Master Sommelier Richard Betts Gives Some Wine Tips

Master Sommelier Richard Betts Gives Some Wine Tips What we were going to talk about is some of the things that allow us to demystify wine. Now debunk some of the myths that wine has to be expensively good. Certain wines have to go with certain foods, to be centered just that all wines are good or that I can actually trust myself as a taster. All of these sorts of things that have made wine really worst and then fearsome to some people. We’re going to talk about this and demystify them for you. My name is Richard Betts and I’m the sommelier at the Little Nell Hotel in Aspen, Colorado. I’ve been really fortunate to become a Master Sommelier and there are about 115 of us worldwide today, 70 are still in the country. To become a Master Sommelier, I think the most important ingredient that you have to have is passion that you have to really care about it. It means being able to really answer any question about anything that you eat, drink or smoke anywhere in the world and that comes through a blind tasting exam where you're given six wines in 25 minutes to talk about what the wine is made from, what grape and where it was made, how it was made, when it was made, and how it aged and all that goes into that. Wine is most certainly for everyone, anytime, any day, it’s easy enough to find when you like, so I think really approaching it with understanding that wine should be a grocery, and not a luxury so the great sort of overarching idea as to how to make it accessible to yourself. And with that idea, it comes the notion that it doesn’t need to be something expensive. It doesn’t need to be something fancy. The wine I was wind on was basically rustic red wines and Tuscany poured from a pitcher into a tumbler but it was always on the table and let it be casual. Debunking it that it has to be something fancy or it is only around of the restaurants in fancy sommeliers. It’s something to have in your home. Some examples of some inexpensive wines that I enjoy on a daily basis are the things like Fiano from southern Italy. It is a great bright, white wine. I think Chablis actually the real Chablis can still we had quite inexpensively. It is still a most suffering in the wake of many of those years where it was this sort of both produce mass of wine but the grape Chablis which is 100% Chardonnay, grown in France can be had for $10.00, $12.00, or $15.00 a bottle and it’s just amazing stuff. And the red, you can still drink grape Quincy. When you think about food and wine pairing, the first rule I always use is that I drink what I like and I eat what I like. It’s really simple. It’s not meant to be brain damage. This is supposed to make your life better. It is supposes to be fun, am I right? I mean after of all, that’s the entire reason I drink why is to have a good time. So sure, there are some foods that go better with certain wines like a steak and big red wine makes sense because the proteins in the steak coats your palate and the tannins in big red wines strip your palate so they certainly go happily off on their way but if you don’t like big red wines and you love steak it shouldn’t inhabit you from enjoying either wine. You know, drink Sauvignon Blanc with the steak, whatever if it makes you happy that’s the whole idea. The best temperature for wine is that actually something that we can really do a much better job of particularly in our country. When people say room temperature, room temperature is not 72 degrees. Room temperature is going to have an idea well, what was room temperature in the chateau or in the pelato, in France or Italy respectively it wasn’t 72 degrees. There is no heat and it’s cold. So, it needs 50’s and it maybe below 60’s. So, red wines I think are on the whole served too warm here. At the little now, we keep our cellar at 58 degrees. We serve all of our wines to 58 degrees and it really allows the wine to say, everything it has to say but it still remain focus and precise and feel good. You are not too feel alcoholic or clumsy. So, that remains enjoyable. Similar with the white wines, you can certainly serve those too cold and that’s another thing. Another myth that happily we’re seeing people get over this idea and like keep everything in the ice bucket, keep it super cold and sure the cold things have refreshment diode. But if you will take any white wine and chill it down to the point of almost freezing in the icebox, it’s going to have nothing to say. You’ll smell it and it will just smell like anything. So, we serve our white wines a little bit warm between 45 and 55 degrees. So at home, what does that mean? It means I pull it out of the refrigerator a couple minutes before I’m going to serve it and just serve and let it warm up on the table as we go. So, I think it’s really important to not serve the red wines too hot and to not serve the white wines too cold. But you know, the range is actually quite, you know, they are actually closer in service temperature to each than we ordinarily think. One of the things that my guests tell me or they say with my friends when drinking wine is that there is this big intimidation factors to how to describe or you know, my nose isn’t good, my palate isn’t good. I don’t get the roses, the tar, the leather, the flowers, all these sorts of things. And just think that is not what it’s about. You know, what wine is? It is basically grape juice, right and it is been aged for however long and whatever it was aged in and put it in the bottle and now it is in your glass. You know come with your own descriptions, your own vocabulary because only you are tasting the wine as you taste it, so speak about however you want. There is no right answer. That is really important. So, what I want as we’re getting on is really attaché subject. There are certainly an absolute, that’s whether it’s good or not and that’s really is this wine today in our glass as the wine maker intended it to be. Is it pleasing to me or not? Ultimately, that’s the question that matters most because you are the one drinking it. You are the one paying for it. If it’s displeasing to you I would say don’t drink it. If you're in my restaurant a little now it doesn’t matter. If the objective question though is it good, is it bad is answered, you're in my restaurant and you're my guest, you're here to have a good time. And the second thing is look for some obvious plus. A lot of times, wine has been stored poorly, if it’s been stored too hot, have as you are cooked their baked aromas or it can smell like nail polish. It’s also a very common occurrence, which is the sort of corked wine, and it is the sort of buzzword in the wine world today. You know, what is corked wine? Corked wine does not mean that the wine smells necessarily of the cork. You are at the table at home and when you pull the cork out of the bottle when the red wine is complete. You set the cork that by no means that the wine is bad, it just means that there is some exchange of oxygen. What it really smells is like wet newspaper, wet dog and it just permeates the wine. So, the cork can smell bad and the wine can be okay. But if the wine has that again, wet dog, wet newspaper smell and it always gets worst as a rule that smell always gets worst, then you have what is called this corked wine. For me ultimately wine is just about having a good time. It is meant to make our lives better, meant to enhance everything that we do and enjoy. It is not meant to be harsh. It not meant to be academic. It’s just meant to really complete the dining experience and complete our lives by really, especially in our country, we don’t have that tradition a we do in Europe, but it’s really come back to the table, come back to friends, come back to family, and come back to an important part of what makes life good. You know, eating and drinking in the community, that’s what wine is about. My name is Richard Betts and I’m the Sommelier at the Little Nell Hotel in Aspen, Colorado.