By Felicia Hodges
If you’ve ever sat and stared at the wine list in a restaurant trying to decide which one would satisfy your palate, chances are you may only know about the wines you’ve actually sampled before. You want to venture into un-tasted territory, but you have no idea which wine to try. Are there any hard and fast rules to help you find your way through the maze of wines on the liquor store shelves?
Red or White?
"It used to be that red wines go with red meats like beef, and white wines go with white meats like chicken and seafood," says Maureen Carr, who owns and operates Harvest Wines and Liquors, Inc. in Newburgh, N.Y. "But people don’t go for that as hard and fast anymore. If you like red wine, you tend to drink red wine and if you like white, you tend to drink white."
But, short of tasting every wine on the market, how do you know what you’ll like and what you won’t? Most wine lists offer a brief description of each wine, but since several terms appear over and over again, knowing them will help the descriptions make more sense.
For example, wines are often categorized by their sweetness or lack thereof. "Brut" wines are not sweet at all (referred to as "dry"), while "demi sec" wines are fairly sweet. Terms like "off-dry" (very slightly sweet), "extra dry" (medium sweet) and "sec" (slightly sweet) are also used. Most champagnes are brut while dessert wines are demi sec. The term usually appears on the label somewhere under the brand name.
Also, wines are often named after the type of grape they were made from (like Merlot or Zinfandel) or the region in which the grapes were grown (like Champagne, which is a region in France located about 90 miles northeast of Paris). For the record, only bubbly made from grapes grown in the French province should be called champagne. Most manufacturers call other bubblies "sparkling wine."
The Wine Cellar
Listed below is a list of some of the more popular wines you might see on the store shelves and restaurant wine lists. The descriptions should help you better prepare to navigate any wine cellar in no time.
Chablis — A dry, white burgundy table wine made in France. It is made by blending a variety of white grapes and goes well with seafood or turkey.
Chardonnay — A white, full-flavored wine that is very dry and smooth. It goes well with salmon, tuna, shrimp, pasta with cream sauce as well as fruits and nuts.
Dessert Wines — These golden wines are made from grapes deliberately left on the vine past harvest, which allows the sun to dry them out and concentrate the sugar in them. Dessert wines are sweet and light and go best with fruit or dessert cheeses.
Merlot — A dry, red wine known for it’s dark, rich, velvety flavor. Similar to French Bordeaux, Merlot goes well with turkey, pork loin, beef and meat stews.
Pinot Noir — Described as delicate, rich and intense, this red wine is actually made from black grapes with low sugar content but high acidity. Known for its versatility, Pinot Noir goes well with lamb, grilled sausages, roasted chicken or duck, pork, game birds and pasta.
Riesling — Available in white or red, this wine usually contains low to medium alcohol. The sweeter versions go well with crab, mussels, fish and shellfish, while the drier Rieslings go well with corn on the cob and ham.
Rosé — A light, red wine that ranges from brut to demi sec. Good with grilled fish, grilled veggies and spicy, ethnic foods.
Sauvignon — A full-flavored French wine that can either be white ("blanc") or red ("cabernet"). The blancs tend to be dry and go well with spicy foods while the cabernets go better with lamb, duck, game meats and aged cheeses.
Semillon — A white wine that tends to have a low acidity level. Goes well with shellfish, swordfish and grilled chicken. Similar in texture and taste to French Bordeaux Blanc.
Sparkling Wine — Although similar to French champagne, Italian Asti Spumanti and Prosecco or Spanish Cava, these are any carbonated wines not grown from Champagne, France grapes. They range from brut to demi-sec, depending on the grapes that were used to make them. Sparkling wines go well with smoked salmon and oysters.
Viogner — A highly fragrant, dry, white French wine known for its full-bodied flavor. Quite popular, Viogner wines prices have risen to $25 a bottle in recent years due to its "trendy" status. Goes well with rosemary-flavored dishes.
Zinfandel — A light to robust wine known for its versatility. Made in red or white varieties (white Zinfandels, which are lighter, fruitier and often off-dry are made by separating the grape’s white juice from its red skin), Zinfandels are high in alcohol content. Similar to Italian Primitivo, these wines go well with soups, pasta, pizza, barbecued meats, leg of lamb, cheeses and chocolate desserts.
Buying, Serving and Storing Wines
Carr suggests that the best way to buy wine is to decide what you like (brut, off-dry, etc.) and look for wines types that match those tastes. Once you find a type you like, try different brand names to see which one you enjoy more.
"Prices range by the manufacturer, so that often is not the best guide," she says. "Experiment to find what you like. If you taste something at a friend’s or at a restaurant that you enjoy, remember the name and try it again."
Once you take the wine home, however, it is important to remember that red wines are best when served at room temperature (between 60 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit) while white wines should be served chilled (between 45 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit). Most wines need to breathe before they are served, which basically means that they need some contact with the air for a few minutes before they are consumed. Tall, thin glasses (champagne flutes) are best for sparkling wines and champagnes because their smaller surface area near the top helps keep the bubbles from going flat.
All wines should be stored between 40 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Storing them on their sides helps keep the corks from drying out, which protects the flavor.