Fri 21 Dec 2007
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| Courtesy of oliverwinery.com |
“Compare it to food — what kind of food they like tells a lot,” says Bobby Wallace, corporate wine director of Big Red Liquors in Bloomington.
Jose Zayas, a 23-year-old musician, started to enjoy wine because he loves to cook. The first time he tried wine it wasn’t that great, he says, but he’s kept at it. Now, he even collects dessert wines.
“There are so many varieties, so wine can go with any meal,” Zayas says.
No cork necessary
Wine is an alcohol made from fermented grapes and has long had a haughty reputation. The wine industry has cultivated a pompous attitude, Wallace says.
Wine is an alcohol made from fermented grapes and has long had a haughty reputation. The wine industry has cultivated a pompous attitude, Wallace says.
Essentially, wine drinkers seem a bit stuffy. With websites like winespectator.com, where most people featured on the site are over 40, it’s understandable that younger generations might feel more comfortable with a bottle of Budweiser than a bottle of 1997 vintage port.
However, Wallace wants to change wine’s conceited image.
“We try to make people comfortable. For some reason there’s a stigma that you should know everything about wine when you walk in the store,” Wallace says.
For those afraid of corkscrews, there are new screw-cap options (and the ever-popular wine in a box) that keep wine just as fresh and delicious, but are user friendly.
At Big Red, you don’t have to lift a finger to find the wine of your dreams. All you have to do is answer a couple of questions.
“We can guess a palate,” says Bobby DerOhanian, wine manager at Big Red Liquors.
But do you have to spend 30 bucks on one bottle? No, it’s easy to enjoy fine wine on a tight budget. There are plenty of great wines under $10, DerOhanian says.
Wallace just wants wine to be more approachable. Big Red does free wine tastings every Saturday from 12-5 p.m., and it even has a new system in the works that will allow it to serve wine on tap. Take that, beer drinkers.
While Big Red offers an astounding variety of wines from Australian Sauvignon Blanc to French Burgundy, Bloomington’s own Oliver Winery specializes in good ol’ Hoosier libations.
“We can guess a palate,” says Bobby DerOhanian, wine manager at Big Red Liquors.
But do you have to spend 30 bucks on one bottle? No, it’s easy to enjoy fine wine on a tight budget. There are plenty of great wines under $10, DerOhanian says.
Wallace just wants wine to be more approachable. Big Red does free wine tastings every Saturday from 12-5 p.m., and it even has a new system in the works that will allow it to serve wine on tap. Take that, beer drinkers.
While Big Red offers an astounding variety of wines from Australian Sauvignon Blanc to French Burgundy, Bloomington’s own Oliver Winery specializes in good ol’ Hoosier libations.
The local buzz
The winery offers an impressive collection of wines all made on location at its property off of State Road 37.
“Indiana isn’t typically thought of as wine country, but we can grow some pretty great wines out here,” says Amanda Lemasters, a shift manager at Oliver Winery.
Inside the rustic wine shop, Lemasters gives daily wine tastings. At only 23 years old, she has quickly learned the ins and outs of the wine business after taking a job at Oliver Winery two years ago.
The winery offers an impressive collection of wines all made on location at its property off of State Road 37.
“Indiana isn’t typically thought of as wine country, but we can grow some pretty great wines out here,” says Amanda Lemasters, a shift manager at Oliver Winery.
Inside the rustic wine shop, Lemasters gives daily wine tastings. At only 23 years old, she has quickly learned the ins and outs of the wine business after taking a job at Oliver Winery two years ago.
“As I started working around wines I became more interested in learning about them. It’s fun!” she says.
Like the guys at Big Red, Lemasters will walk you through the wine-tasting process. She carefully explains the five “S”s: see, swirl, smell, sip and savor.
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Then, she says that wine tastings start with dry wines and end with sweet wines.
With the drier wines, Lemasters uses words like “fruit forward.” These are just fancy ways of saying that a wine’s flavor mimics the taste of certain fruits. The sweeter wines she compares to candy. The 2006 Catawba, a wine made of grapes from the Oliver vineyard, tastes like Jolly Ranchers, she says. The Soft Red tastes like Welch’s grape juice — with a kick. None of that really matters, though.
“When people are talking about what’s in the wine, it’s all really relative. It just helps differentiate the types of wines. Everyone picks up different things,” says Lemasters.
Dry wines might be the primo choice for many wine aficionados, but sweeter wines are crowd favorites. In Indiana, the top three selling wines are all sweet wines that come from Oliver: the Soft Red, followed by the Soft Rosé, and then the Soft White.
Lemasters figures that sweet wines are more popular because growing up people tend to drink syrupy sodas and eat loads of candy. It’s easier to gravitate toward sweeter wines because “that’s what we grew up with.”
