Sherry

For many people sherry is a sweet sticky thing they stole from a half forgotten bottle when they were young. While there is sweet sherry - and it can be particularly delicious with cheese or desserts - a lot of sherry is quite dry and also delicious on its own.

Sherry will not last forever in the bottle after opening. While some of the richer and sweeter styles will last for a while once opened, all sherry tastes better the fresher it is. Lighter, dry sherry such as fino & manzanilla are best drunk within days of opening.

It is best to keep sherry chilled. Not only does sherry keep better when chilled it also tastes fresher.

Sherry is a fortified wine, originally made from white grapes that are grown near the town of Jerez, Spain. In Spane, it is called vino de Jerez. The word "Sherry" is an anglicisation of Xeres (Jerez).

After fermentation is complete, sherry is fortified with brandy. Because the fortification takes place after fermentation, most sherries are initially dry, with any sweetness being added later. In contrast, port wine (for example) is fortified halfway through its fermentation, which stops the process so that not all of the sugar is turned into alcohol.

Sherry is produced in a variety of styles, ranging from dry, light versions such as finos to darker and heavier versions known as olorosos, all made from the Palomino grape. Sweet dessert wines are also made, from Pedro Ximenez or Moscatel grapes. Sherry is regarded by many wine writers as "under-appreciated" and a "neglected wine treasure".

There are four different styles of Sherry: Fino (Dry and light in colour), Oloroso (sweet and fairly dark), Amoroso (lighter in colour and sweeter than Oloroso) and brown (dark and sweet) blending different wines.

Sherry is traditionally drunk from a copita, a special tulip-shaped Sherry glass.

 

 

Wine Glasses

Not sure of which wine goes in what glass?

Just keep in mind that wine glasses were not designed to merely impress your guests.

A bit of history...The Pleistene age saw the Iberians and later the Britons using baked clay goblets to drink from. The Phoenicians taught the Britons to make a copper alloy giving rise to the Bronze age, timber and bronze tankards came into existence. The Romans introduced silver and pottery goblets characterised by (in the early days of the Roman Empire) by ornate scroll work of pairs of leaves with buds. The Romans also produced some lead goblets.

The 5th century AD saw a shallow cup with a fine stem used by the upperclasses down to sturdy pottery goblets for the lower classes. The invading Saxons from the north brought with them not only fine glassware, gold jewel encrusted goblets but also horns. These, having no legs, had to be finished in one drink so they could be laid down. The horns were also used as titles to property, a legal document in the past.

The 700-800’s AD saw horn and silver flagons used, the Church disallowing horn cups to be used in communion. Wooden tankards were in common use by the late 900’s and clear glass tumblers appeared in the late 1000’s throughout England.

There is no shortage of quality wine glasses. The most famous being Reidel glasses, specially shaped for each variety to put the wine onto the correct area of the tongue to taste the best. 

More that 250 years ago Claus Riedel was the first person in the long history of the glass to design its shape according to the character of the wine. He is thus the inventor of the functional wine glass.

Red wine
Red wine should be served in a glass with a large, wide bowl. This allows air to circulate more freely within the glass, which releases more of the aromas and allows the flavours to distribute more evenly. A wider opening means your nose can get closer to the wine before drinking. Some red wines, such as Pinot Noir and Merlot, can do with a slightly narrower opening, while more robust wines are generally better drunk from wider glasses.

White wine
For white wines, a narrower bowl helps keep the wine cooler for longer because less of the surface of the glass is in contact with the surrounding air. Additionally, a narrower glass slows down oxidisation as less air can circulate within the glass. A narrower opening guides the more delicate aromas of white wine up to your nose.

Champagne
Champagne is traditionally served in a “flute”, a tall, narrow glass specially designed to enhance the flow of the bubbles and to concentrate the aroma. Champagne can also be served in a narrow, tulip-shaped white wine glass. Provided that the rim of the glass is narrower than the midpoint, maintaining effervescence, this type of glass may be a good choice as it allows for the drink to be swirled and the aroma to be better appreciated than in a flute.

