Anshu: [00:00:00]
Hello, and welcome to The Wineitupanotch Podcast, a podcast where we talk about wine, life and everything in between. My name is Anshu Grover, I'm your host and I am so thrilled that you've decided to join me today. Thank you for doing so.
Welcome to Episode 34 or part two of a series of The Wineitupanotch Podcast, where we are exploring fascinating wine facts together and actually taking the opportunity to see if you can answer the questions that I pose.
It's a great opportunity to test what you know or to learn something new. This is the type of episode that is perfect for somebody who is studying wine formally or wants to study wine formally or just, really wants to sort of gauge where they're at in terms of their knowledge.
And as I explained, in part one or Episode 33, this particular idea of podcast episodes, which is coming in a series, is predicated on a project that I've been working on for the last little while called “The 30 Days of Wine Facts Project”.
The 30 Days of Wine Facts Project is something that I came up with to really try to share wine knowledge with people in short, accessible, bite-sized pieces of information.
And in this project, for people who've signed up, I send an email out once a day for 30 days sharing an interesting wine fact in the form of a question, which just gives the opportunity for the brain to pause for a moment, think about what the answer might be, and then you can scroll down and see what the wine fact or the answer is.
Now I could just deliver the wine fact and do that for 30 days.
But as an inherent teacher, someone who really loves to share information and to teach, I really do think there's a lot of benefit to thinking about what you think the answer might be before you just see it.
So that's wh these emails go out in the form of a Q&A effectively, with very small, bite-sized, scrollable, easy to digest information.
That's the purpose, but still kind of giving you a little bit of that opportunity to think and learn.
And so this particular podcast episode and the one before it, and the next couple that will come after it are
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predicated on the Q&A that has been shared in the project.
Now before we go there…. In the last podcast episode I promised I would talk a little bit more about life - my life - because part of the tagline of the podcast is we talked about wine, life and everything in between.
And I hadn't been talking as much about life as I probably would want to. So I'm going to try to bring a little bit more of that to the podcast!
So last week I shared the fact that I had been celebrating my son's birthday, that he had turned 11 and I cannot believe how quickly that happened. And then this week as I'm recording this podcast episode, I've just come out of celebrating my daughter's graduation from grade eight.
So in September - and I'm recording this at the end of June - she will be off to high school and a grade nine student, which is just crazy to me. I can't believe that I have a high schooler in my life and that I am the mom of a high schooler. It's crazy. And just the fact that school has gone by so quickly and she's done really well.
I'm so proud of her and I still am trying to wrap my head around, honestly, the fact that she's all grown up and obviously still has a lot of growing up to do, but she's now entering the stage where, you know, post-secondary looks imminent if she wants to do that or whatever she wants to do after she finishes high school, which here in Canada, ends in grade 12.
So you start in grade nine and four years later, you're kind of an adult and off in the world. And you know, maybe you might pursue post-secondary education. Most children do. It'll be up to my daughter to decide if she wants to or not. But, you know, it's just kind of the end of childhood in my mind.
Anyways, maybe that's just me being a mum. Um, maybe I'll never actually see that my kids are fully out of childhood. That's probably true. That's what my mom always told me. But, you know, from my vantage point today, the fact that she's off to high school and then we'll be done in four years and in the real world so to speak is just crazy to me!
So two big celebrations in two weeks and you know what I'm feeling good. I'm really proud of my kids and proud of all that my husband and I are accomplishing as
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parents. And it's nice I think to sit back and celebrate these perhaps smaller moments. I mean, I did find myself at one point thinking, well, it's just a great eight graduation.
You know, it's not a big deal!
But, you know, I think I was only thinking that because that's the kind of thing my mom would have said to me. But actually when you pause and you just think about it, it is worth celebrating. Everything in life is worth celebrating and being grateful for. And it's just so nice to take a pause and really internalize, you know, these moments as they go by in our lives. At least I believe so. And to have gratitude for them and, you know, just recognition of what it does take to get to certain milestones and surpass certain milestones and then to move on to the next ones.
That's my little life reflection for today you know… just feeling grateful…definitely having a hashtag mama bear moment!!
Anyways, with that, let's get on to the real meat of today's episode.
As I promised, we are going to get into six interesting wine facts today. And you are going to have a chance to quiz yourself vis-a-vis these wine facts.
