Last week I tasted over fifty wines. And this week, I shall probably taste another fifty. This is not thankfully my AA confessional moment, as you will note of course that I wrote 'tasted', not 'drank', but instead merely part of my job description. One month, I racked up about 500 wines but that was a biggy. Mostly, it's around a couple of hundred. While this is surely a great way to start a career as a drunk (and a few friends may claim a sneaking suspicion) sadly I do (usually!) spit. That's part of the job description as well. A while my friends may think I have a fantastic job drinking wine all day, they forget that it's actually rather hard work tasting wines. Most nights after a big tasting I am to be found snoozing peacefully on the sofa, having drunk an enormous glass of milk, my teeth black with tannin and probably dreaming of gardening, not wine.
But I am not writing this to gain sympathy votes, in fact I am not entirely sure why I have started off in this manner. After all, my plan today was to tell you about what makes a wine great, and why you should drink these wines. But I guess if nothing else, the above explains that I have a bit of experience in the tasting department and that is useful when the result of my tasting is to give guidance to others about which wines are worth seeking out and which should probably have remained as grapes on the vines.
So what really does make a wine great? Sadly, there's no chemical equation that can be followed by winemakers (although there seem to be a few out there who believe there is) that ensures that every bottle of wine waiting on the shelves will guarantee a vinous epiphany but in a way I think that is part of wine's charm. It forces one to get out there and experiment and learn, to find out what sets the bells ringing. However having said that, I think there are a few guidelines to keep in mind, and they are certainly the things I measure a wine against when considering whether I would recommend it to someone to drink.
Firstly, a wine must have balance. There should be harmony in the glass, between the fruit, the oak (if any) the acid, the alcohol, the tannin. All these things must come together and sing in unison, not like some cobbled-together TV show band. There shouldn't be any nasty discordant bits that set your teeth on edge or stick your tongue to your lips. You don't need a lot of experience to see this in a wine, as most people can recognise harmony without too much trouble.
Secondly, there should be concentration and intensity to the wine. Wine can be watered down for children at Christmas or for those driving home, but it shouldn't come out of the bottle that way. There should be an enticing aroma followed by good depth of flavour, preferably one that evolves in your mouth, and lingers on the finish, leaving you wanting more (part of the way I know a wine is really great is that I don't want to spit it out, I want to swallow it then and there).
And thirdly, I think wine should have character. It should speak of its place and of its maker. It should leave you thinking of a hot dusty summer's day, or a cool mountain breeze; it should echo the passion of the people who grew the grapes and made the wine, and make you want to rush out and get another bottle.
Doesn't seem too much to ask from a wine, does it? Sadly though, many wines are made to be much like Coca Cola - the same year in, year out, something to slake a thirst, rather than fire an imagination. I am not a wine snob and I know that there is a good deal of pleasure to be had at the end of a long hard day in opening any old bottle of wine and settling back in a comfy chair. Of course there should be wines serve just this purpose as no one wants an intellectual workout from their wine everyday. But (and it is a big but) it is equally important to seek out, to buy and to drink those wines that are well made, that have balance, have harmony, have intensity, have character — the wines that are great...
EJ
August 2008