Wine Term: Appellation Variations: Viticultural Area, Wine Growing Region, Region Alternate Usages: AVA, AOC, DO, DOC, QbA, DVA What it really means: Where is the wine from? You never want to say, “What city is the wine from?” – that just sounds uninformed. It is best to ask,…
27 Search Results for ‘understanding iTALY’
Customer Take Over Version: Knit
If you’ve ever been verbally accosted by a Sommelier at a restaurant or Wine shop/bar, you’ve probably heard them throw out something about a wine being “open-knit” or “tightly-wound” – but what does that actually mean? Our Customer (and fan of Jessica) Danielle P. asked that exact question:…
Mind Over Matter
…or, “A Cellar Rat’s Guide to Becoming a Cellar Rat.” Now might be the best time to buy those big structured reds. Yes, you read that right. Tasting and buying big reds in the height of summer seems like crazy person talk, and it may be, but nonetheless,…
Off The Beaten Path: Corsica
Coat tailing off of our Understanding AOC series and introducing the Off the Beaten Path series this April, we are taking a look at one of the lesser-known regions of France, the Island of Corsica. The simplest way we can generalize Corsica for those unfamiliar with the island…
Residual Sugar in Wine
When you hear Residual Sugar in wine what do you think of? You may have heard the terms Bone Dry, Dry, Off-Dry, Sweet, and Very Sweet as descriptions for wines before. But what does it mean? In the wine world, sweetness is graded based upon grams per liter…
California’s Native Grape
It’s California Wine Month! What better way to celebrate than to kick it off by learning about California’s native grape. It is a common misunderstanding that Zinfandel is the native California grape. In fact, Zinfandel is actually Primitivo from Italy – or wait… is Primitivo Zinfandel from California? …
Decoded: A Brief History of Moscato
You’ve emailed, you’ve called, you’ve made it the number one searched term on our site, you’ve begged us, pleaded with us, and even tried to barter with us, and all of your hard-fought desires and dreams come true. Tomorrow. Moscato d’Asti is back! Before you take up battle…