The curious case of the cork

There is no best way to seal wine, there are only better ways under different circumstances with different trade-offs.

There are all sorts of ways to keep wine in and air out of a wine bottle.  Wineries can choose between natural corks, composite cork stoppers, screw caps with tin liners, screw caps with plastic liners, plastic corks of many types and elegant glass stoppers.

Natural cork closures have a centuries-long heritage; however, they allow for a bottle of wine to be “corked” as the saying goes or suffer from TCA contamination (a substance used to sanitize the natural cork prior to bottling). A “corked” bottle has a musty smell and taste. The result is a flat, moldy flavour devoid of fruit-filled taste and aroma.

It is estimated that about 5-10% of wines available on merchants' shelves are “corked.” Some winemakers use certified corks that are treated to be bacteria free. This is a necessary expense as they can not afford the negative publicity and in today’s economic climate, winemakers can not afford to loose 5%.

Well over the last couple of centuries the wine industry has been using more and more cork, however as cork is harvested from trees that are approximately 6 to 9 years old the supply has not managed to keep up with the demand, this has led to a much higher use of pesticides and wood preservatives to get the cork ready sooner. These treatments on the trees are what most people are pointing at to account for the large increase in corked wine.

Synthetic corks, derived from plastic, appeared to be a viable alternative to traditional corks. However, their track record has been tarnished due to their inability to keep oxidation at bay for any real length of time, significantly decreasing the shelf life of a wine and short-changing the maturing process of select wines. Plastic corks usually won’t contaminate the wine, but they don’t always seal tightly over time, so the wine can be oxidized after a couple of years. The eco-friendly debate also comes into play here.

Screw caps provide the best seal for bottled wines, and eliminate the “corked” and oxidation problem in one fell swoop. While, screw caps do diminish the drama and romance of bottle opening it is well worth the sacrifice to ensure a taint-free wine that offers consistent aging, maintained flavour and freshness with optimum quality control. Screw caps are TCA-free, but they, can seal too tightly, with the result that the wine can suffer sulfur reduction, which gives it a rubbery or rotten egg smell, and screw cap wine can fail to develop as it ages.

Corks seem headed for the endangered species list for all but the most precious age-worthy wines.  Non-cork closures including screwcaps were nearly invisible just 10 years ago (with perhaps 1 percent of the bottled wine market), but this is changing quickly.

Screwcaps have long been associated with inexpensive wine, but this is no longer the case. Some of the top wines in South Africa have switched to screw caps. Paul Cluver, Tokara, Constantia Uitsig, Fleur du Cap and Iona are just a few of the premium wine producers that have been using screwcaps, and they have been raking in the rewards.

Economics is behind the move away from cork. Screwcaps are not remarkably cheaper than cork, but they avoid the loss of good wine to cork taint. A shipment of tainted cork almost ruined one of the American wineries some years ago and destroyed forever the reputation of its Chardonnay wines. It had to rebuild (successfully) as a Pinot Noir maker.  In Great Britain, it is apparently getting somewhat harder to find a natural cork in a popularly-priced wine because the supermarket buyers, who wield such market power, are strongly biased in favour of plastic and screw top closures. Like many in the business, they have been burned too many times by problems they associate with bad corks.

No matter what stopper winemakers use, they can never be sure that the wine they put in will be the wine that you pour out.

You might think that global wine market competition would have produced a “best practice” solution for wine closures, but the market is too complicated and diverse for that. The science may be universal, but the people (both producers and consumers the middlemen in between) have their own quirks. In France, for example, it is hard to sell a screw top wine, at least for now, because of the strong attachment to tradition.

Tradition, ageing of wine, quality and price aside the sound of a cork being pulled out of a bottle is still music to our ears.

To drink or not to drink...that is the question.

How do you know if a wine is not drinkable anymore? So many people ask us this question.  There is a difference in wine that does not fall in your taste and wine that should be poured down the drain. Here are a few guidelines to look out for.

