Le Marche wine region in Italy. Located on the central eastern coast of Italy, and home to Cesare Mondavi (Father of Robert and Peter), this is a region sadly somewhat overshadowed on a global stage by its neighbors Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Abruzzo, and Umbria, yet in no short supply…
Understanding Italy: Marche
Understanding Italy: Alto Adige
Alto Adige, a wine producing region residing in the northernmost reaches of Italy, sitting just due east of the center, and producing a whopping <1% of the country’s wine production, a small, yet world-renowned region for wine production. The region is known for its Austrian influences not only…
Understanding Italy: Piemonte
Beautiful Piemonte, home to Barolo and Barbaresco. Well, home to Nebbiolo more correctly. Take it a step further, home to Barbera, Dolcetto, Moscato, Cortese, and Arneis in addition to other local and international varietals. In addition to a plethora of grape varietals grown in Piemonte, the region produces…
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…
What is Maceration?
Maceration is the process where the skins and juice hang out together after the crushing of wine grapes, and flavor compounds, tannins, and color compounds are leached into the must (juice). Generally speaking (there are always exceptions to the rules) red wines macerate until fermentation is complete. Sometimes…
What is Inoculation?
To inoculate a wine is to add an active yeast culture to the must (juice) to activate fermentation. Winemakers choose certain known strains of yeasts to achieve desired results. You may have heard the term ‘native yeasts’ used in the wine world at some point on your journey. …
National Zinfandel Day
Zinfandel Day is the third Wednesday each November. Here are some good ‘ol Zinfandel facts for a bit of conversation over the turkey (and wine) tomorrow afternoon/evening: Zinfandel is considered California’s heritage grape, there are some vines in Sonoma and Amador County that are 100+ years old, and…
Happy Beaujolais Nouveau Day!
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…
Malbec Facts
If you didn’t know better, it would seem in the last decade a new varietal wine had been magically invented or finally discovered. During the last American recession, a new standard for structured reds just magically appeared in the marketplace hailing from Argentina, and its name? Malbec. The…
