By Denman Moody.
In Europe, wine has been thought of as part of a meal for hundreds of years. I sat down to meals in Italy, France and Spain when I was in my 20s, and I don’t remember anyone discussing the wines. After every bite or so of food, people would simply pick up their glass of wine and take a drink.
At professional tastings, tasters swirl the wine around in the glass vigorously in an attempt to release the aroma or bouquet. Serious enophiles do the same thing, as well as sticking their noses deep into the glass to harvest some fruit or floral components of the wine, and every once in a while, grin knowingly and say something like, “blackberries” or “figs.” There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. It’s a bit like a symphony lover sighing with delight on hearing a perfectly played melody or new arrangement.
Following are some little hints for facilitating an enhanced enjoyment of wine:
1—If you can, use a proper wine glass without a “lip” around the top inside of the glass. This “lip” spreads out the wine instead of the wine going directly into your mouth and negatively affects the taste profile.
2—Only fill the glass 1/3 to ½ full. Therefore, a 10- or 12-ounce glass should be just right in most instances. This way, you can experience a nice bouquet if you take a whiff.
3—In most instances, don’t worry about wine “breathing.” Just pour it in the glass and drink it.
4—The rule about holding the glass by the stem so you won’t heat up the wine is baloney. Think about it—if you have a glass of white wine that is 40-45 degrees, and you pick it up occasionally between bites of food, but hold it by the bowl, does anyone really think it will shoot up to some untenable temperature? And if you do hold it long enough to really affect the temperature, by that time the glass will be empty, so who cares? Unfortunately, this rule is so ensconced now, that one must hold the glass by the stem to appear to be within the rules of wine etiquette.
5—White wine with seafood, white or a light- or medium-red wine with chicken, and bigger reds, like Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz, with beef or lamb is a great general rule. But there are exceptions. One is that if you like Chardonnay with your steak, it’s really nobody’s business but yours. As I’ve stated many times, your palate is the best palate in the world for you! Another is Pinot Noir (red) with grilled salmon. The list goes on and on.
6—Finally, how to avoid hangovers (or at least such bad ones):
a.) Don’t drink so much—Duh!
b.)—If you know you’re going to have several glasses of wine with dinner, avoid mixed drinks or beer before dinner
c.)—As soon as you start drinking, start eating. Having two glasses of sparkling wine or white wine on an empty stomach prior to a wine dinner is a recipe for a hangover, not to mention some personality-altering residuals
d.)—If you know you will be having a dessert wine like Port or Sauternes, have less wine with your meal. The combination of the high alcohol (Sauternes around 15% and Port around 18%), and the substantial, natural residual sugar in these wines can exacerbate the effects of too much wine and food. When having a dessert wine, a recommended regimen would be no more than 6 ounces of white wine or sparkling wine with the hors d’oeuvres or appetizer, 6 ounces of red with the entrée and 4 ounces of the dessert wine. As long as I don’t exceed this, I don’t think about the words Tums, Rolaids, Prylosec, Alka-Seltzer, Advil or Benadryl.
In Europe, wine has been thought of as part of a meal for hundreds of years. I sat down to meals in Italy, France and Spain when I was in my 20s, and I don’t remember anyone discussing the wines. After every bite or so of food, people would simply pick up their glass of wine and take a drink.
At professional tastings, tasters swirl the wine around in the glass vigorously in an attempt to release the aroma or bouquet. Serious enophiles do the same thing, as well as sticking their noses deep into the glass to harvest some fruit or floral components of the wine, and every once in a while, grin knowingly and say something like, “blackberries” or “figs.” There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. It’s a bit like a symphony lover sighing with delight on hearing a perfectly played melody or new arrangement.
Following are some little hints for facilitating an enhanced enjoyment of wine:
1—If you can, use a proper wine glass without a “lip” around the top inside of the glass. This “lip” spreads out the wine instead of the wine going directly into your mouth and negatively affects the taste profile.
2—Only fill the glass 1/3 to ½ full. Therefore, a 10- or 12-ounce glass should be just right in most instances. This way, you can experience a nice bouquet if you take a whiff.
3—In most instances, don’t worry about wine “breathing.” Just pour it in the glass and drink it.
