It’s All About Sugar The two basic wine descriptors of still wine are often improperly used and, as such, can cause much confusion. What are those two descriptors? They are dry and sweet. There is actual dryness and sweetness in wine. And there is also perceived dryness and perceived sweetness. The usage of these perceived traits as levels of actual dryness or sweetness can be confusing, so I hope that I can shed some light on the subject. To do so, we need to start with the process of how one makes wine, and that begins with fermentation. The process…
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My last post was a month ago. Yikes, sorry! But it’s all good! I wish I could write more quickly and be able to post a minimum of once a week, or at least stockpile some posts for times like these, but that is just not me. I am a thinker—a ponderer. So instead, I process everything in my head for a while, and then I write. And trust me, it takes a bit for things to slosh around up there before I can spit the words back out. And when I have other big projects on the “to do”…
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After last week’s post – Dear New Wine Drinker – I realized that I should give my Charleston reader’s information about the independent wine retailers where I shop. These are the places where I buy wine for Gary and me and my concierge clients and some wine tastings. There are times I visit two or three of them on a single wine buying trip because they all offer something that the other does not. To categorize, I would say that my primary stores are The Wine Shop of Charleston and Edmund’s Oast Exchange. These two stores work hard at relationship…
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Dear New Wine Drinker is a six-minute read. A FB group that I belong to is called WINE. There are 26,100+ members. Many are newbies to wine that know very little about it but obviously want to learn more (or why would they be a member in the first place). A group member recently made his very first post on the page. As you can see, his thread merely said, “Just bought this, and it turned out to be very good.” And the flood gates opened. He was ridiculed shamelessly by a bunch of wine snobs. Others made suggestions about…
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Suisun Valley Part One – A seven-minute read. This is part one of a four-part series. If you are like most folks, you have probably never heard of Suisun Valley. But, just for fun, let’s assume you did not see the title of this blog post. Ok, quickly, name every wine region, AVA, or nested AVA you can think of in California. On your mark. Get set. GO! The first name out of most folks’ mouths would probably be Napa Valley and then Sonoma. After that, it starts to get dicey depending on your wine enthusiasm for details. Depending on what…
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#WIMG is a seven-minute read. Ok, folks, We have drunk some unique and delicious wine this month, so it is time to share what we have posted on Instagram for all of you social-media-free folks. And for those who are not hashtag-aware, #wimg means “what’s in my glass.” #WIMG Aridus Sauvignon Blanc 2019, Cochise County, Arizona I am very, very selective when it comes to Sauvignon Blanc. The flavor grapefruit and grassy profiles are typically not a match for me. I received this bottle from Aridus Wine Co in Willcox, AZ, as a sample, and I was prepared not to enjoy…
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Vintage to Vintage is a 3½-minute read. First, let’s make it clear what vintage is. It is the year that the grapes were grown and crushed to make wine. If there is not a vintage date on your bottle, that means that the winemaker blended grape juice from multiple years together to make that bottling of wine. This is common practice with Champagne to create a consistent flavor profile from year to year. These wines are called Non-Vintage. This practice is less common with still wine unless you drink some of the low-end, industrially made mass-produced wines. For most folks,…
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Bokisch Vineyards has been on my radar for a few years now. So when my friend Allison told me that they were on the agenda to visit last May, I was thrilled. Unfortunately, then it looked like they could not fit us into their schedule (it was Mother’s Day weekend!) before we headed to the second leg of this trip, Sonoma. At which point Markus and Liz Bokisch (co-owners) invited us to their home Monday morning for a breakfast wine tasting before we head to Sonoma. A “breakfast wine tasting?” Why not! So sure enough, at 8:30 am, we arrived…
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