The Booklovers' Guide to Wine

by Patrick Alexander

  Prior to the late seventeenth century, wine was protected from the air by using wooden bungs, cloth, wax, and even olive oil. Cork from the bark of a Portuguese tree was discovered in the seventeenth century and the necks of glass bottles began to acquire a standard size. By the late twentieth century, synthetic corks started replacing natural cork, and in the twenty-first century screw caps are becoming increasingly acceptable. In terms of efficiency at protecting the contents of the bottle from the air, screw caps are far superior to cork—as well as being far cheaper. One of the many meaningless rituals associated with wine occurs in a restaurant when the wine waiter lays the cork down for inspection. Although this once had significance back in the eighteenth century, unless the cork is actually disintegrating and smelly, there is very little you can learn from inspecting it. So just smile politely and say, “Thank you.”

  Traditional corks are still better for expensive wines, however, which need to be aged for several years because they allow for a certain amount of evaporation, an important factor in the aging process. Since the vast majority of wine produced these days is intended to be drunk within five years of being bottled, the evaporation factor is not important and thus synthetic corks or screw caps make far more sense than more expensive and sometimes tainted natural cork. However, the aesthetic ritual of elegantly removing a cork as opposed to unscrewing a cap is a pleasure not to be easily dismissed. Also, as The Huffington Post’s Eleanor Shannon, a sommelier, argues, “Cork is infinitely renewable. Harvesting doesn’t harm the trees and it’s easy to create more supply by planting more trees. Producing metal screw caps and plastic stoppers requires ten times more non-renewable energy and creates toxic by-products especially from petrochemicals.” The debate continues.

  Aging

  Some red wines, which are high in tannins, actually need to be aged for a long time; they are almost undrinkable when young. Storing the wines in oak barrels and then laying them down in bottles for a few years allows all the youthful harshness to mellow and to become mature— in much the same way that those loud and boisterous medical students eventually become eminent and dignified physicians. Lacking in tannins, very few white wines benefit in the same way, and, with the exception of Chardonnays, most white wines are best drunk young. However, white wines, which are rich in residual sugars, like Sauternes or Tokai, do benefit from aging. Just as the harsh tannins of the reds become softer and more complex with age, so too the sugars of sweet whites become less cloying and more nuanced with age. This is another reason that sweet white wines have always been valued by the aristocracy—because, until quite recently, they were the only wines which aged.

  Wine Bottles

  Although glass vessels have existed since Roman times, they were generally for household use—serving the wine, rather than buying and selling it. Because glass was so breakable and because hand-blown glass couldn’t be made to a standard measure, using bottles as a primary mechanism for storing wine just wasn’t practical.

  Because the glass was so fragile, wine bottles were wrapped in a protective layer of straw, just as some bottles of Chianti are marketed today. It wasn’t until the seventeenth century, when coal-fueled furnaces replaced wood-burning ones, that it became possible to produce thicker and stronger glass. With the addition of the fashion for using cork stoppers, glass bottles suddenly became suitable for the transportation and aging of wines.

  Glass bottles were originally shaped like wine skins or sacs and protected with a straw basket, but by the eighteenth century, with stronger glass, bottles became taller and more slender, and could thus be laid on their side for shipping as well as for storage in cellars. Laying bottles on their side also kept the cork moist, ensuring a tighter seal from the air and allowing the wine to age longer.

  Because they had to be blown by human glassblowers, all glass bottles, whatever their shape or provenance, have normally held between 600 and 800 milliliters since that is the capacity of the human lung. Following the invention of mass produced bottles in 1903, standard shapes and sizes became increasingly common throughout the twentieth century, and in the late 1970s, the European Union and the USA set a requirement that all wine bottles be a uniform 750 milliliters. A normal serving contains five ounces, or 150 milliliters, of wine, which means a bottle of wine will typically serve five glasses.

