How To Choose A Wine By Appearance

How much time do you spend in the store choosing wine ? Often you want to try something new, but there is a fear that the choice will turn out to be wrong. That's why we stop at tested bottles .

To save your time, you can be guided by the following characteristics, by which you can choose a good wine without opening the bottle .

Glass thickness

There are light and heavy bottles . Light are bottles with thin walls of pale green, pale brown, blue or transparent glass. They do not have a notch at the bottom. They bottle wines that are not intended for long-term storage. They should be drunk within 1-2 years.

Heavy bottles with thick walls are made of dark green or dark brown glass. Such a bottle should be taken if you are going to store wine for a long time .

The shape of the bottle

There are 12 types of bottles . Just by looking at the shape, you can tell which wine is in it .

• Bordeaux. Straight, with high shoulders and a slight depression at the bottom. Wines from the French region of Bordeaux are bottled in such bottles from Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Semillion, Sauterne, and Meritage grapes . For red wine, dark green glass is used, for white - light green or transparent.

• Burgundy. With gentle shoulders and a slightly wider base than other species. The bottles are always made of dark green glass and are used for wines made from Pinot Noir, Aligot and Chardonnay grapes.

• Ron This bottle is similar to the previous one, but has a slightly larger neck and more angular sloping shoulders. It is also often embossed with a coat of arms. The bottle is used for wines made from Grenache, Mourverde, and Syrah grapes . Red wine is bottled in green glass, white and pink in transparent bottles .

• Champagne. The design of this bottle is developed according to the characteristics of the drink. Thin glass, sloping shoulders and a deep depression at the bottom help to distribute the pressure inside the bottle : it can reach 6 atmospheres.

• Cote de Provence. Used for rosé and red wine by traditional winemakers in the French region of Côte de Provence.

• Alsatian flute. These are tall bottles with an elongated neck and a flat bottom. Popular with winemakers from the French Alsace region and the German Mosel region. They are made of light green glass and are used for Riesling and Müller Thurgau wines .

• Rhine. Tall, slender, with a long neck. Made of dark brown glass. It is used for wines made from Riesling , Müller-Thurgau, Gewürztraminer grapes.

• Chianti. Convex, with a curved bottom, in a straw basket. It is also called a fiasco. It is used exclusively for Chianti - red Italian wine from the Tuscany region. However, Chianti is now often bottled in standard wine bottles .

• Boxbeutel. The bottle is in the shape of a flattened ellipsoid, with a short neck and an engraving of the emblem on the left side. Widely used for wines from the Franconia region of Germany and for some Portuguese wines.

• Yura. The light green bottle with a slightly flared skirt is used by winemakers from the Jura region in northeastern France. They pour wine from Savigny, Pulsar, Trusso, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay grapes .

• Wen Zhong. A bottle for the wine produced from Savigny grapes in the Jura region. This wine matures for 6 years in a barrel under a film of yeast. The volume of the bottle is 620 ml. This is the only white wine in the world that is served at room temperature. A distinctive feature of this bottle is the convex neck, which prevents the appearance of plaque, and dark glass. It is used for madera, marsala, vermouth and port.

Notch on the bottom

The notch does not say anything about the quality of the wine. The recess is created so that during long-term aging, the sediment in the wine collects on the walls of the bottle . This helps prevent clouding of the drink when served. Also, the depth of the recess depends on the specifics of the production region.

Cork

In the store, you will most often find bottles with a screw or classic cork, which must be removed with a corkscrew. Classic cork is made from natural cork wood or its cuttings, or from synthetic materials.

A cork made of natural ingredients is better because it lets microscopic doses of oxygen into the bottle . This helps the wine to develop and age. In addition, pay attention to the length of the cork: the longer it is, the better.

The screw cork is used by winemakers in New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Germany and the USA. It is made of aluminum alloy and completely blocks the access of oxygen, preventing the wine from spoiling and aging. Such wines are recommended to be drunk within 1-3 years after production. However, recently, Australian producers have been corking expensive wines with a screw cap.

Capsule on the neck

Cheap wines have a plastic capsule. The roads are made of thick foil.

Label

The label contains information about the producer and the properties of the wine. Here are the main signs on the bottle that you should pay attention to.

Manufacturer's name

Chateau Terre Rouge, Le G Chateau Guiraud, Oyster Bay, Inkerman are all producer names. The inscription looks like a logo and is not always the first thing that catches your eye.

Production region

The region is usually written in large letters. The most famous French are Bordeux, Medoc, Bourgogne, Chablis, Graves, Champagne. The main Spanish is Rioja.

Grape variety

The grape variety is usually written on the bottle large and legible. You may confuse it with the name of the wine. Merlo, Malbec, Pino Noir, Pino Grigio, Cabernet, Chardonnay, Muscat, Isabella, Riesling, Montepulciano - all these are grape varieties . It is easy for a beginner to get confused, but with experience the difference between the two becomes clearer.

Sugar content

Unlike the strength, the sugar value is not indicated on the bottle . Instead, they write "dry", "semi-dry", "sweet" or "semi-sweet". Choose the one you like.

Harvest year

You can find the vintage year on a bottle of wine. Yield depends on weather conditions, diseases, pests. To choose the best drink, check on the Internet which year was successful for this wine.