Tannins, polyphenolics, Yin and Yang

Hei, I have been busy again and it seems it won't get less in the near future. Anyway I am feeling much better since my last post even tho all the work. Its getting recently more and more Spring alike in Finland, which means more sun! Thats a good boost for a lot more work coming up and also encountering some more outside activities! YES!!

After I have been posting the last time always about some private stuff mixed together with some basic and advanced wine "wisdom" I think its time to go a little bit more into detail again. So today its all about tannins.

What the hell are tannins? Some of you might know what it is or from where they come from, others might just wonder cause all the time tannins is somewhere written on a bottle and so whatever. Then again other associate headache with tannins. Yeah well tannins are like a part of the Yin and Yang system of the wine. Why? To explain this I have to start from actually a very interesting question is: 'What is/are tannin/s?'

Red grapes
(c) Wikipedia; User Dragonflyir

Well the word tannin is under wine-knowing people used to describes all the polyphenolics in the wine. Okay no what are polyphenolics? Polyphenolics are a class of chemical substances that are produced by the grapes (normally much more in red than in white wines) and are a part of the plant defense/protection system. I guess you are getting no more confused. Alright lets make it easier to understand.
If you have a look onto a red grape. What do you see? Of course the red color! AHA! There you go! So polyphenolics are the red stuff in the grapes. Yes some of these polyphenolics are responsible for the color. In general the term polyphenolics in chemistry and biochemistry represents a huge and wide class of different chemical compounds (they do have some common similarities, otherwise it would be stupid to put them under all the same term, ain't?).

However you won't find polyphenolics not only the skin of the red grape, but also everywhere in the grape. Of course not all of them will give you a red color, some don't have any color, but nevertheless they contribute to the health and immune system of the plant and later also for our own health (I will come back to this in a short while).

Polyphenolics are substances that are produced by the plant in the secondary metabolism (its called like this because this metabolism is not primary necessary for the plant, but can be very very very advantageous; however it also cost the plant much more energy to produce these). Some other products of the secondary metabolism you might see in trees: Lignin is also a product of the secondary metabolism.

So polyphenolics are acting on one hand as radical scavenger. Radicals are generally produced in every organism under stress and can be harmful for the health. Therefore if you can somehow reduce these radicals its definitely good. On the other hand are working other polyphenolics like antibacterial and anti-fungal substance. Which means they either reduce the growth of harmful organisms or simply kills them (in high concentrations). A third advantage of polyphenolics is that some can absorb light (at least the one's which 'have' the color). We know all the results for having too much sun on our skin? Sunburn! So of course the plant tries also to reduce the sun influence to a certain degree. 

To summarize some traits of the polyphenolics and what they can do:
1) Act as radical scavenger

2) Act like antibacterial and anti-fungal substances

3) Act as shield against too much sun damaging effects

Coming back to tannins. I said: "Well the word tannin is under wine-knowing people used to describes all the polyphenolics in the wine". That is true but often wine people do intend to use the word tannins most of the time for the polyphenolics that are the skin of the grape! That is because tannins are highly concentrated in the skin of grapes, to protect the grape at all costs. Also these tannins will give later the wine the color and the taste. So here we come to the part about the "dark" nature of tannins. The tannins are generally know for a "bitter" taste and also causing for some people headache or even stomach problems. It is the balance and the composition of the amount of different tannins and different grapes (we just leave also reasons and occurrences during the fermentation aside for now) that results in this unbelievable dark nature of wine. 

I haven't read or heard a specific reason why some people react towards tannins with headache or even stomach problems. Even I sometimes can have troubles, that is depending on my personal feeling and stress level. So I guess as always it depends on the concentration of tannins that you uptake (okay now sounds like a medical description). On some days you are able to handle a lot and sometimes, well, less. However personally I think it also must have something to do with the receptors in our body that might react with different tannins differently (I don't have a number of how many different tannins are in nature, but believe me there are a lot. And "a lot" is not starting in hundreds).  

But we also know that tannins can have a "white" nature as well. And that is the health benefits, like radical scavenger and even more interesting immune system boosting and also helping to prevent heart-diseases. The latter part is also because of the so called polyphenolic "Resveratrol" which causes the so called "French Paradox" (that is seeing French people with quite - well formed - bellies and not suffering from heart diseases; cause they always have a glass of wine with food!!!). As we see here again you can never have just positive or negative of something. You will always have both. 

So I hope you know have much more knowledge about the tannins, polyphenolics, Yin and Yang in wine. I will now head out and enjoy the rest of the sunny day outside! Hope you do the same!
À bientôt mes amis!

PS: I most probably won't be able to post anything next week due to the fact that I will attend at the weeding of two of my best friends and also will have some guests staying Helsinki.  

Wine and "The Hunger Games"

Books!!!

M'enfin (finally!) I am back. Yeah it took like 2 weeks until I was ready to post something again. After my South Korean Co-worker Choi left I took 4 days off and had some nice Holidays. I needed some time to get my head free and also smell some fresh air after being stucked most of time in the office or at home (chores never waits....). I felt refreshed after these 4 days, however I got another bill to pay. The bill of overdoing it with my body the last weeks. So I didn't feel well and needed some more time to get back. So far I feel much better, still quite tired, however now looking forward to some Easter Holy-Days where I can rest some more. 

During the time after my 4 days of vacation I stayed most of the time (if not at work) at home and read a book. I haven't had the time to read a book or felt in any way to do so for a long time (reading so many publications at work makes you tired of seeing written pages), but after the 4 days I was trying it. I started to read "The Hunger Games". A book which is currently a major movie in the cinemas. To be honest I am not particular interested in books that get hyped up by advertisement or if people say you have to read it. I feel quite rebellious concerning books 'cause everybody has different taste (like with wines). However I must say even tho it is original a book for youngster/mid-adolescents it is really good! I read the first book in 4 days and now nearly reach the first half of the second book. I also watched the movie, which I must say didn't came close to the book, but hey its a movie and making a movie out of a book is - I guess - a very difficult thing. Anyway if you are interested in something easy and fast reading + a good story, then go for it. 

