We've all heard about the proverbial uniqueness of a snowflake. And on a good day when we're proud of human diversity, we smile about how each person is also like a snowflake. But did you know that your favorite wine is also like a snowflake? Most people know their favorite wine (such as Cabernet Sauvignon), and might even have a favorite winery -- and buy that wine all the time. This provides the comforting illusion that the wine you enjoyed last night with last night's bottle is a wine you can enjoy again. Well, I'm here to tell you that after talking to some gentlemen in the wine business, my suspicions about this illusion were confirmed. You can not repeat the experience of a bottle of wine from one night to the next. You may come very close, so close that you can't tell the difference, but it is not the same wine!
Let me back-up for you though. Let us begin with just your favorite wine type: a Riesling, Merlot, or whatever you favor most. You may have noticed that different regions produce wine made of the same grape. You have probably figured out that, for example, a French Cabernet Sauvignon does not taste like a California Cabernet Sauvignon. Wine is produced in territories, and just like any other fruit, the grapes from one territory doesn't taste like grape from another territory. The soil, climate, and altitude of where the grapes grow are among many of the factors that affect a wine's flavor very early in the life of that wine.
Okay, you may be thinking, that makes sense. Perhaps you're thinking about some exotic fruits, and how they can only be grown abroad, and shipped here. After the grape of your favorite wine is grown, it is picked and turned to wine. So, so many factors enter the equation for this long process. How long is the wine stored before it is bottled? In how many barrels? What kind of wood is the barrel made from? Where are the barrels stored? How many preservatives are used? The list of affecting circumstances go on and on for the average unblended wine.
If you find you are in love with a wine blend, such as a Malbec-Cabernet Sauvignon blend, or even a blend of three or four wines, then the life of each type that is blended brings with it a complexity that most consumers don't really contemplate. The flavor of each individual type depends on its own history, and then the flavor of the blended wine relies upon how well each type of wine gets along with the others.
All of this exciting and unpredictable flavoring occurs only in the barrel. But even after a wine is bottled, its flavor can vary from one bottle to the next! Never mind that it came from the same barrel, each bottle has its own experience. Each bottle has its own history with the winery, its transportation to the distributor, how it is stored there, its transportation to your store, and how the store keeps the bottle. After all, altitude and temperature affect how well each bottle of wine lasts until you open it. As if those were not enough variables, if a cork is used, it, too, can affect the wine's flavor. Twist-caps may be easier to handle, but still remove some favorable variables that corks have provided to wine for centuries.
Wine flavor is complex, subtle, and variable. A wine's history, just like a person's, is key to how it turns out at different stages of its life cycle. The flavor can even vary from one glass to the next, coming from the same bottle. Until the wine is consumed, it is a living, changing entity that is sensitive to every experience it goes through.
Wine is just life a snowflake. If you use that simile with someone in the wine industry, they might laugh at you. But if you ask them, does each bottle taste the same, and they are being honest, they will say no.
This blog is an introduction to my new blog on wine, wine tasting, and learning about wine. Stay tuned for future articles!
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