Last week I completed my first unit in the WSET 2 (Wine & Spirit Education Trust Level 2) program. This week covered a lot of fundamentals like how wine is made, how to properly store and serve wine, and how to use the Systematic Approach to Tasting (SAT) to correctly identify the qualities of a wine. The lessons also covered some fundamentals of food and wine pairing, which is something I love to play around with.

I’ve talked about food and wine pairings before on my blog: be sure you read “3 Unique Oregon Wines You Must Try This Summer”, “Bubbles and Bites: 4 Techniques for Sparkling Wine Pairings”, and “Say Cheese! 5 Wine and Cheese Pairings” if you haven’t already! My WSET class this week gave me another wine and food pairing tidbit that I thought I would add to the blog for anyone looking to experiment with pairings.

Often times, we try to match specific flavors in both a meal and a wine in order to form a perfect pairing. For example, pairing a fresh citrus salad with an acid-driven, citrusy wine. This isn’t a bad way to form a pairing, but there is another marker you can use to determine which wines might best match a meal: body!

If you remember from my Dictionary for an Amateur Wine Lover post, body refers to the overall weight and texture of a wine. Some people use milk to help explain what body is. For example, consider the coating left in your mouth after a sip of whole milk versus skim milk. If a wine leaves behind a thick coating like whole milk does, that is considered a full-bodied wine. If the coating in your mouth dissipates quickly and feels thinner after a sip of wine, that is a light-bodied wine.

The structural components of wine (sugar, acidity, tannin, and alcohol) all work together to contribute to the body of the wine. Sugar and alcohol increase the body in the wine, while high levels of acidity make the wine feel lighter in body. High levels of ripe tannin lead to a fuller-bodied wine, but the presence of unripe tannin (which would feel particularly harsh in your mouth) can make a wine feel “thinner”, and therefore lighter in body.

So, how do you use body to determine wine and food pairings?

First, think about the meal you plan to have. Is it a thick, fatty steak with rich flavors that will coat your mouth? That’s an opportunity to pair a full-bodied red wine with your meal, like a peppery Syrah or full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon. Are you having a lighter meal like seafood or a salad where the flavors tend to dissipate quickly after a bite? Then a lighter-bodied red or white wine might do the trick, such as a Gamay or Sauvignon Blanc.

You can work backwards with your wine pairings, too. If you know that you want to enjoy a full-bodied Petit Syrah with your meal, look for a rich dish to pair it with like lamb chops. If you have your heart set on a light-bodied, acid-driven white like a Gruner Veltliner, try it with a slightly spicy poke bowl (this is one of my all-time favorite pairings!).

There are a few fundamental rules with wine and food pairing, but the most important thing to remember is that is all comes down to your preference. No two palates are the same, and if it tastes good to you, that’s all that matters!

Have any food/wine pairing questions? Let me know in the comments below! If you enjoyed this post, please share on social media!

I hear all the time that wine is “intimidating”. People know they like wine, but don’t understand the complexities behind the “tasting notes” and “aromas”. Essentially, they don’t understand how to enjoy the fully sensory experience of wine. Instead, they prefer to choose a wine based on a familiar varietal or price point, and that’s okay!

On the other end of the spectrum, sommeliers use fancy words like “terroir”, “minerality”, and “viscosity” to describe wine, without much of an explanation for what those wine terms really mean. Wine scholars and somms often spend years of their lives training their taste buds to recognize these components of wine, making any understanding of the matter feel out of reach to the amateur wine lover.

Then, there is the population of wine drinkers that I think lie somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. These are the individuals who care about what is in their glass beyond just a label. They may be interested to know what region it came from, the general flavor profile, or maybe some pairing suggestions for how to serve the wine with food.

There are tons of in-depth resources out there that will dig into any one of these topics. I’ve delved into a few of them myself over the years to learn more, but not everyone has the time or interest in doing that. So, I thought I would take some time to pull together 10 wine terms for the amateur wine lover. Knowing these 10 definitions will help in your own understanding of wine, and will make you seem like a pro the next time you whip one out at a dinner party!

