Wine Start 43

Claret:

Claret: Claret The British term for red wines from Bordeaux. Originally the wines were quite pale or nearly clear in color, giving rise to the term clairet.

Clarity:

Clarity: Referring to the amount of suspended particulate matter in a wine, clarity is described in terms of the wine's reflective quality; brilliant, clear, dull or hazy. A pronounced haziness may signify spoilage, while brilliant, clear or dull wines are generally sound.

Classified Growth:

Classified Growth: Included in Bordeaux's 1855 Classification, which ranked châteaus from first-growth to fifth-growth. The original classification was set by the prices that the wines fetched and was intended to be synonymous with quality.

Clean:

Clean: Fresh on the palate and free of any off-taste.

Climat:

Climat: French term for a vineyard site defined by its micro-climate and various other aspects of terroir. The term is most commonly associated with Burgundy.

What makes a wine vegan? Ask Decanter Read more at https://www.decanter.com/learn/advice/makes-vegan-wine-ask-decanter-406947/#wDpo1xOg4gMAwG4X.99

Are you seeing more wines marketed as vegan? What means that a wine is - or isn't - suitable for vegans? What makes a wine vegan? Ask Decanter Given that wine is the product of grapes and yeast, some may assume that all wines would be appropriate for vegans - those who do not consume any kind of animal product - but this isn't always the case. Wine bars and retailers have started to market some wines as vegan friendly in response to the growth of veganism in several countries, including the UK and US. According to The Vegan Society, 600,000 people in the UK were vegan in 2018. 'Veganuary' is increasingly part of the New Year calendar, slotting into the post-festive detox trend. See also: Is wine gluten free? Ask Decanter See also: Sulphites in wine - friend or foe? Vegan wine It is often some traditional fining agents that can make a wine unsuitable for vegans. Egg whites or casein (a protein found in milk) can be used to remove tiny particles of sediment in a wine that cannot be removed by filtration. However, other ways of doing this are becoming more popular. 'Traditional fining products that were egg/fish/milk derived have probably - we think - moved on to a lot of vegetable-based products,' said Kristin Syltevik, of the Oxney Organic Estate in East Sussex, England, speaking in 2018. Other animal products used in wine production may include beeswax (used to seal bottles) and agglomerated corks (which use milk-based glues). In reality, many wines are vegan friendly. However, it can be difficult to tell. Regulations in the EU and US do not currently require wineries to list fining agents on labels. More wine retailers and producers have started to help consumers make a choice by highlighting which of their wines are vegan friendly. Majestic Wine told Decanter.com last year that it defined vegan wine as those that 'will not have been fined, filtered or come into contact with anything derived from an animal or dairy source'. Decanter's Tina Gellie also shows in Weekday Wines which wines are labelled vegan, as well as those that are organic and biodynamic. Read more at https://www.decanter.com/learn/advice/makes-vegan-wine-ask-decanter-406947/#wDpo1xOg4gMAwG4X.99

Which European set up shop on the West Coast to make, among other things, Rhône styles?

Christophe Baron Stéphane Derenoncourt Manfred Krankl All of the above

Château:

Château: French term for "castle." In the wine world, it translates loosely as "estate." However, in France, the term is protected.

Cigar Box:

Cigar Box: Aroma frequently associated with mature Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet blends, this descriptor refers to the cedary and tobacco leaf scents associated with cigar boxes.

Climate:

Climate: The long-term weather pattern—including temperature, precipitation and hours of sunshine—in a specific region. In contrast, weather is associated with a specific event, such as a hailstorm.

Clonal Selection:

Clonal Selection: Vineyard management term for a technique by which dead or under-performing vines are replaced with new vines grown from a single superior vine, or mother vine.

Clone:

Clone: A group of vines originating from a single, individual plant propagated asexually from a single source. Clones are selected for the unique qualities of the grapes and wines they yield, such as flavor, productivity and adaptability to growing conditions.

Clos:

Clos: Clos A French term used to describe a walled vineyard, such as Clos du Vougeot in Burgundy.

Closed:

Closed: Describes wines that are concentrated and have character, yet are shy in aroma or flavor. Closed wines may open up to reveal more flavors and aromas with aging or aeration.

Cloudiness:

Cloudiness: Lack of clarity to the eye. Fine for old wines with sediment, but it can be a warning signal of protein instability, yeast spoilage or re-fermentation in the bottle in younger wines. Cloudiness may also represent a deliberate choice by the winemaker not to filter a wine.

Cloying:

Cloying: Describes ultra-sweet or sugary wines that lack the balance provided by acid, alcohol, bitterness or intense flavor.

Cluster:

Cluster: A grape bunch.

Coarse:

Coarse: Usually refers to texture, and in particular, excessive tannin or oak. Also used to describe harsh bubbles in sparkling wines.

Col Fondo:

Col Fondo: Sparkling wine production method for traditional Prosecco, in which the spent yeast cells, or lees, left over from the secondary fermentation are not disgorged.

Cold Stabilization:

Cold Stabilization: A clarification technique that can prevent the formation of crystals in wine bottles. Prior to bottling, the wine's temperature is lowered to approximately 30° F for two weeks, causing the tartrates and other solids to precipitate out of solution. The wine is then easily racked off (separated from) the solids.

Colheita:

Colheita: Portuguese term for "vintage."

Commune:

Commune: Commune French term for village.

Complexity:

Complexity: An element in all great wines and many very good ones; a combination of richness, depth, flavor intensity, focus, balance, harmony and finesse.

Composite cork:

Composite cork: Also known as an agglomerated cork. A wine bottle stopper made of particles or granules of natural cork pressed together and bound by an FDA-approved glue.

Cooked:

Cooked: Describes a dull, stewed flavor associated with wines adversely affected by excessive heat during shipping or storage.

Cooper:

Cooper: A wine barrel maker.

Cooperage:

Cooperage: The facility where wine barrels are made.

Cooperative:

Cooperative: A wine company that is owned and managed by a group of vineyard owners who bottle their wine under one label, sharing the profits. Wine cooperatives are typically associated with cheaper, often bulk, wine.

Coravin:

Coravin: An appliance that allows wine to be removed from an unopened bottle of wine via a hollow needle.

Cordon-trained:

Cordon-trained: Refers to a method of vine training. Cordon-trained vines are supported by a trellising system; typically one or two cordons, or branches, are trained horizontally out of the main trunk.

Corkage Fee:

Corkage Fee: The fee charged by restaurants when guests bring their own bottle of wine rather than ordering from the wine list.

Corked:

Corked: Describes a wine having the off-putting, musty, moldy-newspaper flavor and aroma and dry aftertaste caused by a tainted cork.

Cosecha:

Cosecha: Spanish term for "vintage."

Coulure:

Coulure: Coulure During flowering in the spring, wind and rain as well as chemical deficiencies can keep grapevine flowers from being properly fertilized, causing these flowers to drop off the cluster. This dropping of flowers is called coulure, or shatter. Since each flower is responsible for a grape, the cluster of grapes that eventually forms is loose and missing grapes. If the improperly fertilized flower stays attached, it produces a puny, seedless grape called a "shot" grape. Although the yield is reduced, there is a corresponding benefit—loose clusters that allow for increased air circulation are less susceptible to rot in humid conditions.

Crianza:

Crianza: Crianza One of Spain's quality classifications, it requires that reds are aged for two years, with at least a year in wood, and whites a total of six months.

Crisp:

Crisp: Describes a wine with moderately high acidity; refreshing and bright with a clean finish.

Cru (French):

Cru (French): Cru (French) The term "cru" is officially codified in some old world countries and regions. In Bordeaux, the highest quality wines are called Premiers Crus and in Burgundy, Grands Crus.

Cru :

Cru : Cru A French term, "cru" generally refers to a vineyard or group of vineyards that have similar characteristics.

Cru Beaujolais

Cru Beaujolais: Cru Beaujolais Wines from the ten subregions—Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Régnié, Brouilly and Côte de Brouilly—as opposed to the regional Beaujolais or Beaujolais-Villages AOCs. They are typically better in quality.

Crush:

Crush: Harvest season when the grapes are picked and crushed.

Cuvée

Cuvée: Cuvée A blend or special lot of wine.

Another famous Napa vineyard, considered among the finest for Cabernet, is also named for its beauty, in this case the Greek for "the beautiful."

The correct answer is: To Kalon

Posted March 12, 2009 Very pretty blackberry, dark chocolate and blueberry aromas follow through to a full body, with wonderfully integrated tannins and a long, refined finish.

Varietal The clean, clear fruit character of this wine should make our task relatively easy. Let's start by eliminating Cabernet Sauvignon, whose typical currant fruit and more muscular, tannic structure is at odds with what we have here. Next to go is Syrah. Blueberry and blackberry are OK and you might find the occasional hint of chocolate in a Syrah too, but we're missing some of Syrah's hallmarks—licorice, tar, olive—at least one of which we should. A textbook Carmenère offers plum and black cherry notes, riding a fleshy texture, all of which are absent here, so we can move on. Dolcetto is a more likely candidate, both the structure and the fruit character are right and the chocolate note fits too. But without Dolcetto's typical rose petal or leafy character we can move on. We're left with Merlot, which typically produces a wine that displays black fruit, with a hint of chocolate, on a smooth palate. This is a Merlot or Merlot-based blend. Country Merlot is grown to some extent all over the world, including all of the countries on our list. It's an early-ripening variety, but needs a cooler, measured climate to be able to mature slowly and evenly. That's why plantings of Merlot are rare in relatively hot countries, such as Chile and Australia. Californian Merlot has improved much in recent years, particularly in Napa and Sonoma. These wines show bold, ripe black fruit character, often accompanied by toasty espresso notes, a profile more indicative of the style of winemaking than characteristic of the grape variety itself. We have one country from the Old World here: France. With the great balance that our wine shows, we can lean toward France, particularly Bordeaux, where Merlot is one of the dominant grape varieties. This Merlot blend is from France. Age As Merlot ages, it tends to lose some of its fresh black fruit character, in favor of herbal notes. An herbal profile is evidently not the case with our wine, so we can eliminate the older age ranges. On the other hand, this wine's refined character, with integrated tannins point to some aging in oak before release. The most likely Bordeaux vintages are 2004, 2005 and 2006. Merlots from the rather weak 2004 vintage tend to be more delicate than our example. The classic 2005 vintage, one of the best 20th century vintages in Bordeaux, produced opulent wines with a powerful structure. Stylistically in between the two we have the 2006 vintage, which produced many wines with clean fruit, and good balance and structure, such as our wine displays. This Merlot blend is from the recently released 2006 vintage, making it three years old. Appellation We have two Bordeaux appellations to choose from, both of which produce blended wines containing Merlot. Reds from the Pessac-Léognan appellation, located in the gravelly soil south of Bordeaux, typically feature a higher percentage of Merlot than those made in the Médoc region on Bordeaux's Left Bank, where Cabernet Sauvignon holds sway. For example, Château Haut-Brion's (Pessac's first-growth) 2006 was a blend of 57 percent Merlot, with 41 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 2 percent Cabernet Franc. But there's not enough evidence of Cabernet in our wine to fit the Pessac appellation, so we should choose Lalande-de-Pomerol, a satellite of the great Pomerol appellation, where Merlot reigns supreme. This Merlot blend (85 percent Merlot, 10 percent Cabernet Franc and 5 percent Cabernet sauvignon) is from Lalande-de-Pomerol. Wine It's the La Fleur de Boüard Lalande-de-Pomerol 2006, rated at 90 points in our March 31 issue. This recently released bottling goes for $35 and 5,330 cases were made. Owner Hubert de Boüard de la Forest, who also manages his family's top St.-Emilion estate, Château Angelus, bought the 49-acre estate in 1998 and bottled the first vintage of La Fleur de Boüard that same year. Since then it has consistently been cited as one of Bordeaux's best values.

