This second post in our Wine Tasting Series focuses on the two main types of wine you will encounter when choosing wines to sample. Next time, we will get into how to host your own wine tasting, but it’s important to be able to distinguish between the types of wines first! As with everything, if you have an interest in Old World or New World wines and want to learn more about them, please do so! We love for our readers to learn as much as they can about wine, especially when they’re going to be trying a variety of them!
Wine, in its most basic forms, has been around for thousands of years. Archaeologists believe that wine first appeared in what is now modern-day Georgia (the country- not us!)as many as 8,000 years ago. Fermented “stuff” (mostly fruit, rice and honey) can be found in every civilization since then, from the Balkans and the Mediterranean to Asia and the Americas. Wine even plays an important part in many civilizations’ social and religious cultures.
When discussing wines and the history of such, there are two groups that wine falls into: Old World and New World.
Old World Map
The Old World wines are, as the name implies, older, European wines produced with European grapes. The New World wines come from regions of the world that are have a younger wine culture, like Australia and the Americas. These wines may be produced from imported European grape varieties, but they also make use of native fruits and hybrid grapes, as well.
Old world wines are typically thought of as being from such wine regions as Italy, France, and other areas with a long history of documented wine production, like the Mediterranean and even the Middle East. While these wines may all have different characteristics, they share similarities in production and philosophies of winemaking. Tradition, here, reigns supreme.
New World wines come from areas of the world that don’t have an established history of winemaking, like Australia, the United States of America, South Africa, and South American countries (Chile, for example). Because these regions don’t have a stiff traditions that Old World winemakers feel demand to follow, the wines produced in New World regions tend to have more variances, like being fruitier or more full bodied. These New World wines also emphasize the winemaker and the science behind the making of the wine as opposed to Old World wines.
When choosing a wine to drink or to taste, it is important to be aware of the type of wine you’re choosing. A wine from Argentina is a New World wine, while a wine from Italy is an Old World wine. The wines may taste incredibly different or may even have similar flavours, but it’s important to note the ideas that went into the creation of the wine (like being traditional or experimental with the winemaking), because it does affect how to wine ended up.
Modern wine production is led by Italy, France and Spain (with France leading in consumption, as well!), but the United States and Argentina are close behind. New World wines are trending right now, and we couldn’t be happier! New World wines tend to be softer and mature faster than Old World wines, which make them perfect for drinking right away.
A wine rack similar to the ones we sell in our shop
If you do need to store wine, we recommend doing so in a cool, dry place (and remember to keep the bottle on its side, if possible, with the wine covering the cork so it doesn’t dry out) for no longer than a few years. The wines we make here at the Georgia Winery aren’t made for storing past 2 years, as they don’t age further.
When you do get ready to pop the top on that bottle of wine, make sure that the cork comes out cleanly and that the wine still has a pleasant aroma and a good colour- old wines can take on a brownish, oxidized appearance. If your wine is perfect, then you are ready to begin the next step: drinking it!
Stay tuned next month for the 3rd installment of our Wine Tasting Series, which covers how to host your own wine tasting event!
I don¡¯t ordinarily comment but I gotta say regards for that post on this one.