Wines with the best “structure” will generally age most gracefully. Finding wines that will improve over time requires that you pay attention to a wine’s structure. What is structure? These are the primary components: Acidity - Wines lose acidity...
There are four fundamental traits that comprise a good wine. They are Acidity, Tannin, Alcohol and Sweetness. For a wine to be considered “good,” each of these traits must be in proper proportion to each another. This is because each of these four...
As we continue through the four fundamental traits of a good wine, let’s now move on to alcohol. Wine is simply fermented grape juice. Alcohol is a byproduct of the fermentation process where yeast converts the sugar in the grape juice (the must) to...
When choosing a wine, one of the characteristics of interest to you might be its sweetness. But how can you really tell if a wine has sweet tendencies? The label may have some sentences on the back label to tell you just a little bit about the wi...
One of the terms that gets thrown around in the wine world is ‘Residual Sugar.’ But it’s not something you are going to read about on a wine’s label. So, what is it and why should you care? Let’s take a quick step back and review the basics of the w...
Light bodied white wines are a great place to start when learning about and tasting wines. They are fresh and crisp with bright fruit flavors and high acidity. So the next step up is into medium bodied and full bodied whites. As I have been rese...
It’s a question that constantly comes up. “What’s a good wine to buy?” Or there are the related questions of “What wine should I drink?” or “What wine do you recommend?” These are all great questions that are well intended whether from someone wh...