter white wines (moselle style)
Asian foods (stir fried)	Riesling, traminer, aromatic light white wines
Cheese (after main course) Soft cheeses (brie, camembert etc)	Balance of red from main course, old mature reds sweet dessert wines
Desserts * puddings, pastries * fruit	Sweet dessert wines, botrytis whites, demi-sec champagne spatlese, auslese, trockenbeerenauslese, sauternes
Coffee, petit foures, chocolate	Port, muscat, tokay, old sweet whites (fortified)

Dishes	Sparkling Wine Styles
Aperitifs	All styles of sparkling wines including chardonnays and champagne
Soup	No sparkling wines recommended
Shellfish	Dry sparkling wines with some complexity and champagne
Fish dishes	Dry sparkling wines and champagne
Poultry	Dry sparkling wines, rose sparkling wines, rose champagne, sparkling burgundy
White meat dishes	Dry sparkling wines with some complexity and champagne
Red meat dishes	Sparkling burgundy, lambrusca, champagnes
Desserts	Asti spumante, spumante, demi-sec champagnes and sparkling wines

1 Introduction

Why Do We Taste Wine?

What Is Good Wine?

Keep Written Notes

Score Sheets

Tasting Glass

WINE AGING

How Wine Flavours Alter with Age

STORING AND CELLARING

Temperature

Rack Flat

Ventilation and Darkness

Vibration

SERVING

Ideal Serving Temperatures

BAUME' (Measuring Alcohol Content)

1. LOOK AT THE WINE.

3 Tasting With The Score Sheet

The Sense Of Sight

4 Wine Values Card

4 Champagne Values Card

4 Wine Scoring Record Card

5 Aromas & Flavours Of Wines

7 White Varieties

Chardonnay

Chenin Blanc

Colombard

Crouchen

Flora

Frontignac

Marsanne

Muller-Thurgau

Muscat

Pinot Gris

Riesling

Sauvignon Blanc (Fumé Blanc)

Semillon

Traminer (Gewurztraminer.)

Verdelho

Viognier

8 Red Varieties

Barbera

Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Sauvignon

Chambourcin

Dolcetto

Durif

Gamay

Grenache

Malbec

Merlot

Mourvedre (Mataro)

Nebbiolo

Petit Verdot

Pinot Meunier

Pinot Noir

Sangiovese

Shiraz (Syrah).

Tarrango

Zinfandel

9 Sweet Varieties

Semi-Sweet Style

Sweet Styles

Non botrytis-affected

Botrytis-affected

Fortified sweet wine

10 Sparkling Varieties

What is Sparkling Wine?

Champagne And Sparkling Wine - What Is The Difference?

The Colour Of White Champagne

The Colour Of Pink Champagne

Brut, Vintage, Rosé, Blanc De Blanc, Prestige, Cuvée

The Blend:

Dosage:

Brut Champagne

Demi-Sec Champagne

Aromas

Grape Quality and Variety

Production Methods

Carbonated Wines