Wine FAQs

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Wine is a perishable product and is sensitive to temperature and light. It only takes about 15 minutes in the trunk or inside a hot car to cause leakage and possible heat damage to your wine resulting in a wine that is “cooked”.

Twin Liquors can hold your wine purchases for you until you are finished with your errands, and then assist you to your car when you are ready to take your wine home.

The level of sweetness or added “dosage” in a sparkling wine is indicated by its name. There is no denying that it’s a little confusing that “Extra Dry” isn’t the driest of sparkling wines.

The vintage indicates the year the grapes were harvested. Improved wine-making technology means disastrous vintages are now relatively uncommon. More often, one simply encounters different styles of wine in a specific vintage; for example, in Bordeaux the hot vintage of 2003 resulted in bigger, fruitier than the more typical 2000 and 2001 vintages. In marginal climates, vintage variation is more prominent.

Fortified wine is made when a neutral grape brandy is added to wine to raise the wine’s alcohol content. Port and Sherry are both considered fortified wines. What differentiates these is when the winemaker adds the neutral brandy. It’s added to Port during the fermentation process killing the yeast and stopping the fermentation. This is why Port is relatively sweet. In sherry, on the other hand, the neutral brandy is added after fermentation is finished.

A “corked” wine is one that has been spoiled by a cork contaminated by “Trichloranisole”, or TCA, which can be detected at concentrations of just a few parts per trillion. It affects the wine making it smell musty, moldy often like wet cardboard. It also gives the wine an off taste.

Cork pieces floating in the wine does not mean it is corked. This is a sign of a dried out cork or that the bottle had been opened poorly.

Serving wine at the right temperature makes all the difference. As a general rule, always serve wines on the cool side as they will warm up in the glass, whatever the weather.

Serving White Wines: Chilled wines are refreshing. Chilling does mask flavor, so the finer the wine, the less it will need. We recommend chilling a bottle in an ice bucket (or sink) filled with ice and cold water as this is more efficient than just ice alone.

Serving Red Wines: The tannin level in a wine dictates the temperature at which it should be served. The more tannic a wine, the warmer you should drink it. Red wines that are low in tannin can be chilled like a full-bodied white. If a red is served too warm all you will be able to taste and smell will be the alcohol. As with all wine, serve cooler rather than warmer.

In order to explain something we have to go back to what we know. Most of us know what fresh picked strawberries smell like, or the smell of an apple pie baking with the warm apple and cinnamon aromas wafting throughout the room, or perhaps walking in a damp forest with all those earthy, mushroom smells. These memories trigger images in our brain that we cannot only recall, but enable us to relate them to other people. Wine can trigger different aroma memories to different people based on their past experiences. What one person might refer to as blueberry might be someone else’s blackberry, just remember there is no wrong answer.

There are three reasons to decant wine. Mature wines usually have sediment that can be removed from the wine by careful decanting. It can also be very effective in softening a firm, young red wine. The younger and tougher the wine, the earlier you should decant. It is the pouring action, bringing the wine into contact with the air, that softens the wines. For mature wines, decant right before serving as exposure to air accelerates the wine’s development. The third reason to decant is showmanship. Next time you are in a restaurant observe the sommelier as they decant your bottle of wine and you will see it’s quite an art.