Dictionary for the Amateur Wine Lover

AVA

Stands for American Viticultural Area, and is the formal way of recognizing wine-growing areas in the United States. There can be several AVAs hosted within one region (see definition below). Napa Valley alone has 16 AVAs! Many wine labels will showcase their AVA and/or region so the consumer knows exactly where the grapes were grown.

Body

You’ll often hear people talk elusively about full-bodied wines and light-bodied wines and everything in between. Really what they’re getting at is the “texture” of the wine, which is sort of difficult to comprehend since all wine is liquid…but bear with me for a minute. Certain wines, like Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfindel will often leave your mouth fully coated with wine after only a sip or two. It seems to linger there, clinging to your taste buds and cheeks. That’s a sign of a full-bodied wine. On the other hand, a lighter bodied red wine like Pinot Noir can be just as flavorful and enjoyable, but doesn’t feel quite as “thick” as you drink it. That’s a sign of a lighter-bodied wine. Start paying attention to the texture of the wine as you drink it, and you’ll soon be able to start differentiating where each wine stands on the spectrum of “body”!

Legs

Picture it: you do a fancy swirl of the wine in your glass like you see on TV…it goes around and around and once you stop, the wine slowly runs down the inside of your glass back into a steady pool. If you’re using a clean glass, you may see what looks to be little clear “runs” of wine on the inside of your glass, similar to a run of paint. Those are called legs! The thicker and slower the legs in your glass, the higher the percentage of alcohol in your wine. Try to spot the legs next time you drink a Cab Sauv, Zinfindel, or Syrah. These fuller-bodied, higher alcohol wines often have great legs on your glass.

Minerality

I’ll admit, this is another elusive wine term advertised in tastings, but very few wine drinkers understand (or know how to define) minerality. I’ll at least share how I’ve come to understand it over the years. The minerality of wine can be both a flavor and a sensation in a wine. It points to flavors that come from the soil and are absorbed by the grape. In other words, flavors that we are not used to experiencing (unless you tend to eat dirt…and then we should probably talk). Minerality can present as anything from savory and earthy while the wine is in your mouth, to a vaguely metallic aftertaste once you swallow the sip. Next time you’re wine tasting and can’t seem to identify the flavor, consider whether you might actually be experiencing the minerality of the wine!

Oaky

I’m sure we’ve all heard a wine described as “oaky”. It is often used as a prefix to the word “Chardonnay”. Wine tends to showcase flavors of oak wood (hence the “oaky” description) when it is aged for a period of time in oak barrels. There are all sorts of techniques for barrel aging, and the number of times the barrel has been used for aging wine will ultimately impact the amount of oak flavor that the wine adopts. Some people love an oaky wine, while others prefer the more subtle benefits of barrel aging (one of them is neutralizing tannins). Wine makers get creative with their barrel aging process by subtly manipulating the flavor of their wine with the wood. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of barrel aging wine, many big wine producers will now take a shortcut in their wine making process and will instead add oak wood chips to large quantities of wine in order to achieve an oaky flavor, rather than relying on the barrel aging process to do the work.

Region

Wine regions are geographically oriented. However, they are not always tied to state or country borders. Some wine regions transcend borders, such as the Alsace region that spans parts of both France and Germany. Within wine regions, there are often several AVAs. Read your next wine label to see if you can use the regional or AVA designation to understand exactly where your wine is coming from.

Tannin

Have you ever taken a sip of red wine and been left with a bitter, almost gritty texture in your mouth? That’s because of tannins! Tannins come from the skin of a grape and can add a lot of structure and flavor to a wine. They are most commonly found in full-bodied red wines, although some lighter-bodied reds can showcase tannic qualities as well. Some people appreciate tannins, while others prefer something smoother. I personally see tannins as an acquired taste. Aeration can help soften the tannins of a wine if that’s your preference, so consider investing in a decanter or mini aerator for that purpose.

Terroir

Refers to the unique flavor of the wine as a result of its unique location and growing environment. This includes things such as soil type, elevation, and overall climate. Theoretically, a genetically identical grapevine grown in two separate parts of the world, in different soils, with different climates, would have different flavors as a result of those combined factors. This is why a Cab from California tastes so different than a Cab from France. Expert wine tasters can identify a type of wine or the region it comes from based on terroir alone.

