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.  

Buying a bottle of wine... part 3 : Size matters!

Of course now all of you keep wondering about the headline of this post and must have some hidden agenda while reading this.... Guys/Ladies! Of course size matter! Not to big and not to small.... a 0.75 l bottle is the right size!!.... What else were you thinking of?

Indeed after now figuring out what kind of wine (red or white) and from which country (maybe France?) it is now important to consider what size the bottle should have. However so far what I have seen in the Scandinavian area most of the wine selling shops have 0.75 l bottles, which is a general standard for wine bottles. 

But why should you consider now the size and what kind of different sizes are actually available on the free market? Good questions to be honest. There are 0.375, 0.75, 1.5, 2.5 and 5.0 liter glass bottles available. The latter two are normally not so easy to be found in general wine shops and requires either to be bought directly from the wine Mansion or from a specialized shop, e.g. the Internet. The 0.375 bottles I have seen in some French Mensa / lunchrooms and on airplanes. Nevertheless you can buy them also in wine shops but you might not seem them so often, because 0.375 l is just enough for two glass of wine. Plus you might find a good or excellent wine from good wine maker regions not in this size category. The reason? It is just too expensive for wine Mansion to fill up the bottles in these small size bottles. Also most of the people who wants to have an excellent wine consider also to store it over a long period of time - 0.75 bottles are best for this. 

You might realize now where I wanna go. So actually what is best size? If you ask me I would definitely say it's 0.75 l. You can store them easily in a wine cellar. When stored over a long period of time the surface/volume ratio is best for the surrounding temperature to influence the development of wine compounds. The bigger the bottle the surface/volume ratio is less good for this. Another point is the handling. If you are having guest and you want to serve them with a 1.5 liter bottle or more the handling will be quite thought to serve in an appropriate way. Also while serving you will definitely start to sweat, that is SO perfect for the start of an romantic evening.... One more point is if you want to buy a bottle as a present than the probability is higher that the person who receives the bottle will share it with you. Very important when you buy a good wine... so vice versa if you want to avoid to have a share buy a bigger one.

Two different sizes for wine bottles:
Right: 0.75 l, Left: 1.5 l

So why are there bigger bottles than 0.75 l when 0.75 l actually is best. Pff... bon alors... again it depends on the situation for which you are buying the bottle, putting most of the points aside why I see 0.75 bottles as best. So if you would go for a nice evening of two to four friends you can definitely go for one or two 0.75 bottles. Also you can chose two different wine bottles and enjoy some variety. (Note: if you know or think that your friends are more into wine then buy a third one. There is always someone who is thirsty). 

In the case you know that there will be more guests than 4 or 6 (all of them wine drinker) you should go for a 3 l wine case (3 l plastic bag behind nice cardboard boxes). This is especially important if you definitely know that there will be a pack of wine-thirsty French or Finnish friends and you don't wanna be broken because of buying wine... However I must say I don't like so much these 3 l boxes 'cause you rarely find a good wine in these. Even tho I have to say some of the Australian wine's (yeah I know I have forgotten to remember the name, again) in these boxes are of good quality. Please bear in mind these boxes are not for storage and more for immediately drinking.

Also when you go and buy a present for someone, think if the person is into wine and know what is good and what is not so good, or to make it even more complicate you don't know his/her taste. Then you should consider buying two different bottles of wine (e.g. one with more and the other with less tannins, or white and red wine). I think you somehow might have now an idea when and why you should go for bigger wine sizes or more bottles of the-best- size-for-wine 0.75 liter. 

And ouais ouais I don't have clearly answered the last question why are there bigger bottles than 0.75 l available. The answer: Well I don't know. I would guess they are a nice old relict of the time before the plastic wine boxes came along and so far have remained. 

Bon mes amis! Now you learned why size matter when it comes to wine. I hope you had a nice weekend! So far à bientôt!

PS: On my first trip to Sweden I encountered something which really shocked me and made me laugh. Remember the 0.375 l bottles? They actually do have 0.25 l bottles tetra packs! Mon Dieu! Ca c'est un vrai sacrilège (this is a real sacrilege). What's next? Wine out of can's? But to save the Swedish people from another 6:1. Finland also made a hit into my world view of wine...when I was on Friday having Dinner with a good Finnish friend of mine at Amarillo we had to order on the bar 'cause the restaurant was to full. When we were asking for a list of wines they said that they only have draft wine.... draft wine like draft beer? Yeah right - right out of the tap. I had to taste it... i-m-p-r-e-s-s-i-v-e taste... *gasp* Okay now I believe that there must be also wine in can's available...oh là là là... 

