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
If the name Ian Cauble doesn’t mean anything to you, you haven’t immersed yourself in the world of high-end sommeliers enough. He was a central figure in the 2012 documentary Somm, in which he swallows his pride and smiles genially as he fails the Master Sommelier exam — though he subsequently passed and made his way…
It’s been five years since we’ve encountered Adobe Road’s Shift, a wine that is more notable for its bottle than what’s inside. Metal gearshift knob and a metal shifter plate — with carbon fiber accents? You got it! As for what’s inside, this blend changes regularly. For the 2021 vintage, it’s 52% zinfandel, 25% toreldego, 18%…
It was only a few months ago when we saw Dow’s 2018 Late Bottled Vintage Port. Now it’s already back with the 2020 release, released in honor of a black and white photography competition held by the brand. (Check out the winners on Dow’s Instagram page.) As for this 2020 wine, it comes across with…
We’ve covered the white wines of Quinta da Fonte Souto on many occasions. The red, “tinto,” releases, not so much. Here’s a fresh look at the 2020 vintage of this Portuguese table wine, made with Alicante Bouschet, Alfrocheiro, and Syrah. The intense color of the wine suggests a powerful depth and pungency, but the…
The All Blacks Red Blend from California’s Black Powder at least has the decency to disclose that it changes personalities every year. In this vintage, the cast list includes 55% Grenache from Santa Barbara and Lodi, 38% Petite Sirah from Dunnigan Hills, and a cameo of 7% Cabernet from Napa, which is about as much of…
Vale do Bomfim is what happens when an internationally beloved Port dynasty decides to behave like a regular winery, or at least makes a credible showing of it. Part of the Dow side of the sprawling Symington family empire, it leaves the fortified fireworks to the better-known labels and carries on with the business of…
Tupac Shakur was impossible to place into a specific, tidy category for the sake of convenience, the result of an intentional refusal to stay in one lane long enough for anyone to simplify him. He could move from party swagger to full political indictment in the space of a verse, sometimes in the same breath,…
Sogno Mediterraneo Toscana IGT is a GSM blend, unusual for Italy and especially rare to find sourced from a Tuscan vineyard. The vines for this wine were planted in 1999 and are farmed using organic and biodiversity-friendly farming principles. The grapes are picked by hand and fermented with native yeast in a mix of cement…
We hit Famiglia Pasqua‘s Mai Dire Mai Amarone in its 2012 and 2013 releases. We’re back again with a look at the 2015 bottling — now in current release. The 2015 Famiglia Pasqua Mai Dire Mai Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG remains a rich and raisiny experience, though this vintage feels more tart and racy than previous…
Limerick Lane Cellars is a boutique winemaking operation in Sonoma with a distinct focus on zinfandel, where some of the state’s most-prized expressions of the grape are broken. Its owner, Karen Francis DeGolia, took an unusual route to Limerick’s current stewardship: She was the original life partner of the original founder of the winery, but…