The Verities of Vino

Some months ago. we told you all you needed to know about spirits and distillates in order to set up and enjoy a complete gentleman's bar. Here and now, we propose to do the same for wine, its selection, its storage and its service.

When we say "all you need to know" we mean just that; there is a wealth of wonderful lore surrounding wine, there are huge and handsome tomes on its history and origins, there are poems and pictures celebrating its delights. Anyone who delved into vinology would find a lifetime of charming and fascinating reading before him, to say nothing of happy hours of tasting and sipping, collecting and savoring – and more hours of arcane talk with his fellow experts, much of it designed for vinous One-upmanship. Pleasurable as all this may be, however, it's not essential to the graceful and happy enjoyment of wine as a regular part of your well-rounded life. What follows is – though it won't go far toward turning you into a wine snob, than which there's nothing much more objectionable. (Note: later on in these pages, we'll take up the matter of domestic versus i in ported wines. As a preliminary concession to the adherents of the foreign product, and for greater clarity, we'll capitalize the initial letters of the imports – thus: Chablis – and not generic types or domestic equivalents or counterparts – thus: California chablis.)

There are four principal classifications of wines: table wines (chianti, rosé, riesling, rhine, etc.), sparkling wines (champagne, sparkling burgundy), apéritif and dessert wines (sherry, port, etc.), aromatized wines (sweet and dry vermouth, etc.).

What makes wines red or white? Contrary to popular belief, the color of the grape has nothing to do with it. White is made by pressing the grapes and drawing off the juice. Red is made by pressing the grapes and allowing the juice to ferment for a while in contact with the skins. Rosé is, as you'd expect, an in-between process: contact of juice and pressed skins is limited.

Sparkling wines are those which undergo a second fermentation in the bottle. Fortified wines have their alcoholic content upped by the addition of grape brandy, which also makes them sweeter.

Your wine drinking should pretty much follow the standard procedures; that is, chilled white with fish, seafood, and the lighter meats and poultry; red wines at room temperature with red meat and strongly flavored foods; sweet wines and champagne with desserts (though champagne may be served with most any food, as may rosé), and port, sherry, etc., to be drunk alone, either before or after the collation. Room temperature, by the way, does not mean the thermometer reading in Death Valley at high noon – 70-odd degrees is about right. By the same token, chilled doesn't mean so cold there's no taste, though champagne should be very well iced.

It's our belief that the average young guy can go quietly nuts trying to figure out (or learn) what's what in wine nomenclature. The multitude of chateaux and the meaning of chateau bottling, estate bottling, monopoles, etc., the confusion arising from such facts as that Chateau Margaux Claret, which comes from Medoc, is a Bordeaux, all tend to discourage the man who has even a few other (continued on page 91) Verities Of Vino (continued from page 44) interests to occupy his mind. The whole matter of vintages, too, can cause frustrated annoyance – if it doesn't bore one into turning away at once. It's far easier – and perfectly adequate – to remember merely this: the best French reds and whites are deemed by most connoisseurs to be the best in the world; German whites from the Rhine and Moselle districts have a unique, fruity fragrance; Italian wines tend to be hearty and earthy; Spain is famed for its sherry, and Portugal for its port. Any wine merchant worthy of the name – and most liquor stores – can provide you with a vintage chart showing the gradings of a variety of wines by vintages, the years in which the grapes were picked and the wines laid down. Most of them, too, have handy leaflets which are capsule guides to the major wines of Europe and America, and their various uses. But reading – here or elsewhere – can't substitute for tasting.

Best bet – if you're a novice or have only a small and random collection of wines at home – is to start right out now with the laying down of a basic wine cellar. This will equip you to serve yourself and your guests adequately and will provide enough variety so that you can determine by experience which wines and which brands please you most. You can then expand on your basic cellar to build it into something about which you can feel a modest pride. Then you can go the further step and really lay in a gourmet's selection. Suggestions for all three cellars, prepared for Playboy by Mr. Julius Wile, Chairman of the Table Wine Committee of the National Association of Alcoholic Beverage Importers, Inc., follow shortly. You will see that the minimum cellar can be yours for less than $50, the modest one for about $100, and the munificent collection for less than $400.

But before we get to these, let's settle the domestic-versus-imported question – thereby earning the undying enmity of zealots and partisans on either side.