A side story of "The Two Poster"

What a week this and and last week is/was. I just realized now how fast time flew the last week since I haven't had posted anything new like as I promised it to do. Yeah well I have currently quite a lot of work and last week was not less filled work either. Actually I wanted to continue with the "Buying a bottle of wine". However since I am short this week of free time I have to skip it and thought it might be also interesting to you if I tell something that happened in my life about wine. So something like "mis en bouteille par de la vie" (filled into the bottle by the life). 

What was actually happening the last week? Ben, ppfff. I had some more work to do and also to prepare a poster and presentation which I had to hold in a full week seminar. I wasn't able to do anything for the presentation & the poster until Friday morning. So I worked on Friday until midnight for the presentation because I was going on Saturday to Birthday of a Club of my voluntary service. And I still needed to finish the poster on Sunday. Even tho the Friday and Sunday where filled with work I really enjoyed my time in Vihti. The club was having his 1st year Birthday so of course a lot of people were coming to this event, also some of my friends. It was a nice day which was helping to forget about the work and the upcoming seminar even tho I was very tired. Funnily I wasn't the only one who was tired like hell. Seemed like January had his toll on a lot of people, guess all the work which wasn't done in December before Christmas needed to be done right now in the week before the 1st Birthday party. Anyway we were hosted by the members of the local club in a nicely renovated old school building next to a lake. There was also a sauna which we visit in the evening, I also jumped after the sauna into the cold lake....brrr....c'etait froid!!!! But it was awesome and helped me to relax and enjoy every moment even more although the run back to the sauna was one of the longest so far that I have ever experienced. It took me more than 2-3 min in the Sauna until I felt warm again. Nice experience!

View from the Sauna over the Frozen lake, Moksi, Vihti

So after Sauna we were having a nice dinner with party games and some shows as well which the guest had to organize in some way. However during the dinner I was quite surprised that some of my Finnish friends which I haven't seen for 6 or more months were having some red wine (we had to bring our own drinks to the dinner). I doubt that I was having an influence on that or with my blog so I was quite curious about which one they would have chosen. It turned out that they just had picked up randomly and somehow I must say their choice was pretty good. Nevertheless I hope in the near future they might be not anymore relying on pure luck when going to buy a wine. 

Naturally (sounds weird but it started to become more natural to me to talk with people and friends about wine..) we talked about wine and my blog. When I was having a closer look on the bottles (I didn't taste the wine before that) I also read the posters - naturally - and read that the Australian wine (mince alors didn't wrote the name down!) was suppose to taste also like cacao......Cacao.... Cacao?? o-k-a-y. It happened that I read quite nearly about every kind of taste, I also tasted a red wine which smelled and tasted like a freshly cooked steak (Je crois au Dieu! More about this in another post!) but cacao was definitely never under one of those tastes. But I must say it was a nice cacao after-taste when having a glass of wine. It tasted like dark and bitter pure cacao. Not an very intensive taste but light and nicely around the tongue. I was positively surprised and after that of course I helped my Finnish friend to empty the bottle a little bit faster...well she wouldn't have finish the whole bottle by herself all alone, so I tried to be a gentleman in this moment... 

The interesting part about this bottle which was fascinating me a little bit, was the fact that the back poster actually gave me an idea about the aromas in the wine and was even able to taste it. I have encountered quite many wine where aromas were describes on the backside an I still was not able to taste them properly. I guess I am still not good enough to taste all of the different kind of aromas. So I am happy that I learned by coincidence something new by my friends!

Bon thats for today, I hope and will try hard to write one more post this week! So far - à bientôt mes amis!

-“Wine & Chocolate: your heart will hum, and your soul will sing.” Jim Trezise -

PS: I will post in the future also from time to time some nice saying about wine, which I found in a pdf-file from the "Word on wine" - New York Wine & Grape Foundation Revised 10/6/2005. Since they have gather a lot of word on wine or sayings about them, and I really like them, I see it right to mention that I got them from their pdf-file which was available for free on the website (which I cannot find at the moment). But anyway thank you very much for this!!!

Buying a bottle of wine... part 2 : The two poster

Before I continue with "Buying a bottle of wine" I have to tell that I will try in the future to update my blog at least twice a week. Since some of my friends has been asking me the last week. However the last week was quite busy for me and on the weekend I did something good for my health by attending a Winterseminar from my Martial Arts... so therefore this post will be a little big bigger (I hope you won't fall asleep while reading sooooooo much..) So back to the wine:

Last time we faced probably the most difficult decision: To choose between between white or red wine. Fortunately we figure it out (I hope at least for the one who reads this..). So now we can focus on some more important things. The information on the bottle itself. Actually when you are having a bottle of wine you find to 99% two poster on it. One on the front and on the back. Since most of the people who are not into wine (and also some who are a little already into wine) think that the front poster is for PR and attraction of the eye and of course also contains some information. The back poster contains often a small text about either where the wine comes from and/or what the composition (also called blend) of different grapes is and/or what kind of aromas and also the color of the wine. So of course someone would assume that either both poster containing most information or even just the back poster. Et ben...pfff... bref.... partially right I have to say. The back poster is definitely good to get a better idea about the wine before tasting it or if someone wants to buy it as a present. BUT to be honest personally I see that the back poster even more for PR and a "suggestion" why you should buy this bottle than the front.............

