The wines to understand – easy

3 evening hours with a glass of wine in the company of a sommelier.
Soft atmosphere of taste and aroma, useful information and new knowledge, you’ll want to share.

You will get answers to basic questions about production, varieties and classification of wines of different types and regions. We will talk about the intricacies of storing and serving, will help you to understand the tricks of the labels. You will understand how to choose wine according to your taste and in the end to get maximum enjoyment from this great beverage.

Here you will be able to apply new knowledge in practice and to share their feelings, doubts, comments. If You are a beginner it will be happy to know about wines, learn to select and understand wine, understand labels, focus on the shelf and in the wine lists of restaurants.
And then we’ll be able to impress your friends with some tricks an experienced sommelier.

The contents of the master class:

• What are fault and where?
• How to read the label and the wine list?
• How to choose a good wine store?
• What you can require to replace the bottle?
• How to find “their wine” and to develop a taste?
• How to taste wine?
• How to explain to the seller that You need?
• How to store wine? How long does an open bottle?
• What to drink? – the importance of the right glass
• For what we pay, buying wine?
• It makes sense to carry from abroad?
• Wine accessories: what is useful and what is pointless?
• How to open and serve wine? Technique, temperature, etiquette
• Wine and health
• What is the “French paradox”?
• Who is the sommelier?

Also at the tasting:

• “The nose of wine” – what we train sommeliers:
  familiarity with the French library wine aromas by Jean Lenoir
• Familiarity with the special wine dishes
• Demonstration of a variety of wine accessories
• Themed wine tasting (with expert)

1. It is not customary to hold a glass by the Cup and in the restaurant, not to slap the glass: filthy glass, particularly large glass of good looks is not comme Il faut.

It is not necessary to hold the glass by the Cup

The Cup also do not keep a glass of white wine or sparkling wine, if you don’t want it to heat up faster.

But if you got out of the fridge, wine in the evening and I understand that preobladali – you can twist it, embracing the Cup – even with both hands, like a frozen Sparrow: the bouquet opens up and the house you will not condemn.

2. Consultants note etiquette ottopyrivanie of the little finger: a gesture that is treacherously difficult to control, but it is considered vulgar in polite society.

Not topirimate pinky

3. Clamping the stem in his fist, as the Royal Cup, at the cultural houses also not accepted.

Do not grip the stem of the glass in his fist

Met believed that to keep the wine glass as a basis (on which it stands) is sebsta. I do not agree. This is useful especially when you are unwinding while tasting.

You can keep a glass on the basis

Personally me, the best in aesthetics and comfort seems to be the way of holding the glass by the stem, placing the little finger under the base for better control:

The little finger under the base allows you to hold and twist glass confident

How to keep a glass of 100% correct to please everyone and not offend anyone with my ignorance?

That’s really normal!

Life skill: to promote and not to pour

If you want to prove yourself a taster, whirling the wine in the glass, but not sure of their coordination (for lack of experience or the number of wine tasting), do this: put a glass on the table and clasping his fingers over the base, call glass on the table in a circular motion:

Primitive, but effective technique: spinning glass if you are not, pour less, don’t bravado:)

The largest Islands of the archipelago are Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera – a textbook rave centers of the Mediterranean.

Although the wine on these Islands produce from the time of Romans (the vine was brought here approximately 121 G. D. E.), the local wine industry is still developing.

On the Islands was two appellation DO:

• Binissalem-Mallorca (Binissalem-Mallorca)
• Pla i Llevant (PLA and Levan)

Both are located on the island of Mallorca. And the first of them was not only the first DO of the Balearic Islands, but in General the first DO Spanish outside the Iberian Peninsula.

For the rest of the Islands are scattered some areas of class Vino de la Tierra:

• Formentera VT
• Ibiza VT
• Illes Balears VT
• Isla de Menorca VT
• Mallorca VT
• Serra de Tramuntana-Costa Nord VT

When the Balearic Islands gained fame due to sweet wines Malmsey from the Malvasia varieties, demand in England, the Netherlands and Germany. But this type of wine has almost disappeared in the 19th century during the invasion of phylloxera that devastated the vineyards of the island. Of the local varieties have since been unable to recover. But such as autochthonous Manto Negro (Manto Negro), callets (Callet), Fogoneu and mol (Moll aka Prensal Blanc) are used to this day.

Their complement included in the fashion of the French, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Chardonnay. These recognized varieties, plus the popular Spanish Tempranillo, expanded the market for Balearic wines. Today, most of them produced in a fresh flavorful style, calculated on consumption at a young age.