But enough of the book here, lets come back to something also very interesting: wine.
So yesterday when it started to snow again in Helsinki (we got like 20 cm of new snow the last two days) I suddenly felt like I needed something that reminds me of the summer. I picked up a foie gras du canard (its liver pâte from the duck), grabbed some fresh baked white bread and opened up a nice little bottle of Muscato d'Asti (a sweet white wine).

Bloc du foie gras du canard
(block of liver pâte from the duck)

Now here we have something new! What is a sweet wine, what is it good for and whats is a Muscadet? Uff a lot to explain and I try to make it short.
So a sweet wine is a wine that has a relatively low percentage of alcohol and a lot of remaining/rest-sugar. Why low percentage? Easy answer, because the alcohol is a product of the fermentation of the sugar of the grapes by the yeast/fungus and if you have a high rest-sugar in the wine, well then you definitely won't have too much alcohol in it. Also the higher the rest-sugar is in the wine the more toxic becomes the alcohol towards the yeast/fungus during the fermentation; so there is a limitation of the ability yeast to produce alcohol.

But how come that there is so much rest-sugar in it? Well that depends of some factors again. One is that the grapes have lost a lot of water because of some "noble rot" (Botrytis cinerea, a fungus that can infect wine grapes and cause loss of water) or that the weather conditions made the grapes skin fracturing.

Botrytis cinerea on Riesling grapes
(c) Wikipedia, owner Tom Maack

In the first case those wines are called "Auslese-Weine" (sorry only German word for this available). These wines are classified according to their alc/rest-sugar amount and also of the "kind" of berries that were used. The lowest classification is, if I am not mistaken "Beerenlese" and the highest is "Trockenbeerenauslese". Since you won't get so much juice out of grapes which have lost a lot of water already, you won't be able to produce many bottles. Vice versa this means that these bottles are not easy to get and very very expensive. In Germany you can pay between 8 - 20 € depending from which region and the producer (in Alko I saw a bottle of "Beerenlese" for 24 €, Mon Dieu! I don't wanna think of the price for the "Trocken-Beerenauslese"... ca va fait mal (translation: this is going to hurt)). Btw the classification of "Beerenlese and co." is a german one, so you won't find anything like this somewhere else. Of course other countries have different names for this, but the Germans have a lot of different sweet white wines since they are something like World Champions in White wine making. However please bear in mind that these sweet wine's are also called Dessert Wines due to their high rest-sugar. Normally you serve them together with desserts.
Just to mention here there is also something from Germany called an "Eiswein" (engl. translation: Ice wine). Because the grapes of this white wine have lost a lot of water thanks to frost and according to the rules the grapes are not allowed to be harvest before a certain day in January (I think its the 7th...not 100% sure). And obviously this one is even more rarely cause you have to gamble as a producer and hope you will get frost and a cold winter in January, so you won't gamble to high and use just some grape-vines.

But back the Sauternes and Muscadet. The Sauternes is a white wine from the "Sauternes"-region in France, and like with the "Beerenauslese" these grapes have lost a lot of water do to "noble-rot" (B. cinerea). The Muscadet on the other hand is made from grape variety 'Melon de Bourgogne'. However this wine is also sweet but if I a remember it right because the wine will "lay" on the yeast. While the yeast is disintegrated over time some compounds will get into the wine and give it special taste. These wines are a little less expensive than the others mentioned above.

Sweet white wine from
Alko Shop.

So the combination of foie gras and Muscadet is quite common in France (at least in the Southern parts) and both taste: Foie gras very fatty and Muscadet very sweet are quite well fitting to each other. However the Italian Muscato D'Asti (= Muscadet who has some carbon dioxide and sparkles) was from the taste sensation to strong personally. With all the carbon dioxide at the beginning I was not able to enjoy the foie gras. After the sparkling was gone it was very suitable to the foie gras.

Ca sera tous! (Thats all!) for today. Hope you enjoyed it! A bientôt mes amis!

Special - Last weekend....part 2

So now the 2nd part of the special....getting right to the point:

Me, smelling a special wine
and in the typical French
outfit

The special bottle. Well my dad actually gave me 2 of those, next to some others. However these 2 bottles were very special. The first one I opened up on Christmas last year and shared it with my mother. Je crois au Dieu! (French expression of something phenomenal: I blieve in God) This bottle was awesome. The first impression was overwhelming. The smell was so intensive and also so nice and not too strong, but I was having quite difficulties to taste anything in the beginning. Finally after 2h I tasted something, but also then the alcohol of the wine (14,5%) kicked in. I was having during that time my second glass and had to withdraw....withdraw....withdraw?? "What am I talking about here?" you might think. Yes I had to leave the rest of the wine in the glass and couldn't enjoy it much longer. Why? Well the wine was just too good to be true and also not ready. Okay I might have the feeling you might be now more confused or can't followed me at all. 

So what I am actually talking about? Well its somehow difficult to explain and also because you might have never encountered such kind of wine before. Nor you might face one without guidance or someone who is showing it to you. I am actually talking about a wine that is special. So special that you should buy like 12 bottles and stores it for the next decades, at least one or two decades. 

I would like to explain it to you by asking from another point of view: "What are actually the requirements for a wine that can be stored for many years, decades, if not centuries?" As simple as it might seem here the answer to this particular question it is even more difficult than to find one of these wines. The right balance. The right balance of what? The right balance of tannins, aroma compounds and alcohol percentage. I think you might get now an idea of what I am talking about. So if that is true what I keep writing here than that would actually mean the more tannins, the more aroma compounds and the more alcohol the better and longer I might can stored the bottle and let it develop itself? Yes you are absolutely right! But for only one type of wine. 

