Rhone Ranger Event "Starter Kit"

Rhone Rangers

Wine Tasting Starter Kit

So You Want to Have a Rhone Tasting… 

Who could blame you? Rhone varietal wines are fruit forward, versatile with food, and they come in a wide variety of flavors. Whether you want to have a Rhone varietal tasting at home, or whether you belong to a group to wants to put on a Rhone varietal tasting event, the Rhone Rangers can help. A tasting at home can be as simple as inviting a few friends over to enjoy a summer barbecue, or as involved as actually putting together a comparative tasting of Syrahs from a particular region, vintage, or even producer. Read on for some tasting guidelines, and for a simple example of how a tasting might work.

Tips for a Rhone tasting at home

1. Don’t go overboard: five or six wines is usually enough to taste (especially if you’ll be having wine with dinner afterwards).

2. Stick to one varietal: Syrah, Viognier, Roussanne, etc.

3. Try to find wines in the same price range.

4. Make sure red wines aren’t too warm and white aren’t too cold

5. Serve something simple to cleanse the palate between tastes…bread, crackers, etc.

6. Provide information about the wines for your guests (there’s plenty of info available on line).

7. Consider serving the wines blind (so your guests won’t see the labels) by putting the bottles in a paper bag before pouring.

8. You might want to use a placemat like the one linked on this page

Example Tasting: A simple blind tasting of Syrah

Dick and Jane are hosting a dinner party on Saturday night and have decided to include a blind tasting of California Central Coast Syrah prior to putting the steaks on the barbecue. Jane went to the local retailer and purchased six Syrahs, all costing between $18 and $25. She was careful to make sure that she purchased Syrahs from the same vintage.

Next, Jane downloaded out the example tasting placemat on the Rhone Rangers website, added the price of each wine to its corresponding circle on the mat, and put all the bottles in a paper bag to hide their labels. Before the guests arrived, Dick helped Jane set the table with eight placemats, six wine glasses at each place, and a couple of baskets of sliced local sourdough. Dick had also heard that sliced roast beef, because of its fat content, helped cleanse the palate when tasting red wines, so he had a few slices for each taster waiting in the refrigerator.

Meanwhile, Jane was opening all the Syrahs and lining them up in order to be poured. Because Jane knew her neighbor Sam would consider the tasting a competition instead of a fun gathering, she wisely made sure the cork she used to temporarily re-cork each bottle did not correspond to the label. Sam was sure to look at the brand on the cork and think he was tasting the wine from that winery.

After all the guests arrived, Dick and Jane poured each place in order, wine one to wine six. After everyone sat down, they all tasted through the wines, wrote down their impressions, then ranked the wines, most favorite to least favorite. They talked about each wine in turn, then Jane removed the paper bags and revealed the producer and retail price of each wine.

Sam, of course, who maintained that he could identify the producer of each of the six wines, was shamed into relative silence for the rest of the evening.

What if you want to host a big Rhone wine tasting?

Lots of folks already belong to regular wine tasting groups, or they work with non-profit groups in their communities that might want to put on a fund-raising wine tasting for a large group of people. Wineries are often asked to participate in fund-raising wine tastings, and while budgets are tight and wineries can’t accept every event invitation, it never hurts to ask.

Rhone Ranger member wineries travel across the country talking about and promoting Rhone varietal wines. If you have an event planned and would like to feature Rhone Ranger members, take a look at the membership list, note addresses and phone numbers, and contact a few member wineries. If you live in larger metropolitan areas, in particular, there’s a good chance a Rhone Ranger winemaker will travel through your city at some point during the year and may be able to take an extra day to participate in your tasting.

Small or Big Tasting? 

Whether you want information to put on a small dinner party or a major fundraiser, much of the background on Rhone varietal wines is available here on the Rhone Rangers website. And if you can’t find what you need, please contact the Rhone Rangers office in California at (800) 467-0163.

BASIC WINE INFORMATION

WHAT ARE RHONE VARIETAL GRAPES?