  The dimple, or concave bump, at the base of many wine bottles is called a “punt.” There is no agreement on the original purpose of the punt but there is no shortage of theories. It probably had something to do with the process of blowing glass by hand, and certainly it made the bottle more stable when standing on the table.

  Bottle Shapes: There are a number of different bottle shapes, all of which originated in Europe and most of them in France.

  Bordeaux: Bordeaux bottles were developed for the English market and needed to be strong and lay flat during the sea voyage. Because the wines were primarily blends of Cabernet Sauvignon with high tannins designed to age, and because the fastidious English like to decant their wine, the high, sharp shoulders help to catch the residue when the wine was being poured. The red wines made with a selection of such grapes as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Malbec are bottled with dark green glass while the white wines are bottled in light green glass. Sweet dessert wines from Sauternes and Barsac are bottled in clear glass. Some châteaux, such as Haut-Brion, has its own unique bottle shape, slightly squatter than the norm.

  Burgundy: Bottles from Burgundy have gently sloping shoulders and are slightly plumper than the Bordeaux bottles; both reds and whites use dark green glass. Since Burgundy wines are almost all Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, producers of these grapes elsewhere in the world have adopted the Burgundy style.

  Rhône: Wine from the Rhône valley, south of Lyon, are similar in shape to the Burgundy style but slightly less plump and with a slightly longer neck. The bottles are often embossed with a coat of arms, especially those from Châteauneuf-du-Pape—which again often have uniquely-shaped bottles. The green glass is reserved for the red wines such as Grenache, Mourvèdre, or Syrah, while white wines such as Viognier are bottled in clear glass.

  Alsace: These tall, slim bottles made of light green glass, known as flûtes d’Alsace, are used for all the noble, white wines of Alsace, such as Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Sylvaner. The same bottles are also used over the border in the Moselle River Valley of Germany.

  Rhine: Very similar in shape to the bottles of Alsace, the bottles of the Rhine are colored amber or brown, are slightly thinner, and are often called hocks. Some of the cheaper wines, especially those made with Muller-Thurgau grapes like Liebfraumilch, are often colored a garish blue. These flute-shaped bottles from the Rhine, the Moselle, and Alsace, all derived their tall, slim design because, unlike the wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy, they were transported on gentle river barges and therefore did not need to be so sturdy, and were thus designed for more economical packaging in crates.

  Côtes de Provence: As rosé wines are finally becoming known and popular in America, it is worth including the traditional “flûte à corset Provençal” (also known as a Mae West) from Provence in this list of international bottle shapes. Its distinctive and curvaceous shape is decidedly feminine, and its clear glass shows off the color of the rosé to great advantage.

  Chianti: Prior to the seventeenth century when glass was extremely fragile, all bottles were protected with straw baskets. The glass flask or Fiasco itself has a rounded base since it was supported by the straw. Some of the producers of Sangiovese in the Chianti region of Tuscany have continued the tradition, even if only for marketing reasons. It should not be forgotten that the addition of a simple candle to the empty Chianti flask in a student’s humble apartment has helped generations of young men persuade generations of young women that deep down, they are sensitive, hopeless romantics.

  Port & Sherry: Like Bordeaux wines, the fortified wines of Oporto and Jerez were developed primarily by and for the
English market. All three bottles have the high shoulders and straight sides, but the Sherry, and especially the Port bottles, are made of a much darker glass to protect the contents from the light. Port bottles, for whatever reason, are made with thicker glass. They have a bulge in the neck to collect sediment when pouring, and often are stamped with white paint rather than paper labels.

  Champagne: Champagne (which used to be part of the Duchy of Burgundy and which is made of the Burgundian grapes of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay) also uses a Burgundy-style bottle. However, because the pressure inside the bottle can be 90 psi (three times the pressure of a normal car tire), the glass needs to be extra thick; the punt is more pronounced, enabling the riddler to turn the bottle in the rack. Most Champagne is bottled in green glass, but pink Champagne is bottled in clear glass to show off the color.

