Tips & Tricks: Wine’s Building Blocks and How To Detect Them

22 04 2011

For those loyal PnP readers (if such a thing exists), some of this will cover ground trekked out before in previous posts, but I thought it would be useful to get all of this info in one place.  Describing the smells and flavours of wine is inevitably a subjective experience, since we all process aromas and tastes differently, but that doesn’t mean that every description about wine is solely in the eye of the beholder.  Every wine has a number of objectively-discernable components that form the architecture of the overall wine; even if reasonable minds can differ about a wine’s flavour profile, they should generally come to common ground when discussing these vinicultural building blocks.  Here are the key components of a wine and how to pick them out of your glass: Read the rest of this entry »


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The Basics: Hot vs. Cold Weather Wine

25 03 2011

I suppose this goes without saying, but the climate of a wine-growing region can have a profound impact on the resulting wine.  At its core, wine is an agricultural product, and even though there are a number of steps producers can take during the winemaking process to put their stamp on the flavour of their wares, much of what ends up in a bottle of wine is determined by the environment in which the grapes are grown and is locked in by harvest time.  This is useful for people trying to make wine-buying decisions, because it means that if you have a little knowledge about the general climatic conditions of the place where a bottle is from, you will be able to get some solid hints about what’s waiting for you inside. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : The Basics