Here are the most widely planted Rhone grapes in the U.S., starting with the reds:

Syrah — the leader of the pack in France, Australia and the U.S., making big, bold and age worthy wines, pairing deep, dark fruit flavors with earthy, smoky, peppery complexity Mourvedre — also known as Mataro, important in the southern Rhone, producing hearty, multi-layered wines with dark berry fruit and often overtones of tobacco and wood

Grenache— the workhorse of the southern Rhone, generally made in a bright, fruity, drink-me-right-now style, but older vines are capable of bigger things

Petite Sirah — also known as Durif, this grape is primarily grown in California. A cross between Syrah and Peloursin developed in France by Dr. Durif in the 1880’s, it has been the subject of much confusion due to variations in the spelling of its name and inter-planting in vineyards with other varieties for its excellent blending qualities. Dark color, intense, peppery flavor and substantial tannins are hallmarks of this grape.

Carignane, Cinsault and Counoise — are among the supporting actors, most often employed to add new dimensions to blends.

And for the whites:

Viognier— a legend from a small corner (Condrieu) of the northern Rhone, now getting widely planted across the U.S., making intense wines with fascinating floral-spicy aromas

Marsanne — yielding wines with plenty of body, enough substance to succeed without much oak, and good balance

Roussanne — racy, spicy, intriguing on the nose and the palate, a fine match with the multitude of lively flavors in New World cuisine

Besides having all these grapes at their disposal, Rhone-style winemakers have their own traditions. An important one is blending: Grenache with Syrah, Marsanne with Roussanne, sometimes a pinch of a white to make a red more intriguing, as many as 13 different grapes in Chateauneuf du Pape. Blending isn’t a way to cover up faults; it’s a way to deliver more fun into your mouth. And the Rhone category is also the homeland of great dry rosé—not sugary, soda-poppy blush, but a lighter shade of red, made by giving the juice only brief contact with the skins. It’s the wine for which summer weather was invented. Put it all together, it means wines with character and variety, coming from a broad range of climates and regions, finding a place alongside just about anything you’d want to eat. Next time you visit a wine shop or browse a restaurant wine list, think Rhone!

WHAT IS WINE?

Wine is fermented grape juice. Add yeast to grape juice and the yeast ferments the natural sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide: Grape Juice + Yeast = Wine (alcohol + carbon dioxide) The yeast eats the sugar, the carbon dioxide bubbles away, and the alcohol in the wine, packed with all those grape flavors, remains. If the winemaker wants to make a sweet wine, he can remove the yeast before it eats all the sugar, leaving a bit of residual sugar in the wine. Sometimes winemakers keep the carbon dioxide in the wine and make sparkling wines. The most famous is Champagne, which comes from the Champagne region of France. Since wine comes from grapes, it’s an agricultural product. And as with all agricultural products, differences in wine flavor can sometimes be explained by weather variations during the grape growing season. That’s why there’s a vintage date, or year, on every wine bottle that signifies when the grapes were picked and made into wine.

What’s a Varietal Wine?

Just like there are Golden Delicious, Rome, Granny Smith, Gala and many other apple varieties, there are numerous grape varieties. When a wine label says the name of the grape variety on the label, like “Viognier” or “Syrah,” it’s called a varietal wine.

Wine Types: White Wines

Just like grapes come in different colors, so do wines. White wines are almost always made from white grapes. The grapes are crushed to separate the juice from the skins, yeast is added to the sweet juice and the juice ferments into wine. Sometimes when white wines are opened there’s a crystalline deposit on the cork or at the bottom of the bottle. These tartrate crystals have no effect on wine flavor and are harmless. Most often, wineries remove them before bottling.

HOW WHITE WINES ARE MADE

1. White grapes picked

2. Grapes crushed to remove stems

3. Grapes pressed to remove skins

4. Grape juice to fermentation

5. New wine to barrels or tank for aging and clarification

6. Filtration and bottling

Wine Types: What Makes Wine Red?

Red grapes have white juice inside. Red color in wine comes from pigments in the skins. The grapes are crushed and the juice and skins are pumped to a tank where yeast is added to ferment the juice into wine. After a week or so of fermentation the grape juice is converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide and the skins have imparted their red pigments to the new wine. Skins also impart other important components to red wines, especially tannins and flavors. Tannins produce the chalky, dry feeling in your mouth. Black tea and unripe persimmons have a lot of tannins, too. Tannins and other components sometimes combine in older red wines to form sediment on the bottom of the cork or bottle. As that sediment precipitates out and filters to the bottom of the bottle the wine can actually become softer and easier to drink. This is called maturing, it’s the real reason for aging wines.

