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
We’ve seen Loveblock‘s New Zealand-born pinot noir in the past — like, seven years ago — so it’s time for a refresh. Things, it seems, haven’t changed all that much (though the price has come down quite a bit). Straightforward and mild, this wine has an initial edge of cherry and rhubarb, but things fade…
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Thanks to shifts in weather patterns and climate change, supply chain complications, rising temperatures, and fluctuating soil quality, winemakers are facing an expansive list of challenges posing a threat to their craft. It’s not exclusive to the wine industry by any means, either. A quick search on Google will provide any number of articles detailing…
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The three wines below all have different names, but they’re all sister brands of Far Niente — whose fonts and design choices are consistent with the parent brand. At these prices, I certainly would call any of them “second labels.” Let’s see how they pan out in the luxe California wine space. 2019 EnRoute Pinot…
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Josh Cellars wines are widely available and consistently provide good quality for their price point. For wine drinkers that typically drink in the $10-$15 range and want to venture a little further without breaking the bank, these unapologetically big California Cabernets may be to your liking. 2019 Josh Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon California – This…
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Knotty Vines is an unabashed budget brand from Rodney Strong, standing as the third (or maybe fourth) label in its arsenal. We recently tasted a collection of four wines from the brand, the full lineup of its offerings. 2019 Knotty Vines Chardonnay California – Here’s a real surprise to kick things off: This chardonnay has had…
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I recently had the chance to sample a range of Kopke Ports with winemaker Carla Tiago on her visit to Boston from Portugal. I was excited to see that she brought some well-aged white ports, which are uncommon in the U.S., as well as Colheita Port, which is single vintage Tawny Port that has been…
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Orfila makes wines in Argentina, but its roots trace to Italy: Spanish immigrant José Orfila founded his eponymous winery in 1905 in Mendoza on lands that were once owned by José de San Martin, Argentina’s founding father. In 2010, the Gancia family, accomplished Italian winemakers who had established themselves in Argentina decades earlier, merged their…
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Maipo and Colchagua are two of the most noteworthy winegrowing regions in Chile, and while they’re relatively close (both being in Chile’s Central Valley) they have dramatically different climates. (Maipo contains some of the coolest winegrowing locations in the world, while Colchagua is relatively hot, and while Maipo features largely volcanic soil, Colchagua is described…
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Prosecco may often come across like an entry-level experience, but if you dive a bit deeper you’ll see that this essential sparkler comes in a variety of different styles, each representing a different level of sweetness, much like Champagne. As with Champagne, the categories are confusing and unintuitive. From dryest to sweetest, the categories go:…
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You’d be hard-pressed to find a more iconic example of Marlborough sauvignon blanc than this kiwi offering, which is light and sweet and full of notes both tropical and floral. Crisp with acidity but balanced by an ample fruit character — or perhaps the other way around — the wine eventually reveals that light touch…
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