Whether you’re a wine expert or just getting into the variety of flavors, there’s nothing like a good bottle of wine. Enthusiasts travel great distances to find the perfect match for their taste buds, but finding an excellent-tasting wine can be somewhat of a process. Pairing the wine can be challenging as well. So take our Wine Pairing Quiz and let Mike help you with finding your best wine pairing.
What makes a wine taste good, and is there a way to know this information prior to pouring?
Marketview Liquor wants to help you on your quest for favorable wines. Through active observation of key details, you can understand wine far beyond the marketing on the label.
What Makes a Good Wine?
Ideally, you’ll be able to taste wine to decide if its traits are desirable enough for a refill. If you get the opportunity, taste wine with intensity and length of flavor in mind. A “good” wine will treat your taste buds and leave a lingering flavor with each sip.
If you find the dry or sweet taste pleasant, the wine is well-balanced in flavoring components. The best-tasting wines have a solid mixture of fruit, sweetness, tannin, minerals, acidity and alcohol based on category. One overriding ingredient is enough to throw off the balance and create a wine that’s unpleasant to drink.
Deciding whether a wine is exceptional or not boils down to its complexity of taste. A serving of wine should act like a journey for your palate. You should be able to tell that a wine is high-end by how difficult it is to identify its exact flavors.
A simple wine won’t take long to figure out. Complex wines will challenge you to try to describe everything you taste without one component overwriting the rest. The complexity of a wine is a top indicator of quality because it’s a reflection of the fermenting process.
Price Point and Good Wine
Price point is a tough factor in the debate of good vs. bad wine. How expensive a wine is mostly relates to how much care and attention is involved in the fermenting of a product. However, wine producers may alter the price of their wine out of greed.
Generally, high-end wines cost more money upfront than a poor-tasting wine, but you should always approach this principle with caution. Winemakers have a say in how pricey their production methods are, and price point can be a reflection of prestige and overall availability of the wine.
How to Tell a Good Wine by the Label
In most cases, you won’t have the chance to sample wine before making a purchase. Do yourself a favor and perform a label checklist to determine the quality of the wine.
High-end and flavorful wines have no problem displaying grape variety, origin and age on the front of the label. Look for specific locations regarding fermenting procedures to guide your search. Simply writing the state where a wine comes from doesn’t say much, but focused valleys, vineyards and counties will give you a clear picture of the ingredients in each sip.
Another key factor in deciphering wine character is the alcohol percentage. The majority of wines are in the range of 11%–15% alcohol by volume, but your choice should be relative to what you hope to taste in your glass. Wines that are lower than 11% are sweeter, and those above 15% can carry an intense bite that tastes like jam.
Shop for wines that are between 14% and 15% alcohol for well-balanced mixtures. While all wines differ in the makeup of ingredients, this is an effective detail for beginners just entering the wine industry.
Marketview Liquor for Wine and Spirits
Marketview Liquor is your one-stop online shop for wine and spirits. With an impressive inventory, we want to keep the wine-tasting experience exciting for all. Be sure to check out our highly rated wines for your next get-together.
Browse Marketview Liquor online today for more information about our products and services