Wine, woman and Toast 2006

I must start with a caveat. I am not a oenologist, not even a oenophile. But this much is certain: I love wine.

My fondness for wine started in 1993 when a frosty glass of Sancerre, a French white wine from the Loire region, was served to accompany a salad of seared scallops with baby greens at a dinner with friends. One sip of the crisp, dry taste of Sancerre was enough to bewitch me. Thirteen years and many bottles of both red and white wines later, I remain under its spell.

I wasted no time in heading off to the Rockwell Tent when I heard about Toast 2006. This recently concluded wine festival was organized by Wine Depot. It was a three-day event with successive two hour-long master classes in wine tasting conducted throughout the day. The classes were presided over by wine makers form Italy, Australia, and New Zealand who flew in especially for the occasion. They were held inside designated rooms around the tent simultaneous with the ongoing tasting festival.

Wine Depot created a wine lover’s dream by setting up numerous vineyards’ booths offering liberal servings of their premium labels. Sumptuous buffets were laid out by reputable hotels and restaurants to give the guests food to enjoy along with the wine. There will not be an occasion of greater opportunity for any wine lover to sample multiple bottles in one go, under one roof, and all for a minimum amount. Individual wine makers took all the time necessary to explain their products. It was Wine Depot’s effort to make wine readily available to the younger public whose members are just developing their taste for wine and who are just discovering the strength of their buying power with more affordable, good-quality wines.

Toast 2006 was capped by a gala dinner and auction at the Makati Shangri-La, which was a most enchanted evening with superb food and the most exquisite wines, all for the benefit of Springboard Foundation, a charity dedicated to the service of orphaned, abandoned, and neglected children.

There is nothing quite as pleasurable as a glass of decent wine at day’s end to soothe a tired body and a racing mind. On special occasions, that celebratory toast just doesn’t work if it is not a flute of bubbly you are clinking. Quiet dinners with soft lighting, fine food and mood music need to be clinched with a goblet of elegant and exquisitely rich red wine. Fun and frivolous parties with loud music and even louder chatter need to be enjoyed with long sips of a spicy, complex red wine with ripe-fruit fullness and a powerful thrust.

Wine must serve one ultimate purpose above all: enjoyment. All other issues must come second to it. Good wine gets even better when enjoyed with good company. The enjoyment of wine should not be an exercise in pretentiousness. It is one of those occasions where "the more you know, the less you should say" rule must be strictly followed. It should be a comfortable down-home activity where all you need is a corkscrew, a glass and functioning taste buds along with a bottle of your preferred wine.

All wine experts pay close attention to its qualities and aspects. There are only three basics to remember: sight, smell and taste, known as "eye," "nose," and "palate."

The eye of a wine is what you see when you pour it into a glass. Regardless of color, it should appear perfectly clear. If it is cloudy or hazy, it is most likely off and must be discarded.

Swirl the wine gently around the glass. So-called "legs" or "tears," thin, sinewy threads of wine that run down the side of the glass may appear. This is the effect of alcohol on wine’s viscosity, or the way wine flows. The greater the alcohol content, the less free-flowing, or more viscous the wine actually becomes.

Natural light is best for observing wine’s color. Look at it against a white background, holding the glass at the bottom of the stem and tilting it away from you slightly. Red wines vary in color, from clairet, which is almost rose or deep pink, to tones so dark and opaque they seem black. White wines range from a colorless water-white to deep gold but majority are a light straw-yellow color. Red or white, the intensity of color normally reflects richness in flavor or full-bodiedness.

The smell or "nose" of a wine is a concept that is quite simple: Give the glass a good swirl, put your nose into the glass and take a deep sniff.

As soon as one sniffs wine, the natural reaction is to taste it. It is best to sample the "taste" or "palate" of a wine after you have addressed the "nose." Take a good mouthful and draw air into the mouth through the wine.

There are two main classifications of wine: Old World and New World. Old world wines refer to wine produced by the older civilizations, the European nations which are the purveyors of the wine industry. New world wines pertain to those produced by North and Latin America, Australia and Africa–the newer crop of wine-producing nations.

Old world nations like France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Spain have been making wine for 3,000 years and therefore do it with much more tradition that has been handed down through generations of vintners. The French use the term terroir, which literally means soil, but in a viticultural sense refers to a vineyard’s complete growing environment. It includes: climate, altitude, sunshine, rainfall and drainage, soil and its mineral contents and temperature, which all contribute to the vineyard’s final product, setting it apart from others. This is why old world wines are labeled according to the region from where they are produced, i.e. Bordeaux, Alsace, Loire, Tuscany, Barolo, Rhone, etc. The great French wine regions are actually an accident of climate and geography. Terroir is one of the most dominant determining factors in the taste of wine. New world wines, on the other hand are labeled according to their grape component i.e. Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Syrah, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Blanc etc.

It is best to keep in mind several varietals of grapes, which produce different intensity wines just to start off, just so you know how potent what you are drinking is so you can chart your plan of consumption throughout the evening without making a drunken fool of yourself before the night is over. In red wines, Cabernet is the most full-bodied, followed by Syrah or Shiraz (as it is called in the new world), and the Pinot Noir, which is the lightest of the three. The Chardonnay grape makes the best dry white wines, followed by Semillon, and finally by Sauvignon Blanc, which makes crisp, light and aromatic whites. There are also mixed varietals such as Cabernet Shiraz or Cabernet Merlot and Semillon Chardonnay.

Choosing which wine to drink with specific types of food, again, comes down to personal taste. The rules used to be very stringent about taking only reds with meat dishes and whites with fish and fowl. Today, the drinker is the final arbiter of taste, but as a general guide, meat and game taste best with reds while seafood, salads and cheese are great with whites. If you have fowl for dinner but with a rich heavy sauce, you might consider having a medium-bodied red with it and likewise, if you opt for a seafood course that has a complex sauce base, you might want to reach for a Chardonnay. Some say Spanish Rioja is best with Chinese food.

There are dozens of myths about the pomp and circumstance surrounding the experience of wine-drinking, which make it appear threatening, but the truth is most of these myths are simply that: myths. Wine tasting is a highly personal, individualized experience. There is no right or wrong involved because everyone’s palate is different.

Here are some myths that need to be debunked.

• All bottles of wine need to be decanted before being served. Only old world wines need to be decanted. These are age-old bottles that have sediment in the bottom and the decanting process will give a purer product.

• Airing a bottle of red wine is necessary every time. Again, this need be done only with old world wines that have been sitting in cellars for many years. Uncorking it helps it breathe; the flavors are allowed to oxygenate, making the taste more palate-friendly.

• Red wine should not be served chilled. White wine must be chilled for maximum enjoyment, while red wine is best served at room temperature, which is 16 degrees Celsius in western standards. Since we live in a tropical country we should leave the red wine bottle in the fridge for a few minutes because room temperature is anywhere from 24 to 28 degrees.

If you are not yet confident about your preferences when purchasing wine, do consult with friends. Their recommendation should be good starting points, or better yet scout for wine tasting seminars. These events are the best venue to learn more about enjoying wine. Wine Depot holds their wine tasting festivals every year. The next one is not to be missed.

Many people say that wine should be taken seriously and I do agree but only up to the moment the bottle is opened. After that, it should be enjoyed and celebrated. Sharing is not mandatory, if you paid for the bottle and the wine is good, the option is yours to drink it all up.

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Wine Depot has branches in Makati, Ortigas, and Alabang. Visit its website at www.winedepot.com.ph.