Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Next in wine knowledge for the beginner


(Want real, first-hand knowledge about wine? Try a few glasses.)
In my previous article about wine knowledge for new servers, I went over a lot of strategies for helping you start off on your journey as a server with absolutely no wine knowledge. If you're anything like me, you might be asking, "what comes next?"

Well my friends, there's quite a bit more to know about wine. There's no substitute for tasting the wines yourself; you can often get a lot of products in one go by visiting an organized tasting event. But again, that's all fine and dandy, but it still doesn't help us out as much as we'd like, does it? Personally, I sometimes have trouble finding the details of flavors, as I'm an asthma and allergy case and I always get stuffed up once I start smelling things a lot, or having drinks that are bitter. I often have to read the palette of aromas on the back of the bottle, or on the internet before I can actually sense the full flavor of the wine. So even though the best way to get knowledge is through personal experience, as is the case with me, there can be various problems with that.

(Knowing the aromas, and tasting notes of wines can be a huge advantage.)
One of the more obvious problems to come with the experience method is that it takes a long time to get said experience. This can cause some problems if you're trying to learn a lot of things in a short period of time, so much akin to my first article on the subject I'm going to give you the advice to take a step back, have a breather, and see the bigger picture. Have patience, and realize that the experience will come over time, and that the more you taste, the more you'll see patterns in certain varieties of grapes, and regions.

If you've gotten this far, you may be asking "What gives Thomas. You gave me a lot of ideas in your first article on this subject!" Okay folks, I'm holding out on you in a sort of way. But there's a good reason for that! I really, truly believe that along with the basics I suggested in my first article, you can strive as long as you are patient and diligent.

But as it happens, I do have something of more substance for you, too.

Wines are grouped into two main categories, which are based on firstly the species of grape, and secondly the region that the wine is produced in. These two things are the primary source of the wine's flavor. I'm going to go a bit deeper into this information about grapes and regions for you, but first we're going to touch a bit briefly on flavor - which should not be confused with taste.

(Taking blurry photos of wine isn't necessarily a good way to learn. But at least it shows that you're trying!)
Flavor is an interesting concept, and generally speaking, you most likely picture it as being synonymous with taste.  It isn't though. There are only five basic tastes, and every other taste is a combination of those five; sweet, sour, bitter, salty and savory. These five tastes don't make up for really complex flavors though. In fact, the combinations of the five tastes don't have much more depth than the basic tastes to begin with. Flavor is a combination of all of the senses. The most important ones are taste and scent, but touch is rather important too, and let us not forget sight and hearing, which are more important in your psychological perception of flavor. Taste and scent make up the primary palette of flavor in all things - not just wine. Taste is what you would describe as the initial flavor, and scent is the lingering aroma that follows. You have only five types of taste receptors but scent receptors (rather, olfactory receptors) number in the hundreds. In fact, 3% of your entire genome is devoted to scent receptors. As mentioned above, touch is quite important too. Touch provides texture, and spice (which is not a taste, but rather, a form of pain that reacts with chemical and temperature sensitive pain receptors). The remaining two senses play a pivotal role with perception of flavor, but this is merely a psychological effect, and not necessarily the classical meaning of flavor.

So friends, if you're still with me, note that the jargon above is important. It's important, because it describes ALL flavor, and not just wine, but it's particularly important for wine (or alcohol in general). There's a huge number of wine products out there, so it's impossible to know about all of them. However, as I mentioned above, there are a couple of keys to help you out. Grape species, and region.

And I think I have the perfect anecdote to help you understand.

Pinot Gris. Pinot Gris is a common species of wine grape, whose Latin name is Vitis vinifera. It's used in the production of Pinot Gris white wine, but a lot of confusion is caused in the fact that it's also used in the production of Pinot Grigio. Which isn't, the same wine. Now don't get all up in arms! The two wines are produced from the same species, but they aren't the same, and there's a very good reason for that. You see, Pinot Gris is from France, while Pinot Grigio is from Italy. But it's more than that, too. The climate, water, and soil quality make a huge difference in the flavor of the wine from those regions. But moreover, you should realize that the fermentation and aging process are also going to be different because of environmental differences between France and Italy. Even more confusion can come from the fact that a lot of Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio aren't from France or Italy! So what gives?!

(Sake is often referred to as 'rice wine'.  Now that's some grade-C wine knowledge!)
Well, wine regions aren't only limited to the old world, but sometimes they carry over to new world wines as well. New world wines are essentially wines produced anywhere but Europe, and in the case of wines produced using the Pinot Gris grape, they can take whichever name the producer of wine chooses.

