Posted by Kelly on 19. March 2010 06:47
The wine world is full of tips and tricks for a quick quality assessment. They are not all equally truthful.
January is the month status. Time to quantify the excess Christmas pounds, and to submit a new plan for the settlement of overdraft facilities. It also seems to have put out recently. But we humans can not live by crackers alone, and asceticism is more fun when it gets a night off now and then. How it should be managed, as always, depends on the imagination, economy, knowledge and skills in roughly equal proportions.
Popular misconceptions
When in January the wine to be found, have most of the necessary skills: down into the basket on the table, by the stopper. Imagination of local sales effectively limit, if one does not venture out into exotic procurement methods a la Internet and mail order, which now accounts for a considerable part of the personalized wine sale. It remains with us on New Year's ailing economy and six half meters difficult foreseeable wine department from floor to ceiling. Luckily arises, almost by instinct, life in the form of decades of cumulative rules of thumb, tips and tricks of more or less credible provenance. Which of them can really count on when wine crowns be stretched to the utmost, and the palate still satisfactory? Here is one perspective on a few of the most popular tricks and misunderstandings.
Much alcohol = quality?
We have, along with a few other peoples, brought the sociologically interesting attitude that anything is good if there is really much of it. Let us immediately make it clear: a wine with 14% alcohol is no better than one with 13%! Alcohol content is an expression of the grapes sugar when they were harvested, and it again depends on the number of annual sunshine hours and grape variety. Wine from very sunny areas such as Australia and the South often have more alcohol than wines from the more cloudy and cooler France. It does not make French wine for a lower drinking experience, just a second.
A wine is good when its components are in balance. There must be a balance between acid, fruit, tannin and alcohol, so that neither dominates the taste picture. After many has fallen for the alcoholic rule of thumb, and also occasionally have felt confirmed, is it connected to the national predilection for strong wine to our strong and rich diet. There is still meat, gravy and potatoes on the table most days of the week in an average home, and it requires a wine with some clout to clean greasy forehead and corn out of the throat. If the strong wine should be balanced, so it requires a certain amount of alcohol, and with modern fermentation methods landing most of the wines between 13 and 14%. Is less brown sauce, a more moderate alcohol content of 12-13% give you a fresher and more refreshing wines, and especially in spring and summer months are the kind of not so crazy.
United boss = quality?
Bulge at the bottom of the bottle is made to better the bottles can be stacked on pallets when they are transported when empty. It has nothing to do with the quality of content to do. There are certainly middle-aged servant in the province who still think it makes a delicious sophistication in serving if we can stick his thumb into the bulge, and pouring over the back of the hand. Others would argue that good wines have more tendency to precipitate, so you can benefit from the rim, which creates the bulge in the bottle bottom. Although the brink ability to filter out the sediment is probably questionable, it is true that good wine 20 years ago, more so than today, had wine with some age. And with age generated usually a little sediment in most bottles. Today, the bottle design intended for practical and aesthetic reasons. Bulge has nothing to say about the wine's quality!
Great bottle = quality?
The weight, size and shape of a wine bottle can vary widely. Personalized wine bottles are usually is a purely cosmetic choice, although many areas, and even types of wine grapes has a cylinder type, which have become standard. As such, we often see chardonnay and pinot noir wrapped in the feminine burgundy bottle, while Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot bottle, like the stylistic model burgundy. There may also be practical considerations. For example, the champagne bottles shape and quality determined by the glass's ability to withstand the internal pressure that the carbon dioxide provider. Most wine bottles weighs about 500 grams, but there are beautiful examples of up to 1500 grams of CO2 footprint of Yeti class. The latter is purely bladders kg, and wine way to announce that "here is not spared nothing"! Whether that is true, we know only when the plug is pulled by calories. There will be a tendency for the wine in a big, heavy bottle is more expensive, and therefore better. Opting for the heavy bottle of the expensive wine because the high packaging costs are relatively smaller than hvius burning Yeti bottle of a cheaper product. For once, there are teams in the scam.
