Counterfeit Wine is Fascinating

Buying fake wine is not a problem you or I are likely to have, but it is fascinating nonetheless. Unscrupulous people have created fake bottles of rare, old, or expensive wines by blending together other wines and putting them into bottles made to look like the real thing. These counterfeiters age the bottles and labels, and sometimes buy bottles of the real wines to drink and refill with their imitation blend. To do this successfully takes a lot of wine expertise and a lot of startup money. These people are usually looking to make a buck, but they seem to also get a kick out of the prestige of circulating with the top collectors, critics, and writers of the wine world and offering up impressive (fake) bottles for tastings and auctions.

So many aspects of this are fascinating to me:  the process of creating a believable fake, the way the counterfeiters ingratiate themselves with collectors and experts so that the bottles they produce will be accepted as authentic, and the forensic detective work that can unmask the frauds. Another attractive aspect may be that I don't expect to ever have to worry that a wine I'm buying is a fake, for the simple reason that I doubt I'll ever buy a wine so expensive that a wine counterfeiter would bother to fake it. Creating a fake wine is only worthwhile at the very top of the wine market, where wealthy collectors are spending thousands per bottle.

I can recommend a great book and a great movie about fake wine. The Billionaire's Vinegar is an excellent wine detective story that begins with a bottle supposedly once owned by Thomas Jefferson. A wine aficionado will recognize many of the names and places, but no wine knowledge is necessary to enjoy the story. (A movie of the book has been listed on imdb.com as "in development" for several years. Matthew McConaughey was set to star at one time.)

A great documentary about another massive wine fraud is Sour Grapes, which is currently available to stream on Netflix. Here's the trailer:

Either of these would be a great way to spend a few hours during your holiday time off, and the book would make a great gift.

Wine Gifts to Buy Online

I do most of my Christmas shopping online, because I don't have time to hunt through stores. If you have friends or family interested in wine, here are some suggestions to make your shopping easier. I have owned or used most of these items and have been impressed with them. Everything is listed according to category:  books, glassware/serving/entertaining, movies, etc. Enjoy!

BOOKS




For the novice wine enthusiast...  This is a cute, fun, and engaging book that also gets a lot of information across. It has good visuals, plus the scratch-n-sniff wine aromas. It would be great to keep on your coffee table as a conversation starter. I wrote a full review of it here.





For the beginning to intermediate wine enthusiast...  I just came across this book in past few weeks, and I love it. It covers lots of topics related to wine (how to taste, how to describe what you like, how wine is made, how to read labels, storing, serving, important wine regions, etc.) and answers all the "why" questions that I always want to know about. Even better, it's packed with infographics on nearly every page to illustrate the information. Look at the cute little yeasts! Later in the book, when the yeasts have died, they have Xs over their eyes.  It's awesome.

Also for the beginning to intermediate wine enthusiast...  Great Wine Made Simple is one of my favorite books for learning about wine on your own at home. It explains all the basics of wine in a clear and straightforward way, with a focus on learning to identify and describe the wine characteristics you like. To this end, it gives very specific instructions on how to set up your own wine tastings to learn about each characteristic. It lacks the fantastic infographics of Wine: A Tasting Course, but it recommends more tastings and goes into more detail about setting them up. For this reason, it's also a great resource for planning wine parties.





For the serious wine student...  This really covers all your bases.  There's not much you can't look up in this gigantic tome.





For the ultra-serious wine snob geek...  I haven't yet purchased a copy of this, but it's on my list.  If you know someone who always has to order the wine made from grapes you've never heard of, and you like her enough to spend over $100, this is what you need.





If you can't spend $100+ on your favorite wine geek, this poster is a great, less expensive choice.  A giant periodic table of wine grapes, organized according to detailed information about each of their characteristics?  Be still my infographic-loving heart!  Makes a great addition to any wine geek's office, kitchen, or preferred tasting area.



GLASSWARE / SERVING / ENTERTAINING

These are the glasses I use at home.  Because I plan wine tastings for groups, I need lots of glasses that conform to the standard tasting shape and don't cost much per stem.  These fit the bill, and I buy them by the case.  For more on choosing glassware, check out "Wine Glasses: What Kind, Why, and Where to Get Them."



  

I first saw this tequila tasting set for sale in the Museum of Fine Arts Houston gift shop.  I'm not sure what it had to do with the art on display, but I fell in love with it.  Except I don't drink much tequila... And then some great friends got it for me as a birthday present, and I've had fun experimenting with ways to use it.  My favorite way is to serve Port in the glasses and put chocolates or brownies on the tray.  Or you could serve Sauternes with foie gras or cheese as either an appetizer or dessert, and feel very European.  Not only does this serving set look great, but the glasses and tray come off the stand and can go through the dishwasher.  Hooray for easy clean-up!

