5 EASY ways to check a wine from the bottle.....

Image: we are into our preferred wine shop/store, and we see a new unknown bottle! WOW! But....how to understand if that new one could be really interesting for us and for our friend? We don't know that new wine, but we can check it only from the bottle, these are 5 easy ways to understand if it is decent/good or not?


-Cavity of the bottom of the bottle; no, it's not a "urban mith", it's true. More deep, better wine. Have you ever noticed how deep is it in excellent wines?

-Label; better if we read "produced and bottled by". Less stress as travel, shiftings, and few different hands passages, make better wine.

-Cork; the best is the natural one. Avoid the short corks, more long is better.

-Color; deep (in case of red); it depends by the color of bottle of course. Anyway, more deep, better one.

-Vintage; not all wines can be aged, of course. If it's more than 4-5 years ago, take infos about how and where it has been aged.

What do you think?

Deep punt means more expensive bottle, but not necessarily better wine as producer s know the myth and some bland brands deliberately use big punts to give impression of class to their wines.

I'd rather see label showing wine was grown, made and bottled by producer than just produced by.

And I'd rather see a screwcap than any poxy cork!

(Another corked wine this week, waiter called English speaking maitre 'd over, he accepted it was corked, brought another bottle over. Didn't have stink of first, so accepted it, but then realised that too was corked low level...)

-Cavity of the bottom of the bottle; no, it's not a "urban mith", it's true. More deep, better wine. Have you ever noticed how deep is it in excellent wines?

No. Seems like an awfully superficial way to judge wine. More accurately, deep cavities indicate marketing position.

The only thing truly positive about punts are- the deeper the punt the taller the bottle.

Salute

-Color; deep (in case of red); it depends by the color of bottle of course. Anyway, more deep, better one.

Wrong wrong wrong...where did you find this gem of information?

[Robin Garr]

Wrong wrong wrong...where did you find this gem of information?

Bob, let's keep it civil, please. We can disagree politely.

[David M. Bueker]

Color is also not a good indicator. Tonight I am having two wines, a Guigal La Mouline Cote Rotie and a Sean Thackrey Orion. The Orion is notably darker. The Guigal has already shown from a quick taste that it is clearly the better wine.

The punt on the Guigal is impressive though.

[David M. Bueker]

Also very hard to tell cork length without opening the bottle or at least removing the capsule. Plenty of amazing wines with normal corks, and good but not special wines with extra long corks.

I definitely agree with David about color. Generally color is a good indication of “age” of a wine (not necessarily “quality”). Deep red wines (purple-ish in color) generally loss color, white wines gain color, as they age (the “orange wine category” or “skin contact whites” complicates things a little (maybe a lot)).

Salute

[Robin Garr]

I definitely agree with David about color. Generally color is a good indication of “age” of a wine (not necessarily “quality”). Deep red wines (purple-ish in color) generally loss color, white wines gain color, as they age (the “orange wine category” or “skin contact whites” complicates things a little (maybe a lot)).

All true, but there's also a possible varietal element. An awful lot of Burgundy, for example, and other Pinot Noir, looks pretty light because that's what Pinot does if you don't spoof it up.

FWIW, this is an interesting exercise - determining wine quality from only looking at the bottle, and assuming no knowledge of the producer. But, am not sure it is really the most relevant exercise.

Surely most people would talk to the wine shop staff. And if for whatever reason that didn't work, surely the internet (which is readily available on the ubiquitous phones) is the next best thing.

Dear all,

thank you for your reply, even if they are a bit "strong", but it means that the topic has been interesting. Please think that I'm not english mothertongue and in Italy bottles, labels, wines, sometimes are different from other countries. I'ts normal and in all fields.

Mines were only little and short tips about unknown wines, of course are not rules. For example I could suggest to scan the label using a app, or ask to the clerk, but the best way to know wine is do it by ourself.

At your own disposal,

Viscardo

Regarding bottled by.......

I agree with you Viscardo re distance to bottling with particular reference to bulk shipping.

I do check bottles in pubs etc to avoid if they have been bulk shipped. Increasingly margins have been boosted by shipping southern hemisphere wines in bladders in shipping containers to France, Germany, Italy or UK for bottling.

Viscardo, your view may well be valid that a deep punt in bottles of Italian wine is a quality indicator (I need to check some in my cellar) but it certainly isn't true in France and Germany. In the latter most bottles have shallow punts and in the former many small producers, often in less famous areas, making excellent wines use bottles with shallow punts (and indeed short corks).

Deep punts often go with heavy body-builder "prestige" bottles and these are an absolute turn-off for me unless I know the producer, because they frequently go with the over-extracted, over-oaked, Parkerised wines which I detest.

As to colour, I have had some Italian reds with quite pale colour, particularly from Nebbiolo, which strike me as excellent.

I agree that purchasing wines more than 5 years old is a lottery. In Italian enoteche, I have often seen tempting 20+ year old bottles but am very wary especially where there is no air conditioning and external temperatures frequently above 30°C.

I am usually wary of buying bottles from unfamiliar producers, whatever the label or bottle looks like, unless I have a good recommendation. I am prepared to trust the recommendations of cavistes/wine merchants/enoteche where the owners/staff seem to know their stuff (not as common as one would like!).

Viscardo, your view may well be valid that a deep punt in bottles of Italian wine is a quality indicator (I need to check some in my cellar) but it certainly isn't true in France and Germany. In the latter most bottles have shallow punts and in the former many small producers, often in less famous areas, making excellent wines use bottles with shallow punts (and indeed short corks).

Deep punts often go with heavy body-builder "prestige" bottles and these are an absolute turn-off for me unless I know the producer, because they frequently go with the over-extracted, over-oaked, Parkerised wines which I detest.

As to colour, I have had some Italian reds with quite pale colour, particularly from Nebbiolo, which strike me as excellent.

I agree that purchasing wines more than 5 years old is a lottery. In Italian enoteche, I have often seen tempting 20+ year old bottles but am very wary especially where there is no air conditioning and external temperatures frequently above 30°C.

I am usually wary of buying bottles from unfamiliar producers, whatever the label or bottle looks like, unless I have a good recommendation. I am prepared to trust the recommendations of cavistes/wine merchants/enoteche where the owners/staff seem to know their stuff (not as common as one would like!).

Grazie Tim!

Yes, I totally agree with you, just a little little note about the color of Nebbiolo, infact I wrote the post concerning unknown wines!

[Robin Garr]

Please think that I'm not english mothertongue and in Italy bottles, labels, wines, sometimes are different from other countries.

Viscardo, your English is good, and your love of wine is obvious. We are glad that you came to be part of our little family here! As for me, I love Italian wine ...

[David M. Bueker]

Regarding unknown wines-whether it say something good about us or not, we know a lot of generally "unknown" wines!