If I asked you where wine was invented, what would you say? France? Italy? Spain?, Maybe Greece? Honestly, those would have been my guesses too. After all, they’re the countries we hear about whenever people talk about great wine. But here’s the part that completely caught me off guard. Wine…
Most wine gets picked, fermented, bottled, and shipped inside a year. Nobody’s money sits around waiting. Barolo doesn’t get that luxury. And it’s not because the producer is being precious about it. It’s the law. Italian regulation requires every bottle labeled Barolo to age a minimum of 38 months before…
Supermarket wine aisles are designed to make you feel stupid. I’m fairly convinced of it. Fifty bottles you can’t pronounce. DOC, DOCG, and IGT stamped everywhere like the wine sat an exam. Gold medal stickers stacked three deep, as if the bottle just came home from the Olympics. Prices ranging…
Millions of Americans knew his face. Almost nobody today knows his name. For decades, one man’s warm, easy grin was the face of one of the biggest wine and brandy brands in the country, splashed across advertisements from coast to coast, in full black robe and white collar, looking every…
Picture a Napa tasting room. Low light, hushed voices, someone murmuring about tannin structure. Now picture a 7’6″ former NBA All-Star ducking through the doorway to join them, and try not to smile. That’s the first reaction most people have walking into Yao Family Wines in St Helena. It looks,…
Ever picked up a bottle of Champagne and wondered, “Why is this so heavy?”It’s not just a luxury gimmick. There’s real engineering and serious pressure hiding behind that thick glass. Champagne is dramatic.It shows up at weddings, championship wins, and Formula 1 podiums. Open it carelessly and it might hit…
Here’s an experiment for your next trip to the wine shop. Pick up two bottles that look roughly the same size and shape. Turn them both upside down. If one has a deeper dent in the bottom than the other, you are, in a very literal sense, holding less wine….
Try this the next time you’re at a wine bar. Order two glasses — one big, boozy red, one light, crisp white — and swirl them side by side. Watch closely. One will throw slow, heavy streaks down the glass like it’s confessing something. The other barely leaves a mark….
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