Honey, I Froze the Wine!
We’ve all been there – had the bright idea of popping a bottle of white into the freezer just before guests arrive and forgetting about it…
You suddenly remember it’s there and dash to the freezer to find not a ship in a bottle, but an iceberg. What’s worse is that some may have leaked out of the screw cap as it expanded… The shame.
It'll be OK…
Well, it’ll thaw and still have alcohol in, if that’s what you mean. However, the good tastes will be dulled and overshadowed by new bitter notes that have a stale muddiness to them. Yum. Shoulda kept it in the fridge, right?
Why is it so bad?
For a start, if your wine has expanded through the seal or popped the cork, it’ll start to oxidise for as long as you forget about it, which could even be overnight.
It’s even worse if it’s sparkling as the wire cap will prove too strong for the freezing liquid, but the bottle won’t…
If you decide to try a wine slushie it’ll just taste very cold, with hardly any flavors to it at all. Low temperatures cut out the good flavors as well as the alcohol flavors – it’s just meh.
If it’s in the freezer for a while, then freezer burn and oxidation will get to it, making it just not worth the effort to drink as it won’t be enjoyable. It’ll be bland and bitter all at once, which sounds impossible, but you’ll find it’s not.
Some wines like the cold
Some wines are actually exposed to cold conditions by the winemakers. It’s called cold stabilization and it removes potassium bitartrate, which can cause hard crystals in the bottle and make the wine unstable.
In California, cold-stabilization is done at 28F for ten days, and this is usually performed with lower-price wines rather than high-end varieties. This is because very cold stabilization processing takes away a lot of the aromas and flavors, which is defeating the point somewhat.
Know Your Sake!
If you’ve ever looked at a sake list, you’ll probably have had no real idea about what it all meant. Some lists have dozens on, with fanciful names and maybe the region they’re from, which leaves you none the wiser.
However, with even a slight grasp of the vocabulary, you can soon find your way round that list and even be able to pair the right sake with the right dish.
Sake is made from rice and like grape wine is around 13-15% ABV. Just like grapes, there’s lots of different types and flavours, as well as techniques and aging styles. The most important factor is how polished the rice is, as the more it’s milled, the more flavour comes through. This is a serious business in Japan, with very strict rules about terms and nomenclature, which is handy for you.
The basics
The first thing you need to know is the category – like red, white or sparkling, these categories tell you broadly what to expect. There’s Junmai, Ginjo, Daiginjo, Honjozo, Nama, Nigori and Tokubetsu.
The first words you’ll see are the names of the producers – Dewazakura, Fuji, Eiko or Jokingen – then the titles, then the style.
What it all means
Junmaiis just rice, water, yeast and koji mold. It doesn’t have to be milled, so it can be quite rustic.
Honjozo hassome brewer’s alcohol added to it, often just a small amount. This isn’t because it’s cheap and nasty, it’s because some flavors are highlighted when some neutral alcohol is added. These sakes are lighter and simpler than the junmai varieties.
Ginjo. Gin means “careful selection” and jo means “ferment”, so this is carefully selected booze! These sakes have more milling, so it’s more expensive and of better quality. They can be Honjozo, too.
Daiginjomeans great careful selection ferment, so it’s even classier! Up to 77% of the rice grains can be milled away and these sakes can be Honjozo or Junmai. Junmai Daiginjo sakes are the best quality and the best with food – they’ll therefore be the priciest.
Other essential vocab
Genshu
Sake is often diluted to achieve the “right” ABV, but Genshu isn’t, so it can be 16-22%!
Kimoto or Yamahai
These have lactobacillus cultures blended in them, so they have a slight edge with a creamy feel.
Koshu, O-Ko Shu or Ko-Ko-Shu
This is aged, so it has a lot of complex earthy notes, just like an aged grape wine.
Namazake
This is unpasteurised and has to be refrigerated. Don’t order this unless you’re sure the restaurant or bar is looking after it properly. If it’s cared for, it’ll be amazing.
