Wine
While wine can be made from many types of fruits and flowers, it is iconically produced from fermented grapes. Wine production dates back at least 8000 years, and today it is produced in quantity in more than 70 countries, with Italy, Spain, France, and the United States the largest producers of wine today. The world of wine is vast and complex, with more than 10,000 grape varietals in existence. This is largely due to experimental cross-breeding and grafting that has taken place for millennia, and such experiments have led to some of today’s most popular grape varieties, including Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. The primary styles of wine today include red, white, and rose. While almost all grape juice itself is white, red wine is made by allowing the juice from black (aka red) grapes to ferment in contact with its skins, while white wine is usually (but not always) made from white grapes. Rose wine is made from black grapes with limited skin contact, which provides the pinkish color.
Top Wine Posts:
Understanding the Wines of France
Wine and Beer Touring in California’s Paso Robles, 2017
Touring and Wine Tasting in California’s Anderson Valley
Harvest in Chile’s Casablanca Valley – A Dusty Paradise
Chateau Montelena’s Dream Tasting: A Retrospective of Five Decades of Wine
Exploring Port Wine: Touring Porto and the Douro Valley
Visiting Tuscany’s Tenuta dell’Ornellaia
Tenuta dell’Ornellaia is a major and increasingly important name in super-Tuscan wines. With its neighbor Sassicaia right down the street, these two define the Bolgheri area of Italy and own completely the bragging rights as ...
In Italy, Modus is everywhere. Seriously, you can’t escape it. I even encountered a kiosk at the airport in Florence where a guy was offering samples of the stuff. What’s the fuss all about? This ...
Riesling remains underrated and largely under-consumed in the U.S., and recently two dozen German Riesling producers and importers descended on San Francisco to offer tastes of (primarily) their 2008 and 2009 vintages. One of the ...
Sauvignon Blanc is planted up and down the country of Chile, and in this recent tasting event I had the chance to experience eight wines from five major winemaking areas. Prices for Chilean Sauvignon Blanc ...
When one drinks a lot of wine, one spills a lot of wine. Result: Many an article of clothing, napkin, and tablecloth stained purple. While wine stain removal products are legion, WineOff, which I put ...
The first previews of California’s 2009 cabernet sauvignon vintage were held last week, and in the battle of man vs. wine, man won. Below you’ll find notes and early ratings on 71 wines, mostly barrel ...
As an 11th generation descendant of the Riedel crystal empire, it’s safe to say that Maximilian has glass in his blood. Today, Riedel is synonymous with quality glassware, its empire unmatched by its competition in ...
South Africa. What’s better than the accent? The wine. Well, sometimes. At a recent tasting of South African wines I wound my way through plenty of sauvignon blanc, chenin blanc, and pinotage (something of a ...
This Mendocino pinot noir has a very light body, but it’s balanced by a little smoke, some nice wood notes, and a jammy finish, giving it more complexity than you might think. A little subdued ...
Who knew there was this much wine in Mendocino? When I strolled into this event 45 minutes before it was set to end, I expected to see maybe a dozen winemakers pouring, not 58 producers, ...
