Today is International Pinot Noir Day! To celebrate, we present some fun Pinot Noir facts for you today: Pinot Noir means ‘Black Pine Cone’ – ancient vine growers were pretty literal with the naming of this grape as the grape cluster looks like a pine cone, and the…
Happy International Chardonnay Day! Let’s face it, the world is full of Chardonnay. There isn’t a place on the globe that sells alcohol that it’s hard to find a Chardonnay. That said, not all of them are the greatest, but to each their own, and wine is subjective,…
Ok, it’s officially the theme for this series. You’ve heard of Burgundy, so we will skip over that part. But as with all facets of the Understanding AOC writings, what is in the bottle!? If it is a red wine, it is Pinot Noir. If it is a…
When you buy a bottle of Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy, or any other French wine, there is a governing body that oversees the labeling and production standards to guarantee the finest provenance for the labeled product. That body is the Appellation d’origine contrôlée, or more simply, the AOC. The…
Whole cluster (or bunch) fermentation is the process by which everything goes into the fermentation process. Skins, seeds, stems, you name it. The invention of the destemmer revolutionized wine, but could you imagine Burgundian winemakers in the 1800s hand picking each berry to get all the stems off? …
The third Thursday in November is a big day in the Beaujolais region south of the Burgundy in France. On this day there is a mad dash for the first, freshest bottles of the new vintage of Beaujolais that has been sent into the markets to arrive on…
We are absolutely certain that anyone can do a simple interwebs search on Champagne and find all sorts of useful information in regards to Champagne: the history, the processes, notable houses, etc. In fact, at a later date, we will continue to further geek-out on Champagne, but for…
Pinot Noir (literally: Black Pine, due to the grapes color and cluster looking like a black pine cone), is one of the most globally popular grapes, has a long growing history pre-dating the Roman Empire, and could be upwards of 1,000 years older than the Cabernet Sauvignon grape. …
In the world of wine, there are numerous bottle shapes and styles. More recently, wineries have been doing some incredibly artistic things with their bottles with marketing and customer awareness in mind. At a later date we will go into a much deeper dive on these shapes and…
To celebrate Washington Wine Month and National White Wine Day, we’d like to brush over Washington wine history and take a look at the more interesting portion of the 2nd largest wine producing state’s variety of white plantings. Washington State is known for its plantings of lesser known…