Varietal

The type of grape that makes the wine. Examples include Chardonnay, Merlot, Syrah or Grenache. Some varietals have different names in different countries (e.g Syrah in North America vs. Shiraz in Australia and New Zealand). Wines labeled as a “blend” contain several different varietals mixed together. Wines labeled as a single varietal can still have more than one type of grape in the blend, but have to abide by regulations dictating what percentage of the wine must be the single varietal on the label (in the United States, a wine only needs to contain 80% of a varietal in order to have that on the label).

Vintage

Vintage refers to the year that the grapes were harvested. There is usually a 1-2 year delay between the harvest date and when the bottle is ready to be sold. Depending on the climate during the growing season, vintages of the same wine can taste drastically different from year to year. Wine also continues to age while in the bottle, which is why older vintages (10+ years) tend to have more of a tawny color to them. The flavor of some wines improve as they age, while others are best enjoyed young.

There you have it—10 wine terms the help you take your wine knowledge to the next level. Want to see more definitions like these? Let me know what wine terms puzzle you in the comments below!

Images of stocked wine cellars in basements and fancy restaurant wine lists give the impression that there is some sort of rule for knowing when to age a bottle and for how long to age it. But here’s the catch: only an estimated 1% of wines in the world are actually meant to be aged!

Wine can feel like a daunting subject, especially if you’re just a casual wine-drinker. Terms like “notes”, “terroir”, and “aging”, give the impression that it’s a Somm’s world and you’re just living in it. I believe that everyone should feel comfortable navigating this world of wine, regardless of your level of experience. I’m on a mission to demystify some of the wine world’s greatest presumptions and provide an easy-to-understand explanation for the “why’s” behind them.

First up: when and why to age your wine!

When to age a bottle:

Most wines sold in America, and especially those that you can buy at your local grocery store, are not meant to be aged. A general rule of thumb is that if the bottle costs less the $30.00, don’t bother aging it. If you choose to store a cheaper bottle of wine for an extended period of time, it should probably still be consumed within a couple years of purchasing.

If a wine is particularly tannic (reminder: tannins are those weird things that make your tongue feel sandpapery after drinking a red wine), aging the wine may help reduce that sensation and smooth out the wine overall. Once a bottle is opened, it obviously cannot be aged (please don’t try to do that). But, if you buy a second bottle, leave it for a year or two to see if it goes down a little smoother the next time.

If you find yourself in wine country, don’t hesitate to ask the winemaker or tasting room staff about their perspectives on aging their wines. Some winemakers will release recommended aging periods for their wines, which can be found on tasting room menus or online. Other times they may tell you to “drink now”, meaning the wine is tasting as good as they think it will ever be. Regardless, winery staff are the experts in their wines and will be able to point you in the right direction in terms of aging.

Why to age your wine:

Wine is a living thing. That means that as it ages, chemical reactions are taking place inside the bottle that affect the flavor, aroma, and color of the wine. This is one of the reasons I think wine is so special…it continues to evolve over time, but is always influenced by the initial growing season and fermentation process.

Essentially, choosing to age your wine means you are choosing to allow more nuanced flavors and aromas to take shape inside the bottle. Over time, the bolder flavors and structured tannins mellow out, which allows the flavor profile of the wine to shift. An aged wine will typically be smoother as you drink it.

You’ll notice some significant color differences in aged wines, but that doesn’t mean the wine has gone “bad”. Red wines will show a more leathery, tawny color. White wines will show a rich golden hue. Additional sediment may also pour into your glass, which is a result of the chemical reactions in the bottle. Again, this doesn’t mean the wine is bad! Simply decant the wine or leave the bottle upright for a day to allow the sediment to settle.

In short, aging your wine allows for a different tasting experience that what you would initially have if you opened the bottle right away. Pay attention to the sensory differences in taste, smell, sight, and mouthfeel as you enjoy an aged wine. It’s truly a special experience to try a wine that has matured in the bottle.

