Wines and Spirits 101, according to Ralph's
BY TET ANDOLONG

There are no better people who can talk about wine than the Josephs of Ralph’s Wines and Spirits. They are the leaders of the local wine industry. Everybody in the business knows the Joseph brothers: Ralph, the second of four siblings; Bobby, who is the eldest; Ronnie; and Raymond, who is the youngest.
The Philippine Wine Merchants (PWM), which is the Josephs’ 34-year-old wine import and distribution company, remains one of the country’s biggest players in the wine industry.

Ralph’s wine stores now count 18 branches nationwide. The first Ralph wine shop was established on Tramo Street, Pasay City, in 1975, within a compound where Ralph’s office is also located until now. The other nine branches are around Metro Manila, with the other eight branches strategically located in Boracay, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao, Subic and Clark. Aside from their wine shops, Ralph’s also holds the concession rights to over 100 stores that include WalterMart and Robinson Supermarket, among others. All these networks make PWM influential in the industry.
According to Ralph, “A bottle of wine is about 86-percent water. A vine does not usually produce grapes for winemaking until the third year. Making wine is a very long process that begins from picking, sorting, pressing, fermenting, filtering, aging to bottling. The three types of wine are still, which is table wine; sparkling, wine with bubbles; and fortified, wine with added grape alcohol.”
There are ways to wine appreciation, according to the Josephs, including appearance (the color or shade of a wine may tell its age, grape variety and the intensity of its flavor); nose (nosing a wine may give an idea about its character; certain aromas may reveal a wine’s taste and its flavors); and, of course, taste (when its true character, body and balance of flavors are revealed).
The popular grape varieties are the whites such as the Sauvignon Blanc and the Chardonnay. The Sauvignon Blanc’s appearance is pale yellow with shades of green; its nose is grassy, herbaceous, with citrusy aromas, and its taste is light- to medium-bodied, with a refreshing acidity. The Chardonnay’s appearance is light golden yellow; its nose is apple, pineapple and toast, and its taste is medium- to full-bodied, with hints of apple, pineapple, butter, toast, oak and acidity.
The other grape varieties are the reds like Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. The Merlot’s appearance would be medium red; its nose is replete with ripened fruit aromas with hints of oak, and the taste has a smooth texture with soft tannins, red berry, raisins and plums. The Cabernet Sauvignon’s appearance is dark garnet red; its nose has the aromas of cassis, plum and blackberry; its taste full-bodied, tannic, with hints of cassis, chocolate and tobacco. The Shiraz’s appearance is dark garnet and purple; its nose is raspberry, plum, blackberry, pepper and spice; its taste is full-bodied with raspberry, blackberry, pepper, herbs and high tannins.
There are three types of wine-bottle shapes and they are the Riesling, Burgundy and Bordeaux. The popular Old World wine-producing countries are Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Spain. The popular New World wine-producing countries are Argentina, Australia, Chile, New Zealand, the US and South Africa.
“It takes an average of 100 days between a vine’s flowering and the harvest. Besides tannins, red wine contains resveratrol, which in medical studies has been associated with anticancer properties. A bottle of wine is made from between 600 and 800 grapes [24 lb]. One grapevine produces five bottles of wine yearly, and there are around 240 bottles of wine in a barrel,” Ralph said.
The Josephs promised to teach us how to read wine labels, what glass to use with which wine, and the different champagnes next time we bump into each other, which is something to look forward to. Or maybe we’ll just visit one of their stores for wine shopping this Christmas and get some more winetasting down.