8225 N.E. 187th Way
Kenmore, WA
98028
1-888-49-PRIME
For The Love of Wine!
Welcome! You have
just arrived at a part of Northwest Exclusive that is here for pure fun! Okay,
okay, you might learn something, too. But that's a good thing, right?. I'm the
Wine Guy here
at NWE, and I'll be relating some of my experiences with wine and winemakers -
especially from the Pacific Northwest.
Visit my blog to read about these.
Wine Q & A
If you have comments, or a question you'd like to ask, please fire
off an email to me at: . I can't promise a personal response to every
email, but I'll sure try. Questions that I think would be interesting to others
will be posted here. (I won't use your full name, nor your email on the
site.)
Q - What should I know about going to a
winery tasting room?
Q - Can you explain AVAs?
Q - I noticed from your bio that you have a rather large
collection of wine in your cellar. What's the best way to build and maintain a
wine cellar?
Q - What should I know about going to a winery tasting room?
A - Good Question! It seems that as popular as 'going on a wine tour' has become - as much a social event as serious interest in learning about the wines -- there are more and more folks out there who don't know what to expect. It's a good thing that there are more people who are interested in wine. But we hope that they're not just looking for an inexpensive party!
There are only a few simple things to remember:
--
Please don't wear fragrances! Critical to being able to taste
wine is the sense of smell. If you wear perfume, it makes it hard for you
and for everyone around you to taste the nuances in the wine.
So, if you must, dab a little chardonnay behind the ears! Otherwise, go
"fragrance-naked"!
-- Be courteous - to your hosts at
the winery, and to others in the tasting room. Step up to the tasting bar, ask
your questions, get your sample, then move away from the bar to let others in.
-- Use the dump bucket. All tasting
rooms have one. If you don't care for the wine, pour the remainder from your
glass into the bucket. It is perfectly acceptable to taste (swirl, smell, sip,
and swish) and then spit the wine into the bucket. By doing so, you don't
consume much alcohol, so your tasting faculties will be sharper for the entire
day, and you won't get drunk and obnoxious! Don't feel awkward about
spitting!
-- Be prepared to buy. Wineries offer
tastes of their wines so that you can sample their wares before you purchase.
They are not there simply to dispense free wine to all who come in! Let's not
take advantage of their generosity.
Now, this doesn't mean you must
buy everywhere you go, but, if you have enjoyed the company, had your questions
answered politely, and you enjoy the wine, it doesn't hurt to buy a bottle or
two, or a case!
Q - Can you explain AVAs?
An American Viticultural Area (AVA) is a delimited
grape-growing region that can be geographically described. It is officially
defined by the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Wineries or others
can petition to the Bureau for an AVA. It is similar to an appelation.
To be labelled with an AVA, a wine must contain a certain percentage of
grapes from that AVA. The percentage varies from state to state. The US
government requires 85%.
In Europe and other countries, appellations
often designate more than simply a geographical designation. Sometimes
appellations include the type of grapes to be grown, the method of winemaking
that must be followed, such as aging time, grape growing yield, etc. The
petitioner for an AVA can designate these criteria, too, if desired.
More information can be found at
http://www.ttb.gov/appellation/index.shtml.
Q - I noticed from your bio that you have a rather large collection of wine in your cellar. What's the best way to build and maintain a wine cellar?
A - This is a question that could take a lot of writing. We'll just focus on a few key points:
- How much wine? - You should decide
how much wine you want to collect. We chose to build a "ten-year cellar",
hoping that we would have enough wine eventually to be able to drink wines that
were aged in our cellar between 5 and 10 years. Mainly, that was because many
big reds can survive that long or longer, and those wines are either
unavailable or too expensive for us to buy when they are that old.
We've learned that we have to be careful, though, because there are many that won't survive that long. So, our big cabs, zins and syrahs, as well as some Bordeaux style blends may do just fine. But Merlots and others often don't make it that long. Also, more and more winemakers are styling their wines to be drank much sooner -- like tonight! And, of course, whites will usually only live a few years at best -- except for a few Chardonnays (Pouilly Fuisse, if you're doing French wines), that may live for 4 to 8 years.
Since we typically drink an average of a bottle a day, you might think that a ten year cellar would have around 3,600 bottles! Whoa!! Our cellar is mainly for special wines. We can't afford to drink premium wines every day. So we look for decent everyday wines that we can bring home for everyday, and they don't necessarily go into the cellar. But we figured if we could have about 100 better bottles per year to keep and share with friends, then that would be plenty.
- Acquiring the wine - Rule of thumb:
You have to buy twice as much wine as you drink - - until you have your cellar
plan complete. Then, you can just buy to replace what you drink. A good friend
told us once, "If you're buying wine, and it didn't hurt, you didn't buy
enough!"
We try always to buy a minimum of 3 bottles of every wine we purchase. If we can afford it, and we like the wine well enough, we'll buy by the case. That way, we can open a bottle a year or two before the time when we PLANNED for it to be at it's peak. Then we adjust our plan according to how it tasted. Make notes, and then open another bottle accordingly, until your tasting tells you it is at its peak. Then you can open the rest over the coming few months. If you only buy one or two bottles, you may open them at the wrong time, and you don't have any left to enjoy when it IS at its peak.
Buying by the case -- even a mixed case -- usually affords you a decent discount, too.
- Storing the wine - Sadly, we don't
all have caves on our property that are set up for an ideal wine cellar. The
key things to think about are: temperature, humidity and light. Perfect would
be 50° to 65° F, 60%, and dark, respectively. So, if you have a
basement where those ranges are common, you're fortunate.
Our cellar is in the basement, which is pretty good. Two sides of the basement are against the earth, and the other two are concrete - no windows. In Yakima, we have extreme temperature swings over the year. Outside temps range from near zero in winter to a bit over 100° in summer. At times our cellar may dip to 45° or creep up to about 65°. But the important thing is that those temperature swings happen slowly - - over a few months. And the extremes don't last long.
Of course, if your budget allows, you can install equipment to maintain temperatures and humidity. But most of us don't have that luxury. It's best to find a room you can dedicate to the wine. Keep it cool and dark, and you'll likely be fine. There are wine refrigerators on the market that do an excellent job. But they are expensive, and each unit only holds a handful of cases. For that reason, we think they're a little silly. Unless, of course, you choose to have a cellar of only a hundred bottles or so.
So, building a cellar can be a simple as picking up a few cases to keep for a year or two, and putting them in a downstairs closet. Or, you can go a little crazy, like we did, and spend ten years building a collection. Have fun! We wish you well!