Category: Vinsights
Sorting Wine Grapes Into Flavor Families
Every grape used for making fine wine has its own unique flavor profile, but the more wines you taste, the easier it becomes to discern that …
Why We Decant Certain Wines
Decanters have long been used to make wine look pretty, or to control its temperature, but improving flavor by decanting is a relatively recent phenomenon. It …
How to Read Wine Maps Historically
Many puzzling aspects of today’s wine landscape make more sense if we consider their historical context. For example, understanding where, when and how quality-oriented winemaking first …
Pairing Wine with Spicy Foods
Foods with spicy heat can be stimulating and enjoyable, but are also famously hard to pair successfully with wines. Some wines are better equipped than others …
How to Talk About Sweetness in Wine
However, humans are hard-wired to appreciate sugar. Most newcomers to the category instinctively prefer wines that feature some detectable sweetness. Mass-market brands capitalize on this, and …
Does Wine Really Breathe in Barrels?
Most modern wine is made in stainless-steel tanks. But winemakers still use traditional oak barrels to refine and improve most premium red wines and some whites …
New to Wine? Study France First!
It is almost impossible to make sense of the modern wine world without grasping the influential role played by France. The French may not have been …
How to Preserve Opened Wine Part 2: Freeze It!
It may sound sacrilegious to wine professionals, but the simplest and most effective way to preserve opened wine is to freeze it. As we illustrated in Part …
How to Preserve Opened Wine
What’s the best way to preserve opened wine? After all, the fun begins when wine is opened, but saving unfinished bottles for later enjoyment is tricky. …
Warm Days, Cool Nights: Why They Matter for Wine
All the world’s finest vineyards have something in common: Whether they are in a warm or cool climate region, they almost always feature an unusually big …