Posted April 23, 2009 A big, fleshy red with gorgeous currant and cherry fruit, picking up a strong minty note as the finish expands and becomes more expressive. Ripe and aromatic, it takes two or three sips for the tannins to slip in, yet they put a light but positive grip on the finish.

Varietal The distinctive flavor profile and structure of this big, expressive wine should make it easy to discover its identity. Since our note has ample tannins and ripe flavors, we should start with the light-bodied grapes and work our way toward the richer, full-bodied grapes. We can begin by eliminating Pinot Noir and Barbera. Both grapes tend to be less full-bodied than our wine, with lighter tannins and more acidity. Let's look at our other options. Syrah should be the next to go. The grape can produce rich and complex wines, but it tends to show more acidity than our note, and we are missing the grape's telltale pepper, olive or spice notes in our wine. Petit Verdot, one of the five red grapes grown in Bordeaux, is traditionally used for blending and is not commonly found bottled as a varietal. By itself the grape can be tannic, dense and powerful, with dark fruit flavors of currant, blackberry and plum. But the grape rarely reaches the level of complexity and balance that our wine shows, so we can move on. This leaves us with Cabernet Sauvignon. Often considered the king of the red grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon is known for its depth, complexity, concentration and aging potential. It can be full-bodied with ample tannins, and common flavors include currant, cherry and plum along with spice, herb, tobacco and sometimes mint notes. This is a Cabernet Sauvignon Country Cabernet Sauvignon's popularity has assured it a place in many vineyards throughout the world. However, this late-ripening grape can be inconsistent when grown in cooler regions, and for this reason we can cross Germany off the list. We can also eliminate Portugal, as very little Cabernet is grown in that country, where producers continue to rely on Port varieties to produce their dry table wines. Cabernet Sauvignon has been grown in Italy since the mid-1800s and there are many outstanding examples of the grape, either bottled on its own or blended with other grapes, such as Sangiovese. But Cabernets from Italy usually show more elegance, greater acidity and silkier tannins than our wine, so we can look at our next option. Chile produces some very fine Cabernet and Cabernet-based wines, bottlings that lead the way in the country's recent surge of high-quality reds. And Chilean Cabernets, particularly those from the Maipo region, are known for a signature mint note. But we would expect a softer structure and more loam, tobacco and cedar notes if our wine were from Chile. This leaves us with Australia. Well-known for its distinctive Shiraz, Australia is also home to some very fine Cabernet Sauvignon. It is the second largest category of red wines coming out of the country, and Cab is often blended with Shiraz. Australia Cabernets can vary from region to region, but the best examples tend to be ripe and expressive, with supple structures, and currant, cherry, herb and mint flavors. This Cabernet is from Australia. Age Since our note does not show the signs of an aged wine, such as dried fruit or floral aromas and flavors, we can safely assume that it is not 10 years or older. We can also eliminate the six to nine year category because the light tannic grip and the gorgeous fruit found in our wine tell us that it is still relatively young and needs time to integrate fully. Looking at the youngest age bracket, some of the 2008 Australian Cabernets are just starting to hit the U.S. market, but the 2007 vintage is still the most widely available. 2007 was a tough year for producers; they had to deal with droughts and frosts in South Australia and Victoria. The vintage produced reds with less liveliness than prior vintages, which means the vibrant fruit character of our wine would be out of place for a 2007. In the three to five year category we have a string of great to outstanding vintages, starting with 2004, which saw a long growing season and produced graceful, open-textured wines. Our wine has more power than grace, so we can look instead at 2005 and 2006. 2005 was an outstanding year with warmer temperatures, producing generous wines. This may sound close, but we would expect to see more integrated tannins from a 4-year-old wine. This leaves 2006, a great vintage with warm temperatures that helped ripen the Cabernet grapes. This wine is from the 2006 vintage, making it three years old. Appellation Our two Australian appellations are Margaret River and Barossa Valley. The Margaret River appellation is located on the southwestern tip of the Australian state of Western Australia. Well known for producing some of the country's best Chardonnays, the Margaret River is also home to Cabernet. The region is cooler than the Barossa Valley, with warm summers and moderate, but wet winters. Here Cabernet tends to be more elegant and often takes on peppery notes. This isn't a good match for our wine. Barossa Valley is a subappellation of Barossa, located in South Australia. The region receives plenty of sunshine, with dry, hot summers and a continental climate. Barossa Valley has a reputation for its distinctive Shiraz, but producers are making some outstanding Cabernets as well. Cabernet-based wines show the region's typical density and can be big and ripe, but still supple and complex, just like our wine. This Cabernet Sauvignon is from Barossa Valley. Wine It's the Two Hands Cabernet Sauvignon Barossa Valley Coach House Block Single Vineyard 2006, which was rated 92 points. It retails for $120. For more information on Cabernet Sauvignons from Australia, see Harvey Steiman's Australian red tasting report in Wine Spectator's Oct. 15, 2008, issue. —Augustus Weed, assistant tasting coordinator

How do you spell this famed appellation for Nebbiolo in the Piedmont region of Italy?

Barolo

Georges de Latour arrived in Napa and bought property in Rutherford in 1900. He named his vineyard this, after his wife's exclamation in French upon seeing the "beautiful place":

Beaulieu

Chewy:

Chewy: Describes highly extracted, full-bodied and tannic wines that are so rich they seem as if they should be chewed, rather than simply swallowed.

Chaptalization:

Chaptalization: Chaptalization The addition of sugar to juice before and/or during fermentation, used to boost sugar levels in underripe grapes and alcohol levels in the subsequent wines. Common in northern European countries, where the cold climates may keep grapes from ripening, but forbidden in southern Europe (including southern France and all of Italy) and California.

Rhône-style whites are also being made more frequently on the West Coast. Which is NOT a white Rhône grape? Chardonnay Marsanne Roussanne Viognier

Chardonnay

Charmat:

Charmat: Charmat A less expensive, mass-production method for producing bulk quantities of sparkling wine. The second fermentation takes place in a pressurized tank, rather than in a bottle, decreasing lees contact and producing larger, coarser bubbles. The wine is filtered under pressure and bottled. Also known as the bulk process or tank method. Wines made this way cannot be labeled méthode Champenoise.

Chef de Cave:

Chef de Cave: French term for cellarmaster or head winemaker.

Decanting :

Decanting : A technique that removes sediment from wine before drinking. After allowing the sediment to settle by standing the bottle upright for the day, the wine is poured slowly and carefully into another container, leaving the sediment in the original bottle.

Degree Days:

Degree Days: A method of classifying the climate based on the number of days the temperature is within a range that vines can grow. In California, climates are rated from coolest (Region I) to the warmest (Region V). This classification can help winemakers determine where to plant which variety.

Dégorgement

Dégorgement: Dégorgement See Disgorgment.

How do you spell the Hungarian Tokaji wine that is the free-run juice of grapes concentrated by botrytis? It takes years to ferment and can have 900 grams/liter of residual sugar.

Eszencia

Wines to drink with Christmas ham

Expert food and wine writer Fiona Beckett gives her advice on which bottles to open with a traditional Christmas ham. image: https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspirewp/live/wp-content/uploads/sites/34/2016/12/christmas-ham-alamy-EBR8R9-630x417.jpg wines with christmas ham TAGS: The one thing you can be sure of is that your ham will be sweet. No self respecting Christmas ham comes without some kind of a glaze and that is the main factor to take into account in any wine pairing. Granted, it makes more of a difference when the ham is served hot than it does once it's cold. Leftovers, particularly combined with turkey will rub along happily with a decent Beaujolais cru or a fresh young village Burgundy, wines that would taste sharp and weedy with the same ham served hot. Many glazes have an orange or marmalade component that tends to work well with bright flavoured reds like Australian Shiraz from Barossa or McLaren Vale, or a GSM blend; Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre. If there's a degree of heat and spice involved, as is the case with glazes or rubs that use mustard look to the kind of red that can handle spicy food. Zinfandel immediately comes to mind or a good Pinotage. Both of those wines should also be able to handle the slightly smoky taste you get when a ham is cooked in cola Nigella-Lawson style - even the treacle glaze. image: https://static.apester.com/js/assets/loader_100x100.gif If your ham coating is slightly less sweet that could bring into play an Amarone, a wine that is too powerful for the turkey I tend to feel. And many people's Christmas favourite, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, can be a winner especially if the ham is served alongside the turkey. Finally, what about a white? Trickier than a red, I'd say - again you want one that can handle the sweetness. A rich Australian Semillon is the obvious call (think ham and pineapple) otherwise look to full-bodied whites such as Viognier and old vine Chenin Blanc from the Cape in South Africa. Or, as a wild card, a grand cru Gewürztraminer from Alsace. See Fiona Beckett's website, MatchingFoodAndWine.com. This article was originally published in 2016 and has been updated in December 2018 with links to new Decanter wine recommendations. Read more at https://www.decanter.com/learn/food/wines-with-christmas-ham-350585/#yedK2ohDPT7Ux26V.99

For centuries, the ancient Roman emperors and other elite consistently drank a wine made from grapes on the slopes of Mt. Massico. What was it called?

Falernian

Cru (Other):

In other countries like Italy, "cru" can simply refer to a single-vineyard bottling that may or may not be classified

