In the course of my daily business, I get asked questions about all aspects of wine. I have posted just a few of them here, with accompanying answers.

If you want to ask a question, I will do my very best to answer it. Just send them in an email to queries@ripegrapes.co.uk

Q: What is a Master of Wine?
A: To be a Master of Wine you must pass the highest level of professional exam. There are theoretical papers on grape growing, winemaking and handling, in which you must show a detailed knowledge of wine areas around the world. There are also questions on marketing, the law and ethics. The practical side consists in identifying and assessing about three dozen wines from anywhere in the world, all tasted in the trade jargon “blind”. There are fewer than two hundred and fifty Masters of Wine in the whole world, bound by a strict ethical code to enforce the highest standards of professional conduct.

Q: How do I get the best out of a wine?
A: Try to serve a wine at roughly the right temperature, similar to a cool room for a red and a cool cellar for a white. A good youngish red wine may be improved by pouring it briskly into a jug and then back into the rinsed bottle. Good glasses of sufficient size, and that enclose somewhat the bouquet above the wine. Try not to fill them more than half full. However I have spent many happy evenings in Italy drinking out of small tumblers filled to the brim, so above all relax and be convivial.

Q: Does your list change?
A: I am always on the lookout for exciting new growers to buy wines, wines of character and that represent good value for money. Areas that I will soon add to the list include Provence and the central Loire. Contact me and I will update you on new additions. There may well also be times when I shall have to drop wines because for instance they do not come up to scratch.

Q: What is the difference in winemaking between a red and a white wine?
A: Fundamentally it lies in the order in which the winemaking procedures are carried out. The three key processes in making a wine are crush, ferment and press. In a red wine they are carried in this order, the skins remaining with the juice, or must as it is called, to allow an extraction of the colouring matter anthocyanin and tannin, until it is pressed and the resultant red wine run off to age. In a white the crush and press either are simultaneous or after a short maceration to allow an extra extraction of flavour. The clear must is then fermented into wine and is sometimes left undisturbed for a while to develop extra complexity and fat as the French call it.

Q: Why have long fermentations?
A: The fermentation of a wine could be over in a very short period, such as a couple of days. This would mean high temperatures and a coarse wine with a fairly poor extraction of flavours and even colour. This indeed is always the danger when harvests take place in heat waves. Cold water is run down the outside of steel tanks to cool them, or the fermenting wine is run through pipes submerged in cool water. A longer fermentation, say of about a week, gives better extraction of flavours and aromas, and a more delicate wine. In a white wine there is the danger of peardrop flavours if the temperature is too low, say below 14ºC. In red wine there is a danger of insufficient colour extraction if the temperatures are too low, so they are normally allowed to rise a bit higher at some point. In red wine fermentation the wine may be given an extended maceration where the skins remain with the wine for a further two weeks or so to allow for even more flavours to be extracted. But the wine must sufficient body to cope with the additional tannin.

Q: In your tasting notes how do your ratings work?
A: I certainly do not claim that the marks I award each wine are scientific, but I find that it is important to come to a conclusion about a wine and awarding a score forces you to. There are probably three main scoring systems; five point, twenty point and one hundred point. There is also the medal scoring system of giving wines a recommendation, bronze, silver or gold. Originally I used to mark wines as being good, very good or excellent, with lots or gradations between, but I have adopted the hundred point system in order to converse with other tasters on panels. Even here things are not straightforward as some events give a gold medal for 90 points and others for 95 points. The most important thing is to decide how much you like a wine and if possible to be enthusiastic.

Q: What is structure in a wine?
A: A wine is made from certain building blocks, and it is how they are put together and in what quantity that determines the structure of a wine. These building blocks include alcohol, acidity, sugar, glycerine, tannin and fruit, and it their sensations rather than their taste which create the structure. Acidity is principally made up of tartaric acid, though unripe or cool climate wines contain a fair amount of malic, or appley, acid which gives an apple-like taste. If this is excessive some producers will encourage a malo-lactic fermentation, in which microrganisms will help convert the malic acid into the softer milky-tasting lactic acid. Acids will typically make up 4-9% of the wine. Sugar, or residual sugar as it becomes if there is any left after the fermentation, is mostly a consideration in white wines while glycerine, a broken down sugar, may play a role in red wine; both will fill the mouth and give a sensation of roundness and body. Alcohol also gives a feeling of body and even a touch of sweetness, with a hot warm finish. Tannin leaves an astringent feeling in the mouth if not fully ripe, or more pleasant leathery sensations if ripe. Tannin from the skin of the grape is the softest, from the stalk is harder and from the pips the greenest and most austere. In a red wine it is the element principallly responsible for giving weight and body. In a white wine it will also lend weight but is more problematic as any pippy flavours are much more objectionable. The use of new oak is also a source of tannin, generally softer and riper than fruit tannin. Finally there is the fruit which is all the flavours and sensations not produced from the other elements. If very ripe it can make the wine taste almost sweet, or if slightly unripe it can help accentuate the acidity. Above all it must balance and mitigate the other elements, for without enough fruit the wine will taste too much of alcohol, tannin, acid or sugar. The quantity is more important than the particular flavour. To use the analogy of a house, the structure is derived from the design, proportions and use of materials rather than the colour it is painted. So in a wine the structure comes from its building blocks rather than the flavour of its fruit. A concentrated wine has more of everything than a thin wine and probably needs even more fruit for balance. To judge the ageing potential of a wine the structure is vital, with acidity and tannin giving greater potential, though always if balanced with enough fruit. Balance is the key word, and is interaction of the structural building blocks.

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