Dispelling Common Wine Myths 🤔

The world of wine can be complex and filled with an array of opinions and statements that aren’t always true. In our never-ending quest to empower and educate consumers, we have decided to shed light on some of these more popular myths we hear far too often!

Wine Myth 1: Screw cap wine is cheap and of poor quality.

Maybe 5-10 years ago this statement would have more merit; however, today it couldn’t be further from the truth. While there are still many inexpensive and poor quality wines produced and bottled under screw cap, many fantastic wineries have made the switch as well. Screw caps are very convenient and reduce costs allowing for better pricing!

Example: 2020 Seppeltsfield Shiraz $22/bottle

This wine is fresh and pure with great depth, concentration, and structure. You can anticipate gorgeous flavors of dark cherry, plum, chocolate, olive, and eucalyptus!

Sommelier Selection | Featured in the Finch Wine Club

Wine Myth 2: Dry wines have fewer calories.

Dry wine refers to wine without significant residual sugar, and less sugar means less calories in your wine, right? Well, yes and no! Sugar is not the only thing in wine that carries calories, alcohol does as well!

If you are looking for a lower calorie wine, then you should look for wine that is both dry AND contains lower alcohol (<13.0%) Be careful though! Many lower alcohol wines are not dry and have residual sugar in them!

Wine Myth 3: Great wine has big “legs/tears”.

Have you ever noticed the way wine clings to the glass after it has been swirled? The streams or lines that appear on the inside of the glass are often referred to as "legs" or "tears". Many people believe this is an indicator of quality. In reality, this phenomenon has nothing to do with quality and rather something to do with physics. Wine is a solution of alcohol and water. Alcohol evaporates more easily than the water, thus the surface tension of the solution increases.

All wine experiences this phenomenon! Now the speed and proximity of the “legs” on a particular wine can tell you more information about a wine, such as alcohol content and viscosity (sugar content), but nothing that relates to quality!

Let us know if there are any wine myths you would like us to address or if you have heard any of these before!