Nigori
This is unfiltered, with sediment and particles left behind after fermentation. It’s thick, creamy and cloudy. Some like to shake it before drinking while others pour off the clear liquid. Sake snobs tend to look down on Nigori but many people, especially newbies, like it.
Taruzake
This sake has been aged in cypress barrels and has a stronger flavour.
Shizuku
This means “free run” and at the end of fermentation, this sake is hung up in bags and the liquid runs out under just gravity – no pressing. This is quite pricy, but if you see Junmai Daiginjo Shizuku on a list, try it!
What a Healthy Vineyard Looks Like
A healthy vineyard isn’t a uniform thing – they all look different. Zinfandel vines are stocky and almost tree-like, while Riesling vines are more slender and wispy looking. The ground doesn’t always look the same either, and nor do the leaves; it doesn’t have to look good, either.
That doesn’t mean it takes a doctor or scientist to tell if a hillside is healthy. With a slightly discerning eye, any wine lover can see if a vineyard is thriving or struggling. Here are some ways to tell how healthy a vineyard is.
What matters is other things, not just the vines themselves.
The ground
If you see well-cared for, spotless grass or soil between the vine rows, then you might think it looks nice and neat, but it could be a sign of intense pesticide and herbicide use.
Some vineyards use lots of weedkiller to rid the vines of their competition and while it’s legal, it’s certainly not organic. It’s actually an outdated mindset to want to rid the vineyard of all its plants, as they don’t affect the vines or the wine at all.
In fact, vineyards with lots of mixed plants all over the place are a good thing, as these other plants encourage biodiversity and bring different nutrients to the soil.
The general environment
So, the ground can tell you a lot about how the vineyard is managed and treated; so can the rest of the place. Look wildflowers and insects – this is a balanced, healthy ecosystem. You should also look for earthworms, butterflies, small birds and even larger birds like chickens and even hawks. Birds are a great way of keeping pest insects and small mammals down without spraying the place with nasty compounds.
Have a closer look
Look at the leaves on the vines – healthy leaves should be around the size of an outstretched adult hand, dark green and smooth. If there’s a lot of discoloration, holes, dry leaves and lighter-colored spots, there may be nutrient problems or pest insects like caterpillars. Dried out or curled up leaves means disease or poor watering protocol.
A vineyard isn’t serving the purpose of a golf course, so it certainly doesn’t need to look like one!
Bubbles Aren’t Just for Special Occasions
The time was that Champagne or any other sort of sparkling wine was brought out only for special occasions – weddings, christenings, graduations and so on. Many people see bubbles so rarely that they’d never consider “wasting” them on an everyday occasion – after all, the fizz would become ordinary and everyday as well.
However, there’s another school of thought that says Champagne and its cousins should be brought out as often as possible because it’s amazing. There’s no need to reserve it for or restrict it to special events because this means that people could be missing out on something that’s special in and of itself.
You need to celebrate the small things
It’s not just about the 21st birthdays, or the 21st wedding anniversaries. It’s about the end-of-term picnic, the wrapping up of a project, the start of a new series of Game of Thrones, the weekend, a new friendship… These are all simple pleasures that deserve to be made a bit more special.
You don’t have to spend a fortune on fizz
Of course, decent Champagne is a bit out of reach for regular folks to drink a couple of times a week, but decent Prosecco and Cava certainly aren’t, with some starting at $10.00. OK, they don’t quite have the cachet of Champagne, but you don’t have to splash out the cash-et (yes, we are ashamed of ourselves…) to bring a bit of luxury into your Friday night routine. There are some folk who say they prefer a good Prosecco to a mid-range Champagne anyway, so go figure.
Bubbles are fun
Forget guided meditation and yoga, just pour a glass of fizz and feel your spirits soar with those bubbles! It’s calming and uplifting at the same time – what could be better?