Gold wool = quality?
Gold wool is usually a Spanish wine producer last desperate antics to sell some wines that should be drunk for years. Besides being a display of bad-taste, is gold wool in most cases, a negative quality indicator for the simple reason that there are resources spent on such a pointless thing. As a consumer, one must ask themselves the questions: "what are otherwise redundant resources spent on?" And "who should foot the bill?". Yes sir, you know who!
Beautiful label = quality?
It is tempting to be seduced by a beautiful label, and we should not be blind to the part of a quality, which lies in the visual aesthetic: wrapper design and equipment, as it is called in technical language, and not least the wine shine and color in themselves. With the label tries the talented merchants to give the prospective buyer an indication of the wine style. A label with a long text revolved around a line drawing of a castle in shades of brown says that this is probably a wine after the classical model, while a minimalist label with a short and rather clear indication signal modernity and accessibility. But consistency remains more theoretical than anything real beacon for purchase in January. There is no immediate correlation between the part of a quality, which has similarity with drink, taste and smell to do and so the wine's packaging, including labels. Many times it is the largest wine enterprises with the most standard mainstream products that afford the smartest advertising agencies to shape the label. And it tastes the wine so no better off. That the visual impression that can sometimes trump our perception of other simultaneous sensory impressions, is an exciting story for another time.
Medals = quality?
The past decade has been a true triumph for manufacturers of stickers for wine sector. Never before have so many wines won so many medals in as many competitions throughout the world. There are two models: Either the medal superimposed a reference to a location, the wine obtained from a local or international assessment, or it is a bogus medal with a marked vintage, slogan, wine makers name, or all three things at each of his medal. Medals of the first category are such worthwhile enough, if one disregards the fact that very few people take the time to read everything on them. If they did, would the following problem several sign up: 1) In 99 out of 100 cases, the wine was awarded a prize in a competition, consumers have never heard of. 2) If you still invest the meager budget of the New Year apparently celebrity, you can beat the competition name up when you get home. Here it turns out that it is not the Australian Wine, but only one out of hundreds of Australian Wine. Were also awarded 60 gold medals in nine categories and twice as many silver and bronze-ditto. 3) If the medal upon closer inspection does not represent a particularly laudable distinction, why it has been used as resources to buy, print or superficial marks? 4) Who should pay for them? Yessir, you kn ...
Screw top = quality?
For many it is a negative quality indicator, when personalized wine bottles are sealed with screw caps. As I in my younger days have spent numerous column kilometres on to explain, it is a position which does not correspond very well with today's modern wine world. Consumers have long been tired of faulty wines, and they put increasing demands on the wine's fruit, fresh and health in general. Therefore choose more and more conscious producers to bottle their best wine under screw cap, which is the only protection against oxidation, plug and tang, we have on the market today. Expect to find a modern, crisp and juicy wine under screw cap, and do your sorting by other criteria. And search for "screw" here on the blog to find more info on the subject.
Predicates = quality?
Reserve, Gran Reserva, Riserva, very special, etc. etc. Private Selection wine producers imagination is impressive when it comes to devising new ways to seduce the consumer, and an effective method is predicate-trick. It can be done in many ways, but the most classic is the introduction of a label predicate that does not have any official significance. This applies, for example a word like Reserve. It is not many bottles from the United States, and to some extent Australia and South Africa, not Reserve one or the other. It is pure marketing, and says not a word about beverage quality. Even wine from countries like Spain, where the names Reserve and Gran Reserve is a part of the formal quality classification, one can all too often experience a glaring mismatch between the predicate status and quality of the wine. And while both Chile and Argentina officially supports to the Spanish legislation, has been at the latitudes such a liberal interpretation of the classification terms, that in practice it can not be used other than to determine whether a wine has been on the dish or not. Predicate on the label must be understood in an extensive context, and if you are not sure that possess the insight to see through it, makes you wise to understand terms such as marketing, and not an indication of quality.
