In the wine industry there is a lot of talk about grower champagne… you might be seeing wine mags, bloggers and champagne buffs talk about a ‘grower revolution’ or the ‘rise of the grower champagne’. But what exactly is a grower champagne? Did you know that most of the large negociant Champagne houses buy their […]
So we’ve arrived at the end of our wine vocabulary journey, the end of the alphabet that is, don’t worry though there are still plenty of wine words out there for you to discover! Zesty is a word used to describe wine with lively flavor characteristics, with noticeable acidity and citrus notes. We find this […]
G is for Green While the term “hot” in reference to wine may bring up visions of sipping mulled wine next to a roaring fire, it actually denotes that the wine is too high in alcohol. If a wine is described as being “Green”, it usually is associated with a negative connotation. Sometimes you may […]
Today’s tasting note wine word is all about mouth feel and texture. Taking a sip of a “fleshy” wine is like taking a big bite into a nice juicy rib eye. Fleshy So it will come as no surprise that fleshy wines are also referred to as chewy, meaty, or beefy. So what does this […]
Beautiful, graceful, polished, and refined…. No we aren’t talking about the future Miss America, these are some of the accompanying words you’ll hear to describe an elegant wine. And like a pageant queen tottering across the stage on six inch heels, one of the defining characteristics of an elegant wine is their amazing sense of […]
B is for…Barnyard? You will often hear people describe a wine as having barnyard aromas or related terms like “horsey, manure, animal, etc.” Wines with this aroma are best described as earthy, with animal scents that remind tasters of well, a barn. However, this isn’t always a bad thing! In small doses this can be […]
Austere: You will most likely find this descriptor in the tasting notes of wines that are a) very young b) of high value and/or c) with an adequate amount of cellaring will evolve into an extraordinary wine. So what exactly does it mean? While actually a relatively vague term, austere refers to a bitterness usually […]
Get “on the list” with pre-sale wines. Have you ever spent hours in line at the latest hot spot, only to get turned away at the door because you’re not “on the list”? Well we might not be able to get you into that night club but we can make sure you’re “on the list” to […]
Is bigger really better? How big is too big? To the first question we can confidently say yes, there are definite advantages to investing in large format wines. While size can range from the magnum, which equals two bottles, all the way up to the grand daddy of them all, the Nebuchadnezzar, which is equal to twenty […]
What’s Italian for Zinfandel? The answer is: Primitivo! The earliest knowledge of this varietal is that it originated in Greece. It is not known exactly how or when this plant was transported into Italy, but the history of this grape in Italy dates back many centuries. Both primitivo and zinfandel are thought to be clones […]