Corked
The most common flaw in wine comes from a defective cork that infects the wine and turns the aroma to a mildewed, wet-cardboard smell and the taste to a flattened, dried out sensation. The wine is called “corked” or “corky.” You should send it back in a restaurant or ask the wine merchant who sold it to you to exchange it for a good bottle.

Oxidized
The oxygen in air makes a good wine go bad in a day or two if an opened bottle isn’t properly looked after. An oxidized wine smells like stale bread or weak vinegar. This is a particular hazard with wines by the glass at restaurants, where half-empty bottles are often kept on the bar overnight. Refrigeration helps, even for reds. Another preventive measure is pouring the wine into a smaller container like a half-bottle (375 milliliter) with a tight lid so that it fills to the top and excludes any air.

Cooked
We often recommend to people who will travel far with wine to keep it in a cool place. Wine can be “cooked” if kept in hot attics or trunks, above stoves or in frugally minded corporate offices where the AC is turned off over the weekends. It’s a slow simmer, but the wine gets ruined before long. It will look brownish around the edges of the glass (whether red or white) and may smell caramelized. If you also noticed that the cork in the bottle was pushed up and partway out, it’s probably cooked. This often happens when you travel far with wine in the car.

Going through malolactic
Winemakers put most red wines and many whites, especially Chardonnay, through a mild secondary transformation in addition to the yeast fermentation that turns them from grape juice into wine. The conversion is called malolactic. But if a winemaker isn’t careful, the malolactic can happen after the wine is bottled. The result can vary from a mild effervescence to a totally stinky aroma and bizarre flavours. One frequent sign is an unusually cloudy or hazy appearance.

Sulphury

Here I can write a book. All wines contain sulphites, whether they are added or not, because it is one of those extracurricular products of yeast fermentation. Sulphur dioxide is added to virtually all wines in very small quantities (10 to about 100 parts per million) to help prevent oxidation and bacterial growth. That’s why you see the note on the label that says “Contains Sulphites.” Sulphur is a good thing in moderation, but if the winemaker adds too much, then the wine smells like matchsticks and can prickle the inside of your nostrils. Some people are allergic to sulphur and then a “Low Sulphite” or “No Sulphites Added” wine is recommended. We recommend that you try the Stellar Organic range.

Bottle Shock

This is a reaction that occurs in wine immediately after corking, resulting from oxygen being absorbed during the bottling process. This small amount of oxygen introduced during this process will not usually oxidize or ruin your wine, but rather in the long run it helps during the maturation process. Bottle Shock is characterized by muted or disjointed fruit flavours in the wine. The wine may have a flat flavour and aroma, and may sometimes be accompanied by an off-putting odour. Bottle Shock can also be caused if sulphur dioxide is added during the bottling process, also affecting the flavours and odour of the wine. It is a temporary condition and your wine will need time, 8 to 10 weeks, to get over the shock of being transferred. The wine must rest and recover, working inside the bottle to reach a new equilibrium.

Storing wine

It often happens that we receive wines from a private cellar to sell on behalf of a client. In order to resell the wine it is very important to look at the storing conditions.

Short Term Storage:
This is wine you will consume within 6 months. These may be bottles that are just home from the store and destined to be consumed shortly or bottles that have been pulled from longer storage to be accessible for spur of the moment consumption.

The closer you can duplicate the conditions required for long term storage, the better. However, in many situations, keeping the wines in a box in an interior closet is a satisfactory solution.

Keep the bottles stored so that the cork stays moist, the wines are at the lowest stable temperature possible,the location is free of vibration and the location is not a storage area for other items that have a strong odor.

For example, do not store your wine on top of the refrigerator; it's hot, close to the light and vibrates from the refrigerator compressor.

Long Term Storage:
This is wine that you will keep for more than 6 months before consumption. A good storage location for wine is generally dark, is free of vibration, has high humidity and has a low stable temperature.

Generally accepted 'ideal' conditions are 10 to 13 °C  and 70 percent humidity or higher. The high humidity is important because it keeps the corks from drying and minimizes evaporation. The only problem with even higher levels of humidity is that it brings on growth of mold on the labels or the loosening of labels that have water soluble glue.