  In addition to the standard 750 ml bottle, Champagne also comes in larger bottles—though I suspect the benefits are more visual than gustatory:

  Magnum – 1.5 liters (two regular bottles)

  Jeroboam (a.k.a. Double Magnum) – 3 liters (four bottles)

  Rehoboam - 4.5 liters (six bottles)

  Methuselah – 6 liters (eight bottles)

  Salmanazar – 9 liters (twelve bottles)

  Balthazar – 12 liters (sixteen bottles)

  Nebuchadnezzar – 15 liters (twenty bottles)

  Solomon – 18 liters (twenty-four bottles)

  Goliath – 27 liters (thirty-six bottles)

  Melchizedek or Midas – 30 liters (forty regular bottles)

  Winegrowers in Burgundy and Bordeaux also produce large format bottles with similarly Biblical names—but not to the extent found in Champagne.

  Winegrowers in the New World tend to use the bottle shape most appropriate for the varietal or style of wine they are selling. A winery in New Zealand or California will use a Burgundy bottle for its Chardonnay, Viognier, Shiraz, or Pinot Noir, but will use a Bordeaux-style bottle for its Merlot, Malbec, or Cabernet Sauvignon.

  Reading Wine Labels

  Although every country has unique rules governing the information on its wine labels, most labels conform to the laws of the two largest markets, the European Union and the United States of America. In general, the label should inform consumers where the wine came from, how old it is, who made it, and what grapes were used.

  Appellation d’Origin Controlée: In 1935, the French government divided the country into about 300 different wine regions and subregions. At its simplest level, an AOC (Appellation d’Origin Controlée) designation on a label defines the source or terroir for the wine in the bottle. For example, Appellation Bordeaux Contrôléee means that the grapes were harvested and the wine was bottled within the Bordeaux subregion. At its more complex level, an AOC can be far more specific. “Batard Montrachet, Grand Cru, Appellation Contrôléee” specifies not only that the grapes were harvested in the Batard Montrachet, Grand Cru vineyard in the commune of Chassagne Montrachet, near Beaune in Burgundy, but also that the grapes are 100 percent Chardonnay with a specific minimum alcohol level of 12 percent and a maximum level of residual sugar of 2 grams per liter and that only forty hectoliters of grapes per hectare were harvested—meaning a maximum of about 174 cases of wine per acre. Different Appellations have different rules; obviously the more expensive and prestigious the Appellation, the more specific and restrictive the regulations.

  As the European nations joined the European Union, standardized regulations were increasingly adopted and enforced. Most countries adopted the French Appellation system for their wine labels and so, for example, we see DOC - Denominación de Origen Calificada in Spain, DOCG - Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita in Italy, and DOC - Denominação de Origem Controlada in Portugal, all of which specify the origin of the grapes and the local regulations concerning alcohol levels or number of bottles per acre of vineyard. The main exception to this general rule is Germany, which is discussed elsewhere.

  Even outside the European Union, the wine-producing nations of the New World have adopted similar classifications, and so Australian wine comes from specific AGIs, Australian Geographic Indicators, and even US wine is divided into various AVAs, American Viticultural Areas, such as Alexander Valley in Sonoma and Stags Leap in Napa Valley. New World appellations, however, are less well-defined than those in Europe, and typically just refer to the origin of the majority of the grapes—much like the Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT) certification in Italy.

  Date (Vintage): The date on the label refers to the year the grapes were harvested. Some wines, especially white wines and wines from Beaujolais are bottled soon after harvesting, and so the date of harvest and bottling are the same. Other wines may spend several years aging in oak barrels before being bottled. In both cases, the date on the label refers always to the year of harvest. Sherry from Jerez in Spain is made from a mixture of various vintages, some going back one hundred years, which is why bottles of Sherry do not show a vintage date. Likewise, most Champagne is non-vintage and made with a blend of grapes from different years. This is done in order to create a standard house-taste which is consistent over the years, and which is why the label does not show a date. Vintage Champagne is made only when there is an especially good harvest, and then the Vintage Champagne must be made with 100 percent grapes harvested in the year shown on the label.