To keep now the confusing to a minimum and also the frustration. I am sorry this is a complicated question and let me remind you of one thing I mentioned in my earlier posts: Wine is a mystery and as it is also its making. So to be honest, you will never 100% know what are the ingredients for a wine that can be stored for decades. The problem of all of it is the balance and no one can describe the perfect balance of every compound in the wine to have a special wine. Every wine has different kind of grape(s) and also the percentage of different grapes might differ. Also how much sun did the vintage had? What was the weather conditions. These are just a few things which influence the outcome of the wine.

My Italian coworker checking if
I do a good decanting. Also he
smelled the wine!

Making it short from here on by asking: How do you recognize a special wine? 

1) It should have a lot of tannins - no doubt, the more the better.

2) The aroma compounds should be high and rich. 

3) The alcohol, well that is not such a crucial point. Of course if you have a decent amount you might have less "contamination" problems during the fermentation. 

4) It all depends on the balance of the 3 before mentioned points. 

5) When you open up the bottle it will take much time (at least 1-2h) until you might taste something specific.

6) The smell is overwhelming when opening up the bottle or decanting it. 

7) You buy 12 bottles of wine and taste the first now. The second in 5 years, re-evaluate it and then taste the 3rd after 10 years. You either keep trying to consume the remain one's if you realize you can't store them any longer. Or if you are lucky - you can store them even longer.

Especially point No. 7 is important. Even the most sophisticated wine sommeliers or wine taster might not be able to predict the future of a wine. They might be able to assume that a certain wine is going to be great in decades and also how long you should store it. But still, everything is up to the conditions where and how the wine is stored, if the wine maker did a good job, if nature was grateful and created a piece of outstanding quality and - actually my favor - how lucky you are! 

I hope I made it somehow a little bit more clearer to you. So lets get to the interesting point: "Which wine was I actually opening up?" Curious? Here it is:

Name: Château L'Hospitalet - La Reserve

Vintage: 2009

Region: France - Coteaux Du Langedoc

Mis en bouteille au Château

Proprietaire: Gérard Bertrand 

Grape(s): Syrah - Mourvèdre - Grenache 

Alc: 14,5 %

Shop: Unknown (was a present)

Price: Unknown

Personal rank: 9.1 of 10 points

Color: A deep Bordeaux red

Smell: Very intensive smell, overwhelming. Even while decanting it the fruity smell was - wow - impressive (normally when you decant you rarely have an intensive smell). Even tho there was a lot of alcohol (14,5%) which normally covers the smells I was able to smell cranberries, blackberries, some cherry and elderberry.  

Taste: Within the first 10-15 min no taste at all. Even after 1-2h still not the whole tasting sensation available but what I was able to taste... you have to experience it by yourself.

Tannin(s): A lot of it!

Food: - so far not possible to say, have to wait until its ready to drink (so in 10 years maybe).

Résumé: A wine made for decades. Excellent. To simply put it like me Spanish coworker said: "It's awesome! Amazing and special. You have to taste it!" Well there is nothing more to say from my side. She is absolutely right!  

That's been my last weekend. Very busy and many impression. I really enjoyed it.

Anyway I hope you enjoy reading this and going to get somehow one bottle of this wine and maybe taste it.

À bientôt mes amis!

Special - Last weekend....part 1

Salut mes amis! Finally a new post on my blog. Guys I am having at the moment a bunch of work piles on my desk and its getting not any less but just even more! Ahhhh....!!! So I am having quite a hard time to write a new post even tho I really wish to do so. Anyway ... bref let's get to the point: What happened last weekend?

The Korean dishes
(c) Choi

Well last weekend, the Friday, I was invited with some other colleges to have dinner at my boss's place. Also a college from South Korea (Choi) was invited. He was going to stay until end of next week and was going to work with my colleges and me intensively. Of course if you work so hard together you also need time to relax and build-up relations (friendship wise). Therefore my boss invited us. We all were having a great time on Friday and some wines which I was unfortunately not able to describe and making pictures of all, naturally when you are in good company you definitely won't ever do this. So well what was on the menu? 

Anselmann - 2010 - white wine
(c) Choi

Actually....I am sorry but I really don't remember the names of the dishes. On the menu were Koran dishes, made by my boss's wife, and WOW they were delicious!!!! There was Koran-made beef, fried king shrimps, fired octopus rings, kimchi/gimchi (that are vegetables which are fermented, you can have them in different taste strength, depending on how long you have fermented them. I tried the short-time as well as the long-time fermented one. Absolutely delicious, in the beginning unusual, but after the second bite, yum!), a special onion(?) soup, but also other dishes like: chicken wings and spare ribs. Pffff (French sound for a full stomach)...it was a feast for soul and body!!! If you have so much good food on the table and plus made by a really great cook (Chapeau!) you definitely need some wines along. We all had a great time and maybe one more drink too much, but anyway thats what happen sometimes and its important to enjoy these moments when they come. 

Moi and some colleges
(c) Choi

The wines we had along the dinner were different ones from white to red. There was a Trapiche  (not mentioned here before, but soon I will write about), a red wine from Argentina, with a lot of tannins but excellent for the food. Also Anselmann (will write about this one sooner or later), a white wine (Riesling = grape) from Germany. Quite dry but just perfect for the kimchi. The others I don't remember 100% anymore, but I do remember the poster so I will go and check them out in the next time. But I do remember we had 3 red and 4 white wines (we were more than 10 people).

However one of my personal highlights on this particular evening was actually what my college Choi said: That his girlfriend and he like my blog very much and started to taste and try different red wines since then! I thought great, now I am also a little bit famous in Korea! I was really happy yo hear that! Thanks Choi and at this part also a warmly welcome and hello to his girlfriend! I am happy to hear that you both enjoy reading my blog. (Okay now here must be some advertisement...so if you two have other friends in Korea who would like to try wines please let them know about my blog!.. enough advertisement). 

