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
When one thinks of Tuscan wines, one usually imagines Italy’s most renowned reds, including Chianti, Brunello di Montalicino, and Super Tuscans. This makes sense since 86% of the region’s wine production is dedicated to red wines. But that leaves 14% unaccounted for, and the region produces some very nice whites and rosés, which we’ll be…
The wine country in Texas Hill Country, situated in and around the town of Fredericksburg, is booming. Every time I travel here I’m greeted by a new tasting room, fresh vineyards, and more revelers looking to enjoy the state’s rapidly growing (and improving) wine scene. A recent Saturday took us to three wineries in the…
Note up front that this bottling of friulano is a distinctly different wine than the standard Friulano from Livio Felluga, based in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia area in northern Italy. Sigar was “a farmer nicknamed for his love of smoking [who] placed his hopes in the sky as he tended to the harvest of vines planted…
Port wine, but make it a popsicle! For summer 2026, Port house Sandeman and boozy ice cream makers Tipsy Scoop have joined forces to create a new frozen delight: a berry sorbet push-pop infused with Sandeman Founder’s Reserve Port. The pops are available exclusively this month (July 2026) in celebration of National Ice Cream Month,…
Today we’re diving into Texas winery William Chris‘s new sparkling wine division, Rebecca Caroline, along with coverage of a new white wine blend, Mary Ruth. Watch for a full report of our visit to the Rebecca Caroline tasting room soon. 2023 William Chris Rebecca Caroline Dell Valley Vineyards Cuvee Brut – 60% Chardonnay 40% Chenin…
The pair of Raven wines we are trying today were made at the Maison Wessman winery in Limoux in southern France and are the result of a collaboration between winemaker Róbert Wessman and JJ Julius Son, lead singer and songwriter for the popular rock band Kaleo. Collaborations between celebrities and wineries aren’t new anymore, but…
Vecchie Terre di Montefili is a boutique producer in Chianti Classico, operating a small 12.5-hectare estate at an altitude of about 1500 feet. Sangiovese is of course the focus here, and winemaker (“more an agronomist than winemaker”) Serena Gusmeri guided us through a tasting of three of its expressions recently over Zoom. A big believer in…
With summer in full swing, every bar needs a healthy stock of rose wine to keep folks cool, hydrated, and happy. Rather than the usual Provence or California roses, consider this offering from Attems, a rose made from pinot grigio in Italy’s Friuli region. Ramato is a wine style exclusive to Friuli pinot grigio, wherein…
Would you believe our last review of a wine from Spring Valley Vineyard was a 2007 bottling? 15 years later we’re back with a look at a new expression, a syrah called Nina Lee. (Pronounced Nine-ah Lee, by the way.) This may be 100% syrah, but it sure doesn’t show it, offering a surprisingly fruity attack…
Prats + Symington has been making dry table wines in the Duoro Valley for decades — unique because this region is known mostly for producing Port grapes. While we’ve seen its Post Scriptum release on many occasions (the Quinta de Roriz branding is no longer present), this is our first look at Chryseia, the winery’s…