Temperatures lower than 13 °C only slow the aging of the wines. There have been wines found in very cold cellars of castles in Scotland that are perfectly sound and are much less developed that those kept at 'normal' cellar temperature. A near constant temperature is preferable to one that fluctuates.

With regard to light, most modern bottles have ultraviolet filters built into the glass that help protect the contents from most of the effects of UV rays. Despite the filters in the glass, long term storage can still allow enough rays in to create a condition in the wine that is referred to as 'light struck'. The result is that the wine picks up the taste and smell of wet cardboard. This is especially noticeable in delicate white wines and sparkling wines. The condition can be created by putting a bottle of champagne near a fluorescent light for a month.

Regular or constant vibrations from pumps, motors or generators should be avoided since the vibrations they cause are thought to negatively affect the evolution of the wines. One additional factor to avoid is storing other items with very strong odors near the wine. There have been many reports of wines picking up the aromas of items stored nearby.

Not all of us have the luxury of having space fo a suitable wine cellar, there are many types of 'wine refrigerators' that will work as well. They differ from common refrigerators in that they work at higher temperatures (10-18 °C range) and they do not remove humidity from the air. 

Port!

From the 1st of January 2012 no new bottlings of South African port may be labelled as port. Instead of being labelled port, future labels will read Cape Pink, Cape Ruby, Cape Tawny, Cape Vintage to describe the style.

The Cape Port Producers have issued a statement whereby all port bottles befor 1 January, may still be labelled as port.

Many local and international wine fundi’s say that South African port is by far the best in the New World, and just as good as the best in Portugal.

Did you know that there are over 8,000 grape varieties harvested in the world, however, only a select few appear in our stores?  

There are 48 authorized grape varieties which can go into a port. The most common are 8 red and 8 white, with tinta rariz, tinta francisca, touriga nacional and touriga francesca topping the list. Port is kept in oak for a relatively short time, and depending on the quality of the year, is blended with other years for a consistant taste. It is then fortified and aged in bottles.

Ports should be stored differently depending on their type. The Standard port, including Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) ports, have a stopper-with-plastic-top seal. These are not meant to be aged, and should be stored upright, so the cork does not have any contact with the liquid within. The plastic seal is not meant to hold in the liquid on its side. Vintage ports, on the other hand, are meant to be aged and have a traditional, "normal" wine-type cork. These should be stored on their sides like any other wine.

A few facts about port:
White Port is made from a selection of white grape varieties, and is then aged and fortified. It is typically a simple multi-year blend of vintages and can be sweet or dry depending on the house style.

Ruby Port is the most basic of port styles. This is made with a blend of red grape varieties and is blended from several years. It should not be aged, and tends to taste of berries, with light tannins.

Tawny Port is a ruby port that has been aged for several years in small oak barrels. This gives the port a tawny colour, as well as a buttery, nutty caramel flavour. If a tawny port is listed as being "10 years" or "20 years", this means that the average vintages used in the blend is that number. A 10 year tawny might include some wine from 8 years old, and some from 12 years old, and so on. These are usually sweet.

Late Bottled Vintage was created specifically for the restaurant market, to give them a vintage type port that did not have sediment and could last a while after being opened. The winemaker filters and fines this port and then pre-ages it for the consumer, usually for 6 or more years. When you buy your LBV port, you should drink it soon - it is not meant for aging. When you open this bottle, though, you can expect it to last for a full month before starting to lose its flavour.

Vintage Port is the high end of port releases. Only the best years are declared a vintage and used for this purpose. All of the grapes from a single harvest are used in a given wine. A 2000 vintage port contains only grapes from the 2000 harvest. This wine is aged in oak and then aged in the bottle. When you buy a vintage port, often you must then age it for another 10-30 years before it is at its best drinking flavour. This is the type of port you find in expensive cellars, waiting for decades to be enjoyed.