Wine Faults and How to Recognize Them

Is your wine corked? Oxidized? Plain over-the-hill? Learn the signs of common wine faults (and the characteristics mistaken for them) and find out whether to dump or drink. BY LAUREN MOWERY Illustration by Ryan McAmis Is your wine flawless, or flawed? Is what you taste an intentional style, or an accident of storage? The degree to which wine faults are considered problematic often lies in the nose (or palate) of the beholder, and it's often hard to tell the difference. Here's a guide to seven common wine faults, plus two situations you can happily ignore. A corked wine will smell like wet newspaper A corked wine will smell like wet newspaper / Illustration by Ryan McAmis Corked Wine Warning Signs Sniff for dusty aromas of wet newspaper and damp basement, and dull, muted fruit. Cause TCA stands for 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, and it's the chemical culprit behind "corked" wine. It frequently derives from natural cork closures. TCA develops when the plant phenols from cork-tree bark are exposed to chlorine, a common sterilizer. Tasters may mistake mustiness for the forest-floor and mushroom notes called sous bois by the French, or confuse it for oxidation or other out-of-condition problems. The rate of cork taint hovers around 3 percent globally, but many wine industry professionals argue it gets blamed far more frequently. Fault Line: Critical While cork taint isn't physically harmful to drinkers, it can easily render a wine undrinkable. A wine that's too old to drink is dead. Is your wine past its prime? / Illustration by Ryan McAmis Over-the-Hill (versus Mature) Warning Signs Look for faded color, loss of personality, structure and freshness. Cause It's common to store an expensive or special bottle for a future occasion. But if you save that treasure too long, it can extend past its optimal sipping point. Most wines aren't built to age more than a few years, and even those that can will have ageability differences due to storage conditions. However, an appreciation for a bottle's later life can also be subjective. As an example, aged Bordeaux will soften and synergize. Its color will fade from ruby to garnet, and the wine will swap primary fruit for tertiary flavor notes of tobacco and cedar. Many wine collectors pay a lot of money for that. Fault Line: Subjective A bottle may be past its prime to one wine lover, but characterful to another. Let your taste buds guide you. A wine suffering from oxidation will taste like vinegar. One way to deal with oxidized wine / Illustration by Ryan McAmis Oxidation Warning Signs Look for ruddy, brownish whites that may smell of Sherry or cider, or brick-orange reds that seem flat and lifeless. Cause Oxidation is a common consumer complaint. It can begin during winemaking, storage or within hours of opening the bottle. Always ask your bartender which day he or she opened that by-the-glass pour. Packaging may also be the cause. Boxed wines have shorter shelf lives than bottles due to the high rate of oxygen exchange in the boxed bags. If a bottled wine is fresh off the shelf and still tastes oxidized, the problem probably started with the producer. In the case of Sherry, vin jaune and some white wines, those nutty flavors are deliberate. Fault Line: Moderate Oxidation presents itself in degrees of intensity, but if color, aroma and flavor loss are severe, consider making vinegar. 7 Wine Storage Tips to Keep You and Your Bottles Happy Exposure to light and heat can make a wine cooked. Looks like a pretty place to store your wine, but it's getting cooked / Illustration by Ryan McAmis Cooked/Maderized Warning Signs Taste for roasted, stewed or jammy reds with prune or raisin flavors, or whites that are brown, nutty and Sherry-like, and not in a tasty way. Cause Prolonged exposure to heat or a series of temperature spikes can cook a wine. Also known as maderization, for the process used to make Madeira, few wines can tolerate the treatment. Cooked wines typically show signs of oxidation, too. A cork partially dislodged from the neck is a good indicator that heat has expanded the air inside. This can happen anywhere: a hot dock during shipping, a sunny window in a store, a pizza restaurant that stores Chianti above the oven, or a car trunk in the summertime. Fault Line: Severe If a wine has been cooked enough to notice, use it as braising liquid instead. No Cause for Concern Though often mistaken for wine faults, these common phenomenon are perfectly normal, and won't harm the flavor of your wine. Wine Diamonds Sign Crystals in the bottom of the bottle. Cause No, that's not glass in your glass. Rather, it's a tartrate deposit. If you've ever used cream of tartar in a cake recipe, you've baked with the same material as those jagged crystals on the bottom of your bottle or cork. They form when naturally occurring potassium and tartaric acid combine and sink out of the liquid. While winery techniques mostly prevent it from happening, they're harmless. Sediment Sign Dark, grainy material in the bottom or side of your red wine bottle. Cause Only in the wine world would dregs in your bottle be a good thing. Often the mark of quality, like with vintage Port, sediment occurs for two reasons. First, many producers don't filter or fine their wines, in order to preserve flavor and texture. This leaves behind particles that settle with time. The second reason relates to aging. Research indicates a combination of acid, tannin and color compounds bond and fall out. Fortunately, sediment is innocuous. Just decant before serving. A wine with brettanomyces ("Brett") can have barnyard aromas. Odors common to wines with Brettanomyces ("Brett") / Illustration by Illustration by Ryan McAmis Brettanomyces or "Brett" Warning Signs "Barnyard," "horsey" and "feral" are typical aroma descriptors. Cause More than any other "fault," Brettanomyces, shortened to Brett, polarizes the wine industry. Brett has long played a pivotal role in the flavor profiles associated with prestigious appellations and grapes, notably France's Southern Rhône Valley. Before anyone knew what caused aromas of "farmyard," "bandage" and "horse blanket," famous producers infected with this spoilage yeast won accolades and high scores from critics. Château de Beaucastel from Châteauneuf-du-Pape routinely crops up as an example. Yet, despite its historical relevance, most wineries try to avoid Brettanomyces yeast in their wines. Fault line: Moderate A beautiful funky note to one taster may smell beastly to another. While it's a matter of preference, too much Brett can overwhelm a wine. A wine with volatile acidity can smell like nail polish What a wine with too much volatile acidity smells like / Illustration by Ryan McAmis Volatile Acidity, also known as VA Warning Signs Smells ranging from a whiff of acetone or nail polish, to downright vinegar. Cause All wine has volatile acidity. Its presence only becomes problematic at higher, detectable levels. This typically occurs after the bacteria that produces it runs wild in the winery. Those gremlins, known as acetobacter, can turn wine into vinegar. Combined with alcohol and oxygen, they can tip VA into unpleasantness. Some winemakers use it as a tool to bring complexity or "high-toned" notes to their wines. But once aromas have moved into vinegar territory, the wine has, well, soured. Ultimately, it's rare to encounter a commercial wine rendered faulty from VA. The best place to fine one: a county-fair wine competition. Fault Line: Moderate Determined case-by-case. At lower levels, VA adds complexity. At high levels, it ruins a wine's fruit flavors. A wine suffering from reduction will smell like rotten eggs. A reduced wine will have struck match, rotten egg smells / Illustration by Ryan McAmis Reduction Warning Signs From struck match to garlic, rubber and rotten eggs. Cause Reduction is the opposite of oxidation. It occurs during the winemaking process, when a wine's limited exposure to air leads to volatile sulfur compounds. When used by the winemaker to preserve fresh fruit aromas or add complexity, you might notice a struck match or smoky, gunflint aroma after opening the bottle. At higher levels, odors of garlic or rotten eggs take hold. But a little reduction can "blow off," as wine pros say, through aeration. Fault line: Mild It's highly unusual to get a whiff of rotten egg from a commercial winery. For milder forms, just decant for an hour or toss in a clean copper penny.

How do you spell the aromatic white variety often used to make off-dry wines, most famously in France's Alsace region?

Gewürztraminer

Because of its high yields and resistance to heat, this Rhône variety has been popular from the early days of the California and Washington wine industries, before it was used to make premium wines:

Grenache

How do you spell this international king of red grapes?

The correct answer is: Cabernet Sauvignon

Winemakers are turning to rustic methods to produce low-intervention wines. So how does skipping pumps in favor of gravity change what's in your bottle? BY JESSICA KELLY The nerve center of Palmaz Vineyards gravity-flow wine system, proving low-intervention doesn't mean low-tech / Photo by Nicola Majocchi Somewhere between industrialized winemaking and the full-on natural/no-intervention movement, there are a growing number of producers using the environment—and more importantly, gravity—to refine their winemaking technique. Many believe that removing pumps or motors from the winemaking process preserves better fragrance and flavor. Some wineries have even gone so far as to build their facilities underground or on sloped land to bypass machinery and let gravity better work its magic. Are these environmental efforts the future or just a fad? Owners and winemakers from five wineries around the U.S. and Canada speak about how their environmentally-friendly production techniques influence the quality of the resulting wines. "By avoiding shaking, bruising, emulsion [or] oxidation, we are able to preserve the purity of fruit and negate astringency and compromising flavors. Aromatics are kept within the wine." -Jean-Laurent Groux, winemaker, Stratus Vineyards The tasting room of Stratus Vineyards The tasting room of Stratus Vineyards Stratus Vineyards Jean-Laurent Groux, or "J-L," is the winemaker at Stratus Vineyards in Niagara, one of the few completely pump-free wineries in the world. "By avoiding shaking, bruising, emulsion [or] oxidation, we are able to preserve the purity of fruit and negate astringency and compromising flavors," says Groux. "Aromatics are kept within the wine." To do this, Stratus utilizes a four-story production facility, certified by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) organization, which allows for the movement of wine from the upper levels of the facility to those lower, while keeping oxygen contact and aeration to a minimum. In addition to their production design, Stratus also makes a point of using 100% hand-harvested grapes. "The pursuit of optimal quality and form following function drove the entire process at Stratus," says Groux. "As we were a completely new build, we were able to incorporate 'ideal' scenarios for the noninterventionist movement of fruit, juice and wine. [The harnessing of] gravity, being an age-old concept, [is] still highly relevant to premium winemaking." Keeping a close eye on the process at Palmaz Vineyards / Photo by Nicola Majocchi Keeping a close eye on the process at Palmaz Vineyards / Photo by Nicola Majocchi Palmaz Vineyards Christian Gastón Palmaz, CEO of Palmaz Vineyards in Napa Valley, says that there's a science to gentle winemaking based in, well, science. Tannin polymerization occurs as a wine ages. It's the process by which tannin molecules bind together and fall out of suspension as sediment, which smooths out the texture and mouthfeel of the wine. "Ever since it has been known that the tannin molecules in wine are polymerizing structures, there has been a great benefit to being as gentle as possible during the winemaking process," says Palmaz. The facility, which spans 18-stories underground, was engineered so that the gravity alone is enough to transport the fermented wine, as well as filter it and allow for blending with minimal agitation. The distance between the levels even creates enough pressure for bottling without pumps. Palmaz Vineyards exterior and their subterranean production facilities / Photo by Lance Hitchings Palmaz Vineyards exterior and their subterranean production facilities / Photo by Lance Hitchings "Tannin polymerization is limited or even degraded by the mechanical shear caused by pumps," Palmaz says. He maintains that when wine is made with machines, it doesn't get the chance to rest until it hits the bottle, resulting in added aging responsibility for the wine's buyer. Not only does the facility reduce electricity consumption, "[it's] one of the only certified net-zero water consumption wineries in California," says Palmaz. "This means that every drop of water used in the process of making wine is captured, treated back to nearly potable standards, stored in a tunnel three city blocks long, and then used for irrigation the following year." "This amounts to over 1.5 million gallons of water saved every year and reused for irrigation," he says. Are Hand-Picked Grapes Better Than Machine-Harvested? These methods also allow the winery to scale back on equipment used, allowing for further conservation by decreasing the amount of water and resources needed to clean equipment like pumps. "Our facility's non-compromising approach to gravity flow ensures that any polymerization achieved during the process of aging wine [in tank or barrel] is maintained to the bottle," says Palmaz. "Since, arguably, the wine is progressively more molecularly delicate as tannin polymers form, we have dedicated the design of Palmaz Vineyards to be truly gravity from start to finish...hence why we like to call our process 'gravity finished.' " Melissa Burr, vice president of winemaking, Stoller Family Estate / Photo by Brie Mullin Melissa Burr, vice president of winemaking, Stoller Family Estate / Photo by Brie Mullin "[Avoiding pumps] protects the delicate aromatic compounds in Pinot Noir. The wines are made in a reductive environment for the most part, ultimately leading to freshness and purity in the bottle." -Melissa Burr, vice president of winemaking, Stoller Family Estate Stoller Family Group At Oregon's Stoller Family Estate, in the Willamette Valley's Dundee Hills, it was fairly easy to embrace the gravity-flow method, says Melissa Burr, the winery's vice president of winemaking. "We utilized the natural topography of the hillside on the Stoller estate to build the winery, and incorporated the slope to create a multilevel gravity-flow facility," says Burr. "The advantage of using gravity to move wine from fermentation to settling, and then to barrel for gentle processing and treatment of wine, was part of the design." According to Burr, these techniques reduce oxygen contact in the final wines. "This protects the delicate aromatic compounds in Pinot Noir," says Burr. "The wines are made in a reductive environment for the most part, ultimately leading to freshness and purity in the bottle." Making full use of the hillside's benefits, the winery utilizes natural insulation in the cellars. The first LEED Gold winery in the world, Stoller's cellar is completely underground, keeping it cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Catacombs also wind throughout the facility, facilitating air movement and helping create consistent temperatures without artificial heating or cooling. "The temperature in our barrel room stays cool year-round," says Burr. Stoutridge Winery, Hudson Valley, New York Stoutridge Winery, Hudson Valley, New York Stoutridge Winery Stephen Osborn, the owner, winemaker and distiller at Stoutridge Vineyard in New York's Hudson Valley, decided to ditch machine methods for two main reasons. "First, it's more environmentally friendly," says Osborn. "No electric motors and less things to clean with hot water and cleaning agents. Second, it makes fresher-tasting wine." Also contributing to sustainability efforts, Stoutridge powers both the production facilities as well as areas open to the public through photovoltaic solar panels mounted on the south-facing roof. The winery also utilizes a system to capture heat created during the winemaking process to help warm outdoor areas as well as the floors of the tasting room. "It's a lot like the difference between a puréed tomato and a whole tomato—the purée always tastes less fresh and visceral, even though the chemistries of the two are identical." -Stephen Osborn, owner/winemaker/distiller, Stoutridge Vineyard But what is it about the gravity technique that allows for a fresher style of wine? "Lack of pumping and filtration helps to retain the dissolved [carbon dioxide] from fermentation in the finished wine, which alters the flavor profile globally," says Osborn. "So it's a texture value, dissolved gasses, affecting the entire flavor profile of the wine. It becomes fresher tasting and more vibrant. It's a lot like the difference between a puréed tomato and a whole tomato—the purée always tastes less fresh and visceral, even though the chemistries of the two are identical." The design for Lemelson Vineyards' gravity-flow wine system, by architect Larry Ferar The design for Lemelson Vineyards' gravity-flow wine system, by architect Larry Ferar Lemelson Vineyards According to Eric Lemelson, owner/founder of Lemelson Vineyards in the Willamette Valley, they settled on gravity flow for one reason. "I wanted to make the most nuanced, complex, highest-quality wine from the wine grapes we grow in all of our seven sites," says Lemelson. "Gravity flow is one of many choices we make that affect the complexity of the final product. Matt Wengel, head winemaker at Lemelson, describes the winemaking process. The fruit is first hand-picked, then placed on the elevated sorting platform above the tank. Lemelson Vineyards' elevated sorting platform / Photo by Andrea Johnson Lemelson Vineyards' elevated sorting platform / Photo by Andrea Johnson "Individual berries or clusters literally fall into the [fermenting] tank one by one, as opposed to using a must pump or dumping processed half-ton fruit bins into the tank via forklift," he says. "What this means is that we can get a higher proportion of whole berries in our tanks over the other two methods, and we avoid mechanical shearing of the berries which can easily be caused by must pumps." Lemelson sees these techniques as one part of a greater whole when it comes to making quality wine. "While I know that you can make great wines using pumps, and that employing low-pressure, gravity-based winemaking does not guarantee anything at the end of the day, I still believe that it's the better qualitative choice," he says. Lemelson, who has a degree in environmental law, also volunteers for a number of ecological causes, including the Oregon Global Warming Commission, as well as the conservation group 1000 Friends of Oregon. He also sits on the board of directors of The Lemelson Foundation, which aims to support inventors and innovators, with a focus on strengthening the planet's ecosystem. However, he does admit that his eco-friendly winemaking techniques aren't a complete panacea for the planet. "Everything we do, seemingly, has implications in terms of energy and materials used that affect our emissions and...the global ecosystem," says Lemelson. But the producer does see stark differences in the final wine. "What this translates to is softer, rounder tannins and mouthfeel in the resulting wines, as well as an enhanced red-fruit character similar to that of carbonic maceration," says Wengel. "Mechanical damage to the berry skins, and particularly the seeds, will cause unwanted, harsher tannin release before the tank even starts fermenting."