A French red wine from an Alko shop, Finland

You might now start to realize that actually the front poster contains more information than thought before. But what can an "untrained eye" actually decipher from all the data, numbers and words on it? Lets rather first have a look and tell what a so called "untrained eye" can immediately understand. I have marked some numbers on the two pics so it might be easier to follow (yeah now it looks like a medical study book about anatomy, but it can't be helped since I can't point my finger onto it...)

A French red wine from an Alko shop, Finland

So 1) tells us the name "Chateau Le Vieux Chantre" (if it is possible to translate into English, if not a name: "Castle The old chorister"), 2) From which region the wine comes from, 3) the alcohol amount of the wine, 7) a nice pic most probably of the mansion or the castle, 8) the vintage, 10) the number of the bottle. Ouais ouais pas mal. But what do 4),5),6) and 9) tell you??

4) Grand vin de Bordeaux ("Great wine of Bordeaux") actually tells you how good the wine is ranked.

5) Appellation Puisseguin St. Emilion contrôlée is a sign that the wine has been produced and proceed and controlled according to the rules to preserve the originality of wine making. So in shorts no extra added conservatives or any other stuff which is not supposed to be in the wine!

6) Mis en bouteille...: Where the wine was filled up. Normally when it is filled up from the Mansion, the Chateau or by a person (the Name of the person is then indicated) you can assume that is a good wine. There is also "Mis en bouteille aux Domaine", but however I personally don't go for these wines.

And last but not least 9) "Elevé en Fûts de Chêne" means rested in vanila oak barrels. That is actually a very good sign and normally prices for these bottles are a little bit more expensive. Nevertheless the wine is resting in barrels made out of oak wood which will give the wine a slight and very smooth vanilla taste to the wine. Honestly I was only able to taste and smell it once where it was a little bit stronger, but I really liked it. These bottles often do have a number on it (to make it also a little bit more special..). Btw the oak wood of the barrels are from oak trees in France which have been planted in the 14th or 16th century. So one more point why special.

Et bien mes amies ca sera tous pour aujourd'hui (Well my friends that should be it for today,) I hope you enjoyed getting all these informations at once and a new post will come latest at the end of this week.

Buying a bottle of wine... part 1 : The choice is yours

An Alko Shop from Finland 

As I wrote in my last post it seems that I started to write something like a wine book which wasn't the way I wanted to talk about wine. So I will try now to imagine I would tell a friend about wine. So imagine yourself with me now in a wine shop (ALKO for Finland) and lets see what kind of choice we have.... A huge amount of different bottles, different prices, and also what is the text on the bottles actually tell me?? It is sometimes no wonder to me that people got scared of buying the first bottle of wine. Okay nowadays you have the clerks in the shops who are freely helping you in any question so far and also in the Alko Shops under every bottle there are some additional information (e.g. how strong concerning the tannins and also for which food it is suitable). So what should you choose, red or white, what is your taste and what's not? Honestly you will never know until you try and trying takes time and also that you spent some money.

So the white wine, red wine choice. There is still a big discussion between wine people which is better and which one you should try first if you want to get into the wine world. Some say first white wine because of the intensive red wine taste from the tannins might have a bitter after taste. On the other hand some say red wine because the white wine has to many strong acids which can be overwhelming in the beginning. Personally I would say it really doesn't matter. When it comes to taste, everyone has a different taste. Me for example, I started with red and never regret my decision. I tried also white wine but I don't know why I like it less than red. Most probably some will say now because I didn't started with white...

If you would go for a red wine for example you might should choose a wine which is in the middle. That means not too many tannins but also not too less. You can ask one of the clerks for one of those. I would say you could also go for a wine from the Bordeaux region, France (okay what else should I suggest than a wine from France...). If you feel like after having you first glass it is too strong, then you can go next time buying a red wine with less tannins and vice versa. Of course it will take some time to get used to the taste and you might think of not liking it or having difficulties. Then I could only suggest you to have some cheese, if you like it, to cover your taste buds and get slowly used to the strong taste of a red wine. If, however you are allergic to lactose or milk products you can also go with bread with butter or meat. But however do not tend to forget the most IMPORTANT thing while having a glass of wine.... THE COMPANY! You will understand after a while why company is important when having a glass of wine.

One more thing for today when you go and buy a bottle of wine never go for the most expensive ones first. When it comes to wine prices doesn't matter. You can get a good bottle of wine for a relatively cheep price as well for high price.

Next time I will explain a little bit more about the information on the bottles itself. So far et à bientôt mes amis!