Wine, Spirits, and Beverages for Top Servers.

The Wine Knowledge Basics lesson will lay the groundwork for your further education about wine. What is wine, how it is made, and what are the wine’s characteristics?

1. What is Wine:

   Wine is an alcoholic beverage typically made from the juice of grapes (or other fruits) through fermentation. Wine could be red, white, or rose and could contain different levels of alcohol, sugar, tannin, and acidity.

   
   

2. Winemaking process:

   Harvesting the grapes – the year the grapes are cut is the year that will be written on the wine bottle
   Destemming and crushing – the grapes are brought into the winery and the first thing is to make sure there are no stems or
   leaves in the mix! Their presence may lead to bitterness in the wine. After that, the grapes are crushed to produce the Must
   Fermentation – the Must is moved to a fermentation vessel (could be wood, stainless steel, or concrete) and the yeast in the grapes
   starts to produce alcohol from the sugar in the Must! Many producers prefer to insert specially selected Yeast, which they believe helps
   for a better wine product! Several hundred different strains of wine yeast are available commercially
   Pumping over and temperature control – in order to reach the desired color of the wine the winemakers will have to make sure
   the skin of the grapes is in constant contact with the juice! We could use several different techniques to accomplish that. Also
   important is to control the temperature of the must during fermentation. If the temperature goes over 40*C it could kill the yeast
   and impair the wine. Cooler temperatures (25 -28*C) are used to produce fruitier wines and higher temperatures (28-35*C) are
   used for heavy tannin wines designed for aging!
   Pressing – separating the juice from the must. There are different types of presses but the process is to separate the juice from
   the skin and the seeds.
   Racking (decanting)– the next procedure is to rack the wine from the dead yeast and other hard particles and to add sulfur
   dioxide preservative to avoid oxidation and bacterial spoilage.

   wine barrels

   Aging – for the aging the wineries are using stainless-steel or concrete tanks, or small or large oak barrels. It could be for just
   a few days before bottling or for more than 2 years
   Filtration and bottling – the yeast and anything else that might still be in the juice is filtered. The filtered wine goes in the bottles
   and some bottles age for a few more months or years before they could be sold!

   
   

3. Handling and Storing Wine:

   The wine should be appropriately stored and served at the right temperature, so your guests could enjoy it in full. Mind you, some people have their own preferences about the temperature of the wine, but we need to stick to the standards.

   -sparkling and very light-body white wines: 38*-45* F ( 3*- 7* C)

   -white and rose wine: 45*-55* F ( 7*-13* C)

   -red wine: 55*-60* F (13* – 16* C)

   -some full-body red wines could be stored at 20*C (68* F)

   Storing properly open wines is very important for the business.

   -open champagne could last up to three days stored in the fridge with a sparkling wine stopper

   -full body white wines, closed with a cork and stored in the fridge, could last up to five days

   -light body white wines with a cork could last up to 7 days in the fridge

   -red wines should be stored in a cool, dark place (or fridge) closed with cork for up to 5 days

To understand wine, sell it, and match it with the food order of the guests, you have to learn the characteristics of the wine!

There are many types of wine, and you have to know that different people have different preferences and are looking for a particular trait in the wine they want to drink!

Here we will discuss the main wine characteristic and its components:

Body

Contrary to the belief that the wine’s body depends exclusively on the alcohol percentage in the wine, the truth is much more complex.

The alcohol level in the wine influences the body but so do the sweetness, the bitterness, and the acidity. All those characteristics determine the body of the wine by affecting the intensity of its test. The more intense the wine test, the more body it has!

• Alcohol level – the alcohol increases the body of the wine.

• Acidity – the more acidity the wine has, the less body it has.

• Tannin – the bitter taste in wines comes from the tannin in them, and the tannin in the wine adds to its body. One reason white wines are with lighter bodies than red wines is the absence of tannin in them.

• Sweetness – the more sugar the wine has, the more body it has. If you drink sweet wine, you will feel the body immediately. This is why some winemakers keep a small level of sugar in their dry wines, so they taste more full-bodied.

• Barrique – winemakers age wine in oak barrels to increase the body and add more flavor.

