You have always heard that a key consideration in determining quality is length. The longer the flavours of the wine remain in your mouth after spitting or swallowing, the better.
Experience has taught me that a wine with long length does not necessarily make a wine better. It all depends on what flavours linger in your mouth? I have had wines which had undesirable bitter flavours lasting a long time. When evaluating quality, we have to look at the context in which the wine is being served. Is it to be drank by itself or with food? If by itself, then a long length is desirable but yet again there are exceptions.
The problem with a long length is that it makes the moment when you first taste the wine a pleasure. However, it can dilute the whole experience with the rest of the bottle. Flavour fatigue can set in and the next few remaining sips of the same wine may start to lose its appeal. Sometimes, a good wine is one in which you keep going back for more and more, like an addiction. Think of it as drinking very sweet apple juice and after a while, the juice tends to get flavourless. All you can taste is sugar and sourness. Or think bubblegum when after chewing for a while, the flavour disappears but in actual fact, it is still present in the gum. Too much of something can make it bad.
When eating food with wines, it is usually harder to appreciate the food as the backpalate flavours from the wine can come into conflict the flavours of the food. This is why I find a lot of wines that go well with food tend to wines from the low to mid-end price range. That is good news for most of us who can't afford to drink $50 bottle of wines daily. For example, a cheap bottle of highly acidic, Italain Pinot Grigio or Soave can suit flavourful dishes without overcoming the dish. Its acidity brings out more flavours just like squeezing a lemon on some dishes bring out flavour. If the acidic white wine had more flavour in the finish due to picking the grapes riper, fermenting them on skins or aging them in new barrels, those stronger flavours from the wine can still linger around and make each bite you take seem heavier due to a sensory overload.
Showing posts with label Quality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quality. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Sunday, April 8, 2012
What is a Wine of Quality?
Whenever broaching upon the subject of quality, I get questions on what is a good wine and what is a bad wine. It is a strange question because we don't usually have problems telling the difference between a good and a bad apple, or an overburnt steak vs a tender juicy piece. The concept is no different from drinking a fresh orange juice vs diluted orange juice.
Judging a wine in absolute terms is the same as setting your own standards of what a good human being is. I prefer to look at a wine in context apart from just basing quality on absolutes.
Are you serving it with food? Get a wine that is not intensely concentrated in flavour or it will overpower the food.
What environment are you drinking it in - hot or cold? Have a robust red in front of the fireplace or a chilled white while basking in the summer sun.
What time of the day is it? Something ligter in the morning perhaps to start the day and heavier in the night to put you to sleep?
Are you drinking it with friend or acquaintance? Open the nice stuff for your friends or if you want to be a crowd pleaser, go for the sweet stuff.
Yes, the absolutes are important - generosity of aroma and flavour; balance between acid, sweetness and tannins; complexity of flavours with layers upon layers; harmony of sensations instead of disjointedness; a long length with a desirable finish of acceptable flavours; no bitterness in the back of the tongue or sourness that makes the wine experience unbearable.
Building a concept of quality requires time, patience and lots of tasting. You find the best pasta by going to different restaurants and comparing your present experience with the last. The same goes to wine and even love. It is hard to know what love is until you experience it or realise that you weren't happy in the last relationship because you notice the difference with your current relationship. You know what a good Pinot Noir is only when you try something better than the last. That's how you build hierachies of quality in your mind.
Most importantly, accept yourself as a unique individual with a unique taste and a biasness to specific wines. I love sherries and wines with huge amounts of oak. It may not be to everyone's liking, but it doesn't mean that it is poor quality. It is an acquired taste. There is quality but there is also knowing what you like to drink.
Judging a wine in absolute terms is the same as setting your own standards of what a good human being is. I prefer to look at a wine in context apart from just basing quality on absolutes.
Are you serving it with food? Get a wine that is not intensely concentrated in flavour or it will overpower the food.
What environment are you drinking it in - hot or cold? Have a robust red in front of the fireplace or a chilled white while basking in the summer sun.
What time of the day is it? Something ligter in the morning perhaps to start the day and heavier in the night to put you to sleep?
Are you drinking it with friend or acquaintance? Open the nice stuff for your friends or if you want to be a crowd pleaser, go for the sweet stuff.
Yes, the absolutes are important - generosity of aroma and flavour; balance between acid, sweetness and tannins; complexity of flavours with layers upon layers; harmony of sensations instead of disjointedness; a long length with a desirable finish of acceptable flavours; no bitterness in the back of the tongue or sourness that makes the wine experience unbearable.
Building a concept of quality requires time, patience and lots of tasting. You find the best pasta by going to different restaurants and comparing your present experience with the last. The same goes to wine and even love. It is hard to know what love is until you experience it or realise that you weren't happy in the last relationship because you notice the difference with your current relationship. You know what a good Pinot Noir is only when you try something better than the last. That's how you build hierachies of quality in your mind.
Most importantly, accept yourself as a unique individual with a unique taste and a biasness to specific wines. I love sherries and wines with huge amounts of oak. It may not be to everyone's liking, but it doesn't mean that it is poor quality. It is an acquired taste. There is quality but there is also knowing what you like to drink.
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