A Beginner's Guide to Drinking Wine

Thank you for joining our second Wine Down Wednesday with Texas Brown Sugar and today we are going to have a wonderful time discussing a beginner's guide to drinking wine. If you have questions or or would like to add something to the conversation please feel free to comment below. I'm not an expert but I am a very avid wine drinker and if I don't have the answer I will find it. Let me know what's your favorite wine. Red wine? White wine? Rose?

I like to always start the live off with a toast and today I want a toast to new wine drinkers! Cheers! If you have not watched part 1 go ahead and check it out. We talked about how to identify your unique palate and it's very simple; all you do is answer two questions and tally up your palate score. Your score will help you to identify which wine is your preference. I am a person who likes white and medium reds. Maybe you don't like wine and it's possible that you're not drinking the wine that your palate likes.

Let's get going now because there's so much information I had to put on some slides so I don't forget any of the information that I want to share with you guys so join me as we take a look at some of the commonly asked questions. What is wine made of? Very simple grapes. The reason why there is such a variety is because of where the grapes are grown. Your grapes in France are going to be different from your grapes in Italy and your grapes in California are going to taste different from the grapes here in Texas. Next question; this is a big one especially for me because I have a goal of body fat of 28%. My trainer is constantly asking if I met my calorie count goal. A glass of wine (5-ounce glass) typically is going to be anywhere between 110 and 130 calories.

What are sulfites? Simply put it's a preservative to prevent bacteria and other yeast from growing. Another commonly asked question: are the sulfates responsible for giving me a headache? I did a little research and what I found is that sulfates are not the reason why you have a headache. The reason for your headache is typically because you have an allergy or asthma that is causing your headache. If you have an allergy or asthma issue it's the result of the histamine in the tyranny in the wine. If you have no allergies or asthmatic, what could be the issue is the alcohol in the wine. If you've been drinking wine all day it also could be that you are dehydrated. If you know you usually get headaches, my suggestion to you is to get ahead of it. If you know you're going to go out with your girls or you're going to go to a nice dinner, either take an antihistamine or take an ibuprofen prior to your drinking. Are the most expensive wines the quality wines? This is kind of a tricky question, yes no. Basically what you need to do to identify if you're getting a quality wine (1) is it the type of wine that your palate enjoys? If your palate enjoys the wine, then yes, price does matter. In order for you to get the best return on your investment with the wine it is suggested that you purchase a bottle of wine anywhere between $18 and $45. That usually lets you know you're getting a pretty good glass of wine. Now what are some reasons why wines may be more than $50? It's either because they have a history of being consistently good with their branding. A lot of your French and Italian wines are going to be more expensive because they're imported and there's a history that those are good wines. It could be a celebrity cult following that jacks the price up and a good example would be 19 Crimes. I love 19 Crimes, but because it has such a huge celebrity following it’s possible that they could increase the price and that may be the reason why you would have to pay more than $50. Another reason why wines may be expensive is because they are aged. What makes a bad glass of wine? It's boring. The mouth feel is really boring, the lack of acid or maybe too much acid. Bulk manufactured wines are boring. Consistency in most cases is great because you know what you're going to get. Consistency in wine is bad. And that's because it takes out the complexity of the wine. Example bulk manufactured wines are Yellow Tail.

How long can I keep a bottle of wine? A bottle of wine will last for 24 hours. If you have a wine preserver you could potentially extend that a day or two. What you don't want to do is wait a week. In seven days I'm sorry Boo, you now have cooking wine. What kind of glass should we drink our wine out of? Great question! A wine glass. The curve of the glass helps bring the aroma out of the wine better. What temperature is best for serving wine? Most people serve their whites too cold. Store your wines in a cool closet or pantry if you don't have a wine fridge. If you have a wine fridge you want to keep your red anywhere between 62 degrees and 72 and your white between 55 and 65. If you know you're going to have dinner with wine and you do not have a wine fridge, you want to put your reds in the refrigerator 30 minutes before you serve and your whites 2 hours ahead of dinner. How should I taste my wine? You want to swirl your wine in the glass. I know you have probably seen people in the movies doing this and you may not know why. What this does is wake up the wine. Next you want to sniff. Inhale and don't be afraid to put your nose all the way down into the glass because you want to get the full aroma. Hopefully your nose is clean and you don’t drop anything in the wine glass. What are you smelling? Is it woodsy? Is it coffee? Chocolate? Maybe some strawberries? Floral? The next thing you want to do is sip? When we get ready to sip you want it to coat your entire mouth and tongue. What you're doing here is getting the mouth feel. You're trying to figure out is it light like water, is it more mouth feel like milk, or maybe it’s more of a mouth feel like coffee Don't choke when you do this, but as it's sitting in your mouth and it's coated your whole mouth, you want to breathe in and then swallow. Allowing more oxygen in will enhance your taste of the wine. Now swallow. Let's practice! Be sure to swirl and sniff several times before you coat your mouth. I hope you got a lot from this and share this info with someone. Hopefully you feel more empowered and educated with this information. Drop me a note and let me know if you have any additional questions.