Terry's Wine Tutorial

©Terry Mullin, MS, MBA, EdD-ABD Spring 2013 – reprint by permission only Introduction This handout is something I compiled from the Internet to help fellow servers be more knowledgeable about wines. It is divided up into many small sections and is not intended to be read at one time. The hope is that there will The Climate .............................................................. 18 be enough information here to not only make The Soil .................................................................... 18 you more familiar with wines, but you will also have interesting facts that you can discuss with The Wine Making Process........................................ 18 your tables to make the guests’ dining Food and Wine Pairing ............................................ 19 experience more enjoyable. Bon Chance! The Health Benefits of Red Wine ............................. 21 Terry Synthetic & Real Wine Corks ................................... 21 Components Of A Wine Glass .................................. 23 Table of Contents Video On How Barrels Are Made ............................. 25 Aerating & Decanting .............................................. 25 History of Italian Wine ............................................... 2 Body – light, medium, full ........................................ 26 Italian Wine Regions ................................................. 3 Tannins .................................................................... 26 Italian Wine’s 4 categories......................................... 4 Fun Facts .................................................................. 27 History of French Wine .............................................. 5 Toasts ....................................................................... 32 10 Wine Regions of France: ....................................... 6 Terminology ............................................................. 32 German Wine............................................................. 7 Maps ........................................................................ 39 Understanding Different Types of Wines .................. 8 Types Of White Wine Grapes .................................... 9 Types Of Red Wine Grapes ...................................... 10 Types Of Sparkling Wine .......................................... 12 California Wine Regions ........................................... 13 Does Wine Serving Temperature Matter? ............... 16 The Grape ................................................................ 17 1 History of Italian Wine Historians generally agree that wine was probably discovered accidentally in the Fertile Crescent area (see map below), the region between the Nile and Persian Gulf during the time of the world's first civilizations between 4000 and 3000 B.C. As small settlements grew into city-states and trade began to develop on a large scale throughout the Mediterranean, the grape was transported by Phoenicians, Greeks http://sedimentality.com/wine-history/the- and Romans until the knowledge of winemaking history-of-wine-in-italy/ spread throughout the Mediterranean region and eventually through much of Europe. The Italian attitude toward food and wine: “If someone drinks a little too much wine, Nile River the Italians don’t say he has Persian Gulf drunk too much. They say he hasn’t eaten enough food”. It was the Greeks who first recognized Italy’s Christian monks of northern Italy and France potential for wine. After settling in present-day kept records of their winemaking practices and Sicily and southern Italy, the Greeks were so grape cultivation. These records helped various impressed with the fertile land that they regions match themselves with the best variety decided to import vines and give the land the grape for their soil. By 1800, it was France that name Oenotria, which means “land of wine”. would be recognized as the best of the wine- producing regions of the world. The Etruscans (pre Italy-now Tuscany) were the http://www.lifeinitaly.com/wines/history.asp ancient eco-technicians what understood how to use Mother Earth in wine making. After With a wine history dating back more than crushing the grapes, they poured the “must” 4,000 years and a climate ideally suited to (crushed grapes and juice) into clay containers viticulture (the science of grape-growing), Italy which were buried deep in the ground where is one of the most diverse winemaking the temperature was considerably lower. When countries in the world. the fermentation cycle was completed, the wine was then stored in cellars located even The Etruscans, followed by the Romans, took a deeper in the earth in the fermentation vessels great interest in winemaking to age. (See vessels image in the next column.) skills. The Roman god of wine, Bacchus, had so many festivals 2 that celebrated him and got so out of hand that aging requirements and other winemaking the Roman Senate eventually banned them. quality controls. http://www.worldwidewinetours. With the rise of Catholicism and the importance com/italy/italian-wine.html of wine as part of the sacrament, Italy continued to refine winemaking techniques throughout the middle ages, firmly cementing an international reputation for making a wide variety of excellent wines. In the nineteenth century, along with much of Northern Europe, the vine virus phylloxera took hold and destroyed many of Italy’s vineyards. Replanted vineyards were often designed with maximum quantity, not quality in mind. Thus, Italy became a global source of inexpensive table wines. It was not until the 1960s when a series of laws were passed to control wine quality and labeling that the modern era of winemaking began. Today, Italian wines are more varied and more popular than ever. In spite of losses to phylloxera, hundreds of varietals are planted, During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries many that are grown only in Italy. An Italian wine was often criticized for its poor astonishing range of red, white and sparkling quality. The government responded to this wines made in every style from traditional to criticism by establishing the DOCG ultra-modern are enjoyed by critics, collectors (Denominazione di origine controllata) and and consumers throughout the world. Italy’s stricter wine regulations. Both the quality and wine future is just as bright as its storied past. the reputation of the wine improved. http://www.worldwidewinetours.com/italy/itali http://sedimentality.com/wine-history/the- an-wine.html history-of-wine-in-italy/ Italian Wine Regions It was commonplace in Roman culture to add honey or other sweetness to their wines and to water them down so they could consume larger Over its long history, modern Italy evolved from amounts of wine. The Romans may have had a loose collection of city-states. Today’s twenty some strange ideas when it came to serving wine regions line up with the political borders their wine, but they deserve credit for that grew out of the city-states of the past. improving many winemaking processes. They Wine is made in all twenty regions and follows introduced the use of trellises to keep the the European system of laws based on very grapes off the ground and to create a canopy specific geographical areas, grape varietals, 3 that made more use of sunlight, improved Today, Italy is most noted for its noble reds Greek wine presses to extract more juice and such as: were masters of determining which grapes thrived in which climates leading to higher Chianti Classico quality wines and bigger yields. Barbaresco Barolo The Romans may have also been the first to Brunello recognize potential in a wine, and preferred wines aged ten to twenty-five years. The but a wide array of popular white wines are Romans also realized that to effectively age also produced including: wines, they needed airtight containers, and thus invented the wooden barrel and might have Pinot Grigio also been the first to use glass jars and corks. Soave Arneis At the height of the Roman Empire, wines were exported to other parts of Europe, and other as well as sparkling wines such as: regions adopted the winemaking practices that the Romans invented or improved upon. But Asti with the fall of the Roman Empire, demand for Prosecco wine decreased. Although some Roman Catholic monks continued to produce wine during the The depth and breadth of Italian wine Dark Ages, its popularity did not increase until encompasses everything from bone dry to ultra- the Renaissance. sweet, red, white, rose, sparkling and fortified. http://sedimentality.com/wine-history/the- http://www.worldwidewinetours.com/italy history-of-wine-in-italy/ /italian-wine.html Wine laws in Italy are very complex, forcing some of Italy’s most exciting new wines to be The family of Pinot grapes: Pinot lumped in with simple table wines because of Noir, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Gris - winemaking and labeling restrictions. In 1992, a refers to the characteristic pine- new classification called IGT was added to allow cone shape of the grape clusters. some stylistic flexibility without decreasing quality. Italian Wine’s 4 categories: Vino de Tavola (VGT) Indicazione Georafica Tipica ( IDT) Denominzaion di Origine Controllata (DOC) Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) On the bottles specifically, people see these categories abbreviated as VGT, IDT, DOC and 4 DOCG respectively. The first two categories invaded, wine was firmly established as a (VGT, IDT) refer to table wines, while the last trading commodity and a part of everyday

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