**The price of the 6-shot set seems to fluctuate between $100 and $300.  If the price above looks high, check here.

I've never tried these before, but they look cool.  I've written before about why wine glasses should have a stem, but these are designed to travel, so I'm giving them a pass on that feature.  If you (or your intended gift recipient) like to take wine to any of the wonderful, outdoor Houston venues where glass is not allowed (like Miller Outdoor Theater or a Galveston beach), these would be a great way to upgrade your wine experience from that red plastic cup.





I own one of these and have been very pleased with it. The price has even come down quite a bit from when it was first released. Some people never decant or aerate their wines, others always do.  I fall into the "occasional" category. (For more on that topic, check out "Should you let the wine breathe?") But if you want to aerate, I think this is the best choice of the many options on the market. Some people like the Vinturi, but it takes 2 hands to use and spills if your aim is slightly off. This Nuance model fits into the neck of the wine bottle and provides a perfect non-drop spout.





If you have an open bottle you aren't going to finish, Private Preserve (or a similar system) is the best way to keep the wine fresh until you're ready to drink it. The can sprays inert, harmless gasses into the partially empty wine bottle, and the gasses, which are heavier than air, create a protective blanket on top of the wine, so it won't oxidize as quickly. Then you just stick the cork back in the top. For me, just one of these cans will last more than a year. For more on how to preserve wine, check out "Saving Your Leftovers (or, how Bear Dalton convinced me I'd been preserving my wine wrong for years!)."





Chalkboard table runners are fun to use at dinner parties or wine tastings. Write information about the wine, or which foods to pair with which wines, or let your guests write (or draw?) their impressions. As a bonus, the runner also protects the table from wine or food drips and spills. You need chalkboard markers to write on them. The markers go on wet (kind of like a paint pen, if you remember those), and need a few seconds to dry. Then the writing won't smudge. At the end of the night, wipe the chalkboard runner down with a damp paper towel (you may need to wipe a few times), and use it again and again. (You  can also see the aforementioned glasses in the pictures below.)

  

A fun and useful addition to any wine tasting party is the Wine Aroma Wheel.  It helps people identify what they're smelling in the wine.  It's fun at parties, but also for the serious wine student who wants to improve his ability to identify aromas.  An all-around great tool.







MOVIES



I enjoyed watching this film when it first came out, back when I was interested in wine but knew almost nothing about it.  I enjoyed it even more a few years later, after I had taken lots of wine classes.  It's entertaining, educational, and engages with one of the central issues of winemaking as the wine business becomes ever more globalized.





This film is also entertaining and interesting whether or not you know much about wine.  I wrote a full review of it here.



Happy shopping!

NASA, Space, and Wine

As you may have noticed on my profile, I work full time as a contractor at NASA's Johnson Space Center.  I write and edit reports that support human spaceflight safety.  So of course, I'm always interested in intersections between wine and space.  Recently I've come across a few articles with a NASA-wine connection, and though some of them are pretty old, they still have interesting information to share.

Sucking Sherry From a Bag in Space - February 2, 2014
In the 1960s and 70s, NASA scientists tried to make the prospect of long-duration space flights more comfortable by packing wine for the trip.  (I should add that today alcohol is officially not allowed on the International Space Station...though sometimes there are rumors.)

Monitoring Vodka Production from Space - June 14, 2012
Russian authorities use satellite images to catch producers of illegal vodka.

Space Wine: The Next Frontier - November 20, 2012
Ardbeg has claimed a spot for some of its scotch on the International Space Station, to find out how the aging process differs in a micro-gravity environment.  They're calling it Galileo.  Wine may be next.

Flying High for Fine Wine:  NASA and Robert Mondavi Use Airborne Cameras to Improve California Vineyards - June 26, 2000
This one is VERY old, but it shares some fascinating information about how aerial photos and sensors can be used to assess the health of the vines in different areas of a vineyard.

One more fun NASA-and-wine fact:  The North American Sommelier Association also uses the acronym NASA.  I find that a strange and confusing choice, but hey, they didn't ask me.

Can You Scratch and Sniff Your Way to Better Wine Choices?

Author Richard Betts, Master of Wine, thinks you can. The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert explains the flavor and structural elements of wine to help consumers find wines they will like, with scratch and sniff spots to illustrate the wine aromas.  The book is short – about 22 pages – with thick cardboard pages and colorful pictures.  It’s quick to read, but you can go back again and again to get more familiar with the smells.  The book includes a fold-out infographic tucked into the back cover (scroll down for a picture), which helps you match the wine aromas you like (which you just figured out from sniffing the book), with actual grapes and regions.

I believe that even a tiny amount of wine education will dramatically benefit a consumer’s buying and drinking experience.  Wine professionals realize that the most challenging thing for the average consumer is to consistently choose bottles they will like.  That’s one reason people tend to buy the same wines over and over again.  Looking at a bottle and accurately predicting what it will taste like requires quite a bit of wine knowledge.  The next best thing is to be able to describe what kind of wine you like to a knowledgeable sales person who can point you to some good options.

But how do you describe what you like?  Wine (like many things) is all about the vocabulary.  You know the tastes and textures you like, but how do you describe something so subjective?  You get familiar with common wine adjectives and how they're used.  Then you and the person in the store will be speaking the same language.