How Gravity-Flow Wineries are Taking Grapes to New Heights

Why does the Syrah grape thrive in eastern Washington?

It can withstand both the extreme heat and sometimes-harsh winters of the area It takes well to the volcanic and loam soils

In California, "Rhône-style" red wines are not limited to the grapes permitted in the Rhône Valley. Which of these is a popular non-Rhône grape for these blends?

Petite Sirah Zinfandel

How do you spell the process of transferring fermenting or unfinished wine from one container to another to remove sediment or expose the wine to a bit of oxygen?

Racking

How do you spell this ancient grape, the primary white variety of the country Georgia?

Rkatsiteli

How do you spell the technique of bleeding off red wine juice from a tank to concentrate the remaining must and/or make a rosé wine?

Saignée

The Unwritten Rules of Tasting Room Etiquette

Showing up in a party bus, making faces after sampling a wine or bragging about your 4,000-bottle cellar will not put you in the good graces of any winery. Here are tips on how to avoid the most irksome tasting room behavior. BY KELLY MAGYARICS DWS Getty 'Tis the season for weekend winery outings. Convivial, relaxing and educational, these visits can bring out the worst in some well-intentioned but inexperienced guests. We asked wine professionals from around the country to weigh in on the pet peeves they encounter in tasting rooms, and how visitors can sidestep them. Reconsider rolling in with a large group. Alicia Ekeler-Valle, tasting room manager at Lieb Cellars on the North Fork of Long Island, suggests doing a little research if you plan to bring more than six guests. "There is nothing more disappointing than being turned away at the door, because you did not make a reservation or arrived in a vehicle that is not permitted," she says. A big group can overtake the tasting bar, change the atmosphere with loud chatter and prove tricky to corral throughout the day. "You will be able to better appreciate each tasting room if you can take your time and relax." Check the rules regarding children. "Well-behaved kids are welcome, but as parents, it's your responsibility to make sure they don't become a part of someone else's tasting experience," says Thomas Fogarty, owner of Thomas Fogarty Winery & Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains, says. "As a parent of a four-year-old and a six-year-old, I try [to] remember that the only people who find my kids adorable as I do [are] my wife, and maybe the grandparents." Call ahead to see if a winery is family-friendly. Follow restaurant etiquette as a guide. If there's a host stand, says Ekeler-Valle, then check-in first. Were you brought to a table with a server? Place your order with him or her, and be sure to leave gratuity. Is it a big open space with a very long bar? Then you can assume that you're free to roam. "Pick up on the vibe, and you will be destined to have a great time," she says. Be unbiased. "'I just love Cabernet Sauvignon, but I can't stand Merlot' isn't a thing, no matter what you were told," says Fogarty. It's okay if you aren't into a wine, but try it and let the staff explain its context, origin and food pairings. "[And] run through the whole flight in the order we suggest," he says. "A lot of thought went into the selections and the order." Tasting Room Design that is Redefining the Winery Experience Savor your sips. "You don't go to a tasting every day, so give it time to be a special experience," says Eric Bruce, hospitality manager at Lenné Estate in Oregon's Willamette Valley. "Rushing through and gulping down the wine with hardly a sniff defeats the whole purpose." Also, don't overestimate the number of tasting rooms you can hit in a day. A few quality experiences are preferable to numerous and unmemorable pours that'll end up swirling together in your head. Don't be that person. Insufferable know-it-alls are, well, insufferable. Chris Sparkman, co-owner of Sparkman Cellars in Woodinville, Washington, recalls guests quick to regale descriptions of their massive home cellars, and even one who told him how he should make his wine. Sparkman has learned to shelve his ego, but it's still off-putting. So is using comedy to cover inexperience, says Bruce. "It was kind of funny the first time you said, 'This one smells [or] tastes like grapes,'" he says. "It's not funny the fourth time." Keep your reactions in check. Exaggerated expressions like grimacing, shaking your head, calling a wine disgusting or sticking out your tongue are actions suited for a toddler. "I understand all wines won't be liked by all people, but respect the hard work that goes into each bottle," says Ian Rossi, assistant tasting room manager at Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards in New York's Finger Lakes. "If you don't like a wine, simply dump it out or give it to a friend." Feel free to express your opinion. "Wine is subjective, and we never blame a customer for having a certain preference," says Brooks Hoover, vineyard manager at Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards in Virginia's Monticello Wine Trail. If you don't like a wine, be honest, but also be willing to try new flavors and styles. "At the end of the day, being open and communicating your desires is important." Don't be afraid to spit. Flights may include up to seven wines. To really evaluate them, you can't drink them all, says Fogarty, especially if you plan multiple stops that day. "There is something in the public's psyche that associates spitting with disgust, but it's simply a way to taste wine." Be a responsible friend. If a companion has over-imbibed, bring them water, let the staff know and discourage further consumption. "An intoxicated person will be much more receptive to a friend cutting them off than a server," says Rossi. "The server will appreciate your effort, and your friend will appreciate it the next day."

Should You Smell the Cork When Opening Wine? Always.

Smelling the cork after opening a bottle can seem like a relic of the past. But you're making a huge mistake if you skip this step in evaluating wine. BY SEAN P. SULLIVAN Haughty relic of days past or integral step in evaluating wine? / Getty Chances are, when you've ordered a bottle of wine at a restaurant, the server presented you with the cork. What should happen next is a source of some confusion and disagreement. Tradition has held that you should inspect the cork. Indeed, there are two things you should look for. The first is that the cork, if branded, is from the correct producer and vintage as what you ordered. It's unlikely, but spotting fraudulent bottles is one reason that this ritual started. The second is to inspect the integrity of the cork. Next, many people believe that they are supposed to smell the cork. However, the topic is surprisingly controversial. "Seriously, don't sniff the cork," advises one article. "Don't smell the cork," declares another. "Put down that wine cork: Why sniffing gets you nowhere," opines a third. The people who say you should not smell the cork are dead wrong. To smell the cork is a vital part of evaluating a bottle of wine. It appears, however, that though the ritual has persisted for some, most people don't know why it began in the first place. Here is why you should sniff around every bottle of wine you open. A percentage of wines sealed with natural cork contain a contaminant called trichloroanisole (TCA), known as "cork taint." Wines that suffer from this defect are referred to as "corked." This term is sometimes used erroneously for a wine with any fault, but should truly be reserved for TCA-tainted wines. Without sniffing the cork, it's possible that everything will seem fine until 15 to 30 minutes later, when the taint starts to show. At its most subtle, cork taint simply mutes the aromas and flavors of a wine. At its most overt, it gives the wine a strong aroma and flavor of a damp, moldy basement. When a server pours you a small amount of wine and you look at it, swirl it, smell it and subsequently taste it, cork taint is one of the things you are examining for. So why not just smell and taste the wine and skip the cork? Here is the thing: To the extent that the wine is tainted by TCA, the most likely source is the cork itself. This means the moldy basement aroma is often quite concentrated in the cork, whereas it might be less so on the wine. Additionally, cork taint on a wine can start out as very subtle, essentially undetectable even by people who are highly sensitive to it. However, as a wine is exposed to oxygen, cork taint can become more prominent. Yes, Cork Taint is Still a Problem Without sniffing the cork, it's possible that everything will seem fine until 15 to 30 minutes later, when the taint starts to show. If you are at a restaurant, you're now in an incredibly awkward position. You've pronounced the wine sound, consumed some of it, but now have to tell your server that the wine is actually corked. Ugh. This is where smelling the cork is your friend. It's your first shot to detect cork taint. About 90% of the time I come across a corked bottle, the taint is first detectable on the cork before being confirmed in the wine. While smelling the cork is not 100% effective at picking up TCA taint, in my experience it's still an extremely effective technique, even for wines that don't seem corked on first pour. If you always smell the cork, you'll better educate yourself as to what cork taint smells like. If you're having wine at home, smelling the cork can also save you from contaminating your glass with a highly corked wine and having to wash it out or grab a fresh one before moving on to another bottle. Writers have pointed out that smelling a cork is only helpful if you know what you're looking for. Indeed, many wine lovers don't know what cork taint smells like. But I believe this view is shortsighted. If you always smell the cork, you'll better educate yourself as to what cork taint smells like. You will come across a cork that smells faintly, or perhaps strongly, like wet cardboard, and you can hone your skills from there. You may only pick up the more obvious examples at first, but subtler faults will become apparent over time. You'll also notice interesting variations in what different corks smell like. So go ahead. Sniff away the next time a server presents you with a wine cork. There's a lot to learn from smelling that tiny piece of tree bark. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

How do you spell the system of successively blending younger vintages into casks of older vintages that is used in the making of Sherry?

