Michael, great question. The bubbles (all one million of them in every glass) certainly give Champagne an extra dimension of texture and make it super lively on the palate. But bubbles also contribute to the overall flavor by magnifying a Champagne wine’s aroma. (Flavor is the unified perception of smell and taste). As bubbles form and rise to the surface of the liquid, tiny droplets of wine are released into the air, projecting the wine’s aroma to your nose. Even when the wine is on your palate, the bubbles help project its aromas to your retronasal passages, thereby amplifying the wine’s smell, and hence its flavor.

Douglas, your question prompted me to think about what I actually do, and I realize I do three things:

1. I make sure I haven’t eaten anything that would compromise my palate. Was there garlic in the pasta at lunch? Or onions on the hamburger? Some foods can alter your palate for hours after you eat them. (See Karen’s Risky Relationships blog above on the 8 killer foods to avoid.)
2. I think about what I’m about to taste and think about everything I know about that subject. Then I ask myself what should I expect to find in the wines I’m about to taste. I don’t go into a tasting of rieslings with the same expectations as I do a tasting of Argentine malbecs. Or a tasting of Burgundies with the same expectations as for Oregon, or even California, pinot noirs.
3. I prepare myself to concentrate. I imagine this is a bit like an athlete in the minutes before they start a race, or walk onto a tennis court, or walk out onto a soccer field.

After those three things are done, I dive in!

Hi Victor:  Great question. Especially since, these days, we’re all inclined to grab a corkscrew the minute wine arrives on our doorsteps. The helpfulness of “resting” depends on two things. 1) Was the wine just recently bottled? After being bottled, wines often go into a kind of “dumb stage” where they taste very muted. A wine that’s just been shipped only adds to the chances that the wine’s flavors are shut down. Most wineries post a “bottled on” date on the tech sheet for the wine and you can find that on the winery’s website. 2) What type of wine is it? You mention pinot noir, and pinot is known to be temperamental. Of all wines, I’d worry about pinot noir, sangiovese, nebbiolo and grenache the most. I don’t have any scientific evidence to support this by the way. Just experience. Lastly, just how long should you let a wine rest if you think it will benefit from resting? Two months (as you mention) is too much delayed gratification for me. I’ve heard many winemakers mention two weeks. That seems like a safe bet. Happy tasting!  –Karen

Alison, you’re right. Sometimes water alone doesn’t do the trick when you’re trying to “reset” your palate between tasting wildly different kinds of wine. So, what helps besides time? Some pros find that tiny bites of roast beef work. I’ve also heard that celery can be helpful, but when I tried that, I found that the green flavors threw my palate off more. I’ve also tried various crackers that are specifically marketed as palate cleansers but so far, I have not found any that work (and many taste awful). For me, the only thing that does help is a bite of a plain French baguette and an unflavored sparkling water with aggressive bubbles (like Perrier). Anybody else have any good suggestions? Tell us here.

Walter, I’ve often wondered that myself. And I admit I don’t know the answer unless perhaps the phrasing is derived from a French expression? WineSpeed readers, can anyone provide insight here?

Amy, the answer is: sometimes. This strategy has been around for a long time and, indeed, the second-cheapest bottle on a big wine list is often a restaurant’s best-seller (no one wants to buy the lowest-priced wine). But there’s a problem with this: smart restaurant owners also know this strategy. So, they end up putting their highest-margin wines in the second-cheapest spot. I only order the second cheapest wine in restaurants that are very wine-focused. For sommeliers, it’s often a point of pride to find real “steals” that are delicious. Those steals are often the cheapest to the fifth-cheapest wines on the list.

Bruce, Franciacorta is a region in Lombardy in northern Italy, famous for its sparkling wines. These dry sparkling wines are made by the traditional Champagne method from chardonnay and pinot noir (and sometimes pinot blanc). They are austerely elegant with a fine, creamy mousse of bubbles. Franciacortas come as non-vintage wines as well as vintage-dated (known as Franciacorta millesimato) and they spend a relatively long time on lees―18 months for non-vintage to 60 months for Franciacorta riserva. Prosecco is a sparkling wine made in the Veneto region of Italy. It’s made from glera grapes. It’s not made by the Champagne method, but rather by a process known as Charmat whereby the second fermentation takes place in large tanks. The top Proseccos are known as Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore. Prosecco wine is the traditional sparkler (along with white peach juice) in the Italian cocktail, the bellini.

Milo, yes. White Port exists although it represents only a small fraction of the total production of Port. White Port is not expensive and it’s not very complex. But it’s absolutely delicious drunk in the Portuguese way: mixed with tonic water and a twist of lime, on the rocks. In the Douro in summer, you can count on this refresher appearing every night around five, when everyone needs the Portuguese equivalent of a gin and tonic. White Port is made from the Douro grapes códega, gouveio, malvasia fina, rabigato, and viosinho.

This is a great question, Susan. When tasting several different vintages from the same producer, most professionals begin with the oldest vintage. The reasoning is that the oldest wine is likely to be the most integrated and nuanced, and possibly the most frail. The youngest wine is likely to be the boldest. If you taste the young bold wines first, you may not be able to fully taste the nuances of the oldest wine when you get to that wine. So most pros start with the oldest wine.

Romain, if I were to buy just one type of wine, I would buy pinot noir, which I think of as the single most versatile wine with Thanksgiving dinner. Pinot noir is earthy in a way that’s evocative of the enticing aroma of forests in the fall. As such, it “mirrors” the earthy flavors of poultry, stuffing and gravy. But pinot noir is also classically known for its cranberry flavors (perfect for Thanksgiving). And finally, no red wine is more silky and smooth than pinot noir…it’s effortless to drink over the long Thanksgiving meal. I especially love pinot noirs from the Sonoma Coast, the Sta. Rita Hills, the Russian River (all in California) and the Willamette Valley (in Oregon).

Hi Kevin, yes, it’s a beautiful time of the year to drive through wine country. Interestingly though, red leaves on grapevines are a symptom of virus. Read more about it in my blog about red leaves here.