In addition to the wine produced on the Islands liqueurs and a number of other alcoholic beverages, including absinthe and gin. There is a brewery, serving a steady demand from tourists.

At present, there is produced as a white wine from varieties albilo (Albillo), Gewurztraminer (Gewurztraminer) and godello (Godello aka Verdelho), and redpink varieties keraskin (Carrasquin), Syrah (Syrah) and Mencia (Mencia).

Keraskin – a little-known Asturian autochthonous variety, used wine class: Vino de la Tierra and Vino de Calidad.

This variety has a faint aroma, pale color and low acidity. More interesting in the production of rosé wines. Often to give the wine a deeper color is used to blend with the grade of Bastardo (bastardo).

At the same time, Asturias is famous for its long quiet (not sparkling) cider and a craft beer. And also produce numerous small sirdalen, thanks to which the region is even called “country cheeses” (país de los quesos). The best known is Cabrales (Cabrales) is a semi – hard cheese from cow’s milk blue mold.

As part of the Green Spain (España Verde), the region of Asturias, bordered on the North the Bay of Biscay, on the East by Cantabria, on the South by Castile and Leon, and on the West by Galicia. This lush green part of the country is actively cultivated and rather densely populated, especially in the vicinity of the local capital of Oviedo and the port of gijón.

Asturias boasts stunning scenery, enviable seafood and other cuisine like the famous Asturian fabada (soup of white beans). The impressive Cantabrian mountains create a natural border with Castile-and-león, and to the East rise the Peaks of Europe (Picos de Europa). Rugged coastline with its many caves and beaches popular with hikers and vacationers.

Traditionally, the wine was not here an important part of culture because local soils are too fertile for the cultivation of high quality technical (wine) grapes. Thanks to these soils and the region’s economy originally relied on agriculture. Not on the vine and more potatoes, corn, olives and cattle.

Then a small amount of wine that is produced here, mainly highly acidic, low alcohol, sometimes white bluff, similar to the taste of the wine (txacoli) of the Basque Country.

The most appreciated drinks of the region – cider (sidra) and Aruch (orujo). The second is a distilled type of brandy only from grape pomace.

Today, however, in Cantabria there are two class appellation Vino de la Tierra:

• Liébana (Liebana VT)
• Costa de Cantabria (Costa de Cantabria VT)

Liébana is located in the Eastern corner of the region and is characterized by a special microclimate created by four valleys: more dry and much more Mediterranean than in other parts of the region. He does this part of Cantabria suitable for winemaking.

Costa de Cantabria, as you might guess from the name, runs along the coast.

In varietal Arsenal in the region a range of local and international varieties. Local first is ondarrabi Suri (Hondarrabi Zuri) and its colored version of ondarrabi of Belec (Hondarrabi Beltza). Among the other most noticeable place is occupied Pikul (local. Picapoll), albarin Tinto (Albarin Tinto aka Portuguese. Alfrocheiro Preto), Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

The landscape of Cantabria is quite diverse: from pure white beaches to lush green hills and majestic mountains with snow-capped peaks. From the mountains play a key role mighty Cantabrian Cordillera in the South (naturally separating Cantabria from Castilla and Leon) and notch Peaks of Europe to the West (beyond which lies the region of Asturias). It is not surprising, therefore, that the name of Cantabria, believed to be derived from the Celtic words cant (stone) and abr (region).

In addition to the green landscapes of Cantabria is also known for its cultural heritage, in particular, caves with rock paintings in the region the world’s highest concentration of drawings of the Paleolithic age inscribed on the world Heritage list.

Despite its very modest size and minimal fame in the wine world, there is a wide range of wines from both the local and international grape varieties, the main of which is red picotendro (Picotendro) is a local variety of Nebbiolo.

Aosta is definitely under the influence of its neighbors. Here French is officially the second language, and French grape varieties are not less than the Italian. Chardonnay and Gamay growing alongside Nebbiolo and Dolcetto.

In addition to the usual varieties, Regional Institute of Agriculture (Institut Agricole Régional) made up the list of local aborigines, some of which are suitable for the production of varietal wines, some – only in the composition of blends.

Petit Rouge (Petit Rouge) – the most important native after the above-mentioned picotendro. In addition to these common fumin (Fumin) and Vienne de Nude (Vien de Nus), giving a confident, spicy red wines.

