The Basics

To begin this study of wine, let's first establish some basics. Wine is an alcoholic drink made from fermented grapes. Archaeological evidence suggests that wine production first took place as early as 7000 BCE in Georgia with the grape vine being domesticated around the advent of the Bronze Age. The history of wine is linked to humanity through avenues of agriculture, cuisine, and culture as is evidenced by its uses and popularity today. Like our ancestors, we have many uses for wine ranging from the cheap Shiraz you may enjoy with a cheeseburger to the sophisticated Cabernet Souvingnon you may use to "wine and dine" a potential business partner. These uses are determined widely based on the food science of wine pairing, which we will discuss at a later point, but also on the quality of the wine itself. This distinction creates the need for us as consumers, and for wineries as producers, to establish a standard of accepted quality. What exactly is this standard?

Like many components of the wine industry, and like wine itself, the answer to this conundrum is multifaceted  and somewhat subjective. However, for the sake of laying a foundation, three main tells for wine quality are raw material quality, processing, and obviously, taste.

Raw material quality refers most commonly to the actual grapes used to make the wine. This is derived from the cultural practices employed in the vineyard such as planting time, soil chemistry, and irrigation as well as from the actual cultivar of the grapes. Grape cultivar is a driving force for many of these practices with different varieties requiring different cultural input. Different cultivars also determine the type of wine produced with Cabernet grapes producing Cabernet, Chardonnay producing Chardonnay and so on and so forth. Many of these strains are extremely old cultivars which originate from areas also named for the grape. Translation: You could literally be drinking a Bordeaux made from Bordeaux grapes grown in Bordeaux. Try saying that five times fast.

The way these grapes are processed also impacts the quality of a wine. One important component is the actual receptacle which the wine will ferment and mature in. These can range from stainless steel vats to hundred year old oak barrels and everything in between. In addition to the different profiles which arise from the containment of the wine, chemical levels must also be constantly evaluated and adjusted in order to produce a palatable wine.

Despite the importance of the above components, ultimately wine will sell and be evaluated based on taste. In a professional wine tasting sphere (sommelier) wines are evaluated based on established profiles for different wine types using a taste chart. One common chart for scoring is the AWS (American Wine Society) which ranks various aspects of the wine based on appearance, aroma, taste, aftertaste, and overall appearance for a score of up to twenty points. There is also a figure known as a wine wheel which can be used to help the taster identify diverse scents and flavors. Both of these figures are pictured with this entry While these professional opinions help shape the marketing of the wine, taste is incredibly important and subjective. Many times an expert may dislike a wine, but it may be a top seller on the market. Really there is no wrong or right taste, but a profile which sells.

The production of wine is a worldwide industry which is inextricably linked to our culture and has been since its advent. Viticulture drives the culinary and agricultural fields while entangling itself in our day to day lives and social culture. for this reason, the exploration of the quality, materials, and procedures used to create wine and wine products is heavily influenced by science and art. If nothing else is derived from this project take away these three main quality points, however if you are looking dazzle your friends and family at upcoming events at which wine is served, I will be unpacking these points in gory detail until we are all intimately acquainted with the romance and mystery of wine production.