No, it is not easy to find the right wine. But what is the likelihood equal, that you come home from the music business with a great CD if you just grab the cheapest or the one with the prettiest wrapping?
Posted by Kelly on 24. January 2009 08:37
Free printable wine labels or custom bottles labels can be ordered in many different shapes and colours on the internet. These personalized wine labels are rather cheap but can really make a good wine look incredible. When serving a wine for your friends, it is also a great surprise if they see it is your own words on the bottle describing the wine. You can buy personalized wine labels in any colour, form and shape and get a good looking wine for almost nothing. Even better than buying, make them yourself. There are a lot of free personalized wine bottle labels available on the internet and if you just buy some sticky paper, you can easily print them out. If you make them yourself, it is only your imagination that sets the limit to your personalized wine bottles.
Why stop at the labels? You can customize or personalize anything about your wine. You can even engrave images or patterns in the bottle itself.
Posted by Kelly on 20. January 2009 04:35
A good wine glass are half the experience. Try to taste the same wine from different glasses and noticeable difference in flavor.
Cheap plastic patterned wine glassesand also unique wine glasses are easy to come by and don’t always have to be ugly or seem cheap. Also, you can very easily buy cheap wine glasses and to make them a little more personalized or more romantic for weddings, conferences or other occasions. You can make bead chains to the tube, either by using elastic or flower wire. These are also easy to get off when the glasses go in the dishwasher afterwards. Cheap wine glasses bulk in can be even cheaper and you can buy them in large quantities for a party or if some accidently broke. Cheap wine glasses for birthdays can also be very elegant. Because of the price for these glasses, you can colour them differently, write small poems or drawings and finally combine it with personalized wine bottles which will make you table look unique and very attractive. Cheap wine glasses in large quantities can be almost a giveaway and whatever you drink tastes exactly the same. Furthermore, these come both in red and white wine glasses and sometimes they are already in the package when buying a wine. A wine bulked with wine glasses and maybe some fruit or chocolate is at great idea for a birthday or Christmas gift.
If you are concerned about guests breaking your wineglasses you should look in this direction. You may be concerned about looking cheap but with the possibilities on the market today, I will guarantee you that most people wont be able to tell how expensive the glasses are and most wont care either. You can save the expensive glasses for a quiet night with a few close friends or use cheap wineglasses when the music is playing. Moreover, if you are having a party or wedding with a lot of quests you probable wont have enough wineglasses for all of them and your table will look terrible because of different glasses. Using cheap wine glasses, which can be bought in large quantities, enables you to decorate you table using identical wine glasses for a cheap price.
Posted by Kelly on 18. January 2009 08:34
An elegant gift for any situation. Personalized wine bottles are always a great gift and can be used not only to store wine but also as exclusive decoration. Personalized wine bottles can be decorated in many different ways. Labels can be replaced with personalized wine bottle labels or the wine bottles can be engraved with different patterns. This we you can make your personalized wine bottles look unique and very attractive.
Have you grown your own grapes? Then you absolutely must have a bottle which can present your wine to your friends. If you have produced a very tasty wine but put it in bad looking bottles, you can expect a bad result, but if you store the wine in a good looking personalized wine bottle, are already half way there.
Customized, personalized wine bottles come in all shapes and forms. You can pick any colour you want for your new bottles and also choose from a wide variety of sizes. If you want a even better result, you should also create your own personalized wine bottle labels. On these labels, you can write your own presentation, poet or similar or even have a company logo printed to label. Company logos can also, for further personalization, be engraved in the bottles, either at the side or bottom.
Try inviting your friends down to take a look in your wine cellar full of personalized wine bottles and maybe even with wine you produced yourself. Find a personalized recycled wine bottle plate and use it with decorations