My philosophy about wine

Hello. I'm back. Let me get started by saying that one day I was thinking (fell free to comment to yourself, "Uh oh"). When reading wine reviews, you always read about a wine having characteristics of a certain taste. For example, with merlot it is popular to described it as having a raspberry or strawberry taste. For chardonnay, butter seems to be a popular choice. Personally I don't get any of that when I drink a glass of wine. For me, wine is about enjoyment with food. I'm too busy enjoying the wine to think "Now, does this taste like currants or raspberries?". I would rather classify wine into categories such as light, medium and heavy and pair those categories with the food that I am eating. With chili I tend to select a zinfandel because it is a heavier wine that tends to complement the spiciness of the chili.

Now each individual has different tastes, and everybody needs to figure out those tastes for themselves. I can tell you what I like and you can use that as a guide but ultimately you know what you like. That pretty much goes for any advice that you receive in regards to wine. Stick with what you like.

There are two types of wines: red and white. The reds are, well, red such as pinot noir, merlot and cabernet sauvignon while whites include pinot grigio, reisling and chardonnay. I personally am a big fan of reds and as a consequence that is what I will write about most of the time. That doesn't mean that there are no good whites. In fact there are people who love whites more than reds. I would consult them for white choices (i.e. not me because I don't know).

Ok, onto the reds. I really isn't as easy as listing the red varietals because there are really different varietals in different regions of the world. I would encourage you to think of wine in global terms, as some regions seem to produce better wines of a certain varietal. One example that I can give is for syrah. I happen to prefer Australian syrah (or shiraz in Australia); to me it tastes the best. In particular, syrah from the Barossa region is my favorite. I'll write more about my favorites later. Red varietals include pinot noir, merlot, sangiovese, malbec, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, syrah, petite syrah, zinfandel, barolo (and barbaresco), chianti and temperanillo. There are more, but those are the ones that I can think of right off the top of my head. Those are also some of the most popular that are found in stores. A quick classification is shown below.

Light: pinot noir, temperanillo
Medium: merlot, sangiovese, cabernet franc
Heavy: cabernet sauvignon, syrah, zinfandel

You can use this as a quick guide at the store when trying to pair wine with food. If you are going to be grilling steak, I would choose a medium or heavy wine. With pasta dishes, really any of these will be good in my opinion. With chicken or turkey a light red is great. The only suggestion I would make is to avoid red wine with fish. The oils in the fish do not pair well with red wines.

I think that is enough for now. The next time I can write a little bit more about some of my favorites and maybe a bit more about wine regions. In the meantime, if there are any questions or comments please drop me a line at thewinedoctor@yahoo.com. See ya later!