Somm-ing it up

She is at the bar again, upright, standing tall above the rest, right-angled shoulders, almost majestic looking. She is classy and self-assured – no designer labels or flashy embellishments.  Full-bodied, peachy  and luscious, dressed in sumptuous ruby red , she is totally pure and alluring. He could no longer fork out for the cheap, flabby, flat or tart types. He just couldn’t face that in the morning.  He recalled last Friday night that underneath the elegant demeanour , there was personality and depth to this one, there was persistence and tenacity . He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of notes and handed the money over. She was expensive, but she was worth it. And, she was long lasting, he remembered with a grin. ‘I’ll take the Bordeaux please, sir’.

I can drink wine,  I can now speak wine, but can I pass 100 questions on a wine exam this Wednesday? There will be some swotting and some wine quizzes in the house over the next couple of days and maybe even some sampling….in the meantime I leave you with some random wine facts I learned during my Ballymaloe Wine Wednesday lectures;

Did you know…

• Red grapes can make white wine. It is the skins that colour the wine. The juice is clear.
• In France some chateaux (s) have been known to fly helicopters above their vineyards to keep the air circulating during frosty periods in Autumn. Frost can ruin a whole harvest.
• The labels on French wine don’t give too much away. The wine is named after the region, not the grape.
• Chablis is made from the chardonnay grape. (“Oh I love Chablis but despise Chardonnay ” – hashtag guilty !)
• In 1985, several Austrian wineries were accused of putting anti-freeze in the wine to make it appear more full-bodied and sweeter, resulting in the complete collapse of the Austrian wine industry.
• Champagne is made from one white grape (chardonnay) and two red grapes (pinot noir and pinot meunier)
• The language of wine is romantic or even provocative!
• Flabby, flat and tart are all tasting notes for poor quality wine !