4 Key Wine Flavor Descriptions

There are important descriptors to know when talking about flavors in wine. For many of us who enjoy wine with gusto it is challenging to understand and correctly use wine flavor descriptions. While taste is a matter of opinion, there are more objective terms to use when describing a wine’s taste without getting too lost in the weeds. These four wine flavor descriptions will help you talk about flavor in wine far beyond the difference between white and red.

Sweetness

You can have a sweet wine or the opposite, which is a dry wine. You can also have a medium-dry or off-dry wine which has just a subtle hint of sweetness. Dry is not the opposite of wet in this case, and a wine that leaves your mouth feeling dry is likely a high tannin wine.

Acidity

Acidity can make a white wine taste refreshing, crisp, and even sour. Low acidity wines are often described as fat meaning that they are mouth filling, big, or round.

Tannin

Tannins are found throughout nature and are responsible for the bitter astringent taste in wines. Well managed these can be extremely pleasant. Low tannin wines are smooth and soft, whereas high tannin wines may be bitter and inky.

Body

Full, light, and medium body is exactly what it sounds like. A full-bodied wine is thick and will coat your glass. A light-bodied wine is thin and water-like in its viscosity. A medium is in between.

Now you might think about including flavors into your wine flavor descriptions. Flavor descriptors might include flowery, fruity, earthy, spicy, or smoky. These may be harder to recognize at first but by trying something fruity followed by something smoky you will have a much better idea of how to pick up on the complex and subtle flavors of wine.

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Wine Delivery: 4 Tips for Shopping and Shipping

If you have been curious about buying wine online, now is the time to do your homework! Wine delivery to your home reduces the need for you to go out to shops and markets, and it even allows you to try exciting new wines. If you are going to buy wine online, there are some ground rules and basic guidelines you should keep in mind.

4 Helpful Tips to Buy Wine Online

Be a Savvy Searcher

Always access your inner librarian when you are shopping online. You may think Google searches are for amateurs, but librarians often use them as a starting point for many research questions. In this particular case, Google is great when you know what you want. A shopping search will bring up retailers if you know with specificity what you want. From there you can shop around for the best price for wine delivery.

However, if you are browsing more generally Google may not be the place to start. Try going to a website for a brand you know and trust and finding out what services they offer for online shopping.

Get Specific about Shipping

There can be some restrictions about shipping wine depending on where you live and where your seller is based. Find out if any of these apply to you before getting too invested in any brand. We all hate spending money on shipping, but with wine, don’t expect free shipping. That said, you can look for sellers that have good deals on to save some cash.

Know Your Seller

As a consumer, you are entitled to ask questions and should consider your purchase an opportunity to build a relationship with the company you are buying from. Many companies are happy to answer your questions and even provide recommendations personalized to your own tastes. If a seller is less than thrilled that you have some questions, you may want to look elsewhere.

Be Patient

There is a learning-curve to buying wine, period. This is doubly so when you buy wine online. Use this as an opportunity to try new wines and learn more about what you want (and don’t want) in a wine. Take your time and read all the information a company has available about their wine. If you value organic growing and natural wine processes make sure your wine seller does too! Do your homework but don’t be afraid to branch out and try new things.

How to Host a Rosé Brunch

If you love to host friends, family, and neighbors, these past few months have been quite a change in lifestyle. If gathering for regular get-togethers, including our beloved Sunday brunch, is part of your normal routine, you may be feeling a bit at a loss for how to connect right now. As we are all looking forward to social gatherings in the months ahead, why not begin planning ahead for some brunch ideas?

Sunday Brunch Wine Recommendations

Until social distancing and self-isolation guidelines are relaxed, consider a virtual brunch. While you can do anything you like, why not feature a “wine of the day” that everyone can enjoy together - virtually? And, when it comes to Sunday brunch wine recommendations, it’s Rosé all the way!

Rosé wine is a perfect spring/summer choice, and it can be quite versatile. Your options for your menu are expansive. Our favorites included grilled porterhouse, eggplant pizza, salmon with dill pesto, grilled asparagus (wrap it in bacon for a decadent treat), spring green salad with goat cheese, and shrimp, avocado, and roasted corn salad. Who’s hungry?

You can have guests each prepare a different option to enjoy on their own, and when you can meet in person for brunch, they will have perfected their dish!

When looking for Sunday brunch wine recommendations for future gatherings, think about the delicious foods you will be serving. For brunch, we love fresh fruits, airy and buttery croissants and other pastries, and a variation of an egg dish with fresh vegetables.

Brunch Ideas: Dry, Sparking, and Pinot Noir Rosé

A dry Rosé is a gorgeous accompaniment to these lighter savory bites. Sparkling Rosé is also a must when gathering friends for Sunday brunch. That lively bubbly kick! Pinot Noir Rosé is an incredibly flavorful dry, still wine that never disappoints so be sure to pick some up for your own Sunday brunch.

When thinking of brunch ideas, remember to honor the season by prioritizing fresh wines. The clean, bright taste of Pinot Noir Rosé is a perfect pair for spring and summer.