Now in the first episode, meaning the last episode (Episode 33), we covered six wine facts and they were all at different levels of difficulty. So if you didn't get the answers and you listened to that first episode, don't be worried. It's totally, perfectly normal to not know the answers to everything. And if you have not listened to that episode, you don't have to listen to it before this one, these episodes are not delivered in succession.
They're meant to stand alone…but I would definitely recommend going back and listening to that one because there are some good fun facts in there.
In that first episode, we covered things related to:
- winemaking in the U.S., you know, volumes of wine, where they're made;
- what are lees - that's a word that we hear a lot in the wine world - what are they, why are they always being mentioned?;
- What is the life cycle of a grape variety and why is it important?;
- We talked about wood vessels;
- We also talked about Malbec; and
- We talked about a signature grape in Chile.
Go back, have a listen and try your hand at those wine facts if you haven't already.
Today, we will go through another six wine facts. And the way I did it
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last time, I will do it again this time but this time I will explain that you might want to have a pen and a piece of paper with you if you want to try to write down your answers.
I will deliver the questions in a question and answer format, as I mentioned, but I'll state what the question is, and then I'll give a small pause to give you the opportunity to think about what you think the response is.... probably a three or four second pause.
You can also just pause the recording for a moment and write down your answer and then I will deliver what the answer is. So it does give you that opportunity, as I said, to really think about, you know, what you think the answer might be and see if you knew it.
Okay. So with that, let's get going!
Wine fact number one:
We are looking at wine grapes again. What is the most widely planted grape globally?
Wine fact number two:
What type of vessel is most commonly used in modern high-quality winemaking for fermentation purposes and why?
Wine fact number three:
Why are some wines described as having herbaceous or “erbacious” characteristics (depending on how you say the word)?
Wine fact number four:
Where do those herbaceous notes actually come from?
Wine fact number five:
If sparkling wines labeled as champagne are only permitted to come from the champagne region in France (which is in fact a true fact, they can only be labeled as champagne if they come from the champagne region), what are sparkling wines from other parts of France then called if they can't be called Champagne?
And wine fact number six:
If we talk about Pinot Noir in particular - a grape that everybody loves! - is Pinot Noir a cool climate warm climate or hot climate grape?
So those are the six wine facts. And I am going to go over them again and now reveal the answer.
Let's start with the first one.
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What is the most widely planted grape globally?
It is Cabernet Sauvignon!
The Cabernet Sauvignon grape is a winner in many countries, often being one of the top, if not the top, planted grapes in many of the regions worldwide. So it is absolutely the number one planted grape globally.
Wine fact number two.
The question was - what type of vessel is most commonly used in modern high quality wine making for fermentation purposes and why?
The answer is stainless steel tanks.
Though a wide range of vessels can be used. Everything from oak barrels to clay pots to concrete tanks, most high quality modern wine-making is actually conducted in stainless steel because stainless steel offers the most precise temperature control capabilities, which are extremely important when it comes to modern winemaking - it's really what ensures quality and ensures that you don't get off flavors or you don't get any disease development in the wine. Stainless steel also offers an inert environment that is essentially impervious to unwanted oxygen odors bacteria.
And it's also extremely easy to clean and the capability to clean it is a really attractive feature of stainless steel because having a clean winery (having a clean winemaking environment) is critical to high quality wine and it's one of the things that modern day winemakers pay a lot of attention to.
Now the downside to stainless steel is that it is quite expensive. There's a high cost associated with purchasing these modern wine making tanks and this can sometimes prevent some winemakers from using stainless steel exclusively - and in some cases, when we're talking about smaller wine makers that are making smaller wines, maybe not as profitably - it might prevent them from using stainless steel altogether.
All right, the next question. Why are some wines described as having herbaceous characteristics?
The answer - some wines display notable aromas of something green. So sort of like, you know, capsicum, bell pepper, boxwood. These are the kind of aromas that are labeled as
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herbaceous. They're not actually an herb that you can pinpoint per se. But as I said, those examples could include bell pepper, grass, hay, leaves, stems, asparagus… and these notes are typically described by wine professionals as herbaceous!
The next question was where do those herbaceous notes actually come from?
Herbaceous notes in wine can come from a wide range of sources and going through them all is kind of a course of study in and of itself! But notwithstanding, one key source worth remembering for any really astute wine lover is the term "methoxypyrazines".