4—The rule about holding the glass by the stem so you won’t heat up the wine is baloney. Think about it—if you have a glass of white wine that is 40-45 degrees, and you pick it up occasionally between bites of food, but hold it by the bowl, does anyone really think it will shoot up to some untenable temperature? And if you do hold it long enough to really affect the temperature, by that time the glass will be empty, so who cares? Unfortunately, this rule is so ensconced now, that one must hold the glass by the stem to appear to be within the rules of wine etiquette.
5—White wine with seafood, white or a light- or medium-red wine with chicken, and bigger reds, like Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz, with beef or lamb is a great general rule. But there are exceptions. One is that if you like Chardonnay with your steak, it’s really nobody’s business but yours. As I’ve stated many times, your palate is the best palate in the world for you! Another is Pinot Noir (red) with grilled salmon. The list goes on and on.
6—Finally, how to avoid hangovers (or at least such bad ones):
a.) Don’t drink so much—Duh!
b.)—If you know you’re going to have several glasses of wine with dinner, avoid mixed drinks or beer before dinner
c.)—As soon as you start drinking, start eating. Having two glasses of sparkling wine or white wine on an empty stomach prior to a wine dinner is a recipe for a hangover, not to mention some personality-altering residuals
d.)—If you know you will be having a dessert wine like Port or Sauternes, have less wine with your meal. The combination of the high alcohol (Sauternes around 15% and Port around 18%), and the substantial, natural residual sugar in these wines can exacerbate the effects of too much wine and food. When having a dessert wine, a recommended regimen would be no more than 6 ounces of white wine or sparkling wine with the hors d’oeuvres or appetizer, 6 ounces of red with the entrée and 4 ounces of the dessert wine. As long as I don’t exceed this, I don’t think about the words Tums, Rolaids, Prylosec, Alka-Seltzer, Advil or Benadryl.
November 9th, 2009 in
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Experimentation can yield excellent pairings
Food and wine pairings are all the rage. After all, we’re always looking for a synergism in which both the wine and food taste better together than either one possibly could by itself.
Some of the old favorites are oysters and Vouvray from the Loire Valley in France; goat cheese and Sauvignon Blanc, including Pouilly-Fume and Sancerre from the Loire Valley; rack of lamb with Bordeaux; fowl with Pinot Noir, including Burgundy; and paté or caviar with champagne.
The saying that “white wine goes with fish and red wine goes with meat” is generally correct, in my opinion. However, there are lots of exceptions. For example, grilled salmon goes well with Pinot Noir, particularly from California or Oregon. A local trout cooked in red wine with a great red Burgundy was a smashing success at the Hotel de la Poste in Beaune, France. And if one wants to have a Bordeaux with fish, halibut and swordfish can work well.
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June 28th, 2009 in
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Pairings |
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Around the same period of history that our Civil War was coming to a close, a tiny, almost microscopic louse (read, ugly little bug) was accidentally imported, probably from the eastern United States, by Europe. The native East Coast vines somehow had become immune to the parasite’s potential danger. However, once in Europe, it multiplied and spread to such an extent that the non-immune vinifera vines of Europe—Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Chardonnay, Riesling, etc.—were systematically devastated. Read the rest of this entry »
January 21st, 2009 in
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The first and best example of this issue descends from the unbelievable Chateau Gruaud-Larose tasting and feasting held in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1990. A number of American and European wine professionals attended. Of the 1975 vintage, several Europeans, including David Peppercorn, M.W., really liked the 1975 Gruaud-Larose because it was closed-up, austere and tannic.
Several Americans, including myself, disliked the 1975 because it was still closed-up, austere and tannic!
From my wine-loving beginnings, I have followed the British press, especially Michael Broadbent, now chairman emeritus of the wine department for Christie’s in London. I have always found most of these writers to be less impressed with a young red that has huge, bold, awesome, over-the-top blockbuster fruit and more impressed with a young red that is complex, well-structured, moderately (or even substantially) tannic and rich with a harmonious fruit/acid balance.
