Pop a bottle of wine if you are confused about the myths and the truths of the world of wines! Stories around wines revolve as much as they revolve around Rome. The deeper you dig, the more you discover. Well, we all are on the same team, and so we scrolled the internet over a few days to bust some interesting wine myths for you! Get ready to swirl around the stories, sniff the myths, and sip the facts!
Wine Myth 1: Wine Tastes Better With Time!
This is one of the most common wine myths. If you buy a bottle of wine and plan to flaunt it in your bar for a decade, you probably would want to get to know it a little better. As against popular belief, 95% of the wine produced in the world right now is supposed to be drunk within 3-5 years of its production.
That’s not to say that wines should not be aged. It’s about recognizing the wines that are to be aged and the ones that are meant to be drunk young. Only 5 percent of the wines in the world are meant and capable of aging as they become better with time.
Wine Myth 2: The Higher The Price, The Better The Taste
Uh oh! If you believe this, it’s time to burst your balloon. The price of a wine fluctuates due to a plethora of reasons like the quality of the grape at the time of harvest, the manual labor involved during the process, how long the wine was aged before and after bottling, and even on the demand of the wine.
Although the wine that is priced higher might be a safer bet, that doesn’t go out to say that a bottle of wine in the lower price bracket won’t taste just as amazing!
Wine Myth 3: Blended Wines Aren’t As Good As Single Varietal Wines
Let the truth out. This is absolutely wrong. A winemaker can blend wines (from two types of grapes) into a magnificent experience. Blending two wines gives a ‘best of both worlds’ character to the finished product. A winemaker has the opportunity to create an amazing flavor profile by blending wines from different barrels, vineyard plots, or grape varieties.
Wine Myth 4: Corks Are Better Than Screw Caps
The joy that comes from popping a cork, or as the reels suggest- sabering with glass is absolutely above all. However, wine bottles bottled under cork age differently as the cork is porous, which allows small amounts of oxygen to enter the wine bottle and enhance the flavor during the aging process. This is called micro-oxygenation. Whereas screw-capped bottles completely seal the wine. This prevents any additional oxygen from entering the wine bottle. Screw caps are becoming more and more common due to their feasibility both on the wallet of the winemaker and mother nature. Winemakers are bottling their younger and fresher styles of wines that are meant to be drunk within 3-5 years are bottled under screw caps. In contrast, finer wines are bottled under cork as it ages better with micro-oxygenation.
Wine Myth 5: Blame The Wine Sulfites For The Headache
The sulfite quantity does make it to the label of EVERY wine bottle. But it is placed there purely to create caution for people with asthma, asthmatic symptoms, or the ones with a sulfite allergy. Only if sulfite was really to blame for the headache, you might actually want to consider that the alcohol present can spin your head too.
There can be a few reasons behind the headache:-
1. You are sensitive to sulfites.
2. You are dehydrated. Dehydration is usually the most common reason behind wine headaches. So, next time you pour a glass of wine, don’t forget your glass of water!
Fun Fact! Your daily consumption of things like potatoes, pickles, dry fruits, and many more have an incomparable quantity greater than that in wine.
Wine Myth 6: Red Wine Must Be Served At Room Temperature
The myth goes all the way back to those days in Europe when there was no central heating, and the average temperature in a European house was 18 degrees Celsius. Today, in some parts of the world, the temperature reaches a high of 45 degrees. As the temperature can make or break a good wine experience, it is better to chill your red wines a bit in the fridge and consume it around 15-18 degrees. You’ll notice it tastes way better when consumed at the right temperature.
Wine Myth 7: The Taste Of Wine Has No Link To The Place It Was Grown In
This one is completely untrue! In winemaking, the major factors that affect the quality of a wine are the climatic conditions, the terrain, the type, and the quality of the soil. All of these factors, collectively, are called terroir. Therefore, a Chardonnay from France will taste completely different from a Chardonnay in India due to the terroir of both these places.
Wine Myth 8: The Quality Of A Wine Can Be Predicted From Its Legs & Tears
When you pour the wine into the glass and give it a good swirl, the inside has texture going down. This swirling texture is known as the wine tears or wine legs. The wine myths suggest that the appearance of these legs or tears speculate the quality of the wine. However, this is not the case. The density of the wine, its alcoholic strength, and its intensity create variation in the swirls of different kinds of wines.
Wine Myth 9: Reds For The Meat, And Whites For The Fish
Whenever you ask a wine lover about the pairing of wine with meat or fish, they will look at you surprisingly, often say, ‘Don’t you know red is for the meat, and white is for the fish?’ But unfortunately, this myth also surrenders itself to the fact that it is the heaviness of the taste of the food that makes pairing interesting. The intensity of its flavor also needs to be considered when pairing wine. A fatty fish like Salmon can be paired with a light-bodied, high acid red wine like a Pinot Noir than a light-bodied white wine like Sauvignon Blanc. Another example can be a kebab made in a tandoor being paired with a red like Malbec. The tandoor lends smokiness to the food, thus, increasing the intensity of flavor, which goes really well with a fuller-bodied wine like Malbec.
If you are a wine lover, you must head onto Book A Workshop and sign yourself up for the online workshops on demand about Wine by renowned wine sommeliers and winemakers from around the country.
