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
Knotty Vines is an entry-level label launched by our friends at Sonoma-based Rodney Strong. With four standard bottlings described as “irreverent and fruit-driven,” these affordable bottlings are targeted at Millennial drinkers who might be taking ...
If Covid hit Prosecco, you wouldn’t ever know it. I feel like we’ve been inundated with the stuff since the beginning of the pandemic, to the point where I need to take a break from ...
We’re back with Louis Martini and two new Cabernet Sauvignon releases, a mainline bottling from 2017 and an upper tier offering from the 2016 vintage. 2016 Louis M. Martini Cabernet Sauvignon Monte Rosso Vineyard – ...
Tasting wines blind — where you don’t know what you’re drinking — is an extremely helpful and informative way to learn about wine. And it’s not just a party trick for the professional sommelier crew. ...
Grillo is a native grape varietal in Sicily that shows up increasingly on our shores. Known for its mineral notes and relatively low alcohol level, Grillo is better in warmer months (and served with lighter ...
Every October, we update our “Vintage Chart Cheat Sheet,” a handy document designed to tell you, in general, whether a vintage of wine is particularly good or not. The sheet, as always, is designed to ...
Chev is a new project from Kosta Browne co-founder Michael Browne, one of pinot noir’s most notable names. This winery is located in the Russian River Valley. Some backstory: Michael, the consummate craftsman, has realized a ...
When one thinks of sweet wines from Bordeaux, a single region/style comes to mind: Sauternes, which are some of the most iconic and collectible wines produced anywhere. But it turns out that sweet wines — ...
Skyside’s operations focus on grapes from the rugged North Coast region of California, where third-generation Sonoma winemaker Anne Dempsey turns out affordable offerings that run the gamut of varietals common to the region. Let’s look ...
Kiona is another Washington vineyard and winery with holdings in the Columbia Valley and Red Mountain. Today we look at two bottlings from the latter AVA. NV Kiona Vineyards Fortuna Estate Red Mountain – This ...
