Wine Expert Guesses Cheap vs. Expensive Wine

I'm Belinda Chang and I'm a wine expert.

[upbeat music]

Oh wow.

[bell dinging]

I'm so excited because clearly

both of these are sparkling wines.

We have this very traditional covering

which keeps the cork in the bottle

because these bottles are filled with bubbles

and they have quite a bit of pressure

so there is a danger factor

when you're opening these bottles

so you have to be very careful.

Always have a black napkin

and you're gonna put that on top of the bottle.

So we're gonna go with bottle A first.

Now's when it can get a little dangerous.

I think that the best way is to loosen

this cage a little bit, but leave it on.

Some people will to take it off at this point,

but that is an invitation for disaster.

Now we're gonna pick up the bottle

and I'm pressing and pulling and I'm turning the bottle.

You're gonna hear a little whisper.

[cork whishing]

And that means you've done it correctly.

And so we see a beautiful flow of bubbles here

and also a foam.

We are confirming that this is indeed a sparkling wine

which in fact is a really difficult style of wine to make

because not only do you have to make a delicious wine,

but then you need to take a delicious wine

and add bubbles to it

and there are many different ways to do that.

We always love to give the wines a little bit of swirl.

What that does is add oxygen and it unfurls

the molecules that are in the wine.

so you want to let the wine breathe.

So I'm gonna put my nose in.

Oh that smells good.

So a little bit of lemon, maybe a bit of lime zest

and also a bit of pear.

All of these fruit flavors are considered primary flavors.

So A smells really great, but let's move onto B

'cause I'm dying to see what's inside this bottle.

[cork whishing]

So this one is super exciting.

You can see that the foam is a little more consistent

and a little more firm and we see a much more, if you will,

serious bubble structure.

So I'm guessing this one is a little more

of a luxury cuvette.

So we see a very fine and consistent bubble.

They call that a fine bead.

They like to say in champagne

that if you have small imperfect bubbles

it's the eyes of the frog

which I don't think they mean as a compliment.

We're also gonna look at the color

and I like to do that by tilting the glass away from me.

We have a really beautiful golden color here.

Wow, that smells pretty amazing.

We definitely had those primary aromas,

a little bit of cinnamon and brioche

and it's also just a really complex and intricate nose.

Whereas A was a little bit more primary with the fruits,

here we have a lot more complexity

which comes from age and also the techniques

used to make a fine sparkling wine.

I think it's time to taste them both.

I can't wait.

So we still like to add a little air

because 99% of what you taste is what you smell.

So you want to have the aroma first

before you go in and taste the wine.

This one is really crisp, lean, sort of minerally

which might tell us something about the soils

in which the grapes were grown

and it feels just very young and very fresh

and very vibrant.

Super excited to taste wine B.

Here we go.

These patisserie smells and baked good smells

like a great croissant or a great loaf of brioche

are definitely on the palette of this wine.

This is definitely a style of sparkling wine

that has spent a good bit of time in the cellar

so you have to have miles and miles of deep cellars

in order to have this process happen

and I definitely taste all of that work

and all of those years in wine B.

I think that A is the one for daily drinking,

less expensive.

Let's find out if I was right.

Yay, I get to keep my job.

Clearly A is the simpler daily drinking.

You're gonna find it on a lower shelf

in the grocery store and B is clearly something

a little more serious and something

that you want to drink for a celebration.

From looking at them, these appear to be white wines,

but you never quite know because winemakers love to use

colored glass which actually protects the wine

that's inside so we won't know that for sure.

A heavier bottle is gonna be a little more protective

of the wine because you have thicker glass

and also thicker colored glass

which will keep the wine safe from light degradation.

I'm gonna get wine A open and take a peek at what's inside.

When you're opening a bottle of still wine,

it's a little different from sparkling wine.

So you want to take the knife on your cork screw

and you're going to make a cut around the second lip.

Every bottle of wine has a top lip and also a second lip.