Allegra Montanari, 19, is just that type of person. She rarely drinks wine except sometimes when at home with her parents, and when she does partake she prefers sweet, red wines.
“I like the pungency of red wine and I like it sweet because I think it should be sipped. I can’t drink wine with meals yet,” she says.
A drink a day keeps the doctor away
If you are still unimpressed by wine, consider its health benefits.
A glass of wine a day “has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, certain cancers and slow the progression of neurological degenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease,” according to Joy Bauer, a registered dietician and contributor to Today on NBC.
In her article “Raise a glass! Wine’s health benefits,” Bauer also emphasizes that moderation is key in order to enjoy the health benefits of wine. Men should not have more than two glasses of wine per day. And, sorry, women, you cannot have more than one glass a day.
And if you want to see a difference in your heart, don’t reach for the white wine. Red wines have a higher level of reservatrol, a phyto-chemical, which helps thin the blood and prevent plaque from clogging arteries.
Lemasters is excited about wine’s health benefits and wants more twenty-somethings to discover wine.
Before she began working at Oliver, Lemasters was a beer drinker. Then she liked sweet wines. Now, she has a broad appreciation for all wines and understands why people might be nervous about trying wine for the first time.
“People are apprehensive who don’t know anything about wine. I really like those kinds of customers. I like to introduce people to wine. It’s a clean slate, like snow that’s never been walked on,” she says.
Essentially, all you need in order to become a wine enthusiast is to try it — and find someone who knows something about it.
“If you have an open mind then it’s almost impossible to not find a wine they would like,” she says.
If you are still unimpressed by wine, consider its health benefits.
| For Your Information Wineries 8024 N. State Road 37 Bloomington, IN 47404 (812) 876-5800 or (800) 25-TASTE Butler Winery 6200 E. Robinson Road Bloomington, IN 47408 (812) 332-6660 Liquor Stores Big Red Liquors 418 North College Avenue (812) 339-7345 Wine Bars Tutto Bene 213 South Rogers Street Bloomington, IN 47404 (812) 330-1060 Scholar’s Inn 717 North College Avenue Bloomington, IN 47404 (812) 332-1892 or (800) 765-3466 |
A glass of wine a day “has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, certain cancers and slow the progression of neurological degenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease,” according to Joy Bauer, a registered dietician and contributor to Today on NBC.
In her article “Raise a glass! Wine’s health benefits,” Bauer also emphasizes that moderation is key in order to enjoy the health benefits of wine. Men should not have more than two glasses of wine per day. And, sorry, women, you cannot have more than one glass a day.
And if you want to see a difference in your heart, don’t reach for the white wine. Red wines have a higher level of reservatrol, a phyto-chemical, which helps thin the blood and prevent plaque from clogging arteries.
Lemasters is excited about wine’s health benefits and wants more twenty-somethings to discover wine.
Before she began working at Oliver, Lemasters was a beer drinker. Then she liked sweet wines. Now, she has a broad appreciation for all wines and understands why people might be nervous about trying wine for the first time.
“People are apprehensive who don’t know anything about wine. I really like those kinds of customers. I like to introduce people to wine. It’s a clean slate, like snow that’s never been walked on,” she says.
Essentially, all you need in order to become a wine enthusiast is to try it — and find someone who knows something about it.
“If you have an open mind then it’s almost impossible to not find a wine they would like,” she says.
| A Quick Taste of Wine Terms | |
| BOUQUET Near synonym for "aroma". Term generally restricted to description of odors from poured bottled wines. | HERBACEOUS Adjective used in description of wine with taste and aroma of herbs, (usually undefined). |
| CRISP Wine has definite but pleasing tartness, acidity. Generally used to describe white wines only. | OXIDIZED Powerful, attack aroma. Usually denotes high level of acidity, alcohol and/or other flavor faults. |
| CORKED Wine has unpleasant taste/smell. Reason is thought to be chemical changes in the wine caused by inadequately sterilized cork stopper inserted at bottling source. | Courtesy of www.vino.com |
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:00 pm You’re quite right in that wine is becoming more accepted by the younger generation, as long as they leave enough for the rest of us it’ll be fine. As regards screwcaps, they definitely have their place as more and more wineries are testing them out and finding they have many benefits over the older corks (wines become corked, estimates suggest that as many as 1 in 10 bottles suffer this, I personally think that figure a little high)and the newer plastic (these can allow the wine to oxidise in the bottle prior to opening). The screwcap has no drawbacks except the preconceived notions in the head of the wine snobs. I have many bottles with these caps at home just waiting for the glorious day I wring their necks.