Solera

The Great Ice Wine Tradition of the American Midwest

Taking a cue from the Niagara Peninsula, here's how states from Ohio to South Dakota are producing the nectar of the gods. BY KELSEY OGLETREE The frozen vines of Chateau Chantal,Traverse City, Michigan With high risk can come high reward, or it can bring complete loss. That's the challenge ice wine producers face every day. "Every time we do it, we say, 'We're never doing that again,' yet we always go through another 10 months, and it gets close to harvest and we say, 'We should do something challenging,'" says Eric Harris, owner/head winemaker at Two-EE's Winery in Huntington, Indiana. Ice wine production is a grueling process that can only succeed in very particular cold climates. Grapes often stay on the vine until December or January, and they're harvested and pressed while still frozen. Fermentation is started immediately to mediate the high sugar content of the concentrated juice. Often, the grapes are picked in the middle of the night, sometimes in snowy, windy, below-zero conditions. That is, if the birds, deer, raccoons and bugs didn't get to the grapes first. The frozen slopes at Wollersheim / Photo courtesy WollersheiThe frozen slopes of Wollersheim's vineyards, Prairie Du Sac, Wisconsin / Photo courtesy Wollersheim Winery & Distillerym Winery & Distillery The frozen slopes of Wollersheim's vineyards, Prairie Du Sac, Wisconsin / Photo courtesy Wollersheim Winery & Distillery Ice wine in the Americas According to Philippe Coquard, a 13th-generation winemaker from the Beaujolais region of France, few European countries still make ice wine due to climate change and a lack of consistent cold weather. While Europe's climate may not be optimally suited to produce ice wine, the Midwest U.S. is a different story. Coquard, now head winemaker at Wollersheim Winery in Prairie Du Sac, Wisconsin, says that ice wine has been on the rise in the region over the past two decades. "It's like liquid honey," says Coquard. Cold-hardy wine grapes developed by the University of Minnesota about two decades ago are primarily why many Midwestern states are able to grow grapes at all. Varieties like Frontenac, and its mutations, Frontenac Gris and Frontenac Blanc, are common across vineyards because their vigorous vines can withstand the weather and are very disease resistant. Because ice wine is so difficult to make ("Like pressing juice out of gummy bears," says Harris), it tends to be expensive. Half-bottles can cost $100 or more. There's also many imposters out there made from grapes frozen post-harvest in a freezer. Here's a look inside the production methods for seven true ice wine makers across the Midwest. Frozen vines at Next Chapter Winery in New Prague, Minnesota / Photo by Timothy Tulloch Frozen vines at Next Chapter Winery, New Prague, Minnesota / Photo by Timothy Tulloch Next Chapter Winery (New Prague, MN) When winemaker Timothy Tulloch, of New Chapter Winery, tried his hand at ice wine in 2015, he was skeptical. "Who's going to want to buy 375 milliliters of ice wine for $50?" he asked. Much to his surprise, when the 2015 vintage debuted in the winery's tasting room, it sold out almost immediately. "I couldn't make enough," says Tulloch. If they're lucky, Tulloch's "lethal weapon," an old-school boom box that blasts NPR at all hours, has kept the deer at bay. Tulloch uses Frontenac Gris grapes, a grey mutation of one of the varieties developed by the University of Minnesota. Each fall, Next Chapter hosts a grape stomp, where about 2,000 guests pay to take part in winemaking. When it tried to repeat the concept for ice wine, "we got a grand total of zero," says Tulloch. He and the staff dress in snowmobile suits for the brutal harvest. If they're lucky, Tulloch's "lethal weapon," an old-school boom box that blasts NPR at all hours, has kept the deer at bay. Snow-covered grapes at Springs Winery, Greenleaf, Wisconsin Snow-covered grapes at Springs Winery, Greenleaf, Wisconsin Trout Springs Winery (Greenleaf, WI) With a fish hatchery, water gardening design services and a "glamping" tent on the premises, Trout Springs Winery, located about 20 miles south of Green Bay, isn't your typical Wisconsin winery. Husband-and-wife owners Steve and Andrea DeBaker began to experiment with ice wine five years ago just to see if it could be done. "I thought, if they can do a red ice wine, I can do one, too," -Steve DeBaker, owner, Trout Springs Winery They started off with white varieties like Louise Swenson, La Crosse and La Crescent, all developed by the University of Minnesota, with promising results. But after they sampled a red ice wine made at Inniskillin on the Niagara Peninsula, who are largely credited with popularizing ice wine in Canada, DeBaker turned to Frontenac and Marquette grapes. "I thought, if they can do a red ice wine, I can do one, too," he says. Trout Springs' first red ice wine was released December 2018, much to DeBaker's excitement. "Oh man, it's so complex," he says. Its flavor, he says, offers hits of raspberry, currant and even layers of tropical flavors, with a smooth finish. His 2017 vintage is lovely as an aperitif, but according to DeBaker, even better paired with a light chocolate mousse. Tasting room at Debonné Vineyards, Madison, Ohio Tasting room at Debonné Vineyards, Madison, Ohio Debonné Vineyards (Madison, OH) With a climate moderated by eastern Lake Erie, Debonné Vineyards, the largest estate winery in Ohio, presents ideal conditions for ice wine, says winemaker Michael Harris. Debonne has produced ice wine for almost two decades, mostly with Vidal Blanc, but more recently with Riesling, as well as Concord sourced from a sister vineyard. Typically, it makes 600-1,500 gallons of ice wine each winter and, surprisingly, has never had to skip a year, thanks to Mother Nature, says Harris. "I think there's more awareness [of ice wine] now," says Harris, who began to make wine after over 30 years in the restaurant business. He was introduced to ice wine as an aperitif in the Chicago area about 15 years ago, and he loves nothing more than to pair it with bread pudding or a slice of lemon torte. Future ice wine at Cooper's Hawk Winery, Woodridge, Illinois Future ice wine at Cooper's Hawk Winery, Woodridge, Illinois Cooper's Hawk Winery (Woodridge, IL) Winemaker Rob Warren grew up in Canada and studied viticulture in St. Catharines, Ontario, in the heart of the Niagara Peninsula. He first came to Cooper's Hawk 12 years ago and says the winery has made ice wine for at least that long. Rather than growing their own grapes in Woodridge, located about 30 miles west of Chicago, they purchase and ferment juice from Vidal Blanc grapes harvested and pressed by Arrowhead Vineyards in nearby Baroda, Michigan. "It's so intense and delicious, it's like no other wine out there. If we didn't make it and offer it, we'd be doing a disservice." -Rob Warren, winemaker, Cooper's Hawk Winery Fermentation must be started as quickly after pressing as possible, as there's a greater risk of spoilage and yeast or bacteria growth on the grapes that can affect the taste. With the juice requiring a two-hour transport via climate-controlled truck, why does Warren go to the trouble? "Because it's really, really yummy," he says. "It's so intense and delicious, it's like no other wine out there. If we didn't make it and offer it, we'd be doing a disservice." The chateau of Chateau Chantal, Traverse City, Michigan The chateau of Chateau Chantal, Traverse City, Michigan Chateau Chantal (Traverse City, MI) One of the focuses at Chateau Chantal is the estate ice wine, which comes off a block on the front of a big hill, says winemaker Brian Hosmer. It's a blend of proprietary white grapes added to a portion of Riesling, which adds a layer of complexity. It also produces a bottling called Entice, a full-bodied ice wine fortified with oak-aged brandy. Because the hill is so large, it experiences great temperature differences from top to bottom. Where some winemakers harvest at 15-18°F, Hosmer aims for 13°F to make sure all the vines are frozen. Volume changes year to year, depending on conditions. A good year might yield 80 cases of wine, while other years have resulted in as few as 15 cases, or even none at all. "What we find that's interesting in northwest Michigan is that we get a similar heat accumulation to other places, but it happens in a condensed window," say Hosmer. "We're trying to figure out how vines compensate, where you can be ripening a Cab Franc and still make ice wine." The tasting area of Two-EEs Winery, Huntington, Indiana The tasting area of Two-EEs Winery, Huntington, Indiana / Photo by Miles Meyer Two-EEs Winery (Huntington, IN) After they experimented with small batches of ice wine over the years, Two-EEs Winery, named for husband-and-wife owners Eric and Emily Harris, now outsources its ice wine juice from another grower. "The majority of the romanticism and fun of ice wine is scavenged from us," quips Eric. The couple employs oxygen-free fermentation in stainless barrels over a three-month period to mitigate ice wine's highly volatile acidity, which comes from increased oxidation due to its late harvest. This method required a lot of close attention and monitoring, but fortunately for them, it was successful. Making ice wine is always a big risk, Eric says, because it often requires sitting on inventory for a long time. The climate in northeast Indiana, where they're located, is difficult for ice wine because there's not much to moderate the harsh weather. However, Eric says he's had some of "the most fantastic ice wines of my life" from the northern part of the state. Your Definitive Guide to Sweet Wines Wilde Prairie Winery (Brandon, SD) Owners Victoria and Jeff Wilde first learned about ice wine from Coquard (of Wollersheim Winery) at a Minnesota Grape Growers Association conference a few years ago. When one of their crops produced a yield too small for use in their regular wines, they made the decision to leave the grapes on vine and make a try at ice wine. The Wildes have three acres of grapes on the same property as their winery but one of its biggest selling points is the exclusive use of 100% South Dakota-grown Frontenac grapes, honey and fruits in its wines, including cherries and plums they grow themselves. Bugs like Asian lady beetles and hornets pose a big threat to crops each year, and the vineyard also struggles with late frosts in the spring. Victoria says that other area growers spray their vines with water to create an icy coat over the buds and insulate them from exposure. This year, they're making a small batch of ice wine with Marechal Fosh, a mild French-American hybrid grape. It's been a difficult process, and they had to run hot wires through the vineyards to keep the raccoons away before harvest. The ice wine is still aging. The Wildes are unsure what they'll do with it once it's ready, or even if they'll attempt it again. "I've tasted it and it's very sweet, but very intense," says Victoria. Sort of like making ice wine itself.

With 19,000 acres under vine, California has more Syrah in the ground than which other international variety?

Tempranillo

Which is NOT a characteristic of cool-climate Syrah like you might find grown on the Sonoma Coast or Santa Ynez Valley? Savory pepper and olive notes Plenty of grip and minerality Bold, splashy red fruit flavors Intense concentration on an elegant frame

The answer is: Bold, splashy red fruit flavors

This Bordeaux "super second" was the first classified estate in the region to earn biodynamic certification, which it began working toward in 2004.

The answer is: Château Pontet-Canet

How do you spell this Southern Rhône region, perhaps the world's most famous for Grenache-based reds?

The answer is: Châteauneuf-du-Pape

How do you spell this region of northeast Spain, home to the white Albariño variety?

The answer is: Rías Baixas

The Rhône Rangers organization promotes American Rhône-style wines. What is a requirement for wineries to saddle up?

