Karen teaches the world about wine (From York Press)

Karen teaches the world about wine

11:40am Saturday 11th February 2012 in Features By Stephen Lewis

STEPHEN LEWIS takes a few tips on enjoying wine from the world’s best wine teacher – who just happens to live in Copmanthorpe.

YOU don’t have to be a snob to enjoy a glass of wine. And you don’t have to be loaded, either. Some of the best-value wines around today are to be found in your local supermarket, says Karen Hardwick – and they often make great drinking.

The budget supermarket Aldi, for example, has some amazing wines, Karen says. It has quite a narrow range. “But they really focus.”

If you like a drop of bubbly, for example, Aldi’s Cremant du Jura is hard to beat – a sparkling wine made from 100 per cent chardonnay grapes (the ones used to make champagne) that is fantastic value for money at £6.99 and might be the perfect way to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

But all the other supermarkets have great wines too, Karen says.

Your best bet is often to go for the stores’ ‘own label’ wines, she advises. They will have been selected by the supermarket’s wine buyer.

“And if it has got ‘as recommended by’ on it… well, if they put their name on it, they are proud of it.”

So there’s a top tip, by a woman who knows. Karen, who runs The Wine Academy at Copmanthorpe, has just been named the world’s best wine educator, by the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. And that’s no small achievement – previous winners have included the Sydney Wine Academy in Australia, and the International Wine Centre in New York.

The Wine Academy sounds very grand. Actually, it is just Karen, operating from her home. She teaches restaurateurs, wine sommeliers, and wine buyers for some of the country’s major supermarkets about everything from growing and making wine, to the importance of soil and climate, and how to match wine and food.

She also loves to teach ‘enthusiastic amateurs’ about how to simply enjoy drinking the stuff, however.

So I have come to her for a few tips.

A refreshingly unpretentious Scot and married mother of two, Karen isn’t interested in teaching you how to tell, from just the scent of a wine, exactly what grape it is, and where and when it was made.

“Appreciating wine isn’t an Olympic sport,” she says. “Just relax and enjoy it.”

The key to getting the most out of the wine you drink – whether it’s a £6 bottle from Asda or a £50 Bordeaux – is to take your time, she says. Savour it, and you’ll get a lot more from it.

So, first lesson: hold the glass properly. That means by the stem, not the bowl. Why? If you hold the glass by the bowl, you’ll warm the wine up slightly, which could affect the way it tastes and smells, Karen says. Hold it by the stem and you won’t do that. “And also, you don’t leave nasty fingerprints!”

Then, take a moment to look at the colour. Tip the glass towards you, at an angle of about 45 degrees, and look at the colours.

She pours me a glass of Sauternes, a sweet white wine from the Bordeaux region of France. Of course, it’s not white at all: it glows a rich honey-gold colour. That tells you either that it has been aged in oak or that it is quite mature, she says. It also gives you some clues as to how it might taste.

Then smell it, Karen says. Swirl the wine around in the glass to release the aroma, dip your nose into the bowl, and have a good sniff to see what smells you can identify.

Lots of wine writers try to describe what they can smell in wines. But actually everybody smells different things, Karen says. We tend to associate what we smell in the wine with smells that we know and remember ourselves.

“So just think about what does it remind you of? Some people can get quite nostalgic – they say a wine smells like my Gran’s perfume. Or there was one girl, smelling a glass of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, which has a grassy aroma, who threw her arms out and said, ‘It’s wide open spaces’.”

I sniff my glass of Sauternes. Yes, there’s honey there, as you’d expect from the colour, and a golden warmth, somehow.

“Now sip,” Karen says. “Swirl it around in your mouth, taste it with different parts of your mouth.”

I do. There’s a sweetness, and honey, and a glow of warmth almost like a cough syrup (that’s the alcohol, Karen says). But there’s something else too. She asks if I find the sides of your mouth watering. I do. “That’s the acidity from the grape, making your mouth water.”

There is something else. The taste lingers long after I have swallowed, a sweetness and warmth that changes character slightly as it gradually fades.

That is all that is meant by the ‘length’ of the wine, Karen says: it is just about how long that flavour lingers in your mouth.

And it is why it is worth drinking a wine slowly, and savouring it, otherwise you waste that long, lingering aftertaste.

There is one final revelation in store for me. Sauternes is often thought of as a sweet wine to have with dessert, Karen says. But it is wonderful with cheese, too – especially a blue cheese such as Stilton or Yorkshire blue.

The sweetness of the wine combined with the saltines of the cheese is a perfect match, she says, and improves the flavour of both.

I try a nibble of Stilton, then take another sip of the Sauternes. And guess what? She’s absolutely right.

Karen’s top tips on matching wine with food

One of the things she loves most is matching wines with food, says Karen. Here are a few matches made in heaven...

With beef

A big, heavy shiraz (spicy and peppery) or cabernet sauvignon (dense, dark currants, vanilla and oak) combine well with beef. Both are heavy and contain a lot of tannin – the quality in a wine which makes it stick to your teeth.

Beef is a big roast dish, and needs a heavy wine to go with it, Karen says: plus the protein in the beef helps top counteract the tannin in the wine. “It takes away all the hard edges.”

With spaghetti Bolognese (or other tomato-ey pasta dish)

Valpolicella: a light, fragrant red you can find at any good supermarket for between £5-£7, which is best served slightly chilled. The acidity in the wine matches the acidity of the tomatoes in the pasta sauce, says Karen

With spaghetti carbonara or other creamy pasta dish

A lightly-oaked chardonnay – a fruity wine, with citrus and melon, which when matured in oak can develop a buttery flavour. It goes beautifully with creamy pasta, Karen says. Jacob’s Creek chardonnay is inexpensive, readily available in supermarkets (“it is popular because it’s good,” says Karen) and fabulous with creamy pasts sauces

With Chinese food

A gewürztraminer: a light, sweet, floral wine with flavours of lychees, rose petals and peaches, and sometimes a little spice.

It balances the sweet/sour flavours of much Chinese food beautifully, Karen says. It’s a slightly more expensive wine than some, but Tesco Finest Alsace gewurtraminer is great value at about £7.50, she says.

With spicy curry

A shiraz (see beef above) or malbec, which is spicy with big, rich body.

With creamy curry

An oaked chardonnay – the oak matches the creaminess of the curry.

With tapas

Fino sherry – a dry, light, salty sherry which actually smells like seawater. You might find it an acquired taste on its own, says Karen, but have it with tapas, as they do in Spain, or at home with salty snacks suchn as olives, and it will be a revelation

For drinking on its own

A nice rosé, such as La Vieille Ferme, available from many supermarkets for between £7-£7.