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High-Tech Searching, Part 2

Dec 19, 2007 |  John (12) |  Founders, How-to |  2 comments

Last time we covered a few of Vinquire's powerful search operators. This time, we'll cover the options that pop out after you click the Search Options link next to the search box.

For starters, most of the options that pop out after clicking "Search Options" are straightforward. You can control maximum price, vintage, wine type, bottle size, and which retailers you are searching -- all in a simple fashion. However, the last option, "Search Style" can be potent yet confusing, and therefore deserves some explanation.

Search Style: "AND - Price Sort"


Using this style of search (which is the default), Vinquire requires that every term you search for exists in the returned wines. This means users should not enter too many terms when searching. We touched on this in the first post, but it can't be emphasized enough: start searching with the least amount of terms that will still identify the wine—you can always add more terms to the search if you get too many erroneous results.

But what about the "AND - Price sort" part? Price sort simply means that we're going to sort the wine results on price: from low, to high. This is our default style of search, and we do this to help you find wine at the best price. The downside is that we require every search term to exist in the results, which can limit results. This is why we have a second option.

Search Style: "OR - Relevancy Sort"


This style search does not require every search term to exist when we display wines. Use this search style when you are getting limited search results using the "AND" search style.

For example, let's say you're a sucker for punishment and really want to get your hands on a bottle of Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, Kanzler Vineyard. If you use the default "AND" search for that, you get limited results. However, if you change it to the "OR" search, good things happen and you might be able to land a bottle. This works because with the "OR" search, we don't require every single term you searched for to exist. We'll do our best effort to match as many terms as we can, but we won't guarantee that every term in your wine search will exist in every result.

So why not do all searches with "OR - Relevancy sort"? If you use this search style, some of the returned results may not be the wine you were searching for. Buyer beware—you will need to verify that the wine we returned really is the exact wine you are looking for. With the Kosta Brown search, we might leave off Kanzler. That word is important so you will have to be careful. Additionally, we no longer can sort these results by price. So you will manually have to go through the returned wines and find the best price yourself.

The upshot is that if you are trying to find a specific or rare wine, or in general are getting poor search results, you can use the "OR" search and get a broader view of what our database offers.

The Next Level:

So far, we're still not hitting the "high-tech" angle. Let's go back to our quest for the Kosta Browne. I mentioned above that the "OR" search doesn't require all search terms to exist in the wines, but let's say we want to guarantee that the word Kanzler is in every result. If you add a '+' before the word Kanzler, then the "OR" search will force the word Kanzler to exist in all search results.

Using the '+' operator can help you refine your results when using the "OR" search style.

Finally, all of the operators like '~' and '*' detailed in the last advanced search blog will work when using the "OR" style search as well. Happy hunting.
Founders, How-to 2 comments

Wine Temperature Basics

Nov 29, 2007 |  John (12) |  How-to |  4 comments

Serving wine at the correct temperature is important. While it sounds fussy, the reality is that red wines, if served too warm, can have overpowering notes of alcohol. White wines, if served too cold, lose their vibrancy and nose. This chart indicates the correct temperatures for a variety of wines:

Temperature Description How
60°F - 65°F
(15.5°C - 18.3°C)		 Full bodied reds (Syrah, Cab, Merlot, etc.) + Ports 30 minutes in fridge
50°F - 60°F
(10°C - 15.5°C)		 Light, fruity reds (Beaujolais, light Pinot Noir, etc.)

Full bodied whites, dessert wines (rich Chardonnays, Sauternes, etc.)		 45 minutes in fridge
45°F - 50°F
(7°C - 10°C)		 Fruity wines and Champagne (Sauv Blanc, Pinot Grigio, etc.) 80 minutes in fridge

A few additional tips:
  • If you're unsure of the temp, aim to error on the "too cold" side rather than "too hot". Once a wine is poured, it will begin to gain heat - if the wine is too cold, just letting it sit out will get it back to the correct temperature.
  • If you put your white wines in the fridge for too long (or, shudder, store white wine in the fridge) take the wine out of the fridge 30 minutes prior to serving to warm it up.
  • Don't listen to the "red wine is best at room temp" crowd. Unless your house is a cool 55 degrees, they are misinformed.