Coq au vin in
a Le Creuset cooking pot

During all this good food and wines of course you talk about a lot of stuff. Actually I must say I was so stunned and surprised about the fact that my boss's wife was cooking with Le Creuset cookware (http://cookware.lecreuset.com/). I do have one for myself. They are hellish expensive, but so worth the price. If you cook often and wanna have a perfect distribution of the heat and also a cookware that has a life-time! warranty than this is the cookware you were looking for! Of course its French... however you can also use it for other things than cooking, e.g. like storing in the fridge. Apart of the fact that they are hellish expensive they are also quite heavy, because they are made out of enamel iron. This point actually made me realizing why everyone has so much respect towards their granny. If they lift these pots up like feathers... well a body builder must be a piece of joke compared to them..... Anyway I am drifting apart from what I wanted to tell you. While I was so surprised I started saying that I am impressed that she has a Le Creuset and bla bla bla. Not very interesting for you guys I know but listen what happened afterwards. After some time with good food and drinks, my college and me were always mentioning how good the food is and so, my boss's wife suddenly said that I must be also a good cook... boum... thanks for the compliment. Well long story quite short I ended up promising to cook for my colleges the next Sunday (I also had promised them this a long time ago, so best time to do so). 

So after a short Friday/Saturday night and a long Saturday...OMG....I was having a "slight" hangover and cleaned-up my place and made everything ready for Sunday. I was ready to cook on Sunday.

Apple cake
(Gateau aux pommes)

Quiche de fromage

What was on the menu? Mhm very good stuff:  Coq-au vin with fried potatoes provincial style, Quiche au fromage and as dessert an apple cake! Yum-yum!

The French evening at my place

I was having very much fun while cooking and also baking, however it also toke me quite long to finish it. I had 6h until the guests arrived and a strict schedule and I made it 10 mins before they arrived! Ohlalala...I was exhausted. But it was worth. We all had a second blast on this weekend and some wine and drinks. A Chinese college brought some Chinese liqueur along, which was smelling well lets put it exotic and quite strong (53%).
However there was also another highlight on this evening. I opened up a special bottle. In France when you are having friends over and a good time, sometimes you open up something very special. Because you don't wanna drink it alone, you wanna share it friends and let them enjoy also it. So did I. I was opening a bottle which my dad has given me as a Christmas present. .....

But more tomorrow. It's getting late and I have to rest a little bit. So tomorrow I will continue.
Hope you stay with me. A demain mes amis!

- “The table has its pleasures and wine makes for a cheerful life.” Ecclesiastes 9:6 -

A nice fellow from France - Gérard Bertrand - Réserve Spéciale

Oui mes amis I promised to write at least once a week. Well now I am again a little bit late with my post, pardon. However I will make it upcoming weekend up to you with a special post from my last weekend. Just so much information for now, I have been cooking for 6h and also some wines were involved into it - but that was just the Sunday! Friday was also great. Look forward to it! 

Anyway for now a new wine comment: Today a fellow from France. 

When picking this one I wanted something new for me personal. I remember that I once tried a Pinot Noir wine and well didn't had so much good experience with it. To change this I tried this one and was positive surprised. 

Name: Gérard Bertrand - Réserve Spéciale

Origin: France, Sud de France, Chateau L'Hospitalet

Vintage: 2010

Grape(s): Pinot Noir - Grenache

Alcohol: 13,5 %

Price: 10,98 €

Shop: Alko

Personal rank: 6.0 of 10 points (10 points = best!)

Color: The wine has a nice deep dark Bordeaux red. When you are pouring it into the glass it has a slight carmine red.

Smell: Very fruity, a little bit of lavender and cherries.

Taste: It has a black currant taste and also a slight acid taste (might be the cherry) which is really good in supporting the "Grenache" taste.

Tannin(s): A lot.

Food: This wine is excellent for fatty food (e.g. cheeses like Roquefort or sheep cheeses which also have an intense taste). However, the taste is well balanced that it would also be suitable to a salmon meal or could be tried for "red fish meat". 

Résumé: Even tho the wine has 13,5% I must say that I am impressed that it is not influencing the taste and the smell too strong.  In my opinion this is actually a result of the very well done job by the wine maker. The aroma compounds and the tannins are well balanced. Therefore the alcohol is not overwhelming. I am glad that I tried it cause it removed my previous not so good experience about Pinot Noir. 

So if you are interested in trying something new which is a good wine I can only say you should try this one. Also the price is okay. So 6 points.

Hope you got some idea about the wine and might be interested to try it!
À bientôt mes amis!

Wine accessories - The three musketeers: The glass(es)

So time again to continue with the "Wine accessories". After having spent some time on Athos (the corkscrew) and Porthos (the wine carafe) we will no focused on the last one: ARAMIS - the wine glass -.

Havasu Falls
(c) Wikipedia,
User: Moondigger

The glass itself has in many ways the same - lets call it - responsibility like the carafe: to provide the wine with the right amount of aeration and while doing so supporting the wine development. So this brings us actually to a very wide range of different kind of glasses. Why? Well there are actually for nearly every kind of wine and wine type (e.g. red wine, white wine, Bordeaux, Pinot noir and so on) a variety of different kind of glasses. They differ most in the size of the glass, their shape and also in the diameter.....Wait! What? Shape - okay... but diameter? Yeah I was also first confused but then also fascinated by this.

The shape is important for how the air is getting into the wine and also how well you can smell it. Imagine yourself the edge of a mountain where a waterfall is running down. The same can be applied to the shape of a glass. Actually the way how the air is "falling" into the glass contributes to the wine development. So there is a difference if the air is rumbling into the wine or if it drops/runs smoothly into it. If you now have a closer look onto the shape of a glass again... of what does this shape might also remind you of? Any idea? Think of that in which Santa Claus is always pushing himself trough? A chimney! I can see you might don't clearly understand it. Well when you have chimney the air normally will go upwards. So if you now combine the waterfall with the chimney system you might start to realize it where I wanna go.... So this... let say it a little bit more professional... this "exchange system" (air is getting in and develop the wine, while the developed aroma - volatile - compounds get upwards) is definitely fascinating. 

