Unlocking Taste: A Quick Guide to Wine Structure

Every wine can be broken down into components – acid, alcohol, tannins, sugar – here’s a quick guide to get you tasting like a pro.

How Do they Decide What Wine Grapes to Plant?

Have you ever wondered how a winegrower decides to plant one grape variety over another? Some choices Mother Nature drives, but there’s actually a lot more behind deciding what grapes to plant in a new vineyard. Deciding what type of grape to plant where involves a complicated heuristic that takes into account environmental and non-environmental […]

Are You Drinking Bitter Wine? Or Astringent Wine?

Some would-be wine drinkers get turned off by wine’s perceived bitterness, but vino comes in a range of styles. Bitterness in wine is from alcohol. High alcohol wines (13%+) can taste bitter Lower alcohol wines (Moscato, Lambrusco) are less bitter. Astringency, a tactile sensation, dries your mouth. High-tannin red wines feel more astringent. Light white […]

The Curious History of Tannat Wine: Tannat Wine Guide

Tannat makes tongue-coating wines that leave you puckering. Tannat has thick, deeply pigmented skins lending themselves to heavy tannin extraction during fermentation. Today, the largest producer of Tannat isn’t France, but rather Uruguay.