Find any bottle at the best price: try Vinquire's free wine search engine.
Cheers~
John
How-to 4 comments

How-to: Pair Wine & Cheese

Nov 29, 2007 |  John (12) |  How-to |  0 comments

Wine and cheese can pair well, but it requires some thought to insure a happy marriage. Here are a few general rules to stay on the right track:
  • White wines pair with cheese more easily than reds. The high acidity that white wines contain helps cut through the creaminess in cheese.
  • Sweet wines pair very nicely with many cheeses, especially pungent blues.
  • Red wines are trickier to pair but generally work with hard cheeses. The more full-bodied the red, the harder the cheese should be to match it. Sample the combination before serving to insure the cheese does not create a bitter taste with the wine.
  • Don't forget the Champagne. It pairs well with creamy cheeses like Brie and Camembert.
  • Harder cheeses, like Cheddars and Parmesan, often work with more wine varietals than soft, creamy cheeses.
  • Studies have shown that eating cheese with wine can often dampen the flavors of wine - so you don't need to open your best bottles.

Classic Wine & Cheese Pairings

Below is a list of classic wine and cheese pairings. If you stick with these, you're guaranteed some success:

Other Popular Wine & Cheese Pairings

And finally, a more comprehensive list of popular wine and cheese pairings:

Wine Cheese
Cabernet Sauvignon Sharp Cheddar, Danish Blue, Camembert, Parmesan, Gorgonzola
Chardonnay mild Cheddar, Gruyère/Swiss, Provolone
Gewürztraminer Gruyère/Swiss
Merlot Provolone, Cheddar, Smoked Gouda, Manchego, Parmesan
Pinot Noir Muenster, Edam, Gruyère/Swiss
Port Stilton, Gorgonzola
Riesling Gouda, Colby, Edam, Monterey Jack, Gruyère/Swiss
Rosé Monterey Jack, Gouda, Provolone
Sauterne Roquefort, Gorgonzola
Sauvignon Blanc Goat Cheese/Chèvre, strong Cheddar, Gruyère/Swiss
Shiraz Sharp Cheddar
Sparkling Brie, Camembert, Goat Cheese/Chèvre, Edam, Gouda
Zinfandel Muenster

This list is by no means exhaustive, and as always, your palate is the ultimate judge—experiment and find something you like. Need more info? This article by Karen MacNeil lists some specific pairings that might work for you.

Find any bottle at the best price: try Vinquire's free wine search engine.
Cheers~
John
How-to 0 comments

How-to: Score a Wine Using the 100 Point Scale

Nov 27, 2007 |  John (12) |  How-to |  3 comments

This article details how to score a wine only. If you want information on writing a descriptive wine review, read this article. This article also assumes that you're familiar with the basic method of wine tasting (look, swirl, smell, and sip).

The 100 point scale grades a wine by assigning it a number between 50 and 100 points. The scale was made popular by the renowned wine critic Robert Parker and was modeled after the U.S. high school grading system. Wines receiving higher numbers are considered better than wines receiving lower numbers.

In reality, the scale really operates between 70-100 points, with scores below even 75 not completely clear in what they indicate. For this reason, we will be talking almost exclusively about the 75-100 point range.

There are two fundamental ways in which a score is determined for a given wine:
  1. The taster simply chooses a number from the scale based on their past experience in tasting wines and intimate knowledge of the 100 point scale. This is the manner in which Parker and Wine Spectator review wines.
  2. Points are awarded on a strict "per item" basis. The wine always starts at 50 points regardless, then you add up to 5 points for color, 10 for nose, 15 for taste, 10 for finish, and 10 for overall impression. While more scientific, most reviewers have the background to arrive at a similar point total using the first method.
Now let's take a look at exactly how the 100 point scale is broken down by Spectator, Parker, and Vinquire with running commentary to help flesh out what isn't explicitly stated. By investigating each level of ranking you will hopefully be able to determine what score your wine deserves.

96-100 points

  • Parker: An extraordinary wine of profound and complex character displaying all the attributes expected of a classic wine of its variety. Wines of this caliber are worth a special effort to find, purchase, and consume.
  • Spectator: Classic, a great wine.
  • Vinquire: Extraordinary. A wine of finesse, complexity, and expression. True to variety and region. Perfect balance of flavors with a long finish.

These are simply put, the best wines in the world. Out of hundreds of thousands of wines, Parker rated only ~150 wines a perfect '100'. Spectator has given only 55 perfect scores. If you are new to reviewing or tasting wines, it is unlikely that you have tasted wines in this range. If however you are tasting wines from top French Chateaus, or from the top California Cabernet producers, it is possible that they will touch this range.

Scores in this range also tend to be slightly murky: the differences between a 96 point and 100 point wine would be difficult to pin down. Robert Parker himself is quoted as saying

"I've always tried to explain it saying that, you know, I'm a very passionate person and an emotional person. I really think probably the only difference between a 96-, 97-, 98-, 99-, and 100-point wine is really the emotion of the moment."

