Tag: VINsights
How Does Wine Get Aromas and Flavors?
by: Marnie Old
Newcomers to wine often find it confusing that wine rarely smells or tastes like grapes. Most white wines smell more of tree fruits like apples or …
Why We Decant Certain Wines
by: Marnie Old
Decanters have long been used to make wine look pretty, or to control its temperature, but improving flavor by decanting is a relatively recent phenomenon. It …
How to Read Wine Maps Historically
by: Marnie Old
Many puzzling aspects of today’s wine landscape make more sense if we consider their historical context. For example, understanding where, when and how quality-oriented winemaking first …
Three Ways Rosé Wine is Made
by: Marnie Old
Rosé can be a bit of a mystery. Labels rarely offer much information about how the style is made. Books and classes explain that pink wines …
Pairing Wine with Spicy Foods
by: Marnie Old
Foods with spicy heat can be stimulating and enjoyable, but are also famously hard to pair successfully with wines. Some wines are better equipped than others …
How to Talk About Sweetness in Wine
by: Marnie Old
Sweetness in wine — or its absence, known as dryness — causes more confusion for consumers than any other sensory trait. This is largely due to …
How to Make Sense of Wine Language
by: Marnie Old
To enjoy a glass of wine requires no training, but to communicate about it effectively, we need the right words. Most of wine’s sensory qualities are …
How to Calculate Calories in Dry Wine
by: Marnie Old
Nowadays, many wine shoppers are calorie-conscious, choosing hard seltzers and other manufactured diet drinks in a bid to stay healthy. Many dry wines can offer a …
New to Wine? Study France First!
by: Marnie Old
It is almost impossible to make sense of the modern wine world without grasping the influential role played by France. The French may not have been …
Why Vineyard Soil is So Important for Terroir
by: Marnie Old
Grasping the underlying concept of terroir is like getting an all-access pass that helps unlock many of wine’s most confounding secrets. Terroir is the reason why …
