From Vinho Verde to Barolo with Love

Decanting vs. aerating are two words that people often use interchangeably when it comes to wine. While you can aerate a wine using a decanter, the two verbs are actually opposite actions. When one decants a wine, the goal is to pour it as carefully as possible in order to minimize the amount of air that mixes with the wine. The purpose of decanting is to remove the sediment of the wine. As wine…

Everyone who has ever taken a blind tasting test, has hoped for a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Why? Because it is almost impossible to miss. The aromatics of grapefruit pith, green bell pepper, and nettles are pronounced and definitive. Other testable Sauvignon Blancs such as Sancerre or Graves, are not quite so easily identified, especially with global warming. Those wines are becoming more ripe…

Today in wine group we decided to do a comparison of three grapes; Gamay, Grenache, and Pinot Noir. We chose those three because they have a lot in common and can easily be mistaken one for the other. Tasting them side by side would provide, we thought clear differences. We tasted them blind, made our notes and then determined as best we could which wine was which. According to the French Wine…

The region of Champagne has been making wine since the 9th century! But their reputation back then was for still, red wine. It wasn’t until many centuries later that the beautiful sparkling wine we all know and love was born, quite by accident. The cold climate of northern France would stop fermentation. With the spring thaw, fermentation would recommence. The carbon dioxide produced by…

This afternoon I had the good fortune of meeting Dan Morgan Lee, wine maker and owner of Morgan winery in Santa Lucia Highlands. I’ve had Morgan wines before. I had a stellar Morgan Chardonnay last week that I mistook for a white Burgundy, so lithe and elegant. Mr. Lee is a self-described ‘acid-fiend’. He sources grapes from coastal vineyards and picks early to maintain the beautiful acid…

On the eastern side of the island of Sicily off the southern coast of Italy are vineyards planted up the side of the active volcano, Mount Etna. Some vineyards are planted as high as 3300 feet. The wine that is made here is Etna Rosso. The two red grapes allowed in this DOC are Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio. While the latter is similar to Mascalese in aromatics, it is softer in…

(bo-jzo-lay) Did you have your Beaujolais Nouveau this year? That’s the youngest wine in the world, released on the third Thursday each November, just six weeks after harvest. It is vibrant, juicy and delightful. It’s great with turkey and with ham, so great for the holidays. If you missed it for Thanksgiving, it’s not too late to have it for Christmas if you can still find it in the stores. But…

Though I’ve been studying wine theory and involved in deductive tasting group for fifteen years, I still have more to learn. It’s not that I’m not confident in my wine knowledge and tasting skills, but the world of wine is endlessly fascinating. There’s always more to learn. Confidence de Bastor-Lamontagne, 2023 Currently, I am reading Message in the Bottle; a Guide to Tasting Wine by Tim…

Albarino, Gruner Veltliner, Pinot Grigio; Chris Tange, MS refers to these three grapes as ‘the devil’s triangle’. Tim Gaiser, MS refers to them (along with Chenin Blanc, and dry Riesling) as the ‘Evil Dwarves’. They are all semi-aromatic whites that can be difficult to distinguish one from another in a blind tasting. They are similar in structure and aromatic composition, the differences are…

You probably already know that the two major grapes of Burgundy are the red, Pinot Noir and the white, Chardonnay. You probably also know that there are two other minor grapes grown in Burgundy; the red, Gamay and the white, Aligoté. There are a few other types of grapes grown in Burgundy such as Sauvignon Blanc and César, but they are very AOC specific (St. Bris and Irancy,…

While sweet wines are made all over France including in Alsace, Bordeaux and Loire, Vin Doux Naturel are only made in the South of France. Sweet wines can be made using Noble Rot, allowing Botrytis to grow on the grapes, thus dehydrating and intensifying the sugars in the juices. Sweet wines can be made using Vendage Tardive, late harvest, picking the grapes late in the season, allowing the…

“I smell something spicy,” said my son-in-law as he put his nose in the glass of 2020 Crozes-Hermitage, La Matiniere by Ferraton Pere & Fils. “What kind of spicy?” I asked “Is it baking spices?” (knowing that the answer should be ‘no’, as new oak, the source of the baking spice smell in wines is lightly or rarely used in the Northern Rhone, the area of Crozes-Hermitage.) “No, it’s not baking…

or Things You Might Hear from the Uninformed That You Should Ignore Completely This morning I received an email from cocktailbuilder.com. In the newsletter was an article titled, ‘Mezcal; Everything You Need to Know’. As I read through the first two paragraphs I found a number of glaring bits of misinformation. Then I stopped reading. No credit is given to the author of the article. Perhaps it’s…

On the eastern side of France in the Alpine region is a small wine area known as Savoie. Wines from this area are hard to come by, as 95% of the wine is sold locally; mostly to the ski tourists that support the region’s economy. There are only three AOC’s in Savoie (pronounced sah-vwah not sah-voy). The small AOC of Seyssel makes two types of wine, dry white and sparkling white, using three types…