Wine 101: Tasting and Appreciating

There is culture in wine. It can be found in the ritual of drinking it, appreciating the craft of the winemaker, and in the wine's stimulation to our taste buds. So now, why don’t we cover the basics of wine…What I like to call Wine 101.

When we drink wine, our taste buds are stimulated in a unique way and the alcohol has a calming effect on the brain. When we taste we experience four senses: sweetness, saltiness, acidity and bitterness. The acidity and sweetness in wine are the two factors that balance together to produce a pleasant sensation on our sense of taste. We taste the acidity with the middle of the tongue and sweetness with the tip of the tongue.

Wines high in acidity taste harsh, those with insufficient acidity taste dull and their flavor does not linger in the mouth long enough. So the million dollar question is: What are tannins? You’ve heard it…you’ve been explained it…you thought you understood it…but you’re still not quite sure you got it. Tannins contribute to the relationship of bitterness on the tongue. If you've ever chewed into grape seeds, then you've tasted the dry bitterness of tannin. Wine with too much tannin is unpleasantly bitter. The right level of tannin has an effect of bringing all the flavors together with a great balance in the mouth. The various fruit-like flavors detectable in wine contribute nuances to the sweetness we taste. It's fun trying to detect different fruit characteristics, such as berries, plums, apples, pears...Or the now infamous line from the movie Sideways: “Ohhh…hint of strawberries & umm I think a hint of asparagus”. Classic!

Other notable senses involved in appreciating wine are sight & smell. Our sight enjoys the color and our sense of smell enjoys the fragrances. Much of a wine's character is revealed only through the aroma it exudes. This adds richly to the dimensions found in wine.

Wine Grape Varieties
There are many species of grapes and this story could drag on to boredom if we tried to cover them all. So for your sake and mine, we’ll cover the most popular. Most of the world's wine is made from the Vitis vinifera family, of European origin. Wine grapes have various unique, signature characteristics. Check out the following varietal grapes:

Popular Red Varieties
 Cabernet Sauvignon
 Grenache
 Merlot
 Pinot Noir
 Sangiovese
 Syrah (Shiraz)
 Tempranillo
 Zinfandel

Popular White Varieties
 Chardonnay
 Gewürztraminer
 Grüner Veltliner
 Pinot Blanc
 Riesling
 Sauvignon Blanc
 Semillon

How Wine is Made
Wine grapes grow easily in any temperate to warm climate. A solution of sugar and water develops in ripe grapes and the skins easily allow the growth of natural yeasts. In the fermentation process, these single cell organisms consume the natural sugar and change it into ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. This rather simple process has been observed and used for thousands of years in human culture. In the past hundred years or so, technology and new ideas from winemakers have played an ever-increasing role in the making of wine. It's becoming more and more a science and an art.

Here are the basic principles of winemaking. The grapes are either harvested by hand, as we do at Tobacco Road Cellars, or with mechanical harvesters. Exposure to air should be kept to a minimum at all stages of the process. Sometimes powdered sulfites are sprinkled on the grapes prior to crushing to prevent too much reaction with the air. The fermentation usually takes place in open vats. Several processes may be employed to give the wine clarity: fining and filtration for example. Shortly after fermentation has ended, the wine is transferred to a settling tank where filtration and other clarification techniques may be used.

The Differences Between Red Wine and White Winemaking
There are significant differences between red wine and white wine production. This is the main reason that Tobacco Road Cellars only produces limited production Red Wine. In order to maintain the highest quality wine we need to focus our time and energy on “trying”…key word here…”trying” to perfect our Pinot Noir, Syrah and Cabernet. Basically, red wine is the outcome of crushed, fermented grapes. White wine is the outcome of fermented grape juice (that is, no skins or meat of the fruit).

