Recently I was reading this book on wines by a friend and she made a very pertinent point. Unlike all other writers (and, I?m sorry to admit, including me too somewhere) she said she wasn?t going to try and make wines simple. She said wine is a complicated beverage and gets even more so everyday so we should stop trying to do the impossible. Instead we must try and understand it so that we can enjoy it better. Very valid a point. That was Jennifer Rosen in her new book, Cork Jester, the lightest way of learning to admire the heaviest of wines!
Wines are fermented grape juice, I remember an old man shouting when I was a young sommelier trying to expound on the qualities of a Pinot Noir. He said he had drunk wine with his food and without fuss and always enjoyed it. He didn?t much care for what it did for his health, or for his country?s economy!
But meanwhile we are all trying to simplify wines. Well this is what I can offer. Wine is rightly so nothing but fruit juice which has been fermented. Thing is, that this simple definition can make for a variety larger than even whisky or any other spirit you can think of.
The biggest variety in the world of wines comes from grapes. There are so many varieties available and they can make for such different wines. Even the same grape will grow differently in different soils and climates and that is largely why wines from no two places can ever taste alike. In fact even same wines from two different harvest years don?t taste the same. And that is a good thing mind you. I mean why would you want to buy a uni-dimensional product that costs so much? No sir, Coca-Cola will do just fine for that!
People debate too much over ageing and drinking a wine. Well get this guys, all wine will evolve (even inside the bottle) but not all will mature?some will become absolutely elegant stunners while others will find place as kitchen vinegar! More pragmatically, we all should buy wine to drink, not to worship!
In the end the biggest question that I get most commonly is this ? which is the best wine. Well I generally have two answers for this. The first is this ? the best wine is the one I am currently drinking, or holding in my hand. I mean if I chose to drink it then, surely it won amongst a choice of many more? The other answer I give is this ? the best wine is the one that we are happy paying for. Hotel margins notwithstanding, if a wine makes you take that irrational illogical decision to splurge on a bottle, the kind of wine that even your wife can?t refuse but will give you hell over once you get home ? that?s the best wine!
Beyond that, the sommelier with his tasting notes, his odd silver cup and what nots is just part of the enjoyment of wine. Think of it as a side act. Yes, I am still proud to be a sommelier?I love working for my master, wine! And just when I start complicating things with vintage quality, secondary fermentation and tertiary aromas of slow barrel-ageing, and just generally start ranting like an insupportable wine-snob, just tap me on the head and remind me dutifully, ?It is just fermented grape juice!? and I?ll sincerely thank you and politely back off?I know a true connoisseur when I smell one!
?The writer is a sommelier