90-95 points

  • Parker: An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character. In short, these are terrific wines.
  • Spectator: Outstanding: a wine of superior character and style
  • Vinquire: Excellent, true to variety and region, with terrific complexity and balance. While not a wine for the ages, a superior example.

These are wines that in general, knock your socks off. Upon tasting wines in this range, I typically swirl and smell, and immediately know that I'm in for a ride. Wines in this range are near perfect examples of the grape -- for whatever style of wine you are drinking. While wines in the 90 and 91 point range are usually available without too much work, as you climb to the 93/94/95 point range, these wines do begin to approach superstar status and can become very difficult to obtain for a reasonable price. If you are new to wine reviewing, use these scores with caution as they signify a stellar wine.

80-89 points

  • Parker: A barely above average to very good wine displaying various degrees of finesse and flavor as well as character with no noticeable flaws.
  • Spectator: On the high end, very good: a wine with special qualities. On the low end, good: a solid, well-made wine.

This range deserves a finer grain breakdown as the majority of wines fall between these numbers:

85-89 points
  • Vinquire: Meets your expectations, with sound flavors and balance. Might have limited complexity or be short on the palate. A sound wine.

Wines in this range are generally considered high quality wines. Especially on the upper end, 88 and 89 point wines are very tasty, enjoyable wines. Oftentimes, these wines are also a good deal as many connoisseurs focus exclusively on wines that are 90 points or above. Wines in this range showcase the characteristics of the varietal, are clean, and typically well balanced. This finish may not be super long but does exist and is pleasant. The nose and taste are harmonious and the wine progresses from initial impressions to finish in a pleasant manner. If you are a beginning wine reviewer and really enjoy a wine, chances are that it belongs in this range.

80-84 points

  • Vinquire: Average, drinkable, might not have as much varietal character. Simple flavors, no flaws, but nothing special.

In general, these wines are commercially acceptable and show no major flaws, but are possibly unexciting or "tame" wines (especially on the low end). You will never see a wine advertising itself with a score of less than 84 points in a winery or retailer for this reason. In addition, despite what Parker and Spectator officially say about wines in this range, the reviews may begin to note negative aspects of the wine for these scores. Phrases like "a little artificial", "simple, one dimensional", "a bit tart", "light body", sometimes surface in reviews. On the positive side however, reviews in this range consistently indicate the wine is still very much drinkable. Reviews are often times short for these wines and professional reviewers almost invariably indicate that wines in this range are ready to drink now.

75-79 points

  • Parker: An average wine with little distinction except that it is a soundly made. In essence, a straightforward, innocuous wine.
  • Spectator: Mediocre: a drinkable wine that may have minor flaws
  • Vinquire: Below Average, Might contain one flaw, simple straight-forward flavors, off-balance, unpleasant.

Despite how it sounds, rating a wine 79 points or below is typically insulting. It indicates that the wine, while commercially viable, is not performing to the capacity that it should. Its flavors or body may be very soft. Tasters may be struggling to define what aromas the nose of the wine displays. The finish may be weak or non existent. Flavors may boldly change directions on the palate, leaving a taster confused. Still, the wine is drinkable, but it would be something that you would be hesitant to serve to friends.

The scale below 75 points is murky. Professional tasters rarely release reviews in this range, making it hard to define. If you are a beginning reviewer, it is best to avoid rating wines below 75 points. For all practical purposes, the scale stops at 70 points.

Ready to try and review some wines with your new info? Click on the review tab and search for any wine you'd like to review.

Need more info on rating systems? The links below should start you in the right direction:

Find any bottle at the best price: try Vinquire's free wine search engine.
Cheers~
John
How-to 3 comments

How-to: Write a Wine Review

Nov 27, 2007 |  John (12) |  How-to |  0 comments

This article explains how to review wines and assumes the reader is familiar with the basic method of wine tasting (look, swirl, smell, and sip). Discussion of the 100 point scale is located here.

The text that accompanies a wine review usually hits the main tasting components of wine: color, aroma, texture, taste, and finish. Let's look at the individual components:

Color:

States the color (e.g., red, purple, brick) and intensity of the color (e.g. deep, medium, light) of the wine. Often times color is not noted, especially if the color is typical for whatever type of wine (aka varietal) you are drinking.

Aroma:

The most important part of the wine, aka the nose, or bouquet. Because the nose detects thousands of different scents, and the tongue only detects four tastes (sweet/sour/bitter/salt), the vast majority of text in wine reviews revolves around what aromas your nose can deduce from the wine. However, it can be very hard to put into words what it is you smell, and many rookie reviewers falter here. Describing the nose can involve many words, from fruity (cherry, strawberry, raspberry, etc) to citrusy (lemon, pineapple, etc) to everything in between (chocolate, nutty, bell peppers, etc). Use this PDF file to try and jostle your scent memory.