Two basic - classic - wine
glasses. Both can be used
either for red and for white
wine. 

Now to the diameter. Well the diameter of the glass restricts the maximum amount of air getting into the wine. Again this is similar to the carafe effect. You now see my fascination about glasses. However I would like to point out here, that it doesn't really matter if you have for every wine the right glass. The only two glasses you should have is a "basic" glass for red and and one for white wines. The difference between those two is easy - in most cases there is no! Sometimes there can be a difference in the diameter and also if the glass is more narrow or more bulky. Bulky is more for red wines, while more narrowed one's are preferred for white ones. But technically spoken in the beginning you will simply just need one glass. Personally I have currently one only type of glass and I think I will stick to it the next years. Having a look on all other kind of glass...pff....bref...mince alors, they are just too expensive! 

And speaking of the glass structure (normal glass, crystal glass, plumb crystal glass). Well I still stick to the normal glass. Since I already have a plumb crystal carafe I think that will do most of the job for the wine development so that I can save some money on the wine glass itself and still might be able to enjoy the taste nearly to the fullest!  

Okay thats been it for today! Hope you enjoyed reading it. À bientôt mes amis! 

PS: I recently had a talk with an elder gentleman from Israel, we started talking about some things and ended up talking about wine glasses. He told me that in former times people used to drink wine from silver cups. Because the silver didn't oxidized the wine and therefore supported the taste. I tought that was quite interesting. And I have to read more about this fact. Indeed it might be true, I think - if I am not mistaken - the silver has a higher redox potential and that can be the reason why it protects the wine form oxidizing - okay enough of the chemical bla bla -. Short I think that is possible and I have to check it. 

 "My grandmother is over eighty and still doesn't need glasses. Drinks right out of the bottle." Henny Youngman

My 1st in Finland Birthday Party

The Sacher cake - It was delicious!

Last Saturday, the 25th February, one year ago I arrived finally in Finland. And since then I had an awesome journey into a culture and mentality that caught me from the very first moment and still hasn't lost my fascination! I am very thankful to every special moment I had with my Finnish friends and looking forward to more of these "nights and white days to remember!!!" This is a SPECIAL THANK YOU to all of you, ladies and guys!!! Kiitos paljon for making me feel like home here and integrating me into your culture!!! :) 

Getting the Bday Party ready

So last Saturday I was celebrating with some of my Finnish friends my 1st year staying in Finland. Unfortunately not all of them were able to show up at my party, however I know those who couldn't attend were mentally there! Plus one of my best friends from Germany, Benjamin, showed up for the weekend. It was great to had all you at my party. First my friends and I went to Sauna followed by an evening of funny games, conversations and a lot of laughs and party in Tiger at Kamppi until the very end!

When my friends came they also brought some nice presents along, a Sacher cake and - of course what else? - a bottle of red wine. The interesting fact about the bottle of wine is that this one doesn't contain any sulfite. Sulfite? Sulfite? What isn't that the yellow stuff that you can find near volcanoes, you might ask now. Correct that is sulfite and normally when it comes out of volcanoes it isn't very healthy. But why is it in wine? Good question and the answer is quite simply. Sulfite is used to stop the process of wine fermentation.

The present:
Pura Sangre

Finnish Party Mood ;)

Sulphur has been used for centuries or more than a couple of thousands of years. In older time a small stick of sulphur was lighted before it was thrown into the wine. While it burns the sulphur becomes sulfur dioxide (SO2) which further reacts in the wine with the water molecules (H2O) to sulphurous acid (HSO3-). Okay enough of the chemical things now. However the sulphurous acid will instantly kill all microorganisms (good or bad ones for the wine) and stop the fermentation process. The concentration that is used for the wine is so less that it is NOT IN ANY WAY HARMFUL! So no worries. However the sulfite can be tasted and smelled as a slight - let's say - "fruity" compound in the wine. I am barely able to smell this (only when there is a little bit more used) and sometimes only able to taste it. But of course the sulfite might influence the taste and smell of the wine a bit and might also be able to cover other nice "tastes".

So in this case it raises the question how to stop the fermentation otherwise. Well there are different possibilities. One way is that the concentration of the alcohol within the wine increases to a level that the yeast will die or when the nutritions for the yeast runs out (latter one more rarely). Another way are physical methods like heating up the tank to a certain temperature or cool it down for a longer time. At least when it comes to the "heating" up I am very sceptically and not very much positive that this won't influence the wine... anyway. 

Capt. Kimmo

Now I will looking forward to taste this wine. I don't know where they got it, from Alko or somewhere else and I also won't start looking for it even it is good. I don't actually need or even want to know what my friends invested into this bottle, because for me it's not about the money. For me it's about the act of friendship to come up with such an idea! Thank you so much!   

At the end of this post today I wanna say once more thank you for this Birthday party: Benjamin, Kimmo, Teemu, Tommi, Emma, Vera, Paulina and Anastasia. You made it very special to me! 

Thats it for today. À bientôt mes amis!

- “The wines that one best remembers are not necessarily the finest that one has ever tasted, and the highest quality may fail to delight so much as some far more humble beverage drunk in more favorable surroundings.” - H. Warner Allen

A nice fellow from Argentina - Kaiken

I decided today that I will from time to time present you guys some nice red wines that I tasted. It might be helpful for you to try some red wines by yourself or if you just would like to figure out if that is your kind of wine you like. A slight note here: I prefere tannin rich wines.  I will also try to describe the wine, e.g. how does it takes, what I do taste and also in some cases which kind of food it suits.  

Today a fellow from Argentina

Name: Kaiken

Origin: Argentina

Vintage: 2010

Grape(s): Malbec / Cabernet Sauvignon 

Alcohol: 14,5 %

Price: 9,99 €

Shop: Alko

Personal rank: 5,5 of 10 points (10 points = best!)