You're gonna make a cut upwards a little bit

and then scooch off this lead capsule.

So we're already set here and the next step is

I'm going to use my favorite cork screw.

It's not fancy, but it always does the job.

And then the next part is put the second ledge

on the cork screw and then I'm gonna gently remove

'cause you never want to make an Oppa-style pop.

It is indeed a white wine.

We know that for sure now.

So we've got a little circle here

and I'm looking at the color from the center of the glass

out to the outside and I can actually see

if you remember from Chemistry class

what we call the meniscus and it's a little bit watery here

which tells me that this is a white wine

that is grown in a cool climate.

So now we're gonna add a little oxygen.

We definitely have a lot of the primary aromas

that come from the fruits.

So a lot of citrus and florals.

Whitestones as well, what we like to call

a little bit of minerality in the wine

which means that the grapes are kind of grown

in some soils that may have limestone or chalky content.

I can also tell just from the appearance and also the aromas

that this is a younger wine.

White wines like this, after they have a bit of age

and time in a wine cellar will start to have

not only the primary aromas,

but also these secondary aromas and spices.

So we're gonna move onto B.

With whites and reds that are still wines,

it's great to have a big ol' glass

so that you can get your nose in there

and get all of the aromas.

So another interesting thing that you find

when you swirl your wine

is that you can watch the teardrops go down

the side of the glass.

These are also known as the legs

and what those tell us is how much alcohol is in the wine

and then it also tells us the texture

that the wine is gonna have on your palette.

Higher alcohol have thicker legs

and you have teardrops that are very slow

to go down the side of the glass.

I can tell that this wine has a bit of alcohol

so that's gonna be fun.

Oh that smells really great.

On the nose here, the first thing that I find

are these secondary aromas.

So a lot of spices, clove and allspice.

I'm ready, let's taste wine A.

[playful music]

Mm, I think that wine A has been aged in

some kind of neutral vessel.

Stainless steel or concrete or there are also glass vessels

for aging the wine because

we don't have those spices on the palette.

We also wanna talk about the length

after you swallow the wine and how long the flavors persist.

And this is quite good quality.

You have a nice length.

Now for B.

It's a rich full-bodied viscous,

we like to say glycerin-loaded

although that's not fun to say

at the table and the finish on this is so long.

I am still tasting this.

I have a suspicion the grapes that we're dealing with

and it's one of the grapes that's very easy to grow.

It's one of those grapes that can grow all over the world.

When you have a grape that's easy to grow anywhere

the question of whether the wine is inexpensive or expensive

has to do with the real estate,

where you plant your grapes and grow your grapes

and then how much the resulting wine is gonna cost.

I think real estate has a lot to do with

what's going on in the glass.

I think B is the slightly

more luxurious style of white wine.

Shall we see if I'm right?

Yay, I'm correct.

So I think that this is two Chardonnays

from different parts of the world.

So in wine B, they definitely used the really beautiful

couture barrels in order to get those complex aromas

and complex flavors and that leads to a more expensive wine

and something that tastes darn good.

Canned wine is a super fun thing because

you're gonna be on a boat or somewhere

where you don't wanna have glass.

There are great canned wine these days.

I'm gonna dig in and grab the cork screw

'cause I still do need it for wine A.

Look at that color.

Now we really get to talk about colors of the rainbow

'cause we've graduated to red wine.

So here we've got something that's quite light.

Light red in the center and then it sort of fades out

to a pink color on the outside.

I don't think we have crazy thick legs here

so we're not dealing with a super powerful wine

that's gonna really coat the palette.

Oh my gosh this one is just like zingy red fruits.

I'm smelling cherries and raspberries,

maybe a little bit of tobacco too

which is confirming what we thought

when you're looking at the wine

that there's a little bit of bottle age here.

Let's move on to wine B and see what's going on there.

No cork screw required.

This is already telling us

that this is a more youthful wine

because we have a little darker in the center

and a little pink on the outside,

but not quite as much variation

and it just looks like a more youthful style.

