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
Jaen isn’t a place but the name of an indigenous Portuguese grape, also known as Mencía in Spain. Virtually unheard of in the U.S., it’s the basis for a single-varietal offering from Taboadella, where Luisa Amorim crafts wines in the Dão region of the country. This 2020 vintage is a lively and refreshing wine, mercifully…
The Loire Valley‘s Vouvray region is synonymous with chenin blanc, which is virtually the only grape grown here. The grape is classically used to make very dry and crisp wines, but as we’ll see in this roundup of six expressions, it’s a versatile grape that can find a home in various styles of sparkling wine…
We’ve covered the wines of Chateau Cos d’Estournel, a second-growth wine in Bordeaux’s Medoc-situated St. Estephe region, in the past, but today we’re digging into a special treat — a decade-old vintage of the producer’s flagship bottling that is still available for purchase in a newly reissued 10th anniversary edition. The wine is a Cabernet…
Sicily’s Donnafugata recently dropped two new wines and a bold new packaging that is striking, even for the often out-there winery. Both are built around nero d’avola, the defining red varietal on the island. 2023 Donnafugata Sherazade DOC Review 100% nero d’avola, but you’d never know it based on the exuberantly fruity composition on display…
Holiday social functions have a special talent for testing the limits of human endurance. Not everyone has the budget or willpower to present a prestige bottle to an event where half the guests can’t distinguish Cabernet from spiced cider, or worse, you are stuck next to a Guy who loudly barks to everyone within earshot…
Once upon a time, Champagne was the only well-known sparkling wine. Happily, those days are long past, and most now know that wonderful sparkling wines are being produced throughout the world. Today we are trying three sparklers from very different locations: Chile, Georgia, and France. Two are made in the traditional method of champagne, and…
Well aligned with the adage about everything being bigger in Texas, Heath Family Brands doesn’t do anything half-steppin’. The operation stretches across five distinct labels, each vying for a little piece of the Lone Star spotlight. Today, we are trying three wines grouped as a holiday 3-pack, all available either in time for the holidays…
Occasionally, something at the local shop manages to throw a curveball. In this instance, it was a Malbec from Mendoza priced at $20, doing the heavy lifting of wine twice the price. That shouldn’t be surprising at all, but it somehow managed to feel like a personal plot twist in a year already filled with…
You will find Herdade Aldeia de Cima in Portugal’s Alentejo region, surrounded by cork forests. Here the operation farms only indigenous grapes and makes wines like Myndru, which is composed of 50% Alfrocheiro, 30% Tinta Grossa, and 20% Baga grown on “poor and skeletal soil.” 70% of batch is aged for 14 months in 1000-liter…
Recently, Rob reviewed (and enjoyed) Portugal-based Quinta Nova’s Reserva Terroir Red, which is a blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), and Tinto Cão. This wine has the same four grapes in it (plus some Tinta Amarela) — though it’s from a prior vintage — but it has a twist: It’s not aged…