nebbiolo RSS

langhe, montalcino, montefalco, nebbiolo, piemonte, sagrantino, sangiovese -

introductory italy

"Introductory" can seem a disparaging term. Instead of the truly great wines of a region or a producer, an "introductory wine" is the simple, drink-now, youthful, non-serious wine that a producer makes to bring in some ready money. Except that is rarely the case. They're less expensive than a producer's single-vineyard wines and aren't aged for as long, but they are important representations and—yes—introductions to a producer's portfolio. If quality is low, then no one is buying the more expensive wines. They also make us familiar with the style of wine a producer generally makes and is associated with. In...

Read more

alcohol, bugey, côte roannaise, itata, nebbiolo, rheingau, savoie, valtellina, washington -

low alcohol wines

A couple of years ago, I tasted a wine from Napa which shall remain nameless and which had a relentlessly high alcohol of 15.8%. Not only did this level of alcohol cause the wine to be out of balance, it's dangerously high: a glass, let alone a bottle, would get you drunk. The wine was borne out of the trend in the late 1990s and 2000s for high-alcohol wines. The grapes are left on the vine for a long time to build up sugar levels, in the belief that it results in more flavor in the wine. Some producers and...

Read more

Tags