Category: Wine & Grapes

Sangiovese grapes produce superb wines. They also can make shrill swill that gave wicker baskets a bad name. Continue reading →

What’s in a name? In the case of Champagne, a bubbly brouhaha. Continue reading →

There are more than 5,000 varieties of wine grapes (Vitis vinifera). Continue reading →

Normally, you do not associate white wines with aging. Enjoy them young, with frisky spring flowers in the nose and green fruits on the tongue. Continue reading →

If you enjoy rooting for scrappy underdogs, Zinfandel is your wine. Continue reading →

Wine snobs roll their eyes in disdain, but for one in ten wine drinkers, White Zinfandel—the winemaker’s mistake that proved golden—is their wine of choice.
Sutter Home, Beringer, and Llano Estacado are leading White Zin sellers locally. White Zin comes in many different types. Some are made from Zinfandel grapes alone, others include Zinfandel blended with Chardonnay or Chenin Blanc. There are even sparkling White Zins. Continue reading →

“Meritage”—what is it, and why is it so pricey?
Answer one: American wine made by blending two or more grapes. Answer two: a winery’s premier wine. Continue reading →

As undisputed star of the 1990s varietal red wine boom, Merlot plantings in California soared from 2,000 acres in 1985 to more than 50,000 today. Continue reading →

Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety used to make white wine and Champagne/sparkling wines. Continue reading →

It’s hardest-to-pronounce wine grape: Gewurztraminer (guh-vyrts-trah-mee-nuhr). Continue reading →