This book takes the reader through all the usual categories of wine flavors – red fruits, black fruits, citrus fruits, stone fruits, tropical fruits, spices, herbs, flavors from oak, wine faults, etc.  The innovation here is the use of scratch and sniff to aid in the descriptions.  After all, how many of us can readily call these smells to mind?  (Calling to mind specific smells is a big part of studying and appreciating wine, and why we all need to practice and improve our scent memory!)

Using scratch and sniff to explain wine aromas is a great idea, but I questioned whether the smelly spots could actually mimic wine aromas well enough.  It turns out many of them do, and a few don’t.

The scratch and sniff areas for these smells were surprisingly true to life:

• Grape
• Red fruit
• Black fruit
• Stone fruit (mainly peach)
• Pear
• Dill (a very sweet version)
• Flowers
• Grass

These smells were less successful:

• Mineral
• Leather
• Bacon
• Butter
• Vanilla

I’m curious about how long the smells will last.  I remember the scratch and sniff books from my childhood losing their scent after a couple of years.

Though this book is short, the information is great, and Richard Betts has done a good job of simplifying a subject that many people find complex and intimidating.  I could see this being a fun coffee table book and conversation piece.  It’s something that could be very useful for a novice, but still fun for an expert.  If I ran a wine bar, I’d buy a few of these and leave them scattered around on the tables.

I started wondering, why don’t wine producers put scratch and sniff stickers directly on the labels?  It turns out that a few have.   Domaine Bourillon Dorléans from the Loire Valley in France put a scratch and sniff label on its Vouvray.  And Mirabeau en Provence worked on a scratch and sniff label at one time also:


I suspect most winemakers would find the scratch and sniff representations of their wine to not smell nearly as good as the wine itself, and maybe not want people to prejudge the wine based on a smelly sticker…

P.S.  Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan’s One-Minute Wine Master is another book that aims to make wine more accessible by helping consumers describe their wine preferences and select wines they will like.  Her book uses a quiz about food and drink preferences to recommend wines.  It also has brief descriptions of lots of different grapes and types of wine, so it contains a lot more information and can work as a handy reference.  Both books are good, but Betts’ scratch-and-sniff approach is for someone who wants a very simple introduction to the subject.  The One-Minute Wine Master is for someone who wants to delve into the subject more deeply.  If Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan's book is the "one-minute" version, Scratch & Sniff is 30 seconds.

French Wine Law Changes

In the French appellation system, new regions are added or removed from time to time.  

Here is a list of recently added AOCs, courtesy of the French Wine Society.  If you've purchased my book, The Pocket Index of French Wine, you'll want to note these new additions!

• Alsace: Two communal AOCs have been added to the eleven previously approved for a total of thirteen. These two communes are Alsace Bergheim and Alsace Coteaux du Haut Koenigsbourg, and use of the communal name is limited to still white wines.
• Languedoc: Formerly a communal extension of AOC Languedoc, Picpoul de Pinet has been elevated to an independent appellation. The denomination continues to apply to six communes including Pinet, but the authorized cultivation area has been reduced in size by 18% to 2,400 hectares. In addition, base yield has been lowered to 55 hl/ha.
• Provence: A fourth sub-region within AOC Côtes de Provence, Pierrefeu, has been approved and applies to red and rosé wines. The zone encompasses multiple communes on schist slopes and a calcareous clay plain. The other three sub-regions are Sainte-Victoire, Fréjus and La Londe.
• Rhône Valley: There is an additional “named village” in the Côtes du Rhône Villages, Gadagne, bringing the total of this tier to eighteen. CDRV Gadagne may be sourced from five communes including Châteauneuf-de-Gadagne. The approved area is a few kilometers due east of Avignon in the Vaucluse department on the left bank of the Rhône River. The vineyards are situated on a long plateau of galets roulés.

Book Review: The One Minute Wine Master

I recently read The One Minute Wine Master by Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan, Master of Wine.  The book aims to help all of us – beginners to professionals – quickly identify our wine preferences and find new wines we will like.  This is accomplished by an 11-question (1 minute) quiz about our food and drink preferences.

People differ in how many taste buds are physically present on their tongues.  This accounts (at least in part) for why some of us can tolerate spicier and/or more bitter flavors.  Supertasters/hypertasters have the most taste buds, are very sensitive to strong, spicy, or bitter flavors, and make up about 25% of the population.  Tasters are in the middle, making up about 50% of the population.  Non-tasters have the fewest taste buds, can tolerate the strongest, most bitter, most spicy flavors, and make up about 25% of the population. 

The quiz works by asking questions that reveal our tolerance for various characteristics in our food and drink.  If you like dark chocolate and black coffee, you can tolerate a good amount of bitterness.  If you love lemon on your fish, you like a lot of acid.   If you add sugar to your tea and prefer apple juice, you probably like things mild and sweet.  And so on… 

You used to be able to take this quiz online, but the link given in the book no longer works, so I’ve reproduced the quiz here: