A Gentlemen's Guide to Wine

A Gentleman’s Guide to Wine

STORY BY LIESEL SCHMIDT

There’s a certain something about wine that seems to evoke sophistication, an attitude of refinement and occasion that somehow doesn’t come with beer. I mean, really, can you imagine sitting with a glass of beer, swirling it around, sniffing it, sipping it and letting its complexities open and reveal themselves on your tongue? Probably not. No one ever talks about the bouquet of beer or its terroir. There’s a reason for that. There’s a reason you never, ever shotgun wine the way you do beer…Consider this your education on all the whys and ways of wine, just told to you in a manner that is a little more accessible and understandable. Whether you use all this newly gained power to you make yourself sound pretentious later on is all you, dude. But we seriously don’t recommend it. In the words of Sonoma Cellar's Rick Myllenbeck, "Just be confident."

CHECK OUT THAT BODY…

Nope, not that body. The body on wine, fool. Body is essentially how dense or thick it feels on your tongue. References to a wine’s body include the terms “light,” “medium,” and “full,” or, to put it in a simpler analogy, the way skim milk, whole milk, and heavy cream feels in your mouth. You can tell the difference, just as your tongue can detect the difference between light-, medium- or full-bodied red wines. White wines are a little trickier but are still divided into the three body types. Interestingly enough, body also usually corresponds to alcohol content, so the higher the percentage of alcohol-by-volume (ABV), the fuller bodied the wine.

THE DIRTY (HALF) DOZEN

Do your research, and you’ll find that winemakers around the world use dozens of different grape types to make their wines. But when you get down to it, there are a mere six types of grapes used more than any others. (And yes, these are also the names of varietals you’re so used to seeing..they’re named after the grapes.) Riesling- white grape, light body Sauvignon Blanc - white grape, medium body Chardonnay - white grape, full body Pinot Noir- red grape, light body Merlot- red grape, medium body Cabernet Sauvignon- red grape, full body Of course, some of these grapes can be made into lighter- or fuller-bodied wines, depending on the style of the winemaker. And while you’ll encounter many other grapes on wine lists and in shops (think the light body of white Pinot Grigio grapes or the medium to heavy body of red Malbec grapes), the six listed above are pretty much your foundation for every wine in the world.

INTERNATIONAL APPEAL

So here’s the scoop on the origins on that bottle of wine in your hand. Outside of Europe, most wines are identified by the type of grape used to make them. European wines, however, are classified by region as opposed to grape type. Two shining examples of this would be Bordeaux and Rioja— both wines, but named for their regions in France and Spain, respectively.

I LIKE YOUR TAN(NIN)…

“Tannin” is one of those words that makes you sound like you know what you’re talking about, so pay attention here. All wine contains tannin, as it is a substance derived from the skin of the grapes made to produce the wine. You can actually feel tannin when you take a sip, because tannin gives your mouth the feeling of being dried out. Which means that the more tannin a wine has, the more you’ll feel your saliva has gone AWOL when you’ve taken a sip. Generally, white wine contains far less tannin than red wine; and tannin is more noticeable in fuller-bodied wines with a higher ABV.

GET YOUR SWIRL ON

All that swirling people do with the wine in their glass before taking a sip isn’t just to make them look…well, ridiculous. Swirling actually has a purpose: releasing the wine’s aroma, which is where a lot of the flavor in wine comes from. To swirl the wine properly, hold your wineglass by the stem between your index finger and thumb and imagine drawing small circles with it. Mythbuster: Wine’s “legs”—the streaks of liquid left on the inside of the glass after you swirl— have no correlation to the wine’s quality or its taste.

JUST BREATHE

Opening a bottle of wine allows oxygen into the bottle, which changes how the wine tastes. This is “decanting” the wine, or letting it breathe. Full-bodied red wines should be allowed time to breathe—anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours—to improve their flavor. In fact, if wine tastes a little too sharp or edgy after being opened, let it sit for a couple minutes. The taste may improve. Note, however, that white wines don’t need time to breathe.

BETTER VINTAGE

“Vintage” is a term referring to the year wine was bottled. Once upon a time, older wines might have been superior to those of a more recent vintage because of the aging process, but winemakers are now mass-producing wines with methods that ensure quality and taste right when they’re released.

THE GENTLEMEN'S ISSUE 2022 • 65 Just Be Confident.