The answer is: They must produce a wine that is at least 75 percent made from Rhône varieties or Petite Sirah

Rhône-style wines in California improved when which famous Châteauneuf-du-Pape estate set up a project in Paso Robles, imported cuttings of its own clones of Rhône grapes and shared them with other winemakers?

The correct answer is: Château de Beaucastel

Since 2010, multiple California Rhône-style reds have been named Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year. Which of these is NOT one? Shafer Relentless Napa Valley Saxum James Berry Vineyard Paso Robles Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast They all are

The correct answer is: Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast

How do you spell the name of this Bordeaux-based international winemaking consultant who has assisted hundreds of wineries across most of the world's major wine countries?

The correct answer is: Michel Rolland

Oregon pioneer David Lett of Eyrie Vineyards was the first person to plant which grape in the Willamette Valley when others said it couldn't be done successfully?

The correct answer is: Pinot Noir

Created in 1837 when a winemaker gave his old uncle a few barrels to toy with, this is one of Spain's best-selling wines; a giant neon sign advertising it above the Puerto del Sol is one of Madrid's landmarks.

The correct answer is: Tio Pepe

When Should You Decant Wine?

There's no doubt decanting offers a visual flourish to serving wine. But did you know decanters can sometimes do more harm than good? We take a deep look at this powerful tool, what it does, and help tell you when to decant and when to keep it in the bottle. BY TAMMIE TECLEMARIAM Getty Often an object of intimidation, a decanter is an important and rewarding tool. When done correctly, decanting a wine can elevate even the most average wine experience. However, it's not always easy to know whether or not to decant. You need consider the changes being triggered by the process, along with keeping a few guidelines in mind. There are two main reasons for decanting wine. The first is physical—to separate clarified wine from solids that have formed during aging. The second is the effect of oxygen, which releases certain compounds bound within the bottle. Both have an effect on our perception of flavor, texture and aroma. Contrary to popular belief, decanting older wines is far from an ironclad rule. Decanting for sediment Dr. Gavin Sacks, an associate professor at Cornell University's school of Department of Food Science, notes that separating clarified wine from the solids suspended in the bottle was the original motivation behind decanting wine. "Decanting goes back to alchemy, where it was used to describe the process of removing the liquid part of a mixture from the solids," says Sacks. Wine today is more reliable than ever. We have the ability to filter with precision and prevent certain solids from forming at all, but getting rid of sediment will always be a concern. Sediment can be very fine and has a tendency to deaden flavor and expression. Sometimes a winemaker will choose to bottle something with residual sediment, but most traditionalists balk at any kind of haze or cloudiness. In the holistic act of appreciating wine, visual irregularities are bound to make a mark on how we first perceive a wine. But before you can even make the call to decant, you need to prepare the wine itself. If you're pulling a wine from horizontal cellar storage, you ideally want to give the bottle a couple days to sit vertically so the sediment has time to shift to the bottom without being incorporated into the wine. "The important thing with a red wine is to make sure that the sediment stays at the bottom of the bottle, so you can stop decanting when you get sediment coming into the neck," says Mannie Berk, founder of The Rare Wine Co., an importer and merchant based in California that specializes in old vintages. If you're pulling a wine from horizontal cellar storage, you ideally want to give the bottle a couple days to sit vertically so the sediment has time to shift to the bottom without being incorporated into the wine. Even just a couple of hours is better than nothing. This also makes it unwise to serve an aged wine that was recently transported. Motion disrupts the solids in a way that can't be corrected without an adequate resting period. If you're going straight from cellar to table, be conscious of how the sediment shifts in the process. Berk says to "tilt it to vertical, stand it up in your hands very slowly so that whatever sediment is resting on that side basically slides to the bottom, and then [carry] the bottle standing up." Hold a light under the neck of the bottle where it meets the shoulder so you can pay attention to the clarity of the wine. Stop pouring the moment you notice sediment clouding up the wine. The amount of wine you leave in the bottle will vary depending on the amount of sediment. Preparing your bottle ahead of time will allow for the least amount of waste. How Long Can a Bottle of Wine Stay Open? The last drops of a bottle of red wine being poured in a decanter to let it aerate. Aerating wine to allow oxygen to work its magic / Getty Decanting for oxygen When you pour wine from bottle to decanter, air makes its way into the wine. But if your goal is to encourage the wine to "open up," allowing it to rest after pouring can cause certain additional changes to take place. As explained by Dr. Sacks, there are a few processes happening simultaneously when wine is in the presence of air for over an hour. If you notice an aroma of rotten eggs or struck match upon opening, it's generally a sign of hydrogen sulfide. Thirty minutes to an hour in a decanter can help release those compounds, allowing you to reassess the wine for its other qualities. First is the escape of volatile compounds. The two main culprits in wine are carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. Obviously recognizable in sparkling wine, carbon dioxide is also present in still whites, where unnoticed doses of the prickly, acidic gas provide extra lift to the flavor of certain white wines while bringing preservative qualities. This is one reason we often don't decant white wine. But in most still reds the presence of CO2 can make the wine more tannic and is usually considered a fault. H2S, or hydrogen sulfide, is referred to as a "reduced aroma." It pops up sometimes in red wines that have been produced under hermetic conditions and sealed with very tight closures. This is especially common with Syrah. If you notice an aroma of rotten eggs or struck match upon opening, it's generally a sign of hydrogen sulfide. Thirty minutes to an hour in a decanter can help release those compounds, allowing you to reassess the wine for its other qualities. Further agitation, like swirling, or pouring the wine back and forth, can help if you are in a rush, though this is only recommended for sturdy wines. Exposure to oxygen leads to reactions in the wine, both good and bad, many of which will take several hours (or days) to fully develop. It's why a wine will initially open up pleasantly before an eventual deadening of flavor after being exposed for too long. Among the first things that react with oxygen are sulfur-based compounds. However, sometimes those are aromas we don't want to lose. For example, sulfuric compounds give Sauvignon Blanc its citrusy, tropical aromas, and are easily lost to oxidative reactions. Thankfully, this isn't as much of a concern with red wines, as many of their compounds are not as sensitive to air. Old bottles of wine in a cellar To decant or not to decant / Getty Should all old wines be decanted? Do older wines need more time to decant? Contrary to popular belief, decanting older wines is far from an ironclad rule. Burgundy, for example, is known for its delicacy and the question of whether or not to decant is often hotly debated between experts. However, older vintages of Nebbiolo-based wines, like Barolo and Barbaresco, along with Rioja and other full-bodied wines, are generally strong candidates for decanting. If the initial taste of a wine is promising, decanting may not be necessary. Carefully pour the wine directly from the bottle into the glass. If you do choose to decant, use a carafe with a narrow base that offers less opportunity for air to integrate and alter the wine further. One common belief is that the older a wine is, the longer it can take to open up. But Mannie Berk posits something a little more specific. "Wines that are subjected to a lot of oxygen before they're bottled tend to respond well to oxygen once the bottle is opened," says Berk. For Madeira, decant a minimum of one day for every decade of bottle age. Those Barolos, Barbarescos and Riojas that respond well to decanting? For the most part, they're vinified in a way that involves heavier exposure to oxygen. The most extreme example Berk offers is Madeira, a wine that sees both oxygen and heat in production, and is famously said to last indefinitely after the bottle is opened. "If Madeira's been in bottle for a long time, you want to decant it possibly for a few days to a few weeks before you drink it, because it needs to go from being in an oxygen deprived environment to one where it's back to enjoying oxygen...that's what it really likes," he says. Berk's rule for Madeira? Decant a minimum of one day for every decade of bottle age. Numerous glasses of wine around a decanter How much is too much when it comes to decanting? / Getty How do you know when a wine is done decanting? Lebanon's Château Musar winery is known for releasing wines at peak maturity, having maintained an extensive library of bottles going back decades, with offerings from the 1940s and '50s still for sale. Marc Hochar, whose family founded Musar in 1930, says that decanting is critical to their wines reaching full expression. He recommends decanting a minimum of 30 minutes, but warns that the process of finding a wine's best moment isn't as easy as setting a timer. "In order to enjoy the peak of the wine after you have opened a bottle, you have to [taste] its evolution from the moment you open it. [You need] to understand where it started and where it finished... It is like watching an athlete at the top of his career," says Hochar. "If you were to understand where and when he started his training as a child, how difficult was the path to get to the top, you would respect his achievement even more and see it in a different light." Decanting isn't just the act of pouring a wine into a fancy vessel. It's a powerful tool to keep in your arsenal, one that can vastly expand what you get out of this living beverage. Although there are effects and reactions we can identify, there's not always one answer to whether a particular bottle should be decanted. All you can do is taste, and ask yourself if there's something else to be gained from the process.

How do you spell the German classification for the dessert wine made from individually selected grapes with the highest sugar levels, concentrated by botrytis?

Trockenbeerenauslese

True or false: With 3,100 acres and growing, Syrah is the No. 3 red grape in Washington

True

Posted May 07, 2009 This racy and fresh red has perfumed black cherry, plum and garrigue notes, backed by a streak of sandalwood. There's nice minerally drive on the finish.

Varietal "Racy" reds are rarely made from Cabernet Sauvignon, which is the power player of our pack. If our wine were a Cab, we would look for its signature currant or cassis notes and firm tannins. While we're talking Cabs, we can look at our other Cab too, Cabernet Franc. It's lighter and less tannic than its offspring, Cabernet Sauvignon, but it also features currants, accented by green vegetal or tobacco undertones. Neither varietal is dominant here, so we can cross them out. Sangiovese has similar fruit qualities to our wine's black cherry and plum. It's even known for it's minerally nature and racy structure, but the sandalwood note would be an extremely rare bird for Sangiovese. Pinot Noir comes close too. It features cherry fruit at its core and often has plum notes when grown in warmer climates. And when it's fermented using whole grape clusters it can exhibit a sandalwood note. But like Sangiovese and sandalwood, a garrigue note from Pinot Noir would be rare. Garrigue is our linchpin here. It's a term used to describe a distinct underbrush of wild lavender, sage, rosemary, thyme and juniper, and it's a characteristic closely associated with Grenache. Grenache is also known for its cherry and plum notes, as well as minerals and an aromatic side that often emerges as sandalwood. This is a Grenache. Country Grenache has attracted a cultish following in recent years, with serious bottlings coming out of Australia, Spain and California. But its homeland is the south of France. Grenache needs a long, hot growing season to fully ripen and it excels in the Mediterranean climate. It's also the only place in the world that it grows alongside the region's indigenous garrigue underbrush. This Grenache is from France. Age Fresh and racy are strong clues that this wine is young. But just how young is more difficult to determine. Vintage variation is less important here than knowing how Grenache ages. Unlike most other red varietals (except the sensitive, thinned-skinned Pinot Noir), Grenache oxidizes extremely quickly, which means that it tends to have an accelerated aging process. Fresh fruit flavors rapidly turn to dried fruits, as its earth and mineral qualities become more pronounced. So to say that a Grenache is fresh and racy is really to say that it was tasted shortly after it was bottled. This Grenache is from the 2007 vintage and it's two years old. Appellation We have two appellations from France to consider, and both of them are from the southern French wine region of the Rhône Valley. Cornas is located in the northern part of the Rhône and produces rich, robust reds. These wines have dominant earth and mineral characteristics and can display garrigue notes. However, by law they are 100 percent Syrah. Côtes du Rhône is a broad, entry-level appellation that covers most of the southern part of the Rhône and some parts of the Northern Rhône. It's often a blend, usually dominated by Grenache, that's backed with Syrah and Mourvèdre. Other grapes, such as Cinsault, Carignane and Counoise are also allowed. This Grenache is from Côtes du Rhône. Wine This is the Côtes du Rhône Domaine Le Garrigon 2007 from Louis Bernard, which was rated 89 points in the April 30 issue of Wine Spectator. It's 70 percent Grenache blended with 30 percent Carignan, and it's made entirely from organic grapes. It retails for $13, and 5,000 cases were made. For more information on the wines of the Rhône Valley, see James Molesworth's recent Rhône tasting report in the Nov. 30, 2008, issue of Wine Spectator.

