COMMON WINE MISCONCEPTIONS
Wine can be incredibly intimidating, confusing, frustrating, and just downright difficult. This information will make understanding and exploring wine a bit easier.
Red wines are dry, white wines are sweet….. Nope!
There are sweet reds and whites, however, most wines are dry.
Sweet Vs. Dry
These two words ONLY have to do with the level of Sugar in the wine when it’s finished. Dry has nothing to do with Tannin (the component in wine that gives you that cotton ball feeling in your mouth) or body of wine (Lighter wines vs. heavier wines). If you want a lighter more fruit forward red, you still want a dry wine; you just want a lighter wine.
Wines with screw caps are no good…. Nope!
To begin with, the most expensive bottle of wine in my cellar has a screw cap on it. It’s valued at about $500 for a 375ml bottle. It’s 2004 Gunderloch, Trockenbeerenauslese Riesling from Germany. Personally, as a wine collector, I would rather have my wines in screw caps because it eliminates the possibility that the wine is no good. About every 1 in 12 bottles sealed with a cork, are immediately bad the moment they are sealed. There is a bacterium that can get into wine called TCA, this bacterium will cause a wine to smell mildew or like wet cardboard. This is why a wine steward or a waiter will let you smell the wine first at a restaurant before you pay for it.
Robert Parker knows all…. Nope!
Mr Parker knows a LOT about wine, but what he tastes will be different from what I taste, and different from what you taste. Find which magazine or wine reviewer has a palate similar to yours. For me it’s Stephen Tanzer, but there are many great publications out there, Wine Enthusiast, Wine Advocate, Wine Spectator, Decanter, that all have great information and can help you make an educated decision about wine selections.
Older wine is better, and all wines get better with age…. Nope!
Only about 10-15% of wine is actually designed to age. These wines will generally be in the$25 and up price range, and are made to sit down for 3-30 years, sometimes longer where they will improve and change over the course of time.
Only red wines can age…. Nope!
Some of the best aging wines in the world are white! White burgundies such as Pugliny Montrachet or Meursault, or German Rieslings are some of the best cellaring wines in the world. As white wines age, they turn golden in color, and with some, you get a beautiful butterscotch aroma on the nose.
Wines in Europe don’t have Sulfites… Nope!
Every wine in the entire world, regardless of whether it is organic or not, contains Sulfites. Not only are they a byproduct of the winemaking process, but they are an essential ingredient to assure that the wine can stay on the shelf at your neighborhood wine shop, or sit in your cellar and not turn to vinegar! Sulfites are not what cause headaches and only a tiny percentage of people have sulfite allergies. It is FAR more likely that you are simply allergic to wine, than to Sulfites.
The Sulfites caused my headache…. Nope!
Sure wine has sulfites, but that’s not what gave you a headache. Red wines also have tannin which people can have sensitivity too. They can cause red tingly cheeks or headaches. Wine also has its own histamines just like cat or dog dander that you can have an allergic reaction to. This reaction can be as little as a headache to as severe as hives or anaphylaxis.
There is no different between a $20 wine and a $100 wine…. Nope!
With wine, you pay for 3 things, how much demand there is for the wine, how scarce the wine is, or how well known the wine is. Wines like the First Growth Bordeaux Chateau Lafite Rothschild can sell from $1000 a bottle to $30000 a case depending on the vintage. Is a wine ever worth that much? Some will say yes, others no, but primarily the more you pay for a bottle of wine, the more layers of complexity this wine will have.
Jon Link, Sommelier