• Carbonation – the bubbles in the wine decrease its body.

Here is a list of some red wines arranged by body type starting with a lighter body and going down to really heavy full-body wines:

Gamay

Zweigelt

Pinot Noir

Valpolicella

Carignan

Blaufrankisch

Cabernet Franc

Barbera

Grenache

Merlot

Montepulciano

Nebiolo

Negroamaro

Sangiovese

Tempranillo

Cabernet Sauvignon

Malbec

Nero d’Avola

Petit Verdot

Pinotage

Syrah

Zinfandel

Here is the list of white wines by the body:

Prosecco

Cava

Champagne

Franciacorta

Pinot Blanc

Colombart

Verdicchio

Cortese

Muscat Blanc

Riesling

Verdejo

Silvaner

Pino Gris

Chenin Blanc

Grüner Veltliner

Sauvignon Blanc

Garganega

Vermentino

Semillon

Trebbiano

Grenache Blanc

Gewürztraminer

Viognier

Chardonnay

Tannin

Tannin is the least favorite trait in wine for most people because it gives the wine a bitter taste. It is, however, one essential part of the quality of the wine, and it gives the wine its health benefits, and stabilization, and prevents oxidation.

Tannins are found in many plants and foods like green tea, walnut skin, etc. In wine, tannins come from the skin of the grapes or the seeds. You could also add tannin by aging the wine in wooden barrels.

Tannin is what causes the dry and puckery feeling in the mouth when you drink red wines.

A small amount of red wine every day is beneficial to your health precisely because of the tannin in it.

Here is a list of wines arranged by the content of tannin from light to heavy:

Cinsault

Pinot Noir

Valpolicella

Zweigelt

Carignan

Grenache

Malbec

Blaufranksich

Cabernet Franc

Merlo

Cabernet Sauvignon

Montepulciano

Negroamaro

Nero d’Avola

Pinotage

Sangiovese

Syrah

Tempranillo

Zinfandel

Nebbiolo

Petit Verdot

Petite Sirah

Port

Tannant

Acidity

The sour taste in wines comes from acidity. All wines have it but in different amounts. Acidity is vital for wine quality because it gives the wine its freshness and slows the speed of chemical reactions that cause wines to go bad!

Tasting Acidity

When you drink lemonade, you feel the tingly, mouth-watering sensation on your tongue.

Acidity in wine is not as strong, but it is the same feeling, and we describe it like zesty, fresh, or zippy notes.

Wines with higher acidity have less body and less sweetness

Wines with lower acidity taste full-bodied and with more sweetness.

If the acidity in the wine is too low, we often describe it as flat or dull. It is a wine without a character.

When the acidity is too high, the wines are too sour and unpleasant.

People have different tastes, and for some, a high-acidity wine could taste well, while for others, it will taste terrible.

With practice and time, you will establish your own mental measure and be able to define acidity in wine properly.

Acids in wine

There are many different acids, and they all affect the wine differently. The most significant are:

• tartaric acids are softer and easily distinguished in bananas

• malic acids have a fruity taste found in apples.

• citric acids have a tingly taste found in citrus fruits

• Other acids are also present in wine, and they all affect its taste differently, but the three mentioned above are the most prevalent.

Acidity in wine could range from very high ( cold-climate Riesling, 2,6 pH ) to very low ( hot-climate Syrah, 4,5 pH )

White wines usually have more acidity:

Sweet white wines – less than 3 pH

Light body white wines – around 3 pH

Light body red wines – about 3,3 pH

Full-body white wines – about 3,5 pH

The majority of red wines – 3,5 to 4 pH

Low-acid red wines – higher than 4 pH

Sweetness

The sweetness in wines comes from the sugar that is left after the fermentation process. During the fermentation, the yeast turns the sugar from the grapes into alcohol. The winemakers control the process, and they decide how much sugar should be in the wine. Therefore, a bottle of wine could have zero sugar in it, and it will be Bone-Dry.

It could also be Sweet Wine with more than 120g/L sugar inside.

Dry wines still contain some sugar (1-17g/L)

Medium Dry Wines (17-35g/L)

Medium Sweet wines have up to 120g/L sugar inside.