It brings a bit of glamour to everything
If you bring the bubbly to the proceedings, it gives everything a bit of swish. That Friday night takeaway or delivery becomes a real treat with some chilled glasses tinkling away in the background; those pre-flight drinks could have you feeling like you’re first class and a run-of-the-mill playdate becomes impossibly glam and witty.
There’s always time for Champagne
Did your gran ever tell you that you’re a long time dead? What she really meant was that life is short and so you should grab what happiness you can whenever you can because it’s all over too soon. What’s better than a glass of Champagne with your nearest and dearest? Or Prosecco, or a mid-range Cava?
Sulfites Are Off the Hook!
OK, it’s about time we were honest about sulfites. They’re not some chemical ogre or poison, they’re a perfectly natural by-product of fermentation. When yeast and sugar get together to make carbon dioxide and alcohol, they also make small amounts of sulfur dioxide, so there’s some in every wine on the planet.
It's true that the sulfites that people get their panties in a bunch over are the ones that are added after fermentation rather than the ones that occur during, but we’re still not talking huge amounts here. Naturally-occurring sulfites are present in wine in concentrations of between five and 40 parts per million (ppm), while added sulfites are anything between 50-350ppm.
The extra sulfites are added as preservatives, to keep the wine fresh and to protect its delicate flavours; even organic wines allow up to 100ppm of sulphites, although the figure tends to be nearer 75ppm.
But that is a huge amount!
We all blame sulfites for those killer hangovers that are the price to pay for a good night. However, this is quite wrong. What people don’t realize is that those same compounds they pin their pounding heads on occur in lots of the foods they eat every day. They’re added to foods for the same reasons they’re added to wines – to preserve freshness, flavour and color. It will surprise many people to know that there are actually more sulfites in popular, everyday foodstuffs than there is in a bottle of wine. So, where’s the headache?
Eat your words!
Think about the foods you eat every day, or most days – dried apricots, pickled onions, sauerkraut, bottled lemon and lime juice, cheeses, processed meats… Most of these foods have concentrations of sulphites that are over 100ppm, with some dried fruits featuring an amazing (and by amazing, we mean unnoticeable) 2,000ppm!
This means that you have to stop blaming sulfites for your hangovers and take some responsibility! Then again, you could just shift the blame onto that cheese sandwich you scarfed down earlier…
All About Sauvignon Blanc
Sauvignon Blanc, or SB as it’s known to its many friends, is one of the US’ most popular wines. It has a refreshing crispness to it as it has high acidity and low sugar levels. It’s often described as grassy.
The grape comes from the same region as Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon – Bordeaux in France. It’s believed that the name Sauvignon comes from the French “sauvage”, or savage, because the grape used to grow wild in the region. Local winemakers tended to use Sauvignon Blanc in their blends and also in the dessert wine Sauterne.
A local hit
After finding popularity in Bordeaux blends, this grape travelled north to Sancerre in France’s Loire Valley, where it finally got to make a wine by itself. Rather than naming the wine Sauvignon Blanc, however, the winemakers decided to call it Sancerre, after the region. This wine then went on to become a firm favourite in the bistros and bars of Paris because it worked well with food and was also eminently quaffable on its own.
Achieving worldwide favour
Paris wasn’t quite far enough for this Sancerre/Sauvignon Blanc to travel, though. This popular wine soon found its way around the globe and ended up making its presence felt in New Zealand in the 1980s. This is where the real name of the grape came to the fore – previously people referred to it as Sancerre – and became a huge international hit.
It was in the 1980s that wines from New Zealand were hitting the market and people were enjoying their bright, refreshing nature – and their affordability! Not wanting to be left out, several other wine-producing regions caught on and before much longer, amazing SBs were coming out of Chile, South Africa and, of course, California.
Now
No matter whether you know it as Sancerre or as SB, you’ll appreciate its light, refreshing dryness with the aromas and flavors of grass and herbs, followed by an acidic finish. This wine is almost never aged in oak barrels so that it retains its bright fruitiness.