Types of Red Wine

Video Transcript

"And now I'm going to talk about the different types of red wines. From my perspective, red wines fall into two categories, New World red wines and Old World red wines. New World red wines have, in main, go by varietal. Varietal means one grape variety within the bottle. So here we've got a hundred percent Merlot. It just happens to be from Bordeaux but you tend to get from Chile, Argentina, California as well from Australia, New Zealand. Wines coming in by the varietal. For example, here we've got an Australian Shiraz. The advantage of that is it gives you a good idea of what the types of grape varieties, what flavors they will produce. So that's the varietal wine. The next way to look at wine - red wine - is the blended wines. The Old World places, France particularly make their wines this way. They add complexity to the wine, and they add maybe more depth. However you can get depth and complexity from a single varietal wine from - whether it's a Burgundy as well which is Pinot Noir, or as I said from the Shiraz from Australia. Cabernet Sauvignon from California. They are different types of red wines. Another way to look at red wines is the amount of fruits they all have in them. With Old World wines you have a mix of items like how the oak influences the wine, how the terroir. In all around the world the terroir does influence the wine. So you could say you want to have a cheap red wine. When you are going for a more value driven red wine, the single varietals make very, very good wines to have. And I have a tendency to buy this myself towards - for easy drinking, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand as well as parts of California. When I'm looking for a complex red wine, often they're blended wine, I go for French wines, Italian wines, Spanish wines. They are very, very established in the way they've been doing things for centuries and have specific types which change by the season, by the year. But do reflect the terroir of the area. Other aspects about red wine, you might want a rich well-extracted red wine, again that's depends on how the winemaker makes the wines, how they treat their grapes in the vineyard. For example some of the Cabernet Sauvignons from California, Napa Valley, are big extracted wines. The moment you open the bottle, aromas come out and they're very powerful aromas. When you pull the wine out of the glass, it's dark, very rich, and viscousy. They make beautiful wines and for people who like much more obvious flavors. However, they do actually make complex wines as well. The couple producers in the Napa Valley that make stunning wines that you can compare to French wines. On the other side, France as well as Italy, Italy with Chianti for example, which you use as the Sangiovese, it's produced wines of wine richness, yet they're quite light, intense flavors. So in choosing your red wine, be guided by the region it's coming from, expect New World wines to be more powerful, richer, higher in alcohol. And expect Old World wines to stick to their roots, which tend to be much more restraint on the alcohol, much more restraint on the flavor. More of a balance. This fruit and other elements come out of the wines. So those are types of red wine."