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herlife | wineWinterWineMythsby kelly jo mcdonnell | photography by cy dodsonMyth: a popular belief or tradition that has grown up aroundsomething or someone. Who would guess this definitionapplies to wine? It does when one is trying to figure outfact from fiction—or fact from myth. It shouldn’t be stressful to weedthrough wine myths during the cold winter months. This time of yearis stressful enough as it is.Let’s start with some favorite wine myths that we’ve all probablyheard once or twice.The first one has to do with sweet wines. As in, only sweet wineswork with turkey and all the trimmings. It begins from the idea that thewine should be sweeter than the food. “Sometimes this is a regionalone,” explained Elizabeth Schneider, Certified Sommelier and bloggerof Wine for Normal People, “but I understand why. It’s a contrast;you want a contrast of sweet versus salty and savory. Sweet wines pairbest with cheese or sweet foods. There is an entire world of wines thatgo with turkey. Philosophy comes into play; it’s not about the turkey,it’s about all the things on your table. You don’t pair wine with onedish.” She stresses that, for example, a Thanksgiving meal isn’t like aTV dinner. One doesn’t eat all the turkey, all the potatoes and all thegreen beans and cranberry sauces in little groups. “It doesn’t work thatway,” said Elizabeth. “Folks take bits of each at a time. With cranberry,perhaps a Chardonnay or a fuller bodied Pinot Noir with the cranberry.Think about what you put on your turkey–like the spices–andnot just the turkey.”How about corks are always better than caps during the coldmonths? If you’re going to buy wine from New Zealand (and youshould), it’s going to be a cap wine. “This is related to age,” explainedElizabeth. “Wines that are meant to age should be in a cork closure.It lets the air in to let the wine change and breathe with time.” She“Special wine isn’t for specialoccasions. There’s some riskinvolved when you age something.Wine is chemical and it changeswith time, and even vibration. It’sa very sensitive substance. You’relucky most of the time if your winehas made it from a journey.”recalled a taste test where she had bottles of wine with a screw cap, areal cork, and a fake plastic cork. “There was a giant different betweenthe screw cap and that plastic cork. The plastic is terrible because youtaste the cork. But the real cork has a romance and drama, and it’s not28 HERLIFEnewyork.com