Tips for the Average Wine Lover

• If your bottle costs less than $30.00, or was purchased at your local grocery store, you probably don’t want to age it. If the bottle costs more than $30.00, is a particularly special vintage, or tasted a bit astringent or tannic when you first tried it, you may want to consider aging it (but that doesn’t mean you have to).
• If you choose to age your wines, make sure they are being stored at the correct temperature. Red wines should still be stored slightly chilled (around 55 degrees Fahrenheit is typically what is recommended). Allow red wines to come to the correct temperature before serving.
• It can be hard to remember how long you are supposed to age a bottle of wine, especially if you have several aging at the same time. Grab a metallic sharpie and write the year that you are supposed to open the bottle on the bottom of it. That way you have a simple, at-a-glance reminder of how long the bottle has been aging!
• If in doubt, ask your winemaker their opinion on aging their wines. Some may indicate that aging for just a few years would be beneficial. Others may say that a decade or more will do wonders!
• Last, and perhaps most important, don’t assume your wine has gone bad if it looks, smells, or tastes different than what you expect! Aged wine is a different beast. Regardless of the look of the wine, it is fine to drink as long as it tastes good (it should not taste musty or vinegary).

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If pictures are worth a thousand words, then this photo should tell you all about the beauty of the Alloro Vineyard 2018 Riesling.

Far too often, people associate the Riesling varietal with syrupy-sweet wines. While some Rieslings do run on the sweet side, there is so much more to the grape than that stereotype. The Alloro Vineyard 2018 Riesling, which hales from Oregon’s Willamette Valley, is a perfect example of what a Riesling can be: complex, acid-driven, distinctly flavored, and properly balanced.

The Alloro Vineyard Riesling is fermented in stainless steel, which creates a crisp, clean flavor on the palate. It is left with 1.4% residual sugar, giving it a touch of sweet in every sip. The Alloro Riesling’s most distinct flavor (in my opinion) is that of bright lime juice and lime zest, which balances the touch of sweetness perfectly. Floral aromas compliment these flavors, giving the wine complexity of both smell and taste. I would describe this wine as bright, zingy, full-bodied, and nuanced. Flavors and aromas dance around your palate with every sip, leaving you wanting more!

I decided I was going to pair my Alloro Vineyard Riesling with dinner this week.

The flavor of this wine begs to be complimented by citrus and spice, so I settled on a Thai-inspired dish of kebobs with grilled lime and a spicy peanut sauce. The juicy grilled lime paired perfectly with the tart qualities of the wine, while the creamy, spicy, and slightly sweet peanut sauce created a well-rounded flavor that enhanced the Riesling’s structure. The spice in the dish complimented the acid and subtle sweetness of the Riesling perfectly.

Alloro’s Riesling grape is grown on-site at their property in Sherwood, Oregon.

Alloro Vineyard falls in the Chehalem Mountains AVA, and sits upon loess topsoil with decomposed basalt underneath. The vineyard is completely dry farmed, meaning there is no added irrigation during the growing season. The vineyard is largely left to its own devices, and therefore the wine in each bottle is a representation of the vineyard’s terrior: the climate, topography, soil, and other natural factors that contribute to the distinct flavors of the grapes.

A core value of Alloro Vineyard is sustainability, and it goes far beyond their wines.

Vineyard Manager and Proprieter David Nemarnik uses his passion for agriculture and experience in the produce business to create an environment at Alloro that is self-sustaining and mutually beneficial for both the land and Alloro’s consumers. In fact, Alloro Vineyard is LIVE Certified, Salmon-Safe Certified, and seeks to employ practices that enhance biodiversity. This is a perfect example of how sustainable living goes beyond your day-to-day practices or food sourcing…it applies to your wine sourcing, too!

All in all, Alloro Vineyard is producing outstanding wines on their Willamette Valley property. Stock up on the 2018 Riesling before it’s gone. It’s a bottle of pure magic!

Details:

$30.00/bottle and can be ordered online!

12.0% ABV

100% Stainless Steel Fermentation

1.4% Residual Sugar

Chehalem Mountains AVA

Interested in learning more about the Willamette Valley? Check out my other blog posts about my visit to the area!

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