  Grape Varietal: Traditionally, European wines did not show the varietal of the grape used for making the wine. Based on centuries of experience and tradition, it was commonly understood that wines from Chianti in Tuscany were made with the Sangiovese grape, red wines from Burgundy were made exclusively from Pinot Noir grapes, and Bordeaux wines were made from a blend of grapes dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The only main exception was the wine-growing region of Alsace, which produced a number of different white wines made from an officially approved selection of about six different varietals. Wines from Alsace, therefore, always show the name of the grape varietal.

  But as vineyards were planted in the New World, no such traditions existed; Californian and Australian winegrowers had no prior experience to guide them, and so the type of grape varietal planted was more important than where it was planted. Initially, New World wines were described in terms of the European wines they most resembled—so many Californian red wines were called Burgundies and whites were called Chablis. But in the 1970s, Californian winemakers started to identify their wines by the grape variety used. New World wine labels focused on the name of the grape used to make the wine, while European labels focused on the name of the place where the wine was made.

  Recently, in order to succeed in the US market, many European growers began adding the name of the grape varietal to the label on the bottle.

  Alcohol Level: To comply with US laws, most wine labels now display the alcoholic content of the wine. Traditionally, the alcohol level was controlled by the Appellation, and so did not need to be shown on the label. In other words, to be classified AOC Bordeaux, the wine had to have between a 10-13 percent alcohol level, whereas an AOC Châteauneuf-du-Pape would be between 13-15 percent alcohol, and so there was no need to state this on the label.

  Winemaker: At one extreme, we have the traditional winegrower who harvests his own grapes, ferments, ages, and bottles his own wine, which he then proudly sells under his own label, often with the words “Mis en bouteille à la Propriété” or “Mis en bouteille au Château.” At the other extreme we have a vast tanker ship owned by a multinational corporation, transporting thousands of gallons of wine across the ocean in vast flexitank bladders to be bottled under a brand name at the country of destination before shipping in bulk to large retail chains around the nation.

  Between these two extremes there are many other possibilities. In many wine areas, the farmers will sell their grapes to a local co-op to produce the wine. Traditionally, this was the way wine was produced in the Languedoc area of France, Argentina, So
uth Africa, and California’s Central Valley. The system is fine for producing low-quality table wine in bulk, but provides no incentive to produce wine of higher quality.

  Because the landholdings in Burgundy are often too small for the individual growers to make their own wine, a tradition of wine merchants, or négociants, has developed over the centuries. négociants purchase grapes from select vineyards and produce the wine under their own labels. Most Burgundy négociant families reach back for generations and are highly respected for the quality of their wines. Well-known names from Burgundy include Maison Bouchard Père et Fils (1731), Maison Louis Latour (1797), Maison Louis Jadot (1826), and Maison Joseph Drouhin (1880). A similar system is to be found in England, in which local wine merchants like Harveys (1796) or Berry Bros. & Rudd (1698) have been importing and bottling wine for generations and selling it under their own respected labels.

  In some respects we see the négociant tradition continuing in the New World. A wine producer like Robert Mondavi, for example, grows and makes his own wine from his own grapes. But Mondavi also buys grapes from other growers and bottles that too under his own label. Just as with a négociant like Louis Jadot in Burgundy, as long as he maintains a reputation for high standards, consumers will have confidence in the wines carrying the Mondavi brand name. As globalization increases, this concept of branding becomes increasingly important. Many people would not think of buying a Bulgarian wine labeled Domaine Boyar Mavrud because they know nothing about it; however, if Costco chose to rebrand it under their own label, as Costco Bulgarian Red, people would be happy to try it because they have confidence in the Costco brand.

  In addition to the date of the vintage and the name of the winemaker, the two most important items on a wine label relate to terroir and varietal, and these two terms need more detailed discussion and their own dedicated chapters.