White wine with a fruity bouquet are produced in dry and sweet versions of the varieties prie Blanc (Prié Blanc), Moscato Bianco (Moscato Bianco) and Pinot Grigio (Pinot Grigio).

Approximately one third of all wines of the Aosta Valley, produces several cooperative wineries, consisting of about 450 growers-members. Less than a quarter of total production is presented wines of the DOC category, and a large part sold in the region.

While in Valle d’aosta there is no appellation to DOCG, this does not mean that there is no high quality wine. Whimsical interweaving of varieties, terroirs and cultural features creates an interesting picture of the local wine.

The skeleton of the region are nesting in Granska narrow valley of the Alps, stretching South-East from the heights of Mont Blanc to the borders of Piedmont. Its winemaking zone is located between Morgex and La Salle du (Morgex et de la Salle, whose vineyards are among the highest in Europe) and the Donnas (Donnas).

It’s only about 70 km in length. This segment is located and the city of Aosta, and other sub-zones DOC: Quarters d Arvieux (d’enfer Arvier), Torrette (Torrette), Nude (Nus), Chamba (Chambave) and Arnad-Montjovet (Arnad-Montjovet).

Most of the vineyards of the Aosta broken on the steep southern slopes above the river Dora Baltea (Dora Baltea) – tributary of the Po river (Po). Dramatic topography and narrowing the area of the valley is left not so many places suitable for planting vines. A substantial part of the bed of the valley is rich in minerals and moisture in the soil is simply too fertile for technical viticulture and the production of good wine. Therefore, the majority of the best vineyards planted on the slopes and climb on them to altitudes of about 1,300 meters above sea level.

The climate of the Aosta Valley, not quite typical for the Alpine wine zones. The fact that it falls in the so-called region rain shadow created by the Western Alps, which is why the summers are warm and dry.

However, the night temperature here is much lower than the daytime. So much that it creates problems. For their solution, the growers use a variety of techniques, including the use of pergolas, allowing you to evenly distribute the heat from the earth to the vine to watch the night cold.

You can see that broken on the terraced vineyards of Valle d’aosta significantly fragmented. This facilitates access to them during harvest. And do terraces help to prevent soil erosion.

A thin layer of local soil has alluvial and colluvial nature and creates a difficult environment for the survival of the vines. This environment is known to be very contributes to the birth of a very high quality berries with a high concentration of flavoring substances.

Molise has almost no own reputation among the wines of Italy. Although local winemaking dates back to a period older than 500 years BC, any independent meaning it began to acquire only in the second half of the last century, until then being overshadowed by its neighbor Abruzzo, of which Molise was until 1963 (Abruzzi e Molise).

In 1980, Molise has created its own appellations: Biferno (DOC Biferno) and Pentro di Isernia (DOC Pentro di Isernia), in 1998 they added a wider Molise (Molise DOC), and in 2011 another specialty – Tintilla del Molise (DOC Tintilia del Molise).

The wine Biferno produced in the province of Campobasso (Campobasso) in white, red and pink versions. The white blend consists predominantly of Trebbiano Toscano with a small addition of varieties of bombino (Bombino). Red rely mostly Montepulciano, with a small proportion of Aglianico and Trebbiano Toscano bit.

Pentro di Isernia also comes in all primary colors. But the red ones here are bland Montepulciano and Sangiovese.

If you compare these wines with each other, Biferno in the power of terroir differences is a less acidic and more full-bodied.

Introduced in 1998, DOC Molise included the entire region, and not its individual parts, as the previous appellations, and the allowed range of styles was complemented by sparkling and sweet wines. The main varieties for this appellation became Aglianico, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, falanghina, Montepulciano and the autochthonous variety of the region – tintilla.

30 years after the first appellation of the region, namely tintilla became a contender for the flagship variety of the region receiving its own category in the form of Tintilia del Molise DOC in 2011. These red and rose wines it needs to be at least 95% of the bottle contents.

The vineyard area of Molise is approximately 9500 hectares, and the volume of production of wine of about 400’000 HL per year. However, despite the modest size of the region, its topography is very diverse. The vineyards on the slopes benefit from a great exposure, where the berries can successfully ripen, basking in the sun bath.

The greatest number of vines is concentrated on the southern hills and valleys surrounded by the ridges of the Matese (Matese) and Maynarde (Mainarde). The combination of calcium and moraine soils, situated between the Apennines and the Adriatic, a variety of mesoclimates, all provide Molise good conditions and prospects for technical viticulture and the production of interesting quality wines.