The purist among adherents of the imports denies flatly that domestics are comparable. He says, in effect, "Drink a California or a New York white wine if you wish, but for the love of Bacchus, don't call it Sauterne or Chablis: it's not."

The patriotic American wine lover says, "Climate, soil, vines and all other elements which go into the making of wine are as good here, or better, and domestic wines excell over imports not only in price but in quality, too. Sure, there are some fine imports, many of them. But they can't top the best domestic product."

We know one chap who made a sort of rule for himself in this matter: for daily consumption, he bought the best domestics; for special occasions, the finest imports. He was virtually exiled by friends on opposite sides of the controversy, since his compromise pleased neither, but only succeeded in outraging both; yet in our estimation his notion's not a bad one.

We, ourself, formed our opinion from a consideration of all claims, tempered somewhat by the results of a national blindfold-type test conducted recently: In this tasting test, with all identification of sources concealed, experts and laymen gave a slight edge to domestic clarets, sherries, burgundies, sauternes and champagnes. The European Rosé, Rhine and Chablis rated a bit ahead of the domestic. But far be it from us to go with the herd, or to dismiss the psychological importance of the foreign label and appellation, and the knowledge that what one is drinking has tradition and prestige going for it. If price is no object (domestics average very roughly less than half the cost of imports) and if you are sure the wine you're getting is the best of its kind (there are plenty of lousy imported wines around in handsome and impressive bottles), you may safely gratify your impulse toward prestige by going for the foreign labels. Later, when you have become a connoisseur, when you can detect subtleties of flavor and aroma and color, you won't be buying by country of origin anyway, but by your own highly developed discrimination.

Apropos the imports: some of the best foreign wines (perhaps the very ones that thrilled you on your European trip) don't travel well; and age alone is no criterion in the selection of wines. Some wines – especially champagne – cease to improve with age alter a certain point and give way to senility. Champagne, which takes up to a half-dozen years to qualify for connoisseur consumption, seldom survives its 15th birthday.

And a further word on the purchase and enjoyment of domestic wines. The California climate is so regular that it would be silly to establish vintage years. The designation "premium" on any California wine is your guide to its excellence.

The best way to buy your domestic wines is by area. The best areas in the United States are: the nine counties surrounding San Francisco, Los Angeles County, the Cucamonga-Ontario District and the San Diego District, all in California; the Finger Lakes region of New York State; and the Ohio islands of Lake Erie. The nine California counties are Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Solano, Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Mateo. Look on the label for these names and you'll be doing all right on the grapes.

The Ohio wines are on Kelly's Island, North Bass, South Bass, Middle Bass and Catawba Island. Among the best products of these vineyards are the champagnes, pressed, blended and bottled in St. Louis.

The New York State wines, especially the champagnes, are also well recommended. It is interesting to know that they alone come from indigenous grapes – the California grapes are all imported vines introduced to the new soil. The New York wines are from grapes found on the scene, which accounts for the "foxy" flavor – fresh and wild – which is their characteristic.

All of which is interesting and important to know, but since we want to get you started with your wine cellar so that you can sip your way to expertise, we'll postpone further pointers to give you the three groupings mentioned. The sooner you get launched, the better.

Remember, these are suggestions; especially in the matter of domestic versus imports, you can allow variations within types, provided you have the advice of a reliable dealer. Prices are approximate.

The Minimum Cellar

18 bottles, under $50)

The Modesh Cellar

36 bottles, under S100)

The Munificent Cellar

(112 bottles, under §400)

Use will determine the rate and kind of your replacements. For further guidance: a bottle of wine (24 ounces) serves three to four; a half bottle serves two. If you average one dinner party a week, two large parties a month, and drink wine with meals, your annual needs should be well covered by 10 cases.

In the matter of storage: it's unlikely you live in a manor house with its own wine vaults providing ideal conditions for the maturation and keeping of wine, but you should do the best you can to approximate these conditions. Avoid sunlight, strive for evenness of temperature (perhaps of greater importance, even, than coolness – which is highly desirable) and pick a closet or cupboard where the wine can rest: that is, away from slamming doors and from other stored gear to which there must be daily access. Place white wines (which are most delicate) in the coolest spot (probably closest to the floor), burgundies above the whites, bordeaux on top. Never store bottles standing; as soon as you get them home, lay them on their sides so that the entire cork stays wet, which will prevent its crumbling and keep the seal airtight.