Posted April 09, 2009 Subtle, but with complex aromas of honey, spices, apple pie and lemon candy. Full-bodied and medium sweet, with intense botrytis and lemon peel character and bright acidity. Powerful and long.

Varietal If you haven't noticed already, the subject of this week's tasting note has some sweetness. It's thick and unctuous, and there seem to be many possibilities for this dessert wine at first glance. First to go from our list should be Touriga Nacional. This red wine grape is primarily produced in Portugal, both in the country's dry table wines, as well as in their famed fortified dessert wine, Port. Our tasting note's apple pie and lemon candy are about as far from the concentrated blackberry fruit and licorice notes of a Vintage Port as you can get. We can also quickly eliminate Muscat. Muscat is known for its grapey character and a pronounced orange and orange blossom note, all of which are missing here. It's also generally lighter in body than our note suggests. Italians call it Moscato, and produce a low-alcohol dessert wine with some fizz, not a match for our wine. Pedro Ximénez can be crossed off as well. These concentrated dessert wines usually take on darker, more oxidative characteristics of molasses, fruit cake and caramel, a flavor profile that's certainly lacking here. Next to go is Vidal Blanc, as we're missing its telltale grapefruit note. Canada is home to several outstanding versions of Vidal in a dessert format, but the intensity, power and length of our wine probably sets it apart from, and above, these bottlings in terms of quality. This leaves us with Sémillon, a good fit for the honey, spice, fruit and intensity found in our wine. This is Sémillon. Country If you are keen on grape geography and where certain grapes thrive, it should be easy to select the correct country right off the bat. Sémillon is virtually nonexistent in all but one country on our list—France. You might find some Sémillon in Canada, but its northern latitudes and specific soils are more conducive to growing Vidal Blanc. And only minuscule quantities, if any, Sémillon is grown in Italy, Portugal or Spain. France grows large amounts of Sémillon in the Bordeaux region, using its rich character and full body in blends with other grapes. It is the most widely planted white grape in Bordeaux and can produce wines ranging from dry to concentrated sweeties. This wine is from France. Age Knowing that we have a Sémillon here we can immediately cross off the two oldest vintage categories. We rarely, if ever, see a 10-year-old Sémillon just being released to the market. And beyond six years, Sémillons take on notable secondary characteristics as the ripe fruit flavors change to more-concentrated, dried-fruit flavors and butterscotch or toffee notes appear. Our tasting note's lemon peel and bright acidity indicate a young wine, while the complex honey and spice aromas suggest that the wine has at least a few years on it. This dessert wine is from the 2006 vintage and in its third year. Appellation Knowing our tasting note is from France, we can clearly eliminate the appellations of Spain's Jerez, Italy's Moscato d'Asti, Canada's Niagara Peninsula and Portugal's Port. This leaves us with two dessert regions within France, Sauternes and Monbazillac. Sauternes, in Bordeaux, is renowned for producing world-class dessert wines primarily from a blend of Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc. The grapes are harvested late, after being attacked by the bacteria known as botrytis, or "noble rot." It provides a unique flavor characteristic in the wines, adding a funky spiciness, while diminishing the grapes' yields to pack a lot of concentration into a little juice. Monbazillac is a small region in southwestern France, on the left bank of the Dordogne River. These wines blend Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle and are also affected by botrytis. However, the full-bodied intensity of our wine point us to Bordeaux, and Sauternes. This is a Sauternes. Wine It's the Château Guiraud Sauternes 2006, which was rated 93 points in our March 31 issue. It retails for $50. For more information on 2006 Sauternes, see James Suckling's annual Bordeaux tasting report, including the region's sweet wines, in our March 31 issue.

Posted March 26, 2009 This red is jammy and ripe, but remains balanced and elegant, with boysenberry and toasty vanilla aromas and complex, supple black cherry, smoky sage and spice flavors. Hint of tannins grip the finish.

Varietal Our wine's jammy note jumps out as one of the most distinguishing descriptors, but we also have other clues to help us figure the right grape variety out. The jammy character really eliminates some of our choices right away, such as Pinot Noir. While Pinot's fruit flavors can be reminiscent of ripe black cherry flavors, they rarely move into jammy territory. Likewise with Sangiovese, whose bright red cherry and juicy acidity are not typically described as jammy. Cabernet Franc isn't a good fit either, as we're missing the grape's telltale tobacco, bell pepper and stalky notes. At first Cabernet Sauvignon might seem like it matches up, due to the vanilla, supple black cherry and smoky sage notes found in our wine. But again, we get stuck on the boysenberry flavor and the jammy character, which don't match. All in all, Zinfandel is the best fit. Though Zinfandel is very versatile and stylistically can range from a sophisticated claret-type red to more ripe versions, it's most known for its fruity, berry, jammy profile, such as we see here. This wine is a Zinfandel. Country If you picked the variety correctly, the country should be a breeze. Zinfandel's heritage stems back to a Croation variety called Crljenack, but it's home is in California, and it's rarely seen elsewhere. Just as Tempranillo's spiritual home is Spain and Grüner Veltliner's is Austria, Zinfandel is considered a California native. This Zinfandel is from California. Age Some of the best Zinfandel examples can age upwards of 10 years, but the jamminess of our wine and its ripe black cherry and boysenberry flavors suggest a wine still in its youth. California Zinfandel has experienced a recent string of great vintages since 2001, including the vintages currently in the market—2005, 2006 and 2007. All were warm or moderate vintages, with 2006 generally warmer than 2005 and 2007 having moderate weather and a long growing season. Of these three vintages, 2006 sticks out. It provided some challenges for growers, including a late and cool start followed by heat, and threats of rain and botrytis at harvest. In the end, 2006 is known for fruit-forward, elegant and balanced Zinfandels, with good structure, such as we see here. This Zinfandel is from 2006, making it three years old. Appellation There was only one California appellation to choose from—Napa Valley. While Napa is known as Cabernet country, there are nearly 1,700 acres of Zinfandel planted there. The elegance found in our wine is the calling card of top Napa Zinfandel. Wine It's the Chiarello Family Zinfandel Napa Valley Giana 2006, which we rated 91 points in our Feb. 28, 2009 issue. It retails for $35 and there were 550 cases made. We recommend drinking it now through 2013. Check out Tim Fish's discussion on Zinfandels in Wine Spectator's upcoming June 30 issue. --MaryAnn Worobiec, tasting coordinator

Posted June 04, 2009 This white walks the line between green apple, grass and lime notes and ripe citrus, peach and melon flavors. There's amazing intensity and focus, with a zingy, mouthwatering acidity and hints of honeysuckle on the finish.

Varietal We need to find a grape that can produce intense fruit flavors of green apple, lime, citrus, peach and melon, with non-fruit notes of grass and honeysuckle. Just as important, it needs to have zingy, mouthwatering acidity. We can start by eliminating fatter, richer grapes, varieties that aren't known for their acidity. Pinot Blanc is easy to eliminate—while its melon and spice flavors are a good fit with our wine, it typically shows softer acidity. Chardonnay can produce crisp wines, but the grass and lime flavors don't line up with the grape's apple, fig or pear notes. Gewürztraminer's telltale lychee and spice notes are not a good fit, so we can move on. Chenin Blanc can have crisp acidity, but it typically shows chamomile, ginger or almond notes. That leaves us with Sauvignon Blanc, which produces crisp wines, usually with notes of grass, flowers and citrus. This wine is a Sauvignon Blanc. Country Sauvignon Blanc is found in both New World and Old World regions. Old World versions typically show more mineral and herbal tones while New World Sauvignon Blancs exhibit the fruitier side of the grape, a better fit for our tasting note. Our New World choices are California, Oregon and South Africa. There isn't much Sauvignon Blanc in Oregon, but both California and South Africa make some excellent examples. South African Sauvignon Blancs lean more toward lime, grapefruit and sea salt notes, while California Sauvignon Blancs are a little bit fleshier, with peach or melon flavors, such as we see here. This Sauvignon Blanc is from California. Age As with most juicy white wines, Sauvignon Blancs are released quickly. They're meant for enjoyment upon release, and this zingy example certainly points to a recent vintage. Looking at 2007 and 2008 Sauvignon Blancs (the current vintages in the marketplace), the 2008s are distinctive for their concentration and intensity, a result of a small crop that year. This Sauvignon Blanc is from 2008, making it just a year old. Appellation The only choice from California, Napa Valley, is perhaps California's most famous wine region. Sauvignon Blanc does well in this region—its warm days help to ripen the fruit flavors, but the cool nights maintain Sauvignon Blanc's acidity. This Sauvignon Blanc is from Napa Valley. Wine It's the Madrigal Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley 2008, which was rated 92 points. It retails for $15 and there were 800 cases made. For more information on wines like this one, see the California Sauvignon Blanc tasting report in the Aug. 31, 2008, issue of Wine Spectator.

Posted May 21, 2009 This fine-tuned white delivers mature yet fresh aromas of honeyed citrus fruits, peach, flowers and mineral. Medium- to full-bodied, with a silky texture and a well-defined core of slightly off-dry fruit and lightly toasted almond. Delicious.

Varietal We're dealing with a ripe wine here, with lots of mature fruit flavor and a slightly off-dry character on the palate. But the aroma and flavor spectrum is pretty clear-cut, so we should have no problem identifying the varietal. You might find a similarly lush Riesling from a hot, early-ripening year in Germany's Mosel region, and peaches, flowers and minerals would also be a fit. But the almond note is decidedly un-Riesling, and so we can move on. The same almond note is a better fit for Chenin Blanc, but we're missing this variety's typical quince or fig flavors and zesty acidity. There's not much here to favor Sauvignon Blanc, which typically shows gooseberry and grapefruit character, mixed with grassy or fresh asparagus notes. The texture and structure of the wine is fine for Chardonnay, but even a ripe Australian Chard would struggle to come up with honeyed citrus and peach flavors and the almond note deals the final blow. This leaves us with Garganega, decidedly the unheralded grape variety on the list. But it all fits into place, starting with the almond note through to the peach and ripe citrus. This wine is a Garganega. Country There's no problem here if you know that Garganega is grown almost exclusively in Italy. It's most common in the northwestern region of Veneto, where it's the staple grape of the area's Soave whites. This is an Italian Garganega. Age Dry whites made from Garganega are generally early drinkers and current releases are unlikely to be more than three years old. But with our "mature" character we can discount the 2008 vintage, and the most likely vintages to choose from here are 2007 and 2006. In both of these years, the summer in Italy started hot in June and July, becoming cooler in August. A long period of warm, mainly dry weather then followed through to the end of October. Being a late ripener, Garganega took advantage of this fair end-of-season weather, which allowed it to ripen slowly and to perfection. The harvest in 2006 took place in dry, warm conditions, whereas a little rain interrupted the harvest in 2007. In the end, 2006 produced whites with more structure and fuller fruit than 2007, which should prompt us to choose 2006. This Italian Garganega is from the 2006 vintage, making it three years old. Appellation If our list included Soave Classico, our job would be done. But, as it is, we have two other Veneto appellations to choose from, Bianco di Custoza DOC and Veneto IGT. Garganega is found in whites from both appellations. Bianco di Custoza whites are made at the southern tip of Lake Garda and are usually a blend of Trebbiano, with up to 40 percent Garganega and 30 percent Chardonnay. The wines are generally light, fruity and straightforward. The generic Veneto IGT appellation allows for the use of a wide variety of grapes, from Chardonnay to Garganega to Riesling, either blended together or bottled as single varieties. Our fuller-bodied, fruity and structured white sits more easily in this appellation. This Garganega is from the Veneto IGT appellation. Wine It's the Roberto Anselmi Veneto Capitel Croce 2006, rated at 90 points in our April 30 issue. The retail price is $22, and 2,500 cases were made. Anselmi's attention to low yields in the vineyards and full ripeness in the grapes, coupled with their fermentation in oak barrels, gives this wine its rich, almost late-harvest honeyed fruit character. In 2000 Anselmi changed his whites from the Soave Classico DOC denomination (including the Capitel Croce) to the generic Veneto IGT, in protest against what he considered to be the mediocre quality being produced under the Soave denomination. For more information on Italy's white wines, see the Italian whites tasting report in the Aug. 31, 2008, issue of Wine Spectator.