Only in Liguria under the vineyards employs 6000 hectares, of which only about 500 belong to the category DOC. Production capacity is 280’000 hectoliters per year, of which 75% is white wine and about 13’000 hectoliters – DOC category. C such parameters Liguria occupies the penultimate place in terms of wine production among all regions of Italy.

The climate of Liguria to the Mediterranean, the soil is mostly poor and rocky. The landscape is dominated by hills, at the shore to take a view of the rocks, diving steeply into the sea. This topography creates obvious difficulties for viticulture. Most vineyards are scattered around the little bit of available sections, and in some cases to get to them will only be able to swim, and processing is possible only manually.

Further from shore, the situation is slightly better: the slopes are slightly less steep, but the vines are still huddled tight clusters on the patch, suitable for cultivation. And viticulture in addition to wine, plays a crucial role in preventing soil erosion and landslides.

Despite such harsh conditions, the vines are cultivated here for over 25 centuries, ever since you were brought here by the Etruscans and Greeks. Later, under the Romans, on the Eastern edge of the region formed the famous area of the Cinque Terre (literally “five lands”), which is now the appellation (Cinque Terre DOC).

Most Ligurian wines is a product of small (as we would say “crafting”) wineries, who have to cultivate the grapes on the steep rocky terraces. But this arrangement of vines, besides the terrible inconvenience, but it has a significant bonus: the seaside cliffs protect the grapes from the very cold winds blowing from the Alps. The high limestone content in the soils is particularly advantageous when producing white wines because it gives them the coveted “mineral” character.

Unfortunately, to find a wine from Liguria is almost as difficult as a place in the vineyard to produce it. Very few local wines are leaving Italy.

Varieties

In Liguria cultivated hundreds of varieties of grapes, but it is famous mainly white wines from Vermentino, known here under the name of pigato (Pigato) – for the rusty color spots (pighe) that is covered with ripe berry in this class.

For a long time there were debates, whether it is a single variety or yet different. Recent DNA tests prove their identity. Anyway, Ligurian white wine from the Pigato has a variety of flavors inherent in Liguria: salt sea and mountain conifers from the previously mentioned “minerality”.

The most famous Reds of the region made from varieties of Rossese (Rossese), giving a subtle fruity, slightly spicy wine, and ormeasco (Ormeasco), known as Piedmont, Dolcetto (Dolcetto).

The appellations

In the past there was only one DOC Rossese di Dolceacqua (Rossese di Dolceacqua), producing a soft, fragrant red wines. Now the number has reached eight DOCов.

The Colline di Levanto (Colline di Levanto DOC) in white version similar to wine Cinque Terre DOC, but with a more long-lasting bouquet. Red version (rosso) this appellation is based on Sangiovese (Sangiovese) and chiledzholo (Ciliegiolo).

Golfo del Tigullio (Golfo del Tigullio), whose territory is located between Genoa and La Spezia, received the DOC status in 1997. Almost unknown appellation produces excellent wine such as passito (from dried grapes) and varieties of pure Ligurian origin, such as bianchetta Genovese (Bianchetta Genovese).

Colli di luni (Colli di Luni) – the PDO, whose name translates as “moon hills”, produces red and white wines, the style and varietal which is a cross between a typical Liguria and Tuscany.

Val Polcevera (Val Polcevera) – the valley of the river Polcevera to be awarded recognition as an appellation in 1999. Produces a very wide range of styles: quiet white, red and pink, sparkling Spumante and frizzante, sweet passito style (passito).

Ormeasco di Pornassio (Ormeasco di Pornassio), as the name suggests, is devoted to the variety of ormeasco. So in Liguria is the name of the variety Dolcetto, known to us by the wines of Piedmont. However, the embodiment of the Ligurian variety is markedly different from the Piedmontese samples: tannins are smoother, the colors more vivid, and more perfumed bouquet.

Riviera Ligure di Ponente (Riviera di Ponente Ligure) is the last in this list but not on the value of the appellation is the largest in Liguria. Known white wines from pigato (Vermentino) and red from ormeasco and Rossese. In this DOCе selected sub-zones, specializing in each of these varieties.

We should note Ligurian autochthonous lumassina (Lumassina), he bozzetto (Buzzetto). This fair-skinned aborigines make still and sparkling wines and medium-bodied with a lively citrus bouquet with notes of yellow apples and stone fruit. The name lumassina is derived from lumachina, ie snail. This is why labels with this wine, sometimes decorated with images of these lovely creatures.