Texture:

Often described as mouthfeel, tasters often use words like silky, raw, rough, heavy, light, watery, or creamy to describe the weight and feel of the wine. The classic example to illuminate mouthfeel is to imagine the different textures of milk as it progressively adds fat: non-fat, 2%, whole, half and half, heavy cream. As the fat increases, the texture goes from watery to silky to thick or heavy.

Taste:

The taste of a wine, despite the name, is still all about the nose. Wine tasters typically aerate the wine in their mouth by swishing it around and sucking air through pursed lips to get some of the wine (in aerosol form) back into the nasal cavity. This can be hard for beginners to grasp, but truly the nose tells all and if this aeration did not happen, then the taste would only be a combination of sweet, sour, salty, or bitter -- and that would be pretty boring.

So why is the taste important if we've already covered the aroma of the wine? This is because the wine will present different flavors as it sits in your mouth, from the initial attack as it hits your tongue, to the mid-palate, to the finish (which we will cover next). Sometimes however, the wine will present a consistent front of flavor, from the nose, to the mid-palate, to the finish, and in these cases the wine review may be a short description of the aromas only, with the taste noted as "consistent" with the nose. However, if you do note different flavors as the wine mingles with your palate, note them here utilizing words from the previously mentioned aroma PDF.

Finish:

A wine finish is the lingering sensation that wine leaves in your mouth after you swallow the wine. Typically, finish is described in both length and flavors. The length is the amount of time you continue to perceive flavors after you have swallowed. Length is described as long (flavor persists more than 8 seconds), medium (persists for 4-5 seconds), or short (flavors dissipate very quickly). Finish can also contain more taste adjectives (woody, cherry, earthy, etc) if the finish has evolving flavors that present themselves.

Putting it all together

Reviewers may want to simply list out the components that they tasted in each category above, and this makes for an OK wine review. However, as wine is not a scientific endeavor, I believe that merging the components above into a brief paragraph about the wine often lends itself to a wine description that has more heart and often reveals more about the wine. To write a solid review, try taking your notes on individual wine elements (color, aroma, texture, taste, finish) and string them together in a few sentences that glide from one component to the next.
And even now, we still may not have a review that really hits at the heart of the wine. If there is a special story behind how the wine was made, where you tasted it, or why this wine is special in any way, shape, or form, it can be interesting information to place in the review. Would the wine pair well with a certain dish? Does the wine need more time to age? Is the 1996 a better deal than the 1997? These tidbits of information can make the difference between an acceptable review and a great review.

On the other hand, especially for simple wines, it can be impossible to write a solid review: only one or two non-distinct aromas may be present (i.e., "tropical"), the taste may not present any new flavors, and the finish may be absent. In cases like these, the reviewer can be left struggling for words. Write what you taste, and then walk away -- save the brain-wracking for a bottle that deserves it.

Ready to try your hand at a review? Click on the reviews tab and search for the wine you're interested in. You'll be able to assign a score (how to assign a score) and write as much (or as little) commentary as you'd like.

Need more information?

The links below all offer advice on how to write a review:

Find any bottle at the best price: try Vinquire's free wine search engine.
Happy Reviewing~
John
How-to 0 comments

How-to: Spit with Style

Nov 24, 2007 |  John (12) |  How-to |  0 comments

Why Spit?

People spit wine to stay sober. If you're tasting 20 wines, by the last pour you will have consumed approximately 20 ounces of wines. This is the equivalent of four full glasses, and would be enough alcohol to start feeling rather giddy. Needless to say, if you're trying to objectively rate or taste the wines, by the time you hit the last pour your senses will become a little impaired. For this reason, people often choose to spit at certain events.

Should I Spit?

The question is about how many wines you will be tasting. If a friend is going to open 10 bottles and pour one ounce samples, the choice is yours to spit or swallow. If it's a friendly atmosphere, you're not driving, and you don't need to rate the wines too seriously - I would probably chose to swallow the wine. However, if you're going to sample more than 10-15 wines, I would begin to spit all or some of the samples, depending on whether the particular wine is agreeable with my palate. In a similar fashion, if you're visiting wineries they will each have about five wines available for tasting. If you're going to visit more than three wineries, I would recommend spitting at least some of the samples.

Do not spit at dinner parties. While I've heard that occasionally this is OK, generally speaking, an eating environment is not a place to judge wines scientifically, and the atmosphere is not conducive to wine spitting. Similarly, if the event you're attending is more about social mingling and less about wine tasting, often times there will be no spit bucket (aka dump bucket) and spitting would be inappropriate.