What are Tannins, Really?

We talk about tannins in wine all the time, but how much do you really know about this versatile chemical compound? BY ANNE KREBIEHL MW Animation by Matthew Dimas Tannins, a group of bitter and astringent compounds, can be found abundantly in nature. They're present in the wood, bark, leaves and fruit of plants as various as oak, rhubarb, tea, walnut, cranberry, cacao and grapes. Perhaps most importantly, they're also found in wine. What do tannins do? Plants have tannins to make themselves unpalatable. Their purpose in nature is to deter animals from eating a plant's fruit or seeds before it's ripe. Tannins are responsible for that astringent, mouth-coating feeling you get from biting into an unripe pear or plum. Humans have used tannins from various tree barks for a long time to tan animal hides and make leather. Some foods are also prized for their tannins. Their bitterness and astringency, when managed well, can be rather pleasant. Examples include tea, coffee, dark chocolate and, of course, wine. Grape skins and residue, also known as pomace, being tipped out of a winery's stainless steel barrel after the juice has been extracted / Getty Grape skins and residue, also known as pomace, being tipped out of a winery's stainless steel barrel after the juice has been extracted / Getty Where do tannins in wine come from? Tannins can stem from four primary sources: the grape skins, pips (seeds) and stems, and the wood barrels used during aging. They provide texture and mouthfeel to wine as well as a sense of weight and structure. While white wine is made mostly from the juice that's pressed as soon as the grapes get to the winery, red wine is made from the entire grape. As red wine ferments, skins, pips, juice and sometimes stems are all macerated together. During that process, both color and tannin are leached into the wine. Tannins create the drying sensation in your mouth when you drink a red wine. How to describe tannins? It's important to distinguish between the quality and quantity of tannins. Texture is useful to describe the quality of tannins, i.e. silky, plush or velvety. When a wine has a pleasant amount of tannins, noticeable but unobtrusive, it's often described as "grippy." When tannins are described as "green," they're slightly bitter and have unpleasant astringency. "Polished" or "elegant" tannins will be very fine-grained in texture, noticeable but pleasant. Mature wines are often described as having "resolved" tannins, which are smooth, soft and no longer astringent. Another important element is the difference between bitterness and astringency. Bitterness refers to taste, while astringency refers to tactile sensation. When you describe a wine, ask these questions: Do tannins immediately coat the mouth, or do they appear slowly? Do they dominate the wine, or are they matched by freshness and fruit? Are they integrated and gentle, or assertive and harsh? How Does Oak Really Affect Wine? How do tannins work? While tannin is a collective term for various phenolic compounds, all tannins have one thing in common: they bind and precipitate proteins, i.e. separate them out. But what does this mean for the average wine drinker? Human saliva is full of protein, which is what makes it so slippery. A tannic red wine will bind to saliva—this is what causes the mouth to feel dry. This protein-binding quality is often cited as the reason why red wine and steak are such a good pairing, though this also has to do with how the wine's astringency counteracts the fattiness of the meat. Different grapes, different climates, different tannins Some grape varieties have more tannins than others. Examples that can make really tannic wines include Cabernet Sauvignon, Nebbiolo, Mourvèdre, Malbec, Tannat, Syrah/Shiraz, Tempranillo, Merlot and Sangiovese. Whether the winemaking technique encourages the extraction of the tannins is a question of style. Wines made from grapes like Pinot Noir, Gamay and Grenache, which have much thinner grape skins, are much less tannic. While grape variety can provide a good idea about the concentration of tannin in a wine, ripeness also matters. A good example is Syrah/Shiraz. It has a lot of tannin, but expresses itself differently, depending on climate and vintage. A hot climate like Barossa, Australia, produces Shiraz grapes that are superripe, making the tannins particularly smooth, lush and rounded. In the temperate Northern Rhône, the tannins come across as more structured, drying and angular. The tannin structure of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Bordeaux in France differ with warmer and cooler vintages. Extraction during winemaking also plays a big role. Aging freshly fermented wine in new oak barrels requires a wine with sufficient weight and power that won't be overwhelmed by the oak's own tannins. Do tannins help a wine to age? While often said to help a wine age, plenty of white wines reach a magnificent age without tannin. However, mouthfeel changes as a red wine matures. Initially, the tannins leached into a wine are smaller molecules. With time, these tannins start to combine and form larger chains—a process called polymerization. One theory is that this aging process reduces the tannins' reactive surface, which produces a softer mouthfeel. These tannin chains become so long that they fall out of suspension, which creates a deposit and leads to sediment in some bottles. It's not clear whether this reaction is the only thing that makes aged wine less astringent. In any case, mature wines are often described as having "resolved" tannins, which are smooth, soft and no longer astringent. However, if a red wine has harsh, bitter and unbalanced tannic structure to begin with, no amount of aging will even them out. Pigéage, or punch-down, in action / Getty Pigéage, or punch-down, in action / Getty The effect of maceration and fermentation methods Maceration time, or the amount of time red wine spends in contact with its skins during winemaking, has an important influence. A shorter maceration allows less time for tannins and color to leach into the wine as it ferments. Rosé wines, for instance, have a short maceration time, which results in minimal color and little to no tannin. As fermentation continues, more tannins are leached, as the alcohol that develops begins to act as a solvent. Some winemakers also use grape stems to add structure to wines like Pinot Noir and Syrah. This means that the entire bunch goes into the fermenting vat. This is known as whole-bunch or whole-cluster fermentation. Known as skin contact, white wines sometimes undergo a short period of maceration—a common practice for aromatic and semi-aromatic grapes like Gewürztraminer and Riesling. Winemakers can also assist in this process. Pigéage, or punch-down, is a very gentle extraction technique where the winemaker carefully pushes the grape skins that rise to the top during fermentation back into the must. Some wineries have tanks fitted with internal grids that keep the rising grape skins submerged. Remontage, or pump-over, offers a slightly more effective extraction. The liquid at the bottom of the fermenting vat is drawn off and pumped back over the grape skins. Délestage, or rack-and-return, is when a fermenting vat's liquid is separated from the solids and poured back onto them in one motion. Some wineries also have so-called roto-fermenters, which are like giant front-loading washing machines that rotate. The movement helps extract both tannin and color. Wood barrels bring their own type of tannins / Getty Wood barrels bring their own type of tannins / Getty Pressing wine, and the effects of oak Once red wine has finished fermenting, it's pressed, which separates the liquid from its solids. Some winemakers press in different batches at different pressures for greater control, wherein the batches under the highest pressure will be the most tannic. Employing a variety of wines with varying degrees of tannic extraction enables the winemaker to achieve a particular blend consistent across numerous vintages. The best winemakers base tannin management on a multitude of factors, which include the ripeness of the grapes, their skins and the desired wine style. Aging freshly fermented wine in new oak barrels will leach tannins from the wood into the wine. This requires a wine with sufficient weight and power that it won't be overwhelmed by the oak's own tannins. Good tannin management avoids harshness or bitterness, which happens when grapes are not sufficiently ripe or when overextracted. Do white wines ever have tannins, and what about orange wines? Some white wines undergo a short period of maceration. This is known as skin contact. Freshly harvested grapes are crushed and left for a few hours or longer on their skins before they start to ferment. This pulls flavors out of the grape skins—a common practice for aromatic and semi-aromatic grapes like Gewürztraminer and Riesling. There has also been a recent rise of "orange wines," amber-colored bottlings made from white grapes that are vinified with full skin contact, like red wines. These wines have a tannic element, though not as strong as it can be in reds. What about tannins in sparkling wines? The bubbles in sparkling wines act like millions of little magnifying glasses that highlight each aspect of the wine. Since these bubbles provide a textural element, and bottle-fermented wines also have texture from aging on yeast, additional texture from tannins usually come across as bitter, and the bubbles would exacerbate astringency. That's why the pressing regimen for high-quality sparkling wine is crucial. The very few red sparkling wines that exist, like sparkling Shiraz or Lambrusco, counteract bitterness with a little sweetness. The wine will still taste dry, but a touch (or sometimes more) of sugar will take the edge off.

Wine serving temperature - Christmas Day

You've sourced and stored the perfect bottles of wine. Now it's time to open them and they deserve to show their best, so getting the temperature right is key. image: https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspirewp/live/wp-content/uploads/sites/34/2016/12/wine-serving-temperature-alamy-F66AJF-630x417.jpg wine serving temperature Let us help you to chill this Christmas. Credit: Sergiy Tryapitsyn / Alamy TAGS: Wine serving temperature: How to get it right on Christmas Day Room Temperature Many of us have heard, especially for reds, that wines should be served at 'room temperature'. What is room temperature? It varies depending on time of year, to type of property, to whether you have the heating or air conditioning on. 'Room temperature' was set in dining rooms before the use of central heating or insulation; so on average was 3-6°C less than modern homes. This equates to approximately 18°C (65°F), so you may have to chill your reds down a bit. Champagne or bubbles Younger styles ¦ 5-10°C (41-50°F) Aged styles ¦ 5-10°C (41-50°F) 3-4 hours before in the fridge If there's not space in the fridge, check the temperature outside, a couple of hours in the garden can do the trick. Ice buckets are also a good way of bringing a bottle down to temperature quickly. White Light bodied whites ¦ 5-8°C (41-47°F) 3-4 hours before in the fridge Medium bodied whites or aromatic whites ¦ 10-12°C (50-61°F) Full bodied whites ¦ 10-14°C (50-57°F) 1.5-2 hours before in the fridge Chilling wine down also makes it harder to pick up flavours in a wine, which is why uncomplex, dry whites are normally served well chilled. image: https://static.apester.com/js/assets/loader_100x100.gif Red Light to medium bodied reds ¦ 12-16°C (54-61°F) 0.5 hours before in the fridge. Fuller bodied reds ¦ 15-18°C (59-65°F) Tannin chilled down can become overly pronounced and leave a metallic taste. Lighter bodied reds with low tannin can be chilled down to be served such as Valpolicella and Beaujolais. Sweet Fuller sweet wines ¦ 10-12°C (50-61°F) If you have a light vins doux naturel this can be treated like a light bodied white and chilled down further. Port Vintage ¦ 18°C (65°F) Tawny ¦ 12-16°C (54-61°F) The older the tawny Port the warmer it should be served. Read more at https://www.decanter.com/learn/advice/wine-serving-temperature-christmas-day-351517/#1ItbDbggmbUmMPdl.99