Image: we are into our preferred wine shop/store, and we see a new unknown bottle! WOW! But…how to understand if that new one could be really interesting for us and for our friend? We don’t know that new wine, but we can check it only from the bottle, these are 5 easy ways to understand if it is decent/good or not:
-Cavity of the bottom of the bottle; no, it’s not a “urban mith”, it’s true. More deep, better wine. Have you ever noticed how deep is it in excellent wines?
-Label; better if we read “produced and bottled by”. Less stress as travel, shiftings, and few different hands passages, make better wine.
-Cork; the best is the natural one. Avoid the short corks, more long is better.
-Color; deep (in case of red); it depends by the color of bottle of course. Anyway, more deep, better one.
-Vintage; not all wines can be aged, of course. If it’s more than 4-5 years ago, take infos about how and where it has been aged.
I want a preferred wine shop/store where I can ask a knowledgeable owner/employee and they’ll be able to describe the wine, discuss my preferences and know whether it could be really interesting. Here in beautiful PA my wish must remain a dream.
Hi Viscardo
For me this really is too general, but I appreciate your efforts to simplify wine. There is too much complexity for newcomers to wine to take in, and they really want simple rules that are useful 90% of the time. I’ll pick up individually
Cavity/Punt: More accurately this is typically a measure of how prestigious some makers want to make their wine appear. I suspect there is a strong correlation between depth of punt and the amount of new oak invested in the wine! So there is some truth in this, but already their are poor wines plumped up by oak and marketed with prestige bottles - the marketing guys are already adapting.
Produced and bottled by. This one is still IMO a useful generalisation. The old commerciante / negociants / English importers were fairly free and easy with the blending, such that you bought what was in the bottle, even if what was in the bottle didn’t match the label. What this gives you is more confidence that if it says it is from Gattinara, then it most probably is from Gattinara (and not partly from Puglia or Campania)
Cork. This is typically very contentious. Sticking to cork, yes a longer cork is often better, but the quality of the cork and the steps undergone to reduce the risk of TCA are perhaps even more important. However if all we actually see is the length of the cork, then that is all we have to go on. There are many views about alternative closures, from the Antipodean view of “remind me again what cork was” to the DOCG committees “Use cork or don’t make wine”. This whole area is an entirely different and often vociferous debate!
Colour / Color. I wouldn’t use this except in very rare / specific circumstances, and when I do it is as likely to be used in reverse. I do not want my Barolo to be black. I prefer if with more red to it’s hue (more red than the modern day wines), and more fragrant than crushed black olives. Also the varying types of glass used make comparisons in bottle almost impossible. For white wines, comparisons of colour may evidence a style of winemaking (e.g. oxidative) or a wine that is immature (pale/colourless) all the way through to one that is oxidised.
Vintage. I like old wines, so seeing some age on the wine is often a plus. However the older the wine, the more one looks for signs of mistreatment - e.g. the colour dropping out of an old wine, or a label that looks to be faded from exposure to sunlight. We also look at the level of the wine / ullage to judge whether there is a risk of too much oxygen ingress and an oxidised or tired wine being the result.
There is one more which shouldn’t be a factor, but might be better than the size of the bottle / punt. The label. It is so easy to devise a nice label, but cheap wines invariably have a glossy but inelegant colourful label. I’m surprised at how often an attractive and elegant label goes with a good wine. There are however plenty of exceptions either way, so I’d not rely on it.
and what do I look for?
This is where extensive reading does really help. Through it, I have a reasonable idea what to expect from a lot of wine regions. Depending on what mood I am in, I can use that knowledge to narrow the search down and if the merchant says a new IGT or VdT wine is a bit like XYZ region, then I can find it easier to make a decision on. I also have a reasonable feel of which wines might need additional cellaring, or to be drunk up as soon as possible.
If someone doesn’t have that knowledge, and they are faced with an IGT or VdT or lesser known DOC, then they really should ask the merchant. A really good merchant will not only be able to describe the wine, but will also be more excited about it than a Chateauneuf du Pape or classed growth Bordeaux - after all any fool can stock a famous wine and sell it, but the unknown or esoteric rely on them being a good judge of interesting wines that aren’t so well known.
The “easy” way to understand if we’ll like the wine is to ask the sales help. If they are competent and knowledgeable, they’ll be able to describe the style of the wine so that you can know if YOU will like it.
No, you’ve misinterpreted what I wrote. I ask other people to describe the wine; I can then use that information to decide if I’m likely to enjoy it. The depth of the punt tells me nothing about the style of the wine.
Welcome, Viscardo. There is a lot of knowledge and experience to be found by reading on this Board - have fun!
As to your assertion that the " -Cavity of the bottom of the bottle; no, it’s not a “urban mith”, it’s true. More deep, better wine. Have you ever noticed how deep is it in excellent wines?" That is just the “glass” that the producer chooses for the wine. Unless labeled otherwise, a typical, single bottle contains 750ml of wine. The shape of the bottle has only to do with visuals - how the producer wants the bottle to appear to its buyers. So you can get the appearance of a “bigger” or perhaps “more important” bottle of wine by increasing the depth of the punt, which allows for a higher shoulder/neck. And your observation that the wine is “better” is perhaps related more to image and how much is spent producing that image. Those bottles all contain the same, finite amount of wine: 750ml. Those glass bottles cost more, are heavier, and cost more to ship because of the increased weight.
![[scratch.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/4/42a16863a8714da3c1604419e3eb9206bb87aa50.gif "scratch"){kind=small}