我近期看的其中一本葡萄酒书籍，就是Rajat Parr 和Jordon Mackay 所著作的Secrets of the Sommeliers: How to Think and Drink Like the World’s Top Wine Professionals。在书中就提到，如果要学习葡萄酒，就必须从最经典的地区喝起。
Wine-tasting training, Rajat holds, must begin and end with the classics: “If you want to be a good taster, you must have reference points. You must know the Old World wine regions backward and forward. Most great wine being made elsewhere in the world – from Napa to New Zealand – Buy Viagra Soft Tabs Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed gets its style and its identity from the wines that came before it. This is why we focus on regions – Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Buy Valtrex online without prescription Tuscany – whose wine styles are as consistent and relevant today as they were twenty or forty years ago or even longer.
Insisting on benchmark wines is especially important in blind tastings. ”People try to trick one another by putting obscure ringer wines into a blind tasting,” explain Rajat. ”If you want to get a sense of how Pinot Noir should taste, don’t start with a Pinot from Argentina. It might be a good wine, but when you are trying to learn, it’s not helpful. To understand the essence of Pinot Noir, begin with Burgundy. If you want to know what Merlot should taste like, try wines from Pomerol.”
回想最初喝葡萄酒的时候，大部份都是喝一些新世界的葡萄酒，但当我认真学习葡萄酒时，我就不得不向这些经典地区进发。这些地区，之所以能成为经典，往往是它们都累积了很长时间的经验，被认为是某葡萄品种的标准，它们往往是其他地区的模仿和学习对象。虽然这些经典地区大部份来自旧世界，尤其法国，但也有少部份新世界风格的葡萄酒，已被大家确定为经典，最佳的例子，莫过于纽西兰的Sauvignon Blanc。
以下是各种葡萄酒的经典地区，对于葡萄酒”老手”，它们当然不会陌生。但如果你仍在努力学习葡萄酒，不妨喝多一些以下的地区，让自己清楚了解各葡萄品种的标准风格。
法国: Burgundy, Bordeaux, Loire Valley, Champagne, Rhone Valley, Savoie, Jura
奥地利 Riesling 和 Gruner Veltliner
意大利: Piedmont, Tuscany, Veneto
西班牙: 传统风格Rioja (Muga, Lopez de Heredia), Sherry, Albarino
新西兰 Sauvignon Blanc
澳洲 Shiraz
美国Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Oregon Pinot Noir
德国Riesling: Mosel, Rheingau, Pfalz. Rheinhessen