To make a name for themselves in the huge wine industry, they definitely need to rely on excellent quality and good marketing strategies, as exemplified by large international wine brands such as Lafite Rothschild (DBR) and Penfolds. In addition, if certain long history of development, family passed down for several generations, or smaller production of boutique wineries, or the top of the appellation of the famous chateau with a lot of influence, the quality of these wineries will be relatively excellent and stable, and has its own style, it is worth considering.
Besides the winery and brand, the label covers a lot of information, including its name, appellation, vintage, varietal, level, etc. With this basic information, you can get a general idea of the quality of the wine. With this basic information, you can roughly determine where a wine is at. The next step is to take the well-known French wine as an example to make a detailed explanation.
Wine class: French wines are classified from low to high as VDF, IGP and AOC (although it is now officially AOP, AOC will not disappear anytime soon), and on the whole, the higher the quality of the class, the better it is. VDF is the most common daily wine, which is generally cheaper, while AOC is the wine of legal appellations, which has more stringent legal regulations in all aspects. But even AOCs can vary in quality, so the next step is to look at the appellation.
Appellation: the smaller and more detailed the appellation, the higher the quality and price of the wine, such as three bottles of AOC wine, respectively, from Bordeaux (Bordeaux), Medoc (Medoc) and Pauillac (Pauillac), the three wines in the Pauillac's quality is the best, the Bordeaux is the least.
Year: buy ordinary table wine or cheap new world wines, do not have to care too much about the year, but some boutique wines or high-end wine must be considered, because each year's climate, light and rainfall will affect the quality of the grapes, so the vintage year good or bad is directly related to the quality of the wine. For example, Bordeaux's 21st century vintages include 2010, 2009, 2005 and 2000, and a bottle of 2010 Chateau Lafite Rothschild will be better than a bottle of 2011 Chateau Lafite Rothschild.
Chateau levels: The AOC, the highest level of French wine, can be divided into different levels, with Bordeaux used as an example in the chart below. Generally speaking, first growths such as Lafite and Chateau Latour are of the highest quality.
2. Look at the wine bottle label: Is the bottle label clearly printed? If it is blurred, it may be a counterfeit reprint. Is the cap on the bottle different? There are no traces of being opened or destroyed; for unopened wine, if the cork is raised or there is mucus at the mouth of the bottle, it means that the quality of the wine is out of order.
Wine body: Is the color of the wine unnatural? Usually the color of wine is ruby red, or light gold, peach and other clear natural wine color, the wine body will be cloudy after deterioration, if the color is not natural, there will be suspicion of blending and so on. Is there any unidentified suspended matter in the body of the wine? If there is a small amount of sediment at the bottom of the bottle, it is normal crystallization. Wine bottles have a hump at the bottom, which is where the dregs of the wine are stored to settle when the wine is standing upright. The longer the wine is stored, the deeper the hump. So, generally speaking, good wine needs to be stored for a long time, the bottom of the bottle is deeper, but the bottom of the bottle is deeper convex wine is not necessarily good wine.
Corks: Open the bottle and see if the writing on the cork is the same as that on the bottle label. In France, both the bottle and the cork are specialized. More and more countries are increasingly using rubber wine corks for environmental reasons, and there are also screw cap designs. This does not say anything about the quality of the wine itself.
3. Taste the smell of wine: Usually when you open a bottle of wine, you will smell the aroma of the wine (rich fruity, or even floral), but if the wine has a choking smell like nail polish, or acetic acid, it is not good. In fact, not only wine, but also good tea, coffee, and even delicious fruit dishes, worthy of appreciation of the taste is not particularly bland. Red wines should have fruity aromas of cherries, strawberries or plums and blackberries, and white wines often have flavors of oranges, lemons or pears. It's even better if they are followed by floral notes or hints of toasted bread, roasted hazelnuts or spices from the oak barrels.