That’s a heavy bottle. It must be a good wine. Sweet wine is for amateurs. Ready to debunk some wine myths? Let’s do that here. Thanks to WinePros, Food Republic and Wine Academy for their help with this article.
The Heavier the Bottle the Better the Wine
The purpose of a wine bottle is to ensure the wine can be safely transported and stored. The wine bottle isn’t meant to make a statement about the quality of the wine inside the bottle.
The reality is that wine can be safely transported in a light glass bottle or a heavy one. And it can age just as well in a light bottle as a heavy one.
Sweet Wines Are for Amateurs
Some of the world’s greatest and most complicated wines are sweet, including Sauternes and ice wines. These wines are sweet, often complex and age-worthy. WinePros tells us that “Apart from being lusciously sweet, these wines are immensely flavorful, too. They have such a diverse range of flavors and aromas that they mostly appeal to educated palates. In fact, only people experienced in wine tasting can discern, understand, and analyze the complexity of their tasting notes.”
Only Red Wine Can Age
White wines, including German Rieslings, can become incredibly complex after extensive maturation. Sauternes, which I mentioned earlier, is much more age-worthy than many reds.
All Wine Gets Better with Age
A very common myth is that all wines improve with age. Not true. Most wines are meant to be enjoyed within a few years of bottling. And wines like Sauvignon Blanc are meant to be drunk immediately.
Red Wine Should Never Be Chilled
Lighter red wines like Pinot Noir actually taste better when slightly chilled.
Screw Caps Indicate Lower-Quality Wine
Despite screw caps on wine bottles becoming increasingly popular, there’s still a common perception that they denote a cheaper or lower quality wine, while premium bottles exclusively use cork. While it’s true that low-cost bottles are more likely to come with a screw cap, cork snobs are missing out on some truly fabulous wines. And in New Zealand, they only sell screw-capped wines. For many, when they ship them to the United States, they switch out the screw caps for corks, because they know what we think 🙂
Sediment Means the Bottle Is Faulty
During aging, some color compounds and tannins link up into larger chains. Once they become large enough, they can drop down and settle at the bottom of the bottle. That deposit is part of why older reds often lose their youthful purple edge and move towards garnet and brick tones. To avoid having sediment in your glass, be careful to stop pouring when the sediment approaches the neck of the bottle.
Crystals in White Wine Are Shards of Glass
The little crystals are almost always tartrates, sometimes nicknamed “wine diamonds”. They form when natural tartaric acid in the wine combines with potassium and then precipitates, often after the bottle has been exposed to cold temperatures. They are harmless, and they do not mean the wine is unsafe.
Big Legs on the Glass Prove a Wine Is High Quality
Legs are driven by evaporation and surface tension effects, strongly influenced by alcohol level, and sometimes by residual sugar, temperature and humidity. They are not a reliable indicator of quality.
Sulphites Are the Main Reason People Get Wine Headaches
A lot of people complain about red wine headaches. But did you know that many white wines contain more sulphur dioxide than reds Sulphite sensitivity does exist, but it usually impacts people with asthma.
