With so much wine on offer around the world, it can be hard to recognize what is good and what's not. DW's Euromaxx travels to the capital of Latvia to talk to wine luminary Raimonds Tomsons for some tips.
Category
đ
NewsTranscript
00:00 Today I'm meeting the best sommelier in the world.
00:03 That's essentially someone who tastes wine for a living.
00:06 I'm going to ask him for a few tips on how an amateur wine lover like myself can become an expert.
00:11 But we're not in a typical wine region like France, Spain or Italy.
00:16 We're in Riga in Latvia, not known for its wine.
00:19 I'm here to get some tips from Raimund on how to better understand wine,
00:23 like what to look out for when buying wine, how to tell good wine from bad,
00:27 and also how to pick the best wine without spending too much money.
00:31 Raimund won the title of sommelier of the world earlier this year
00:35 and is the first person from a Baltic country to be awarded this honour.
00:38 I always say a good sommelier is a good waiter,
00:42 but to be a good waiter you need to understand your guest, your consumer.
00:48 This is not an element which you can learn from a book, it's psychology.
00:53 Now for the fun part, tasting the wines.
00:57 Raimund gathers a selection for us from his restaurant.
01:00 Raimund selects champagne, a white, rosé and an orange wine and two reds.
01:06 We're tasting champagne now and champagne and other sparkling wines, they have bubbles.
01:11 Usually the smaller the bubbles, the more finer the mouthfeel is, the more pleasant we can say.
01:17 Yeah, then you smell the wine and you try to swivel that like this on the table.
01:23 Let's taste.
01:25 So how would you say people should look for a good sparkling wine
01:31 if they maybe can't afford a really nice bottle of champagne?
01:35 You can find plenty of very good value sparkling wine.
01:38 Look at Prosecco, for example, you know.
01:40 Still, you know, excellent Prosecco you can get for, let's say, 15, 20 euros easily.
01:47 You should look for a good wine that is not too expensive,
01:52 but you should look definitely for Cava in Spain.
01:56 So Cava is an excellent value for money.
01:59 We will continue with a very classic white wine I've selected today, which is Chablis.
02:06 Old world wines like this one from France, for example, are often drier and crisper,
02:11 whereas new world wines are often more fruit-driven.
02:15 Imagine if you are standing next to the sea, you know,
02:20 you have this kind of salty iodine, oyster shell-like feeling when you smell this wine.
02:26 It's delicious.
02:27 Now on to a Rosé.
02:32 Rosé wine actually is made from red grapes.
02:37 Provence is very famous, the southern part of France.
02:41 This is a very classic example, Sancerre, for example.
02:46 Then Italy is doing great kind of Rosé wines as well.
02:52 A lot of great wineries are making Rosé.
02:54 So my suggestion is just look for a good producer
02:57 and try to spend maybe not less than, I don't know, 7, 8 euros,
03:04 because still price is an indicator for quality.
03:10 But we still have three more wines to go.
03:12 Yes.
03:12 So let's do the next one, which is a wonderful orange wine.
03:19 Historically, the origin is Georgia.
03:21 And in Georgia, they call these wines amber wines.
03:25 And they take the white grapes together with the skins,
03:28 they mash them and they ferment them together with the skins.
03:32 And the skins of the white grapes, they give this attractive orange color.
03:41 To finish, we end with the red wine.
03:43 We try a Rioja from Spain and a Barolo from Italy.
03:46 When a red wine ages, it maybe loses a little bit of this kind of fresh,
03:53 fruity character, which it has in the youth.
03:58 And it gains these kind of attractive woodland, earthy kind of savory notes,
04:06 which really defines the aging potential and the complexity of the wine.
04:11 I really feel like I've learned some great tips
04:16 for how to know and learn the basics of good wine tasting.
04:20 And Raymond has definitely shown us that even as an amateur,
04:24 you can taste good wine and you can figure out what kind of flavors you like and what you enjoy.