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
A glance at the website of Paso Robles-based Booker Wines immediately reveals a commitment to minimalism. Like their bottle labels, the company’s story is conveyed using only the most essential of elements, aligning with the practice and philosophies of legendary Japanese designer Kenya Hara. This attention to detail and austere simplicity is what aesthetically sets…
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WillaKenzie‘s pinot noirs have been absent from these pages for several years, but we are happily back into the mix with this 2021 vintage expression of its Willamette Valley pinot noir. The overwhelming earthiness of the 2017 bottling is fortunately absent here, letting elements of black cherry, cola, and some baking spices come into focus.…
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This past weekend (August 11, 2023) marked the official 50th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop, a culture and lifestyle which has changed the course of American art, style and music numerous times. I personally count myself as a lifelong student and fan who has felt this impact and believe my life has been exponentially…
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Previously we brought you coverage of One Stone’s Central Coast Rose — the winery an offshoot of Ancient Peaks — and now we turn to heartier fare, a 2021 cabernet from the Paso Robles appellation. Bold without being aggressive, particularly on the tannin front, this is one of the more approachable and recommendable budget cabs…
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A 100% Malbec from Washington’s Yakima Valley, one of the numerous vineyards owned by DeLille. Similar to other Malbecs from the region, this tends to favor the traditional French profile at first, leading with classic notes of raspberry and cherry on the nose, oscillating back and forth until earthy aromas of leather and mushroom make…
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A case in point why you should be drinking more Oregon chardonnay instead of California chardonnay. This juicy number is loaded with notes of guava and lychee, some lemon curd, and a healthy dusting of floral notes that evoke rose petals and orange blossoms in tandem. It’s acidic on the finish but leaves room for…
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Fans of California chardonnays won’t have much to complain about with this new release from Sonoma-Cutrer, a Russian River Valley offering that hits all the high points of the wine: rich vanilla, gooseberry, and lemon curd, all filtered through elements of saline and minerals. There’s something of a greatest hits of California chardonnay going on…
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A blend of 67% syrah, 27% petit verdot, and 6% malbec. The syrah dominates, for better or worse, giving the wine a smoky, meaty texture, becoming a bit chalky in body as it builds in glass and on the tongue. Both bitter and a bit sour, there’s a heavy intensity here that isn’t always agreeable,…
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We seem to write about Kopke’s Port collection quite a bit, led by Robert Lublin’s coverage of multiple bottlings over the years. Today we’re taking a deeper dive into Kope’s Colheita Port wines. Colheita traditionally refers to vintage tawny Ports, but Kopke also uses it to refer to its vintage white Port. I recently received a…
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While Krug also makes a $35 Napa Valley Cabernet, Charles Krug’s luxe Vintage Selection Cabernet Sauvignon, also hailing from Napa Valley, is denoted by the crimson banner that runs across the top left corner of the label. A dense, fully opaque wine, this is about as classic an expression of Napa cab as you can get.…
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