spirits Don’t know anything about wine and find yourself lost every time someone offers you a bottle? No problem, “20 Minutes” polled experts
Wine remains a medium to part, with its codes, its postures, and its crooks of which you will soon — PIxabay
- The Independent Winegrowers’ Wine Fair opens its doors this Thursday at the Porte of Versailles, in Paris. The wine, precisely, keeps the reputation of a closed and complex domain.
- You are not going to say the opposite, when you order the same glass of Bordeaux at the restaurant for lack of oenological culture.
- 20 Minutes a contacted three experts to help you stop looking like a loser.
In the past, evenings at Corentin were a safe bet, in all simplicity. Laughs, friends. And beer. But here it is: the helping age and the late thirties, “Coco” has left the couple of student evenings for wine, and we are never completely serene on his sofa again. We do not know what to answer when he makes us taste “his best bottle”, with in his eyes the expectation of a comment. We no longer understand him when he speaks of “grape variety” or “round wine”. And we hesitate for long minutes, alone in the supermarket, when he asks everyone to bring a bottle.
Like us, there are millions of you. being lost at the fateful moment of talking about wine. So 20 Minutes takes care of everything, and contacted three experts to educate us and never be a sucker again at Corentin. Here are their tips.
At the moment when you are served wine
If we can drink it up to the dregs, one does not hold the chalice in one’s hands. This can warm the wine and cause it to lose many of its subtleties. At the bottom or at the top of the foot, ça, it’s to your convenience, says Ewa Crétois, communication manager specializing in wine and spirits. And as long as we are there in the gestures to Avoid: no, we do not put ice cubes, even in the dew, bunch of foufous.
Another very common mistake: thinking that when you are made to taste a little of the bottle before serving it, you are asked your opinion on the wine in question. Not at all! (the winemaker/wine merchant/restorer doesn’t really care). What are you looking for? know is if the brew hasn’t deteriorated. – for example if it tastes like cork.
More ambitious, you can shine by looking at the color of the liquid. A young red wine generally has purple reflections on the edges, and amber if it is old, schematizes France Gerbal Médalle, wine geographer and specialist in wine. œnotourism. A young white will approach yellow-green edges, rather golden; if he is old. And generally, a young wine will be strong, while an old wine tends to be strong. be thinner and lighter.
However, we do not recommend overdoing it if you are just starting out. There is therefore no need to swirl the wine or taste it by leaving it in the mouth for too long. “When in doubt, it’s better not to do enough than to make too much of it, it’s quickly spotted,” explains Ewa Crétois.
The vocabulary to adopt
“Build your vocabulary, Robert” Severe; again, nothing very rocket science, you just have to metaphorize your first impressions. Thus, we will not say that a wine is “less strong when it is old”, but “that it has mellowed with age”, even “ ;”that it is round” (he is wiser so he smoothes the corners), says France Gerbal Médalle. So at your most beautiful feathers!
Two terms – technical – nevertheless remain unavoidable. The grape variety, which defines the type of grape used. to make wine. Each variety of grape variety will bring its own taste and its particularities. And tannin (or tannin, both spellings work), with its derivative; “a tannic wine”, which only applies to red wines. Quick definition: tannin is a more or less present vegetable molecule. What you need to remember is that the more tannins are present in the wine, the darker it will be. A very tannic wine is quite simply a wine with a lot of tannins.
Phrases to shine
Hugo Millet, oenologist from the Abbaye de Lérins, concocted for us ; two, three sentences at agrave; place at table:
- “With the heat wave, the wine hasn’t been chaptalis”.”
Chaptalization is the act of adding sugar to the juice of grapes that has not yet fermented, so that it is transformed in alcohol. It’s less and less necessary with climate change and rising temperatures.
- “No blending, it’s a monocement. page”
A monovarietal is, as its name suggests, a wine made up of of a single variety of grapes.
- “Wouldn’t it be a little vertical ?”
Said of a tasting where we drink the same cuvée over several vintages
Slightly original wines
All these efforts will only serve to nothing if you then make an impersonal choice with an all-purpose wine, typically a Côte du Rhône or a Bordelais, proving to the world that you are as unoriginal as those who put Argentina as their favorite of the World Cup.
So we’re going to look for some new sensations. “The white wines of the Côtes de Gascogne, in particular the Saint Mont, bring a discovery and a real nice surprise. On the reds, there are some specific grape varieties in the South West, you can discover at a lover of Cahors wines, a Malec grape variety, a Gaillac or a Tanat de Madiran”, advises France Gerbal Médalle. You can also take a wine from the ’Abbaye de Lérins of our dear Hugo. very friendly with us.
Important also to; remember: you have the right to like any wine – yes, even rosés. “You shouldn’t be ashamed of any preference, wine is a matter of taste and taste is subjective. There is no hierarchy If you like a wine, drink it,” reassures Ewa Crétois.
Don’t be afraid!
All of these tips should help you get out of it at Corentin or elsewhere. But past these few Sioux tricks, it is important not to put too much pressure on yourself, remind our three experts. Because if the wine maintains its mystery and its well-defined codes; for him, not without pleasure, he remains an accessible environment.
The final word for Hugo Millet: “Wine is above all a product that one takes pleasure in; enjoy with friends. And with which the most important question remains ”Do we like it, this bottle, or not?”. Afterwards, everyone does it with their own words and subjectivity.”