Top 5 Wine Myths

I love organising wine tastings in people’s homes! I hear great stories and really get to know what you like and dislike when it comes to wine. I also discover many misconceptions about wine – here are the top 5 wine myths along with the facts.

1. The bigger the dimple in the bottom of the bottle, the better the wine.

   Many wine bottles have a concave indentation in the bottom called a “punt”. There are some who believe that this has a direct relation to the quality of the wine contained in the bottle but this is not true. The punt strengthens the bottle, making it more stable for transportation and safer for pressurised, sparkling wines. It also allows any sediment to collect and consolidate, preventing this deposit from being poured into the glass. A deep punt may indicate a more expensive bottle but in actual fact is not a guarantee that the wine contained within is of superior quality.

2. More sun equals better wine.

   Weather does have a lot to do with producing great tasting wine but it’s not just sunshine – rain, wind and atmospheric conditions all play a big part. A good year for a particular wine depends on the conditions that best suit the grape varieties used. A lot of sun produces fruit with a higher sugar content which will increase the level of alcohol but not necessarily the quality of the flavour. In general, sunnier climates produce fruitier wines, wetter conditions produce wines with more acidic structure but it’s the complex combination of all the environmental conditions along with the ability of the wine maker to react to the specific qualities of the harvest that results in the flavours of a wine.

3. Rosé wine is a mix of red and white wine.

   Most grape juice is clear. Red wine gets its colour from contact with the skins. White wine can actually be made from black grapes – a lot of white sparkling wine, including champagne, for instance, is made from black grapes such as Pinot Noir. To make a red wine, the grape juice is left on the skins to “macerate” for about a month, which enables the wine to extract flavour and colour from the grape skins. In order to intensify the flavour and colour, a quantity of the free flowing juice may be removed after a few days to reduce the juice to skin ratio. This free flowing juice will be pale in colour, having only had a few days contact with the skins. This paler juice will be made into rosé. There are some exceptions! Pink champagne, for example is made by adding small quantities of red wine to the clear juice before the second fermentation that creates the fizz.

4. Drinking white and red wine together will give you a bigger hangover.

   There is no reason why drinking a few glasses of white followed by a few glasses of red, or vice versa, would give a worse hangover than sticking to either white or red. The fact is that most of us do tend to stick to either red or white but if we’re at a party or event and our first choice runs out, we’ll switch to what’s left. In this case it is the sheer quantity you’ve consumed that gives you the hangover!!

5. Screwcap closures are only used for cheap wines.

   Not true! Natural cork can contain bacteria that can spoil the wine (“corked” wine is wine that has come into contact with an infected cork, it smells and tastes very musty, like old, damp socks!) This is not a problem with screwcap. Furthermore as screwcap does not suffer from drying out and creates a more air tight seal, it will keep wines fresher for longer and also maintains fresh aromas. Therefore many wine makers are moving over to screwcap for their premium wines.

Tagged as: champagne, cork, dimple, grap juice, hangover, pink champagne, Pinot Noir, punt, red wine, rosé, screwcap, sparkling wine, white wine, wine myths