Before we get to the serving of wine, a word about your glassware is in order. On pages 42-43 you'll see pictured seven "basic" wine glasses. We put that word basic in quotes because, though it may strike some as heretical, we say you don't have to have that much variety: two sizes of stemware, one somewhat smaller than the other, plus champagne glasses and identical small stemware for port and sherry, will do the trick. If you doubt us, bear in mind that the great international authority, Andre L. Simon (author of a gorgeous and fascinating tome called The Noble Crapes and the Great Wines of France), designed one all-purpose wine glass for the august Wine and Food Society. But two or more sizes are a bit less spartan and add to the pleasure of wine drinking. Wine glasses,ot course, come in a bewildering variety of sizes, shapes and decorations. Our advice: shun the fancy, seek delicacy, good line, and above all, clarity; you want to see your wine as well as savor it. For the same reason, avoid colors. Never serve wine in a glass with a flared lip, which dissipates its aroma; as a matter of fact, a slight incurving is desirable. You can go for broke on glassware and crystal: you can also get excellent handmade domestic glassware very reasonably.

Serving of wine comes next. This is, too often, the realm of the rampant pinkie finger and it shouldn't be. A few simple rules will suffice to assure that your serving is elegant and thoughtful, rather than gaudy and fancy, and that your wine will be given its best opportunity to please.

The day of the 14-course dinner, each "progress" with its special wine, is over. The usual practice calls for one or two wines with each meal. If it's one, it makes good sense to observe the old rule concerning red or white (with the main course determining the choice) for the simple reason that a hearty roast beef, for example, would clobber the delicate flavor of sauterne, whereas a burgundy would survive, and complement the meat. Conversely, the burgundy would overwhelm a delicate pompano. If you are serving more than one wine, it's a good notion to progress from dry to sweet, from light to heavy, from young to old. Not because that's a rule, but because experience suggests this is the road to greater enjoyment.

You may serve from the bottle or from a decanter. Some authorities frown on decanting, some favor it. (We know one connoisseur who not only decants his vintage reds but filters them, too; claims this is the surest way to clarify them and aerate them at the same time.) The sediment in imports is their pedigree, but it tastes like hell, so if you don't decant, then pour with care and stop the moment you suspect the sediment's roiled the clear wine. And try not to disturb wines en route from cellar to table and while drawing the cork.

In serving, pour a bit of wine into your own glass first, sample it, then if you're satisfied with it, fill the glasses of your guests (half to two-thirds full) and then your own. Pour slowly, to avoid backwash, and stop at the first sign of sediment.

Chill your whites and roses a few hours before serving. Bring your reds to the serving room an hour or so before they're to be used, draw the cork, let them get to the temperature of the room gradually – unless it's a hot room; too-warm red wine is as unpalatable as too-cold.

"Wine," says Christopher Morley, "opens the heart, warms the shy poet hidden in the cage of the ribs."

Correct service by the thoughtful host requires the stemmed glassware shown here. Left to right: goblet for the deep reds, such as burgundy or chianti; the hollow-stem champagne (though the champagne flute is considered equally good); the small glass for port; its companion for sherry; the slender-stemmed, medium-bowled glass for hock or Riesling; for rose and the lighter reds a smaller version or the red-wine glass; the tall and graceful for the whites.

Four hollow-stem champagnes, stacked, one battle of champagne and a steady hand form a festive fountain for four, with each glass brim full of bubbly and nary a drop spilled

The storage story calls for closet- and cupboardsized racks to which one may add as accasion requires. From the top down: a wood and metal job holds 15 bottles; $4.95. A wheeled rack in brass, ideal for a champagne party, for instance; $19.75. Twentty-bottle rack of metal comes knocked down and assembles easily; $4-95. The traditional honeycomb-pattern rack in galvanized sheet metal; $17.95. The wicker caddy is $2.50; in front of it is a chrome do-it-all decapper; $2.50. Left foreground: the doohickey stuck in the cork is a champagne tap that penetrates the cork to form a spigot which can be closed to retain sparkle; $4.95. To its right, a no-break-um corkscrew; $5.95. The three hand-some decanters are handmade by Ericmson, are yours, left to right, for $11.50, $10, $12.