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
This “soil specific” from Aperture hails from Sonoma County and is composed of a blend of 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc, 3% Malbec, 1% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot. The wine presents a somewhat jammy construction that gives time to notes of almond and a mixed baking spice note before delving back into more traditional…
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This Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from Chile’s Maipo Valley and bottled by California’s Delicato Family Wines corporation, is estate-grown and aged for an average of 6 months in French Oak barrels. As the story goes, the grapes were grown halfway up a mountain at a century-old vineyard that had been forgotten for some time. Nature,…
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77% merlot, 23% cabernet sauvignon. Lush and pretty, you can definitely taste the cab influence here, making for a surprisingly deep merlot that’s lush with notes of raspberry and blackberry, layered with gentle notes of violets and a healthy slick of licorice. Chocolate hangs on to the finish, with a sharp, tart berry component on…
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Over the last few years, we have covered Domaine Bousquet’s brisk and expansive headway into the U.S. market, and this fall’s offerings look to build on the consistently enjoyable results we’ve had in the past. This time we have a look at their Reserve selections, selected from low-yield plots promising to offer more flavor and…
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Located in Chile’s Leyda Valley, family-owned and operated Vina Leyda has not only received an aesthetic makeover but has introduced a new range they are calling Coastal Vineyards, highlighting the influence of the Pacific Ocean on their wines. They also produce a wide range of other whites and reds, but today we’re taking a look…
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This Australian Viognier is nothing if not a bold wine. The nose exudes honeysuckle, peach, butter, and white flowers. The palate follows the nose nicely and starts with butter and honeysuckle. Peach and perfume notes follow midpalate, along with some gentle minerality. The wine has a big, full mouthfeel, but zippy acidity keeps the wine’s…
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Two new releases from Napa’s iconic Robert Mondavi Winery have just arrived. Let’s dive in. 2019 Robert Mondavi Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley – Initially on the green side, in fact a bit bitter, this wine never quite develops beyond its roots as a grassy, lemon peel-driven experience, culminating in a finish that is heavy on…
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Gonzalez Byass is one of the largest producers of sherry in Spain, and as any modern drinker knows, the demand for sherry barrels far outweighs the demand for sherry itself. Sherry barrel aging gives all manner of spirits a distinct character, and at some point, Gonzalez Byass figured out it should be making spirits of…
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Two new wines from our friends in Sonoma’s Dutcher Crossing. 2019 Dutcher Crossing Chardonnay Costello Vineyard – This Alexander Valley chardonnay bursts with notes of coconut and guava, then moves into Meyer lemon and baking spice notes. A bit doughy and unctuous, as you’d expect from a Sonoma chardonnay, the oak influence drops ample vanilla…
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New Zealand’s Cloudy Bay recently sent us a trio of wines — with both the 2021 and 2022 vintages of its iconic sauvignon blanc represented. Let’s dig into all of them. 2020 Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir Marlborough – A pedestrian pinot, slightly beefy with distant, demure fruit that tries only fitfully to break through the…
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