If you were wondering what the point of the anecdote is, allow me to clarify. Different regions and species produce different flavors. Simple as that. The trick to finding out about them all is by tasting them for yourself, and seeing the patterns, but never forget the lesson I tried to teach with my first article about wine knowledge: keep it simple.

Update: I stand corrected on my statement than vitis vinifera is the species name for the Pinot Gris grape. I've incorrectly understood varietals as being interchangeable with species, in this case. Varietals can be understood as a large pool of domesticated grapes of the same species.

7 comments:

  1. This is a lot of excellent background info--thank you for taking the time, Thomas--but for someone with a really keen interest in wine, who would like a solid background, I can not recommend highly enough the CSW certification course, given by the Society of Wine Educators (based in Washington, DC). They have just re-vamped their Study Guide, which is available in print or as an ebook, and the exam (100 multiple choice questions, takes an hour) is administered in many locations all over the US, but best of all, their Director of Education, Jane Nickles, gives a phenomenal live (S)Webinar every month, which is FREE. It is amazing--she not only reviews key points of two full chapters in a lively and engaging way, but also simultaneously (no idea how she does it) reads and responds to questions posed by listeners. A truly great background for anyone interested in the hospitality industry, not just wine. Plus the certification is like a union card for people wanting to enter the business.

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    1. Hi Aileen, thanks for the comment, and info you provided. I will definitely look into this. =]

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  2. Thomas,
    I cant echo Aileen's comments enough. Formal education is a gateway to learning about the world of wine. Vitis vinifera Is the common term for nearly all wine grapes not just Pinot Gris (the Vitis Lambrusco is native to the US ( think Welches grape Jelly).
    CWE (a great organization to join and learn from) is one of several organizations to check out in your area. Others include WSET (Wine and Spirit Education Trust), Court of Master Sommeliers, and local wine tasting clubs.

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    1. Thanks for the comment. I've already been corrected on my misuse of 'species' interchangeably with varietals - an oversight I've made as I'm a student of science, and somewhat of a naturalist, often trying to spin my articles in that direction as well. A mistake which I'm going to have to leave an update for at the bottom of the article.

      Courses are definitely something on my own agenda, which I unfortunately haven't been able to do up till now as other classes have taken priority. The timeline I'm looking at for WSET 1 is in early April of this year. I also think a handful of my readers have mistook the intent of my series of articles as to suggest that wine knowledge is something you can read on the back of a bottle, and courses have no purpose, but I just want to go on the record on this blog saying that the target for this advice is people like me, who were essentially thrust into expectations wine knowledge having only tried a handful (literally, less than five) of wines in their lives - something that I think a lot of people in hospitality are victim of.

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  3. Great stuff. You should also know that formal wine education does not have to be so "formal" anymore and if you cannot always "taste, taste, taste" to learn wines (allergies, age, preferences), then there is a better, more affordable, and much more modern way. It's called Wine-Expert-in-a-Box and it's made by Wine Awakenings- a Niagara based, wine education company. The concept allows you to taste, feel, smell and totally experience all aspects of wines without actually having to drink it or attend formal and expensive courses. You get everything you need literally in a "box", you take the course while sitting in a virtual classroom (at home), you do it at your own pace, and when you're done, you write the test on line and a certificate is sent to your home. Great for bartenders and wait staff who want to increase their tips and increase their personal worth.
    Check it out: www.wineawakenings.com

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  4. Hi Thomas, Take every moment you can to read about wine and attend as many lectures, trade shows and tastings as you can. I can see your great passion for wine. When I started learning about wine I was so poor that I could only "read" about it. (This was 1970 whilst living in England when wine appreciation, let alone wine education, was in its infancy in the USA) It wasn't until I was studying for about 10 years that I was able to start tasting some of the great and not so great wines of the world. However, during my poor period I was tasting varietal wines but on the lower priced side.

    Mr. nhwineguy corrected you on vitis vinifera. However, on the native American grape he committed a common slip of the tongue, calling the native grape vitis lambrusco. The good people of Emilia-Romagna in Italy may become upset my calling their beloved Lambrusco wine a native American grape. The name is vitis labrusa, which is but one of many native American varieties.

    When poor scholarship enters wine writing it tends to fall into the minds of the new person and that wrong name or statement tends to get codified. Or as my English wife would say, "talking out the backs of their necks." Meaning one has something to say but is winging it and botching it! Happy wine trails Thomas and the comments on this thread are great.

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    1. Bart; I agree, there has been a lot of good discussion over this article I wrote! Unfortunately, the majority of the comments I've gotten in response to this article have been on two wine industry groups on LinkedIn. If you're at all interested to read what others have had to say, I'll share the links below.

      http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=130451&goback=%2Egmr_130451

      http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=110618&goback=%2Egmr_110618

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