HOW RED WINES ARE MADE

1. Red grapes picked

2. Grapes crushed to remove stems

3. Grapes juice and skins to fermentation

4. New wine pressed to remove skins

5. Wine to barrels or tank for aging and clarification

6. Filtration and bottling

Wine Types: Do White and Red Make Pink?

Pink or blush wines like White Zinfandel have become extremely popular in the US over the past ten years. They’re made by crushing red grapes and leaving the red skins in contact with the white juice for a short period of time — less than a day. That’s just enough time to extract a pink blush from the pigments in the skins instead of a deep red color. Pink wines can also be made by blending red wine with white wine, though the technique is not generally practiced in the US. Blush wines often have a little bit of residual sugar, that is, they’re slightly sweet. Some blush wines, especially those that may have a darker color and be a blend of many different grape varieties, are called Rosé wines. Rosés are often drier (less sweet) than a White Zinfandel or other Blush wines. White Zinfandel, with its strawberry and cherry fruit aromas and flavors is the most popular Blush wine in the US, though blush wines may be made from any red grape since most red grape juice is colorless (White Cabernet Sauvignon, White Pinot Noir).

HOW BLUSH WINES ARE MADE

1. Red grapes picked

2. Grapes crushed to remove stems

3. Grapes pressed to remove skins

4. Pink grape juice to fermentation

5. Wine to tank for settling and clarification

6. Filtration and bottling

Winemaking Treatments

All wines go through fermentation and some aging, but whites and reds sometimes ferment and age in different kinds of containers for different periods of time. Many white and red wines ferment in stainless steel tanks. Stainless steel does not impart any flavor to the wine, and temperature can be easily controlled. Many Chardonnays benefit from fermenting in small oak barrels. The wood imparts flavors like vanilla and toast that complements the natural grape flavors of a Chardonnay. Those vanilla flavors come from the wood itself. The toasty flavors come from a charred layer of wood on the inside of the barrel that occurs when the barrel is manufactured. Chardonnay is one of the few white wines that benefits from being fermented in barrels. If a Chardonnay says “barrel fermented” on the label you know it was 100% fermented in an oak barrel. Oak barrels are also used for aging many types of wines. Since aging also imparts flavor, more delicate white wines can’t spend as much time in barrels as heavy red wines … the wood flavors might overpower the wine’s grape flavors. Heavy red wines can often age more than twice as long in barrels than white wines. During aging, some of the tannin in red wines precipitates out to form a sediment on the bottom of the barrel. Partly because of this, the wines become softer and silkier before going into the bottle.

READING A LABEL

American wine labels are required to contain certain information that tells you more than just who made the wine.

Alcohol Content: Alcohol content is noted in percentage by volume. All table wines are between 7% and 14% alcohol by volume, but can legally vary by plus or minus 1.5% from what the label says.

Vintage Year: The year the grapes were harvested to make the wine. At least 95% of the grapes used had to come from that year stated on the label. (A wine that doesn’t have a vintage date is simply a blend of two or more vintages and is called a non-vintage wine.)

Brand Name: Your true indication of a quality wine … the most important information on the label.

Appellation: The area in which the grapes were grown. It can be large or small. “California” means that all of the grapes came from California. “Carneros” means at least 75% of the grapes came from that area. Sometimes wineries even list individual vineyards on the label.

“Produced and Bottled by …”: The winery named must have performed the usual winemaking operations and bottled the wine. “Cellared and bottled by,” or “vinted and bottled by” mean that the winery may have contracted out some of the winemaking steps.

Grape Variety: If it’s named on the label, at least 75% of the wine must be made from that single grape variety. (Some wines have proprietary names and may be blends of less than 75% of a number of grape varieties.) In many European countries, wines are traditionally named for the region in which the grape is grown. Wines may also have made-up, or proprietary, names in the US. Wines like BV Tapestry or Blossom Hill Bistro are blends of various kinds of grapes and are therefore considered proprietary wines.