Sparkling Wines have some sugar in them during the production process. Therefore, we split them into seven categories according to their sweetness:

-Brut Nature – up to 3g/L

-Extra Brut – up to 6g/L

-Brut – up to 12g/L

-Extra Dry – 12-17g/L

-Dry – 17-32g/L

-Demi-Sec – 32-50g/L

-Doux – Over 50g/L

Keep in mind that wines with higher acidity or tannin will taste not as sweet as wines with lower acidity or tannin but with the same amount of sugar inside! This is because acidity and tannin distort our perception of sweetness.

We will discuss first the wine regions in France, although Italy produces more wine as a quantity. The reason is that France is the country that has given the most popular wines in the world and is making the most famous and most expensive wines.

There are many wine regions in France, and they all have entirely different climates and territories.

Alsace, Cognac and Armagnac, Beaujolais, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Corsica, Jura, Languedoc, Loire Valley, Lorraine, Provence, Rhone Valley, Roussillon, South-West, and more.

The most important regions which everyone should know are Bordeaux and Bourgogne (Burgundy). Then follows the Rhone Valley, the Loire Valley, and the Champagne region with its famous sparkling wine. Other important wine regions in France are Provence, Alsace, Beaujolais, South-West, and in your career as a waiter, you will most probably encounter wines from those regions.

The main wine varieties in France are Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Grenache, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Carignan, and Gamay from the red grapes.

The main white varieties are Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Trebbiano (Ugni Blanc).

Important note about wine in France!

The climate conditions in the country vary greatly from year to year, and it is common for the same wine to taste different from one year to the next! So for you, as waiters (restaurant managers), it is crucial to know which Vintage (the year the grape was harvest) was good and which was not so good.

Labels

It is not easy to understand the labels on a bottle of French wine because most of the wines are labeled by Appellation (Appellation d’Origine Protegee) and not by variety. The exception is Alsace.

The problems come from the fact that every Appellation has its own set of rules, and therefore two labels from two regions will mean two different things.

IGP (Indication Georaphique Protegee) and Vin de France wines are not under AOP rules and have their own designation.

In general, a label should include:

Country of origin; France

The name of the wine yard: Chateau Bla-Bla

The grape variety or the name of the wine: Cabernet Franc or Cuvee de Noir

The wine region (AOP/AOC) – Cote de Beaune

Vintage – the year the grapes were harvested

The name of the company that bottled the wine.

There are 329 Appellations in France, and the AOP/AOC rules define which grape varieties and winemaking practices are approved for classification in this particular AOP/AOC.

Terms you will find on a French wine label.

There are hundreds of different terms used to describe a bottle of wine, but we will concentrate on the terms you are most likely to encounter.

Cru – this term tells you that the vineyard(s) who produced this wine is(are) recognized for their quality.

Grand Cru – primarily used in Burgundy and Champagne regions to recognize the best vineyards in the Appellation

Premiere Cru (1er Cru) – used in Bordeaux to distinguish the top vineyards in the region. If this term is on a label of a bottle from Burgundy, it will mean this is a second tear vineyard.

Grand Vin – this is a term that is used in Bordeaux labels. It indicates that the wine you are looking at is the top wine from this winemaker.

Chateau – it means winery.

Domaine – an estate with its own vineyards and winery

Vignoble – Vineyard

Clos – it means the vineyard is closed with a wall

Proprietaire – the owner of the winery

Cotes – wines from a particular slope or hillside

Coteaux – wine from a group of slopes or hills

Mis en Bouteille au Chateau/Domaine – Bottled at the winery/estate

Millesime – indicates the vintage date. It is used on Champagne labels.

Brut – Dry

Sec – Dry

Demi-Sec – Lightly sweet

Doux – Sweet

Moelleux – Sweet

Cuvee – it could mean two things:

• it indicates the first tank of wine produced from a particular harvest and, therefore, the best quality

• it indicates that the wine is a blend of different varieties

There are many other specifics about classifying and labeling wines in France, but we have mentioned the ones we believe will help you do your job efficiently and professionally!