Red Wine
All grapes contain the same kind of green fruity-meat, but red grapes have red skins and in the winemaking process, there is a considerable amount of color, flavors and tannins that are imparted to the final product. After crushing, the red grapes, skins and all, sit in a fermentation vat for a period of time. Picture a huge plastic bin with a mixture of crushed grapes and juice with a layer of crushed wet skins on top. The skins tend to rise to the surface of the mixture, forming a layer on top. This top layer is frequently mixed back into the fermenting juice (called must). After fermentation has stopped, about one to two weeks later, the new wine is drawn from the vat. A bit of "free run" juice is allowed to pour and then the remaining must is squeezed, yielding "press wine". The wine is clarified and then transferred to oak aging barrels so that it may mature. When the winemaker considers the wine ready, it is transferred to bottles and labeled.

White Wine
Right after picking, white grapes are put into a crushing machine. In the process, the skins are separated from the juice, an important difference over the red wine process. Some adjustments are sometimes made to the acid or sugar levels at this stage (the addition of sugar is called "chaptalization"). The clarified juice is then ready for fermentation.

Yeast is then added to the juice for fermentation. Before long the white grape juice becomes white wine. At this point, some further tinkering is usually called for: filtering, and perhaps the addition of sweeter juice to round out the flavor. The wine is then aged by storing in oak or stainless steel containers, and after a few months, it is bottled.

Check out www.tobaccoroadcellars.com for more information in our “Winemaking” page and order our limited production rare wines.

Welcome Tobacco Road's New Chief Winemaker

Tobacco Road Cellars would like to announce the newest member of our winemaking team, Michael Zitzlaff. Michael is the new General Manager and Chief Winemaker for Tobacco Road Cellars, overseeing all aspects of the production of our Sonoma Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara Syrah and Napa Valley Cabernet. Michael brings a stellar background and expertise to the team and we look forward to continuing to produce the highest quality wines at Tobacco Road. In 1986 Michael commenced a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Oenology at Australia’s famed Roseworthy Agricultural College graduating in December 1988. During this time Michael travelled to the University of Bordeaux in France to research his major paper on “The effect of pomace contact on wine quality of Cabernet Sauvignon” which was subsequently published in the Australian Grape Grower and Winemaker in April 1989. While at Roseworthy, Michael had full winemaking responsibility for his family’s winery; Oakridge Estate located in the Yarra Valley, one hour East of Melbourne.

In 1996 after successfully building the Oakridge wine brand nationally and internationally, Michael initiated and managed an IPO in Oakridge Vineyards Limited which successfully raised development capital to fund future growth whilst providing a new winery and cellar door facility on the central valley floor along the main tourist route of the region.

By the age of 35, Michael had been Chief Winemaker and Managing Director of Oakridge Estate Property Ltd and subsequently Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Winemaker of Oakridge Vineyards Limited. In 2001, Oakridge Vineyards Limited was purchased by a larger, West Australian based public wine company wishing to increase its market presence in Australia's ultra-premium Eastern markets. During his time as CEO and Chief Winemaker, Michael spent considerable time developing export markets throughout Europe, Asia and North America.

His wines have been recognised internationally receiving amongst others the “Warren Winiarski – Stag’s Leap Trophy” for “Best Cabernet Sauvignon of Show” and “The Wolf Blass Trophy” for “Best Australian Red Wine of Show” at the International Wine and Spirit Competition, London in 2000 and receiving the award for “Best New World Pinot Noir” at the International Wine Challenge in London, 2002.

In 2005 Michael worked for Pat Rooney and Marco DiGulio at Girard Winery in St Helena covering all aspects of crush management for the 2005 harvest. Michael is also Managing Director of Oenology Australia Pty Ltd his own personal consulting company specialising in winemaking technical advice and wine industry management for Australian and international clients.

The Seduction of Pinot Noir

No wine can seduce like Pinot Noir or Burgundy. Sure you can be overwhelmed by a rich full-bodied Cabernet or teased by a spicy nutty Syrah or even mesmerized by proprietary blend of Pinotage from South Africa. But none, at least in my experience, has Pinot’s sensuousness: the perfumed nose of red berries and violets, the ruby red colors, the silky body, the rich tastes of raspberry, strawberry, black cherry, and vanilla. And, if you’re lucky, a finish that makes you long for more.
Pinot Noir is the most complicated wine in terms of production and the resultant flavor. Though it is hard to imagine a Pinot Noir at lower prices, yet there are cheap Pinot Noirs. However, Pinot Noirs can be cheaper and taste like Pinot Noirs.
A really good wine is compelling, in large part, because it has a distinct personality. By "personality" I don’t mean an identifiable character trait or two. After all, almost every wine has a couple of qualities that can be used to describe it: strawberries and oaky, silky and smoky, or on a rare case tasting like burnt bacon. I hate it when that happens…unless it’s breakfast.
My own search for wines with personality usually brings me to the doorstep of Pinot Noir. Like countless other wine lovers, I have had my most exalted wine experiences with Pinot Noir such as with Kent Fortner’s Green Truck Cellars Pinot Noir, Lucia Vineyards and Melville.
The wine never lets you rest. The great ones are so delicious that you'll go through a dozen weasels hoping to capture the rapture again.
So what is it that makes great Pinot Noir so special, so charismatic, so full of personality?
Pinot Noir's sensuality is based on its smell, its taste, and its beguiling texture - the way it rests or dances or explodes against the taste buds. Unlike many types of wine, Pinot's physicality is obvious.
Part of the reason for Pinot’s seduction has to do with tannin - or more precisely, a lack thereof. Tannin is that component in a grape's skin and seeds that gives wine a structural backbone, makes it powerful, and, in the wine's youth anyway, can make it taste "tight" and ungenerous. Compared with Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, for example, Pinot Noir has very little tannin. And therein lies its natural suppleness.
Remarkably, Pinot Noir is also an intellectual's wine. Don’t run away scared…this doesn’t mean you have to be an intellectual to drink it, because I drink it often! The wine plays mind games better than any other varietal. You taste it, you think you've got a handle on it, and the next minute, 20 other smells and flavors show up in the glass. By the time you've finished the glass, you're convinced that there is still something else - something hopelessly impossible to describe - lurking just beyond knowing. So, what does every Pinot fan do? Open another bottle of course!

OK…So you ask yourself…”What’s the deal with Pinot and Burgundy?”

Pinot Noir is not easy to grow and, in fact, only makes good-to-great wine in a few places on earth. These regions are usually a little cool, overcast, and what viticulturists call "marginal." In other words, Pinot Noir, like an artist, needs to live life on the edge.
And what are those places? Above all, the Burgundy region of France, and then: Oregon and certain parts of California (notably the Russian River Valley and Amber Ridge Vineyard from which we source our Tobacco Road Pinot Noir.)
In France, Pinot Noir is the only grape that can be used to produce red Burgundy and it is often regarded as the canvas for displaying the region’s terroirs—the distinctive characteristics of the vineyards’ soils. In fact, it is the pride taken in terroir that accounts for Burgundy's complex classifications that require considerable time, study, and tasting to understand.
French Burgundies tend to be higher priced. Due to their rarity and popularity, many of the very good wines are around $60 a bottle; The "big name" wines can cost several hundred dollars a bottle. These are clearly not everynight dinner wines unless you’re Tobacco Road’s Co-Founder Dusty Field. (hahaha)
In the United States, excellent Pinot Noir is produced both in California and Oregon. However, do not confuse California Pinot Noir with California Burgundy. The latter is often a jug wine made from a blend of grapes that might not contain any Pinot Noir whatsoever. I would also hesitate to compare American Pinot Noir with French Burgundy, since the unique characteristics of terroir that manifest themselves in the French will never be found in the American. Nonetheless our Pinots can be magnificent, especially those from some of the leading producers such as Tobacco Road Cellars.