Again, this is really bright red fruits.

So I think we're dealing with

the same grape in both glasses.

A lot of fresh strawberry and almost unripe cherry.

Since this is so fruit-forward as we like to say,

I don't think it's been aged in oak.

It's probably been aged in stainless steel

or some kind of neutral vessel.

Let's taste A.

[playful music]

Wow, I really wanna take my time with that.

A lot of people like to sort of suck in

and make all kind of gurgling noises

when they taste a wine to add oxygen.

Not only as you're swallowing in the glass

but also in your mouth and that's what I was doing there

and I'm getting all these beautiful stewed red fruits.

It's like a strawberry pie with

a beautiful crust in a glass.

It's also a wine that shows its age.

Sometimes with a younger wine,

it'll be really fiery 'cause it's not quite integrated yet

and the tannins are also very soft.

When we're talking about tannin, we're talking about

when you have a glass of red wine

and you just feel it in your mouth really dry.

Tannins diminish over time in all wines

and in red wines especially.

So this one is definitely an example

of where the tannins have receded a little bit

and everything is in really beautiful balance,

but let's move onto B.

Unlike A, this is from grapes that are grown

in a much cooler climate.

When you're in a cooler climate,

your grapes don't get quite as ripe

so they don't produce quite as much sugar

and then you end up with wines

that are a little higher in acidity.

When you're producing red wines,

there are so many choices for both the grape grower

and also the winemaker and you can definitely tell

that here they're doing a lot of the choices

that lead to complexity in the wine.

A is the more serious wine, the vine de garde

and the one that's gonna cost a little more.

Let's see.

Three for three.

I think that we're dealing with pinot noir here

which is really fun and I'm super excited to see

a great pinot noir in a can at a really great price.

I feel like I wanna keep one in my purse all the time.

Another set of wines and they are pink

so it's time for rose all day.

So most rose producers love to showcase their wines

in clear bottles because

we love to see these gorgeous colors.

There are two ways to produce a rose wine.

You could either make a white wine

and add a bit of red wine until you get the desired color.

The other way is to make wine

where you leave the skins on the grapes.

All the colors come from a compound called anthocyanin

and if you leave the skins in contact with the juice,

you can draw out the desired color

and in French they call this the Saignee method.

I'm gonna open bottle A and see what we have going on here.

[playful music]

so I'm giving a little bit of swirl here

and I'm gonna take a peek at the legs

as they go down the side of the glass.

Medium so I don't think we're dealing with

anything with a ton of alcohol.

So this will be really good beach wine.

Oh again all this really pretty fresh fruit

and we're also getting a little bit of spice,

a little bit of herb, maybe some rosemary?

This has probably been aged in stainless steel

or something neutral because they're trying to produce

a wine that's just easy to drink

with a little bit of chill when you're outside.

Wine B, I wanna get into it.

When you drink wines out of a bigger glass,

the wine gets warm a little more quickly

and with a smaller glass with a nice long stem,

you get to keep the heat of your hand away from the wine

and keep it chilled.

Oh this one's really pretty.

It's definitely lighter in color,

but it is not lighter in aromas.

We have a lot of really powerful herbs and florals

and I definitely have the red fruits like we did in wine A

but not quite as strong.

It has a little more what we like to call

that sort of secondary aroma that talks about development

and maybe some time aging on the yeast cells

which tend to give a creamy texture

which we'll see when we taste the wine.

I'm gonna take a taste of A.

So just as the color is darker in A than it is in B,

we also have a little more structure

and a little more tannin than I would expect.

I'm thinking that this particular rose

is made from a grape that has slightly thicker skins.

As we mentioned before, the skins are where

the compounds reside that give a wine tannin.

This is a wine that would definitely be great with

maybe meaty dishes or things that are grilled

with a little bit of char

and a little bit of smoke in the food.

Okay onto wine B.

I'm gonna give it a taste.

