True Grape: Putting the cork in wine myths
Time to bust a few more myths, including the importance of ‘legs’
Myth: Smelling the cork can tell you something about the quality of the wine.
The cork smells like a cork. Even if it smells musty or has mould on it, that is not an indication of the quality of the wine or that the wine is flawed. The only way to determine if a wine is corked or otherwise flawed is to smell/ taste the wine. Traditionally the cork was presented so that you could match the vintage date and producer name printed on the cork with the information on the label. If it was different, the bottle may have been tampered with.
Myth: Red wine and chocolate are a great match.
Most red wines are fermented dry. Ripeness of fruit and soft tannins can give the impression of sweetness, but unless sugar has been added to the wine (think mass produced critter and cake sodapop wines), chocolate and red wine are not a good match. The wine needs to be at least as sweet as the chocolate. Otherwise, it will taste bitter and sour. Chocolate can vary in sweetness depending upon its cocoa content. Good dark chocolate tends to be more bitter than sweet. Much better matches (depending on the type of chocolate) are Moscato d’Asti, Vin Santo, Recioto, and Port (i.e. dessert wines). Occasionally, dark chocolate in savoury dishes such as some Mexican mole sauces may work with certain red wines. Myth: “Legs” indicate a goodquality wine.
How many times have you seen someone swirl a glass of wine, hold it up, watch the streams of viscous fluid run down the inside of the glass and say, “Wow, fantastic wine. Great legs.” Legs do not tell you anything about the quality of a wine. They are simply a result of the evaporation of alcohol. Myth: Popularity equates to quality.
Just because a winery has a big advertising budget, doesn’t necessarily mean that they make good wine. Flashy magazine ads, TV commercials, radio spots, etc. can all create an image causing a wine to become very “in,” very popular, very “the thing to drink and be seen drinking.” But wine should be made by winemakers, not marketing departments. Don’t be seduced by creative packaging, flashy ads or what everyone else is drinking. They have no correlation to the quality of what’s in the bottle. Don’t blame the wine just because you haven’t heard of it, or can’t pronounce its name. Judge it by what counts the most, which is taste. And don’t be afraid to be a leader as opposed to a follower. Introduce your friends to something great that they’ve never had before — it’s much more interesting than always drinking the wine equivalent of a Big Mac.