Actually I was quite in the mood for experiments and experience when picking up that bottle. It has a huge content of alcohol for a wine (14,5%) which I normally wouldn't have chosen, cause this amount can block / cover the taste and smell buds. So that makes it difficult to taste and also you can't drink too much cause it will get to your head. That was also my prob I, had some difficulties to taste and smell it.

Look: Nice intensive red color. 

Smell: Overwhelming (cause of the alc) but some smell like dark berries. 

Taste: Intensive taste (also a result from the alc), a little like dark chocolate and in certain moments a small bitter note (tannins). Leaves a nice aftertaste which has a slight acid taste (not so nice, but interesting).

Tannin(s): A lot.

Food: Good choice for goat cheese and Camembert (high fat require, cause of the high alc), also nice for meat like beef. 

Cooking: Well suitable for Coq au vin.

Résumé: A nice wine with interesting features. Definitely worth a try. 5,5 point out of 10 because it tastes good, but also not more points cause of too much alc covering the taste. 

Hope you got some idea about the wine and might be interested to try it!

À bientôt mes amis! 

Wine accessories - The three musketeers: The carafe

As I promised last week, today I am gonna present you the 2nd person of the (three) four musketeers: PORTHOS, the wine carafe.

Actually the wine carafe is one of the most expensive equipments, especially when you just recently started to get into wine. But why is a good wine carafe important? What do I get from it? And why should I go for one? These are definitely the questions when you face the prices for a carafe (50 - 75 € average price for a carafe which is "okay". And up to 200 € for a excellent one.) But what are the differences between the different carafe types? 

A glass carafe for
young wines

Okay, lets start first with the question for what a carafe is good for? A carafe is important to provide the wine with air. The air, as I mentioned somewhere shortly in one of my post before, is important for the development of the aromas and the tannins within the wine. So basically the carafe is providing space for the wine so that wine has a huge surface to obtain a lot of air in a short time (wine people say that the wine "breaths"). This is particular important if you have a young wine which needs to develop itself. On the contrary older wine needs a carafe which creates a smaller surface for the wine; a more narrowed one, since the wine had already time to develop itself. So not so much air for an old one like for a younger wine. 

Another reason for having a carafe is that you can get ride of the deposit (if the wine contains some; can be the case for young as well as for old wines). Mentioning these major things so far, someone might ask why not going for another vessel? Something that is cheaper and as well made out of glass? Honestly I do agree with that, it is possible and also not a bad idea. I even think for a wine beginner that might be a considerable option. Especially if you keep thinking of the price. But if you don't fear the price and also wanna go for it 100% right, then of course you will need one - sooner or later! - Also one point for me to go for a carafe is the nice outlook when having good company and good food. It gives in my personal point of view the certain touch for the moment. 

A crystal glass carafe for
young wines; made by Peugeot

So if you go for a carafe what is actually the reason for the price difference?? It is simply the glass and also if you got a designer carafe. Latter ones are from my point not always the best choice, since you basically pay just for the design and the brand of the designer. Plus some designs... et ben... comment je peux dire?... Some designs I have the feeling they were letting their kids drawing... very creative but logic? Then again I am atm in the World Design Capital 2012 (Helsinki) and I must say some designs are really awesome! So I guess there are pros and cons. 

The glass plays a crucial role. So far there are normal glass, crystal glass, and plumb crystal glass. All these different glass types differs in their structure (if you have look under the electron microscope... who doesn't have it at home?) and also the physical ability of thermo conducting. Both points play a role in the wine development. I cannot tell much about the differences in details, since I am having simply a lack of knowledge at this point. However from my experience I can tell you: The best of these ones is plumb crystal glass. The wine tastes much better and also develop itself in another way than with all the other glass. Second best is crystal glass. But these glass are less frequently asked for and also a little more difficult to produce, therefore they are more expensive.   

So I hope know you got a bigger and better idea about wine carafe. That's it for this week. See you next week again!  À bientôt mes amis!

PS: A tip at the end: When decanting the wine, please be careful and try to avoid making too many bubbles. I have been told to do so but never really understood why. I assume that if you want to have a continues well develop aroma in the whole wine you have to do that. Otherwise when you are making a lot of bubbles the wine  maybe will have later a broad spectrum of different tastes. This might influence the whole tasting feeling in not such a positive way. And also now you got your answer from the last post - why you shouldn't shake the red wine!

- “Good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used.” Shakespeare - 

Wine accessories - The three musketeers: The Corkscrew

Yeah finally again some more time for a new post! I know I told you guys that I would post twice a week, well reality again showed me that with my current work load I am not able to do so. So I set my mind up to 100% post once a week at least! I don't wanna let you wait too long for new stuff..

The four musketeers: Athos, Porthos,
Aramis and D'Artagnan

So new chapter, new topic. We are starting with 'wine accessories' which includes dozens of equipments. Some of them are necessary to have, other useful, good-looking or just making your life easier. Starting with what I call: The three musketeers. These are the corkscrew (Athos), the wine carafe (Porthos) and the wine glass (Aramis). (Okay D'Artagnan is the bottle of wine, of course what else? There can't be only three musketeers. They are always four!) You need these four companions to ensure a good time! 

Today I am gonna start with one you will need now and forever: ATHOS....äh...pardon I meant ....THE CORKSCREW. 'How else are you opening the bottle?' you might ask. Well there are other "possibilities" which I will talk about later in this post. 

A basic corkscrew
(c) Wikipedia, user KMJ

If you are going to buy a corkscrew please be aware that there are a lot of different models available. The classical and basic one, a wing corkscrew, a sommelier knife and so on and on... Technically all these corkscrews tend to simply open up the wine bottle, but with different kinds of physical forces. Depending on your skills and your muscle power you might should chose the one that suits you best - or you just like best. 

So how do they work? The basic requires strength at all and is for beginners not quite easy to handle. You have to hold with one hand the bottle while tearing the corkscrew with the other. If you don't have a grip like the invincible HULK I rather not suggest you to do so. Either the bottle will break in your hand (if your are HULK) or it might slip and you will throw it somewhere. In both cases the bottle will be useless and all the cost for cleaning will exceed the enjoyment of having a glass of wine.

Now how to do with this one? There are two tricks how you can deal with it. First you put the bottle on the table and you put your hand around the bottle's neck and then pull the corkscrew upwards. This will safely guarantee that the bottle won't be crushed. However sometimes the bottle can overbalance while doing so. So another trick is to put the bottle between your legs and tightly push it together while pulling the cork out (a suggestions from my side, do it slowly with this one).  

A winged corkscrew
(c) Wikipedia, user KMJ

If you are afraid of not being capable of doing it correct with the basic one, then you should either considering to go for a wing corkscrew. There you simply have to hold the bottle when opening. It requires less strength than the basic one and also not too much skills. By pushing down the two wings you will lever the cork out.

A sommeliers knife
(c) Wikipedia, user KMJ

If you now think that is too easy or not challenging enough, then go for the sommeliers knife. Its also using the lever technique with a little bit more strength and still needing some skill to hold the bottle while opening. To be honest I am also using the sommeliers knife (a variation in design of it). I especially like the fact that you have the small knife for cutting the cap that is surrounding the cork. You can also do it with the corkscrew thorny end, however if you wanna have a clear cut in this cap and not looking like you tried to teared it away then go for a normal knife. I also put some pictures how to hold the bottle while cutting the cap, this should give you an idea of how to do it. Plus it looks a little bit more professional doing so...

Holding and cutting the
cap with the thorny
end of a corkscrew

Coming back to a situation when you don't have ATHOS....et mince... the corkscrew at hand. Yeah well there are other possibility how to open it the bottle... et ben...pff... I honestly didn't want to mention this: how to open a bottle without a corkscrew.. then again thinking of opening a bottle without having a corkscrew and not knowing how to open it up will result in 99% in a proper catastrophe: the bottle will be destroyed...  ... ... ... ... ... ... pff... ... ... ben pourquoi pas?.... okay I convinced myself to tell you how. Just do me a favor if someone ask you where you learned that, don't think about mentioning me...

How to open without a corkscrew (PLEASE BEAR IN MIND BEING CAREFUL WHILE OPENING UP THE BOTTLE AND PREFERABLY DON'T DO IT WHEN YOU ARE NOT SURE YOU CAN DO IT! I am taking NO RESPONSIBILITY when you are hurting yourself or causing any kind of damage while doing so).

Holding and cutting the
cap with the small knife
of a sommeliers knife

1) Using a sneaker or sport shoe. You put the shoe around the bottle's bottom and hardly hit the shoe's bottom with the bottle against something (the wall, a table, the ground). While doing so the pressure inside will slowly push the cork out. That is working very well as long as you have a natural or pressed cork. With the plastic ones... good luck while not breaking the bottle.

2) Pushing the cork into the bottle. This is particular very difficult as you have to use a lot of force at same time while being careful not to stain yourself when doing so (especially when it's red wine). Again this is working well with a natural cork one... good luck again with the plastic ones. One more reason why I don't like plastic corks...

I tried those two tricks by myself as well. They worked out. However I wasn't very satisfied with the end result. Especially 1) is not well suited for red wine. You shake the wine so that is a NO GO! You should never shake wine. Why? I will come back to this when talking about PORTHOS, the wine carafe.

So the take home message for today: You need to have a corkscrew and it is very important to figure out which one you are going for!

Et bien mes amis thats it for today. I hope you will read next week again my blog! À bientôt! 

Oh là that reminds me I wanted to put a special:

BON VOYAGE! For a Finnish friend of mine here! She is going to life now in France! I wasn't able to attend yesterday at her Farewell Party so I couldn't say to here have a great time! So please I hope you read this, Bon Voyage ma belle, take care and enjoy every moment! Say hello to France from me!!! We (I) will miss you here in Finland. But Finland's lose is France greatest win(e)! :)

- “Wine in moderation: Good for the body, great for the soul.” Jim Trezise -

Buying a bottle of wine…. part 4: Cork or aluminum cap – the choice is yours… maybe

One of the most negative shocking events about wine happened when I was in a restaurant. I can’t clearly remember when and where it was, but I seriously remember the moment when the waitress brought the wine bottle for the tasting… 

I don’t know what kind of impression you have when you connect wine and restaurants, but I have – maybe – a traditional impression. For me wine and restaurant are associated with good food, nice company, relaxed atmosphere and having a nice conversation: The waitress is coming with the bottle of choice. Presenting again your choice and then turning in the corkscrew. A little tension and movement of muscles and “plop”! Et voilà! The cork is out and presented towards me before I will have a zip to taste it. Actually that is the way I imagine it, however reality has thought me always a slight divergence of my imagination. Back in my memories I didn’t heard the familiar ‘plop’-sound of a cork which was torn out of the bottleneck. Back then I heard a metallic shattering when the waitress twisted the aluminum cap. Et boum…..Merci beaucoup! Great experience, honestly.