“Contains Sulfites”: Finally, most wine labels in the US also mention that the wine “contains sulfites.” Sulfites are a naturally-occurring anti-bacterial and preservative produced by the yeast during fermentation. Winemakers may also add some sulfur dioxide to the wine prior to bottling. If sulfur dioxide is not used, wines will turn brown and eventually become vinegar in the bottle.

TASTING WINE

Wine appreciation is a matter of individual taste, including sight and smell. Using your senses is the best way to get acquainted with wine.

SIGHT: Check the wine’s color. Wine is supposed to please the eye as well as the palate. Is it dark or light? Look for its clarity and brilliance.

SMELL: Swirl the wine first to release aromas, then inhale deeply. First impressions are always the most accurate. Aromas change over time as the wine sits in the glass in contact with the air.

SIP: Taste it. Slosh it around in your mouth a bit. Purse your lips and suck in a little air. Notice the subtle flavors.

FINISH: How is the finish…that lingering aftertaste that you can savor in your mouth even after you’ve spit or swallowed the wine?

WHEN TO USE AN ICE BUCKET

For sparkling wines like Champagne To chill a white or red wine that is too warm Whenever the customer requests it

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF FOOD & WINE (SUGGESTIONS, REALLY)

1. The old rule of “red wine with meat, white wine with fish or fowl" served us well in its day. It’s a bit limiting, but there is a core of truth in it. When pairing food & wine keep in mind the size of the flavors in question. Red wines generally are bigger in flavor and are better with hearty dishes like meat. Fish and fowl tend to be not as big in flavor so they go better with the more delicate white wines.

2. Don’t always follow the rules. Be creative and follow your own sense of taste and common sense. Some fish and fowl, like grilled salmon and roasted chicken have lots of flavor and go very well with lighter reds like Pinot Noir and Gamay Beaujolais. Lighter meats like veal cooked in lemon and butter are too delicate for reds and taste better with a refreshing, crisp white wine like Sauvignon Blanc or a lighter Chardonnay.

3. Don’t force others to like what you like. Everyone has different tastes so there is no way anyone can tell you what you like and therefore you can’t dictate what others will enjoy. Suggestions are always more welcome than commands. That’s how snobs are born.

4. Ask the guest what they like to eat and drink. This is probably the most important thing to remember at all times. The guest comes first.

5. Decide if you want to complement the dish or contrast it. For example, a pasta with a rich sauce, like a gorgonzola cream sauce. Do you want to cut through the richness of the dish with a contrasting high acid wine like Sauvignon Blanc or wrap around the flavors of the dish with a complementary rich Chardonnay.

6. Remember that the cooking method will help determine the style of wine, often being the most important element. A pan-fried chicken dish will go well with a crisp Chardonnay while a spicy blackened chicken would be better with something red and fruity like a light Pinot Noir, Merlot or Gamay Beaujolais.

7. The sauce or garnish served with the food may dictate the kind of wine that tastes best with it. A grilled chicken may have a fruit salsa served with it which will taste better with a fruity wine like Chenin Blanc or Riesling. If the sauce changes to a tomato mushroom sauce then the best wine might switch to a Merlot, a light Cabernet or a Pinot Noir. A steak rubbed with garlic might taste great with a Merlot or Cabernet, but a black peppercorn steak needs a big red wine like a Reserve Cabernet, Zinfandel or Syrah.

8. Remember that there is a difference between fruit and sugar, the two are often confused. Fruit is a flavor and sweetness is the level of sugar. When a wine is dry it is low in sugar, when it is fruity it has lots of fruit flavor. This is very important to differentiate. When you taste a fruity wine it does not necessarily mean it is sweet. When pairing a wine with a dessert it is imperative that the wine be sweeter than the dessert. Otherwise, the wine will taste tart after eating the sweet dessert.

9. Be aware of the amount of oak in a wine being paired with food. Oak is being used in large amounts to give wines more flavor and richness. These wines taste good by themselves but the oak can get in the way of enjoyment when food comes into the picture. Spicy foods can turn oaky wines bitter, delicate foods are overwhelmed by the oak, some seafoods make the oak taste funny, almost salty. The flavor of oak can make the wine so big it changes the food it will go with. For people who don’t drink red but like steaks, a big oaky Chardonnay goes pretty well with a grilled T-Bone. When oak is used lightly, like any spice, it can enhance the flavor of the wine and food, but when used with a heavy hand it can ruin the flavor of both the food and the wine.