Should I Dump?

Dumping is the practice of pouring wine out of your glass into the dump bucket. This common practice occurs when you sample a wine and either (1) don't like the wine or (2) feel that you already obtained a good understanding of the wine on previous tastes. In either case, dumping the remaining wine out is another good way to maintain sobriety during a tasting expedition.

Where to Spit

First find the dump bucket. Dump buckets are large opaque plastic, metal, or ceramic buckets that often take one of the shapes below:

Silver Dump BucketSilver Dump Bucket

At tasting events, you will often see one per table. At wineries, they almost always exist on the wine bar itself.

At some tasting events, you may be offered a personal spit cup. These small plastic or paper cups may be utilized for discreet spitting where you simply bring the cup to your mouth and expel wine. Personal cups are often times the preferred method of spitting because they offer some privacy and don't require you to show your spitting skills to the world. Unfortunately, personal cups are not exceedingly common, especially at wineries.

How to Spit

There are a few styles of spitting. Slate.com's interview with Daniel Johnnes, wine director at Montrachet, explains the process of professional spitting best:

"It is essential, [Johnnes] said, to put the right amount of wine in your mouth; he recommends between one-quarter and one-half ounce. Once you have tasted the wine and are ready to expel it, you pucker your lips, tighten your cheeks, and press your tongue up against your top teeth, broadening the tongue so that it extends past the molars on each side. This pools the wine between the top of your tongue and the roof of your mouth. The key, Johnnes says, is muscle control and force: You need to generate sufficient power to push the wine out while maintaining your form throughout the process"

The above method calls for a forced expulsion of wine from your mouth while keeping your head mostly upright. I.e., using your tongue, your cheeks, and some gravity to expel wine in a stream. This method, while professional, is also hard to achieve. Practice does make perfect, but don't be daunted if you can't master it. It is also perfectly acceptable to simply place your head about one foot above the spit bucket, face your head downwards, pucker your lips to allow a 1/4 inch opening, and let gravity create a stream of liquid from your mouth to the bucket. While this method doesn't create the solid, steady stream that the pro version does, it works, is simple, and usually doesn't create much of a mess.

Final Tips

Before you go to an event where you will be spitting wine, it is best to practice the art with a wine glass, some water, and a large sink. The shower is another great place to practice. However, regardless of your spitting skills, everyone (even the pros) will occasionally dribble a little on their chin or shirt. It's best to bring a few tissues with you should that happen.

Find any bottle at the best price: try Vinquire's free wine search engine.
How-to 0 comments

High-Tech Searching

Nov 14, 2007 |  John (12) |  Founders, How-to |  0 comments

One of my favorite things about Vinquire's wine search engine is the ability to use advanced operators. When you search for a wine for sale, you can employ a variety of special characters to really fine tune your search. Let's start with the basics:

Search the important terms only

First, use as few words as possible to describe the wine you are searching for. If your label states, "Bonny Doon Big House Red, California Red Wine", you would want to enter the least amount of words that still clearly defines the wine. In this case, I would start with Big House Red, and see how the results are. If the search results have too many incorrect wines, you can try adding more terms to the search.

Using the '-' operator

Now let's try something more advanced, try searching: 2000 Lynch Bages -Blanc
In this example, we are looking for a bottle of Lynch Bages from the fantastic 2000 Bordeaux vintage, but we're not interested in their white version. So we use the '-' character to keep the word "blanc" out of all search results.

I forgot the wine name!

Let's step it up. So let's say that you were out to dinner last night, and had a fabulous chardonnay with your skewered shrimp. The wine was called "Romb" something, you think to yourself the next day. But "Romb" what? Let vinquire take a crack at it:
Search: Romb* Chard

Rombauer Chardonnay! That was the one. The '*' operator tells Vinquire that you don't know the letters for part of a word. This operator can be used anywhere in a word, except for the first character. So you could also search R*t Mondavi Cab if you forgot Robert's first name for some reason.

I can't spell :(

In a similar sense, what if don't know how to spell some of the words in the wine label? Let's say that, like me, you have a problem spelling Mouton Rothschild. Maybe last night you polished off a few bottles, and today your thinking that it's spelled Moton RothsWild. That will get your zero results, so try this instead: Moton~ RothsWild~

That should get you the right spelling. The '~' operator tells Vinquire to allow a certain "fudge factor" for those words. Once you've determined the correct spelling, search again with the spelling errors corrected.

The next step in getting "high tech" with the wine search is to click the "search options" link -- but I will get to those in the next blog. Happy searching!
Founders, How-to 0 comments