But why was I so shocked? I think particular because I wasn’t expecting it. But there is also another reason why I was so shocked, because for me a wine bottle has a cork and not an aluminum cap. I think I have to tell you more about the ‘cork’ thing before we can proceed further. I see it as an important part of ‘Buying of bottle of wine’ chapter, also it belongs later to another chapter, and I need to tell you more…

A cork tree (Quercus suber)
Picture source:
www.wikipedia.org

So what is actually a cork? What is so special about it? Well a cork is a natural product and is a part of bark (skin and protection layer) of a cork tree. It is harvest (yes harvest!) every 7-9 years by cutting it off from a tree. This long period before harvesting again is one of the reasons why cork is a little bit expensive. But it is worth the price from my point of view. The structure of the cork or better the attribute of the cork is that it is hydrophobic (means water can’t bind to it) and therefore won’t react with the wine when both are exposed to each other. Why is that so important?…uff…et ben.. now I have to give you some more details. If you have wine and you want to store it, so that it can develop itself and maybe become better, you will need a room where nothing is disturbing the development (by means reacting with it). A glass bottle is this room. Glass is a material which is not reacting with the wine, it is not exchanging anything. Glass is glass – and it is hydrophobic in this way. So now to close this room we need something as well which won’t react with the wine: here comes the cork into play. Cork is elastic to be put into a bottleneck and completely seal it without any kind of glue or whatever. Plus it’s a natural product, so something which occurs in nature and is not artificially made. Perfect. 

You might ask yourself know why not an aluminum cap wouldn’t not be suitable. Because if I have a close look on the inside of it, I might see that some of them are coated with a plastic surface. And plastic is hydrophobic also and I won’t get any kind of metallic taste in the wine.

You got a point and also but not a point. Yeah point for it is hydrophobic and that the plastic coat will protect the wine from getting a metallic taste. However because of chemical and personal reasons I don’t wanna have plastic in contact with wine. I am sorry to not to explain this into more deeply at the moment. Anyway please no plastic stuff in wine, at least the one which is stored over a long period of time.

Next to aluminum caps without plastic and only metal. These ones I must say I have more often seen that ones with plastic. I don’t know why but my educational guess would be that they are less expensive. So now is metal in contact with the wine, could that somehow influence the taste of the wine? Uff…very very good question. My answer: it could happen. But so far I have only seen bottle stored upright with these caps. So the wine is at most of the time not in contact with the metal. You should still consider that if you want to store a bottle of wine longer it should lay – so no metals for wine, which you can store over a long time. Indeed I haven’t seen any kind of these bottles for storage with these caps. I hope this will remain; otherwise I have to find something else that I can store in my wine cellar. 

From left to right: A natural 'traditional' cork;
A pressed cork; An aluminum cap

Someone might now mention about the fact that there are not only aluminum caps on wine bottles but that there are also plastic corks. Yeah that is true and still I don’t like to see them as well in a bottle. However I can accept them as long as they are only used for wine which is not made for long storage, by means to be early consumed. - A nice part of these plastic corks is, that they make the ‘plop’ sounds. - Btw in the last years I have seen a change from the traditional natural cork towards the plastic corks or aluminum caps. This might be due to the fact that currently people prefer to drink wine earlier and not to keep it for such a long time in a celler. So we will definitely face these plastic corks or aluminum caps in the future more and more. 

Yeah well it can be helped and I think that the cork issue is a matter for people who are very much into wine, but nevertheless I had the feeling to explain this matter to you. Cause even tho you might think at the moment it is not important for you or might play a role. It might play again a role when you but a bottle of wine for friend who is into wine. However I would never be mad or angry at a friend who would bring a bottle of wine with an aluminum cap along, because for me the anticipation of buying a gift is more important. Then again I would take it in a mean way if I would get it from a French person…maybe because I expect something different from them.  

So what should you actually do when you are again confronted with the choice of buying a bottle of wine? Well when it comes to white wine, you most probably will face more often the aluminum cap nowadays. That is, because white wines are generally not used for storage. So you probably will find more often a cork for red wines. But here comes the trick: How to differ between a bottle that has a natural cork or a plastic one? Honestly you don’t stand a chance to figure that out before you open the bottle. Sorry that’s the way it is. At least the only hope you might have for having a natural cork is when you are going for wine from wine mansions which have a long tradition and tend to produce great and excellent wine. For them it would be compromising their name and reputation if they would go for the plastic things. 

But after all this information back to the restaurant situation: Why did I want to have cork instead of an aluminum cap? Well some of the reason I just told you before, but when you normally have a natural cork people then to smell on the cork. That is to figure some things out. I think you might see that this post might get a little bit longer that the other ones before, so I will make it shorter from here on. The smelling of the cork gives you some infos about the wine. You can smell if there was something wrong with the cork or if the wine is not going to be good. Also you can see if something broke of the cork and might be now in the wine (no worries that is not dangerous or affecting the wine in any kind of way). Also a nice thing about the cork is that people like to play with it, especially kids. So what is better to play with your fingers when you are nervous or if you want to talk about something else (why not talking about wine then?). An aluminum cap or a cork? Well the choice is yours…  And now I start to realize why I was so shocked about the aluminum cap back in my memories and upset about this. I guess I was hoping for something to play with….

I hope this post wasn’t too long or too difficult to read, still somehow I have the slight feeling it was. So please bear with me, I will try to make easier to read in the future!

Nevertheless I am happy to congratulate you for passing the first chapter of our ‘tour du vin’! You know have achieved some small basics in (red) wine that is, if you have read all the posts so far. Now that know some basics about wine and what you should consider it is time to move on to another chapter: ‘Wine accessories’. We definitely will come back from time to time to a new part of ‘Buying a bottle of wine’ and expand your knowledge about it. But so far I don’t wanna go much more into detail about the wine buying. Why? My reason is simple: too much information in the beginning can ruin the interest and also make it problematic to digest this information. Since I learned about wine by my dad, he never gave me too much information. He just always mentioned something once at a time and whenever I had questions, he always talked about different things which are connected to wine (carafe, the cork, the cellar and so on). So I had time to learn and understand things by trying and tasting wine – I hope it won’t take so much time for you like me when reading this blog. I am working on my wine knowledge and training my taste buds at least for 8-10 years - . Therefore please go ahead and bear in mind that you will only achieving knowledge and wisdom by going out and tasting some wine. At a bar, at a friend’s place or whenever or wherever it might happen. 

Therefore à bientôt mes amis! 

PS: I just opened up a bottle with a natural (pressed) cork. By means these natural corks are made of cork rest and then put together by pressure and heat. One more to be mentioned.