Boplaas and De Krans came up with a decadent Pink Port which is a must if you haven’t had the privilege to taste it yet.  De Krans also released the Espresso. Although it is not a port, it has been produced using the classic port varietals Touriga Naçional and Tinta Barocca. It’s not coffee, although it has sweet aromas of freshly ground coffee, perfect for dessert.

Email us for more information about the port we have in stock.

Glühwein

Among the products on our shelves we sell Glühwein spice bags.  

So many people do not know what Glühwein is…also known as mulled wine in other parts of the world.

Glühwein is wine, usually red, combined with spices and typically served warm. It is a traditional drink during winter.

It is the traditional beverage offered and drunk during the Christmas holidays. It is usually prepared from red wine, heated and spiced with cinnamon sticks, vanilla pods, cloves, citrus and sugar.  Glühwein is drunk pure or with a shot, which means there is rum or liqueur added.

For the recipe or to order Glühwein spice bags, please contact us.

The great wall or the great wine of China?

Some of you might not know this, but about four years ago Paul was invited to market a few South African wines  in Taiwan. And if you ever get the chance please ask him to tell you about his trip!

In the South African wine industry, the East, mainly China has been the topic of many conversations lately.

So naturally we will bring you up to speed on what all the talk is about. So here is what you should know:

Beginning in 1980, French and other Western wines began to rise in prominence in the Chinese market, both in mainland China and Taiwan. French-taught Chinese winemakers introduced wine to a market dominated mostly by beer, and have quickly expanded in scale such that China, with its immense population, is set to become the largest wine market in the world.

China is a country with an ancient wine tradition. The history of Chinese grape wine has been dated back more than 4,600 years. They also are a new and emerging wine-producing nation.  Grape wine is a decidedly small portion of the total but this is slowly changing.  Local wines account for 90 percent of wine consumed in China.  China already produces more wine than Spain and Portugal combined and some of its brands are already stocked in supermarkets in the West, competing successfully against New World wines from countries such as Chile.

In 2008, it was predicted that within 50 years the quality of Chinese wine will rival that of Bordeaux. At the moment, a few large companies, such as Changyu Pioneer Wine, China Great Wall Wine Co., Ltd. and the Dynasty Wine Ltd., dominate the market.

Statistics show that the main market for white wine is among females, who prefer it over beer, still the main alcoholic beverage for most males; red wine has become a symbol of the elite and rich and is usually used as a table wine. In 2005, 80% of vineyards produce red wine and 20% of vineyards produce white wine, while 90% of wine consumed as of 2007 is red wine.

The move to marketing South African wine in China is one way of countering the 20% decline in sales of wine to the UK, says Neil Pendock, reports the Cape Times.  “The future of South African wines is in the East” he says.  Michael Fridjhon added that the weak Rand is causing export sales at a loss, and that British supermarkets “are absolutely calling the shots to South African wine producers…” A further threat to local wine producers is that supermarkets are increasingly stocking inexpensive imported wines, helped by the weak Rand.

South Africa is the world’s seventh-largest wine producer, and people drinking an average of about 7.5 liters a year, according to South African Wine Industry Information & Systems statistics. That compares with France’s average of 54 liters. South Africa exported about 390 million liters of wine in 2009, of which 4 million went to China. China's wine consumption at 0.4 liters per person a year is still quite low in international terms.  In Australia also a country where wine is a big industry and also a part of many meals, consumption is 25 liters and even in the United States, where wine also is a major industry - 15 liters, according to AT Kearney figures. China is expected to move to seventh place by 2012 with a total consumption of 103.5 million nine-litre cases per year. This figure suggests a staggering increase of 36 per cent in wine consumption between 2009 and 2012, and will see China top the one-billion-bottle mark shortly.

South African bottled wine sales into China have increased by 50 %, albeit off a low base, and this market is estimated to be worth $6 billion by 2014, and about 34 million Chinese could be drinking wine by 2015, reports the Weekend Argus.

A number of leading South African wine brands will be exported into China. The exported wine brands include Alto, Jacobsdal, Neethlingshof, Plaisir de Merle, and Stellenzicht. 

With wines like these we are sure to make a good impression!