Alcohol Abuse Advice

Your guide to buying Spanish wine – 10 things to look for

When buying wholesale Spanish wine, whether you are a restaurant or wine retailer or any other kind of trade that sells wine, you need to know what you are looking for and what to check for.

A good wholesaler will have these listen on their website:

Vinification – This is the process that has been taken to turn the grape juice into wine. There should always be displayed a short description of how the wine was vinified with information such as how old the vineyard is, where  it is located, how long it is fermented and how long the maceration process is. This will give you an idea of how much effort has wet into producing the wine
Designation – This is a way of identifying the wine. For example: You buy a bottle from the Rioja region, the designation is Rioja. It is as simple as that. The designation will not always appear on the bottle as it is not always necessary. An example of a time when you would have to state the designation is if you created a Spanish wine in California, you would have to make people aware it was California (Wine kind).
Vintage – This is what year the wine was made.
Varieties – Which different grapes have been used to create the wine, with Rioja it is usually 90-100% Tempranillo which is a black grape.
Serving Temperature – This is basically what it says; the temperature the wine is best served at.
Harvest Rating – This is information of how the weather affected the vineyard that year and how that affected the grapes growing. It is always good to have a look at this as you can get a good idea of the quality of your wine. It is good to have an excellent rating if you are going to be reselling this wine.
Palette – This is the way in which you receive the wine, the texture and taste and the flavours you will experience as well as the smell. If you know your wine well then you can easily identify a wine by one sip.
Appearance – As stated, this is the colour of the wine and how the consistency looks to your eye.
Nose – This is how the wine smells when in a glass and what flavours you are able to smell. This should also explain how the smell sits and how strong the structure is.
Alcohol Proof – This should always be stated by law, this is how much alcohol the wine contains by a percentage. Wines range from 8% – 15.5 % alcohol volume so it is good to know if you are buying strong wine or weak wine.

A good wine wholesaler will have this all listed with the product and should make it easy for you to read and gather the information about the wine you want to buy. They will also have details of all the vineyards they deal with on their website and how close they deal with the vineyard itself. A good wholesaler will go directly to the source for you to avoid any of your wine being tampered with, and ensure you get the finest quality product available. So next time you buy Spanish wine online, remember to check for all of these details.