So this is what we expect when we get a glass of rose

at a restaurant I think.

We have these kind of herbal notes, as I mentioned,

in the aromas, I found those on the palette as well.

We also have sort of a nice creamy structure and texture

and mouth feel that I think comes from aging the wine

which speaks to perhaps a little more complexity

in the wine-making and probably

a little more in the price as well.

I do think that wine B is the most expensive style

so let's see if I'm correct.

Voila, but you know what,

I think this is the bang for your buck.

This is a really great rose wine A,

if you need something for your table tonight or right now.

These are unusual bottle shapes

that don't look like any of the bottles

we have done before so I'm thinking we might be moving

into sweet mines or something from like that

and it's about time because it's time for dessert.

I'm excited to get wine A open.

Let's do this.

We have some darker colored wines

it looks like here.

This is another category of sweet wine.

Wine A has an amazing dark concentrated color.

That can mean that it's made from grapes

that have very thick skins.

All grapes inside are white-fleshed

and you don't get any color

unless you have some skin contact in the production.

This also looks like a very young wine because

we have very dark in the center

and that sort of really pretty pink on the outside.

Look at that.

When you swirl the wine,

you actually have a little coating of color.

That's how intense the colorization is.

Oh wow.

These are almost kind of like burnt caramel smells.

I also think this is a wine that probably sees

a bit of time in the bottle

as we've got these aging smells,

dark rich plum fruits, blackberry fruits,

stewed, definitely.

Let's see what's going on in wine B.

What makes a sweet wine, as well know, that's sugar.

Because a lot of times during fermentation,

the yeast eats all the sugar and we end up

with a totally dry style of wine.

When we wanna leave a little bit of sugar in the wine,

we add a neutral spirit, something that's quite high alcohol

like a brandy so you have a fermenting red wine

that still has a little bit of sugar in it

and then you add in this very high alcohol spirit

and that kills off all the yeast and that leaves behind

a bit of sugar that we call RS.

That means that there's a bit of residual sugar.

This one is also quite pretty but a little lighter

in color than wine A.

Quite youthful, very dark in the center.

There's so much pigmentation from the grapes

that it's coating the side of the glass.

Mm, not quite as strong and as powerful as wine A,

but definitely these really

dark stewed fruits sort of smells.

Not as much spice.

This one's a little more primary for me.

I don't know about me, I'm ready to taste these.

Let's see what what's happening.

[playful music]

Mm, there's some sugar there.

This is delicious.

This is like having a candy bar

that's stuffed with cherries or blackberries

or currants or plums but also the sort of chocolatey

and cocoa and brown spice notes.

It's kind of like a dessert in a glass.

The finish is very persistent and even though I swallowed

a bit ago and I've been talking to you,

it just keeps going and going.

So let's see what's going on in B.

Very dark and juicy.

We also have a bit of residual sugar here,

but the sweetness is not quite as concentrated in A

so that leads me to believe

this is sort of a younger,

sort of more simply made style of sweet wine.

I think that both of these wines are Ports.

They're using that method in which they're making

a red wine and they're stopping the fermentation

before all the sugar is gone

and then they're making a choice

whether they want to age it in barrels

or they wanna put it straight into bottles.

The more expensive styles of Port are vintage Ports

in which all of the grapes are harvested in one year

and I think I know that the vintage Port

is here in A and the non-vintage Port

is here in bottle B and glass B.

Let's see how I did.

Got it right.

So the vintage Port in bottle A is a wine

that's designed to age for many different years.

For 10, 20, sometimes a century plus.

Younger styles of Port,

and they're really lovely for drinking,

but they're not necessarily designed to age

that you can drink everyday anytime.

So one of the great things about being a wine drinker

in this day and age and today

is that there are great wines

being made in all regions of the world.

Wines that are delicious and wines at every price range.

So expensive is not necessarily better.

So if you find some that you really love to drink,

you can spend $9 like we did today on one of the wines.

So cheers.