If you spend any time around wine, the word fine gets thrown about a lot. Everyone wants a taste of fine wine. Far fewer people can say what actually makes it fine. Some say it comes down to the grape varieties. Others insist it is all about the place. There is a fair bit of argument in it.
So let's take it apart. Whether you back location or grape variety, you are both partly right. Fine wine is recognised by its authenticity. From the first sip you understand where the price tag comes from. But four things sit underneath that taste: balance, complexity, length and terroir.
Here is what each one means, so you know what to look for next time.
Balance
Balance matters more than any single component. In the best wines in the world, everything is in proportion: acidity against sweetness, body against alcohol. Get that right and you get a wine that tastes like itself and nothing else.
There is no formula for it. The process differs every time, with every vintage and every site, which is exactly why fine wine is difficult to make.
Complexity
An ordinary wine gives you one or two aromas and you stop paying attention. A fine wine keeps giving you things, and that is what holds you over a whole glass.
Several things build complexity. The grapes and how they are grown come first, and every grower has their own methods. Ageing does the rest. Wines built to age develop their complexity slowly, in barrel and then in bottle.
Length
You know the taste that stays in your mouth after you swallow? That is the finish, and its length is one of the clearest markers there is.
In a fine wine it hangs around. Thirty seconds is not unusual. In an ordinary one it disappears almost immediately. Time it once and you will never stop noticing.
Terroir
Terroir is the last piece and arguably the most important. When you drink one of these wines you are tasting a place as much as a grape. Soil, climate, altitude, aspect: all of it ends up in the glass.
Every producer has their own approach, which is why many fine wines come from a single vineyard. Plenty of good ones blend across sites, so it is not a rule.
Those four things are the whole of it. The more a wine has of each, the better the experience.
If you want to test the theory, our single-vineyard wines are the place to do it. Barovo Red and Bela Voda White both come from one site, and the rest of the range is on the all wines page.