There are so many wine regions and wines in the world, but not all of them have premium quality and price. How to judge the quality is always talked by consumers. And there are Four common misunderstandings you should know and avoid.
The wine with long maturation has a higher quality.
Long maturation may lead to develop complex aromas and flavors and silk texture, but not all the wines have good maturing ability. Long maturation is called aging process. Maturation includes two common processes: aging in the barrel or in the bottle. Long time aging leads to oxidative, and the flavor intensity and tannin may be decreased. The wine with red color, which has pronounced flavor intensity, high acidity and tannin, always have a good aging ability, increase aroma and flavor complexity, and enhance the tannin texture after long aging period. White wines with good aging potential always have high acidity beside good flavor intensity as red wines have. But not include the tannin, because the white wine always fermented without skins.
But more than 90% wines in the world are not deserved to age long, and best drink early, and 1 to 2 years after bottling is common. They always have low intensity, tannin and acidity, with fruit-driven styles.
Maturation therefore has a different effect on the quality of different wines. As for ordinary table wines, we should choose new vintages.
The wine with high alcohol volume has the better quality.
Generally speaking, alcohol has a large effect on the wine body, but there have other factors, such as tannin, sugar and flavor intensity. High alcohol wines always have full body. Full body may gives you a rich palate feel. But quality assessment has to consider many aspects, such as balance, complexity, finish and typicality.
Overriped fruits from late harvest or a warmer climate condition can lead to high alcohol wines, but that not means high quality.
Sealed by cork is better than screwcap.
Cork has a subtle oxygen flowing-in-ability, which leads gradually oxidation process to the wine in the bottle. And that may be encouraged by some winemakers, who have a strong confidence in their wines that can age a long period and benefit from the oxidation process. The wine sealed with cork have a 3‰ affection by TCA cork taint, which gives the wine odor aromas，such as wet cardboard smell, and that is unwanted and is recognized as a faulty wine. Cork costs more than screw cap.
But most wines in the world are early-drinking wines, what they need is keep fresh and fruity both aromas and palate. So, the screw cap is more fit in that purpose. Those fruit-driven styles are also have high quality.
Cork or screw cap, it depends on what style of wines the winemaker expected.
If you say corks are better, you’re both right and wrong. At first glance, screw cap is a modern product while cork is traditional seal. Both of the two have advantages and disadvantages.
The wine in a heavy bottle or with beautiful package has a high quality.
The sparkling wines need strong bottle, because the internal pressure is 3 to 5 atmospheres. The bottle can be exploded if you use the normal bottle for sparkling wine. Still wines have no such worries. So the heavy bottle can only add costs to the wine, without quality increases. The beautiful package makes the wine looks like beautiful and expensive, but just looks like, not actually adding the quality.