Common Wine Questions, Answered!

I know a lot of wine experts – both personally and indirectly thanks to the power of the Internet, and the vast majority of them are high enough on the ladder of their industry that it’s fair to assume that they know the basics about wine, wine flavors, and varietals. Usually the communities around them also know the basics already, as well – so it’s not uncommon for people to rattle on about sulfites and the level of tannins or acid on their wine and how mad they were when they received a corked bottle.

If you had no idea what I was on about there at the end, don’t worry too much about it – the world of wine can be really intimidating, and while I think there’s a lot to be gained by just jumping in and trying different things without fear of discovering something you love or stumbling on something you may hate, there’s also something to be said for having a helping hand through the process to some extent.

Gregory Dal Piaz, also known as Editor-in-Chief of Snooth is often seen over at The Huffington Post, commenting on all things wine and writing some food and drink pieces. This is where he comes in, and one of his most recent pieces that I think is worth a look, titled The 10 Most Common Wine Questions. Let’s take a look, shall we?

When I say that Dal Piaz tackled the 10 most common wine questions, I mean it. If you have any experience in the wine arena at all, you’ve probably seen these before, and you’re probably over some of them. But for those people who enjoy the occasional (or even the frequent) bottle of wine but who have never really gotten into the wine “world,” as it were, these are some great questions.

For example – and this is one that schooled me – if you know someone who thinks that the reason they get headaches after drinking red wines is because of the sulfite content in the wine, they’d be wrong:

Why do some wines give you a headache?

Well, it’s probably not the sulfites, right? Indeed, it Moncler outlet probably is not. The most likely culprits are histamines in wine. Red wines have higher levels of histamines than whites, since the histamines are in the skins of the wine and red wines spend time macerating on their skins to extract pigment, tannin, flavors, and, yes, histamines.

Those same tannins and flavonoids tend to help to preserve red wines, resulting in many white wines with higher levels of sulfites than red wines. So, if you’re getting a headache after drinking red wine, it is likely a reaction to the histamines, which can be prevented by taking an antihistamine before starting to drink.

How incredible is that? I think that’s one of the bigger wine stories that still circulates unquestioned, and in reality, it’s likely a matter of allergy. Dal Piaz even goes further to explains exactly what sulfites are and whether or not you should be concerned about them (hint: you shouldn’t be.) That’s not all though, there’s plenty of other great tips, like what’s up with those crystals on the underside of the cork, for those people who have ever seen them, and what the deal with screwtop wines is and whether it’s some indicator of the quality of your wine.

Maybe you’ve had a wine that had a little sediment at the bottom? No – that’s not dirt and dust, and if you have no idea how wine is made, you might actually worry about it. You can even find out Moncler outlet what to do about the stuff if it bothers you.

That’s not even the half of it either. I don’t want to tip too much of the overall piece, but it’s a great primer if you’ve ever had a bottle of wine and wondered what was going on with the cork, or the bottle, or pondered whether or not you were storing your wine properly, and what the “best vintages” are (hint: there’s no such thing.)


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2 responses to “Common Wine Questions, Answered!”

  1. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Chris Gampat, Alan Henry. Alan Henry said: This week at The Classy Geek: Common Wine Questions, Answered! http://bit.ly/eX4rZu […]

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