5 Reasons to Shop Local Farmers Markets

These days we have so much information available to us and, for many, that means making more educated decisions about the products we purchase. This is true particularly for the food and beverages we bring into our homes to nourish and treat ourselves and our families. That’s why so many of us are turning to local and organic foods and wines that are produced on a smaller scale. There are so many benefits of buying local, and that is especially true when it comes to local wine.

5 Reasons to Shop Local Farmers Markets

Here's why we think buying local is a great idea:

Access to Expertise

Unlike large scale retailers local farmers markets provide you with a unique shopping experience. Local wine makers are actually available and happy to talk to you before you make your purchase. You can ask questions and even try samples!

Supporting Your Community

Farmers markets are a gathering place for friends and family and a wonderful place to meet new people. This unique social shopping experience creates community and keeps local farms and artisans in business. It also keeps your money local where it is invested back into the community. We can’t think of a more perfect shopping experience, can you?

Environmental Perks

Small scale food and wine production is good for communities and good for the world! Small farms are able to practice organic growing and reduce harm to the environment while reducing the speed of global warming by eliminating the need for transportation of goods.

Comparable Pricing

You may be surprised to find that prices at your local farmers market compare really well with those at chain stores. You’re getting a great product and you know exactly where it comes from, but you’re not paying an exuberant amount for your wine.

Staying Healthy

When you buy local wine you know where it comes from and you have the unique privilege of asking questions to find out exactly how it’s made. You can avoid wines that have additives and aren’t made from organic grapes.

The benefits of buying local are many, and not the least of which is that your local wine, produce, and meats taste wonderful!

Put a dragon in your Riesling

 

 

Already we are into the Chinese New Year – and this year it is the year of the dragon! What a great opportunity to talk Sweet Riesling – our best-selling Riesling adorned with a Dragon carrying a cauldron of fire on the label.

 

THE STYLE - The wine came out of a vision, the vision of a great American Kabinett. Of course we could not reproduce that style exactly (Eastern Washington weather and soils are not the Mosel) and we had to tweak things a bit to make a good wine years after years (more on this learning experience later).

THE NAME - We also wanted this wine to talk to consumers; most Riesling wines just said “Riesling” and that drove us crazy: “how can consumers find a sweet Riesling if they all say just ‘Riesling’ on the label” – hence we came up with the name “Sweet Riesling” on our labels. At the beginning everyone (Distributors, large clients) told us we were crazy: “consumers do not like the word ‘sweet’ even if they like to drink ‘sweet’ – do not put ‘sweet’ on the label”. The popularity of this wine and the number of copycats since then (It always amazes me to see so many wine companies just copy one another) have proven that the “Sweet Riesling” wording was a winning ticket.

THE DRAGON – The imagery was crystallized very early in our mind, we wanted an iconographic art piece that would clearly depict that this type of wine (low alcohol – high sugar – high acid) is made to go with spicy food – Sweet Riesling with hot/spicy food is a culinary experience that one cannot miss. An Asian dragon was perfect for this image – agile, light and deadly. Adding a cauldron of fire helped explain the great tension between a Sweet Riesling and hot food.
 

BACK TO THE STYLE - We knew we wanted a certain balance where high sugar levels would be balanced by high acidity. The first year we made the Sweet (2006), we’ve picked the grapes at the same time than the Dry Riesling and the acidity did not allow carrying more than 6% residual sugar – we thought: “need more acid”.

2007 brought a warmer harvest and we decided to pick early to keep our acids higher, we found out this was a great timing to harvest for that style and that same year we understood clearly that sugar alone was not enough of a parameter to pick grapes (I know we are a bit slow) – we also decided that we could do away with adding acid by simply picking earlier – yes! One less additive at the winery.

What a revelation 2007 was, we’ve picked early, did not add acid and made a naturally balanced wine that tasted great. We narrowed on a slightly higher residual sugar level closer to 7% because now the wine could carry more sugar (and we love the tension between acid and sugar – that is what makes a great Riesling).

In 2008 we’ve learned two more tricks; the first one was the use of native yeast and how well they worked for our wines. The second one was the importance of residual carbon dioxide in the bottle – we started obsessing about carbon dioxide and made sure that the residual carbon dioxide would be perfect at bottling.

In 2009 we started to think about having a fraction of the blend coming from a botrytized vineyard – until then all our fruit was always clean and beautiful – to get complexity we had to find some botrytis and we’d decided to explore growing botrytized vineyard blocks (note – it does not work that well).

We also started to understand deeply the relationship between our pH and the sensation of sweetness for the wines. 2009 brought also the first Sweet Riesling 100% fermented with native yeasts.

2010 gave us a LOT of botrytis. I was like mother nature heard our desire to get some Botrytis and said “you wanted some, here you go my friend” – I think this is my favorite vintage of Sweet Riesling (though the 2011 currently in tank is not shabby by any means), that year we really learned to work with Botrytis – all that rot is not all good.

2011 was similar to 2010, no major breakthrough this vintage. Every vintage brought its share of learning but after 6 vintages of Sweet Riesling we really are starting to get it down to a science – no acid addition, no yeast, pick early, keep your pH low, high residual carbon dioxide, some botrytis.

So for the year of the Dragon, remember to pick up a Sweet Riesling – a treat with Spicy food and now a great story to repeat at dinner time.