Now here’s the confusing part. Primarily because of the weather, north coast California wines have more fruit–sometimes gobs more. This is because of extremely ripe grapes. However, all the sunshine results in less natural acidity and usually, because of vinification methods, among other things, less tannin. So one would expect that the European palate would not go gaga over our wines.
As a matter of fact, I can tell you that on numerous occasions, starting with the fabulous Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon 1974– which I shared in the early ‘80s with European friends who knew the wine was from America—the reception was less than enthusiastic.
On the other hand, there was the famous Paris tasting in 1976 in which all French experts chose Chateau Montelena Napa Chardonnay 1973 and Stag’s Leap Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 1973 over other fabled French wines. Of course, this was a blind tasting. I’m certain the results would have been vastly different had they known what they were tasting.
Some of the French judges were furious. At least one claimed that the tasting had been rigged by the host, Steven Spurrier—ironically a Londoner. But Steven has stated to me personally and in an article he wrote for me in the ‘80s that he did nothing of the sort. If there is a European Palate, it is strange that nine French experts picked a ripe-fruit $10 California Cabernet Sauvignon over fabled Chateau Mouton-Rothschild and Chateau Haut Brion from excellent vintages, and a ripe-fruit $10 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay over some fabled white Burgundies.
It has been proven on many occasions that California wines with all that ripe fruit and lower natural acidity, win blind tastings. However, many European wines, with less fruit, more acidity and more complexity, are a better complement to many foods. The moral of such stories is that American palate or European palate, quality usually comes through, especially in blind tastings!
January 21st, 2009 in
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Sixty years ago, there were few people in the United States who regularly drank wine with their meals. Conversely, in Italy and France wine was considered an uncomplicated, civilized and simple pleasure that accompanied every meal.
Changes began to occur in this country when numerous soldiers returned from World War II with some newly acquired knowledge of dining with wine. But it was just a start. Even by the early ‘70s, I remember that most customers at a good steakhouse preceded dinner with a mixed drink and did not order wine.
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My thesis is that there is no “best” temperature to serve wine. One expert I know thinks the best temperature to serve red wine is 62 degrees F. Martin Ray, a famous California winemaker of the past, liked his Cabernet best at 81 degrees!
The legendary Andre Tchelistcheff of B.V. Private Reserve fame (winemaker from 1938-1972) came to Houston in 1979 for a vertical B.V. Private Reserve Cabernet tasting that I organized. The wines were taken to the wine cellar at the Petroleum Club the day before. The temperature was 65 degrees then and at the tasting the next day. Andre later told me that he thought the wines were a little too cold and could not show their best at that temperature. Read the rest of this entry »
Wine Trends By Denman Moody
In 2003, I wrote an article for “Houston Lifestyles and Homes” (and updated it here in 2005) about the wine scene in 2010. Some of my predictions that have already begun to materialize are:
1—After Italy in the ‘80s and Australia in the ‘90s and early ‘00s, Spain is the new wunderkind of the wine world. Priorat, Toro, Jumilla, Yecla, Rias Baixas, Campo de Borja and Catalayud are the “hot” regions, and Garnacha, Albarino and Verdejo are some of the “hot” grapes.
2—Riesling, particularly from the East Coast, is quickly gaining in popularity. With the vast majority of sommeliers and wine writers singing its praises, particularly as a “food” wine, it’s a can’t-miss.
3—Cabernet Franc is used for blending in significantly larger percentages. Dalla Valle started this trend with Heidi Barrett’s Maya, a 50-50 blend with Cabernet Sauvignon. This creation resulted in one of the best wines in the world.
4—What started with the “French Paradox,” the flight to drinking red wines is even more of a massive trend. Just last month, a study (on worms, no less) showed the beneficial effects of the highly acclaimed antioxidant resveratrol. Although the study implied that pills or red grape juice worked just as well, a comprehensive study from a Ph.D. in the late ‘90s concluded that the effect could only be obtained from wine, particularly red wine. As a matter of fact, in the recent study, the worms were given an amount of resveratrol equal to what a human would acquire from something like 100 glasses of red wine a day. Perhaps at that level, the pills would work.
Now that we’re about halfway between 2003 and 2010, what else is on the prognostication radar? Read the rest of this entry »
