We should all be better at wines. A lot of bartenders don’t prioritise reading about and tasting wines. The topic is a very large one, and that might be why it feels ungraspable. And like any other fermented ingredient it should be regarded as such, so put different wines in your cocktails. We will keep it short and simple for now, but we do recommend reading more about wine.
History
It is highly likely that wine is something humans discovered rather than inventing. Grapes are one of the fruits that will ferment without adding sugar, acids, enzymes or anything else, so this could have been grapes “gone bad” that was made into juice; and whoop, you have wine. As mentioned before the first evidence of wine being produced is from 9000 years ago, in China. Probably it has been produced for even longer.
The first evidence of an actual winery is in today’s Armenia and is at least 6100 years old. Wine has been important part in the Ancient Egypt, Greek and Roman culture. In last centuries wine has been a very European thing, leading on both production and consumption. Therefor the “old world” within wine is the traditional European countries and regions, and the “new world” includes North and South America, Australia and New Zealand as well as South Africa.
European wines
The first country that comes to mind when speaking about wine is France. It’s just something about the French people that makes them a little pretentious and fit well with a “oh la la” and a glass of Chardonnay wine. No, wine isn’t pretentious, but the French are pretentious in whatever they do. They make a lot of really good wines though; Champagne, Chablis, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Burgundy, Bordeaux wines, Rieslings from Alsace. The list goes on.
Italy also has an extensive wine production and consumption. It was actually the country with the highest production and export for the last 4 years. The Italians are most famous for the red wines such as Barolo and Amarone, and their sparkling wine called Prosecco.
Spain produces enough wine to make them the 3rd largest wine producer, after Italy and France. Mostly known for the red Rioja wines and Cava, there are a lot of other really good wines coming from Spain.
Portugal, Germany, Austria and Hungary are also worth noting in Europe’s wine production. Start by trying wines from this map, and you’ll have a good idea of European wines.
New World wines