10. Have fun with food and wine. They are meant for enjoyment, to enhance our lives, to enrich and nourish our souls. Don’t let the complexity of the subject get you down.

GLOSSARY OF WINE TERMS

Aeration: exposing a wine to the air to let it “breathe” or react to oxygen

Aging: period of storage in bottles or barrels to develop flavor and drinkability

Aroma: smells in the wine that come from the grapes only (vs. bouquet)

Astringent: containing too much tannin giving your mouth a chalky feeling, puckery

Austere: assertively tart and acidic, extremely crisp and light-bodied

Balanced: all components are in the correct proportions to offset each other, harmony

Body: feel of the wine, its fullness or weight from alcohol, glycerin and tannin

Bouquet: smells in the wine that come from production techniques and bottle age

Buttery: description of odor or taste, usually in Chardonnay, creamy, rich

Clean: a well-made wine with no “off” aroma or taste

Complex: a multidimensional wine showing a variety of scents and flavors

Corked: a musty smell or flavor imparted by a defective cork

Crisp: high in acidity, tart and refreshing

Decanting: slowly pouring wine into another vessel leaving the sediment behind

Delicate: wines of light texture and body with subtle flavors and aromas

Dry: absence of noticeable residual sugar

Dumb: wine not showing its potential, an awkward stage of development

Earthy: odors reminiscent of soil or dirt, wet leaves

Effervescent: with bubbles, as in sparkling wine

Elegant: well balanced with subtlety and finesse, lighter in style

Fat: a wine with intense richness, heavy flavors, high alcohol and glycerin

Finish: flavor impressions left in the mouth after the wine is swallowed

Flabby: too soft, or flat, lacking in acidity, without character, dull on the palate

Flinty: dry, clean, sharp, taste or odor similar to smell of steel striking flint

Flowery: smell similar to the perfume of a bouquet of flowers (self-explanatory)

Full-Bodied: mouth-filling flavor and texture with high alcohol and glycerin

Glycerin: by-product of fermentation, viscous almost oily texture on the palate

Grassy: intense smell of grass or new-mown hay, often in Sauvignon Blanc

Green: unripe, unbalanced acidity, austere, immature, underdeveloped

Hard: astringent, high tannin wine, immature, unresolved

Herbaceous: intense odor/taste of herbs, vegetal aromas, in Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon

Hot: containing high levels of alcohol, causing burning sensation in finish

Legs: streaks of clear liquid clinging to inside of glass, glycerin/alcohol

Light: lacking in body, color or alcohol, but pleasant tasting

Lively: young, fruity wines with zesty acidity, a little spritz or carbon dioxide

Mature: a fully aged wine, showing its full potential, fully developed flavors

Mouthfeel: the texture left by the wine while on the palate

Nose: the aroma or bouquet of a wine, what you use to smell wine

Oaky: odor or flavor of wine derived from aging in oak barrels

Oxidized: chemical reaction in wine from too much exposure to air, spoiled

Quaffing: an easy to drink wine, low alcohol, soft, a wine which can be gulped

Rich: wines with generous mouthfeel, flavor and aroma

Robust: full-bodied, rich wine with intense flavor and aroma

Rough: young, immature wines with high acids or tannins

Round: well balanced, mature wine with soft acid and tannins

Sediment: precipitation of tannins and pigments at the bottom of the bottle, sludge

Smoky: odor present in wines aged in charred oak barrels

Soft: wine without harshness, low in acid, smooth mouthfeel

Supple: smooth, easy to drink wine with low tannins

Sweet: the presence of noticeable residual sugar

Tannin: extract from skins, seeds and stems or barrels that make wine astringent

Tart: excessively acidic, puckery

Thin: lacking in body, alcohol, richness and intensity of flavor, watery

Toasty: aroma and flavor of wine derived from being aged in fire-toasted barrels

Vegetal: odor or taste in wine similar to grass, herbs or unfresh vegetables

Viscous: describes full-bodied wines, truly thicker from high glycerin and alcohol

Yeasty: young wine tasting of yeast, as in fresh bread, often in sparkling wine