Methoxypyrazines are flavor compounds that are found in the skins and seeds of grapes. They are more prominent in some grapes than others and particularly noticeable in almost all under ripe grapes. So grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc - they're all known for having naturally occurring high levels of methoxypyrazines even when they're fully ripe so these are grapes that are going to display those herbaceous characteristics. It is a part of the profile of the grape. And then as I mentioned, there are other instances where you might get this green herbaceous note where you don't necessarily expect it if you know what the wine should taste like, and that can be a sign of an underripe grape - or under ripe grapes, I should say - in the wine.
So that's not a good thing…. if you're getting under ripe notes where they shouldn't be there, but for certain varieties, it is a prized aspect of the particular grapes. So like I said, once again, things like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc - you should be looking for herbaceous characteristics in those wines that are dominant in these grapes and you can describe them as being herbaceous and you'll probably be bang on!
Okay. The next wine fact.
If sparkling wines labeled as Champagne are only permitted to come from the Champagne region in France, what are the sparkling wines that come from other parts of France called?
These wines are called Crémant - that's C-R-E-M-A-N-T.
There are sparkling wines made all
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through France, not just in Champagne and they can be made using a range of methods.
But if they're made using the traditional method, which is the same way in which Champagne is made, but they don't come from the Champagne region, they're always called "Crémant". So typically there'll be labeled as "Crémant de"....fill in the blank - it could be Crémant de Bourgogne, Crémant de Loire, Crémant de Bordeaux - and this will tell you when you see Crémant on the label of a sparkling wine, one, if you didn't know it was sparkling, it is a sparkling wine from France. But two, that it's made in the traditional method, the same way Champagne is which does actually suggest a fairly high quality standard for that sparkling wine. It's much more involved than some other ways that sparkling wines can be made.
However, one very important thing to remember is that the grapes that are used are not necessarily the same as those that are used in Champagne so there's no guarantee that the flavor profile will be exactly the same because that is coming from the grapes itself. But some of the methods that are being used will be the same. And so there is that higher level of quality in a Crémant than you may find in perhaps some sparkling wines from other parts of the world that have not been made using the same methods of Champagne.
And lastly, we've got the sixth wine fact.
So the question here was - is Pinot noir (a very, very popular grape!) - is it a cool climate, warm climate, or hot climate grape?
And you might remember (or you're going to need to go back and listen to the episode before this one) we talked about why the lifecycle of a grape is important. And in there we also talked about climate and how those two are linked. So you might want to go back and have a listen to that if you're interested in why it even matters whether Pinot Noir is a cool climate, warm climate or hot climate grape.
But assuming you already know why it matters, the answer to this question is it is a cool climate grape.
Pinot Noir is definitely widely grown around the world. But it is definitely also known for its ability to thrive and really shine in cool climates. That's where you get the best expressions of Pinot Noir. Even in warmer climates -
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there are warmer parts of the world where you'll find Pinot Noir - it is often grown in the coolest sub-regions of those areas.
So remember Pinot Noir is going to render its best expressions in cool climates. And you'll often find it in the cooler parts of the world. Having said that, it is also grown in generally warmer climates but there you can look for the fact that it is going to be its best expression when it's grown in that warmer area, in a cooler sub zone somewhere where there's cooling winds or cloud cover or lots of shadows in the afternoon.
At the end of the day, it's a grape that really does like a cooler climate.
And with that, we get to the end of part two of the interesting and fascinating wine facts that you should know!
We've covered six really cool wide facts and as I mentioned, in the episode before this one, there's six other wine facts you can dig into.
There are more episodes like this coming. I will be sharing six more wine facts in the next episode, again in a Q&A format, so if you enjoyed this be sure to come back, tune in, be sure to subscribe if you haven't already subscribed. It will do wonders for the podcast, reaching more people, but also will ensure that you're always alerted when a new podcast episode drops.
So be sure to do those things and be sure to come back and hang out with me for the next episode where we will cover some more interesting wine facts together and you can see how much you know about wine and, or learn new things!
Now, let me reassure you. If you didn't know the answers to some of these questions, it really doesn't matter. The more that you practice, the more that you ask yourself questions, the more that you read and expose yourself to information, the more you learn and grow. And that's really the purpose at the end of the day.
And with that, I will bring this episode of The Wineitupanotch Podcast to a close.
I am so grateful that you decided to hang out with me and I can't wait to see you again the next time we get together in the next episode.
In the meantime, wishing you lots of peace, love, light and of course, great wine.
Take care. Bye!
