WINE VOCABULARY, STEP BY STEP - 11

THIS WILL BE YOUR SECRET MANUAL TO

Affordable styles, self-development, how-to do’s, learn to divine and describe your own taste. Wine is a personal preference; everybody taste different and likes or dislikes some smell or taste impressions.

FOR THE SELF-MADE PERSON

My impression is that a lot of wine critics sound like a doctor. Using wine terms if everybody knows them. To understand this better, I will take you, in the coming time, step by step through those words in a normal way.

By AD Wines, Dannis Apeldoorn

From A to Z —> D

Decanting

Always be careful when choosing a wine and you don’t know if it has deposit.

When it has and you where not careful enough, it could be most likely that the deposit is mixed with the wine and is misty. No problem only not nice to drink. When this happend, when possible take an other bottle of the same wine and lay the shaken bottle to rest.  When you don’t know take the wine bottle with care and place it above a candle and look if there is a dark/ black line visible. When yes, the wine has deposit and can be decanted. Older vintages a shorter period then younger. Due to the fact, the older vintages are more fragil, loss fruit aromas and oxidate more quick. 

When you know a wine has deposit, it is advised to be decanted. This deposit is quite natural and is formed during the ageing  process of many good red wines. 

What do you need;

• bottle of wine with deposit

• decanter

• a wine glass

• clean napkin

• wine opener

• a candleholder with candle (not to high). When not classic way, less romantic and charming, but useful your phone with the light shining up to the sky/ ciling. 

• a gaslighter,

• when you have a wine bottle holder/ basket.

How do you decant a bottle;

• When you have a wine bottle holder/ basket place the bottle with care and slowly into the holder/ basket without a lot of shaking. When you don’t have a wine bottle holder/ basket place the bottle horizontal and leave it standing in advance for 15-30 minutes. This to let the eventually deposit what got loss to settle again.

• Cut the capsule loss without turning the bottle. Best to do is first one half and then the other half of the capsule.

• Check the cork. When soaking wet or super dry with cracks, change of  breaking is their.  Also can see if the cork is stuck against the bottle. Be aware. When dirty on top of the cork, clean with the napkin.

• Turn the wine opener into the cork and pull it softly out.

• When out, clean the head of the bottle again with a clean part of the napkin.

• Smell your glass and decanter first before poring wine in. Can be not smelling okay due to residue of soap or not clean polishing towel.

• When glass is clean, light the candle.

• Poor a little wine carefully in the glass. This is for the first judgement of smell. When wine smell correct, poor that bit of wine from the glass into the decanter. This is to prepare the decanter for the rest of the bottle and also to give that little wine already a little air. 

• Poor the wine what is now in the decanter back into the glass. Now you can taste the decanted wine. When correct, can start the decant part of the bottle.

• place the candle in the middel, when right handed, place de decanter in a 45 degrees angle in your left hand and the bottle (in holder/ basket or loss) carefully in the right hand. 

• place the decanter close to the bottle so the head of the bottle is almost in the head of the decanter. The neck of the bottle of wine must be above the lighted candle. Not toughing the bottle and watch out that you don’t burn yourself. 

• Start slowly poring till you see a dark/ black line coming into the candle light. Stop poring when the line reaches the neck.

• Place the bottle back on the table. And you can serve your guest when you think it is the correct time to serve that decanted wine.

Destemming

Is a part of processing the grapes.

Machine harvested grapes arrive without stems, and even if the grapes have been hand harvested, most winemakers choose to remove them. This is usually done in a machine that can subsequently crush the grapes. But of course also done by handwork.

Destemming is getting the wood parts separated from the grapes, of course the pits stay inside.

When winemaker choose not destemmed this is called whole bunch fermentation.  

The following week we continue with the letter - D.

Next week, same day, Saturday, and same time, 9:30 am CET, the next two words.