It has always struck me as unusual that standard wine bottles are all 750ml. Even for the metric system that number seems unusual. If we look at wine bottles in fluid ounces, then 25.36oz makes even less sense to me. So I decided to investigate why such a strange number was chosen as the standard …
Glass bottles have been used to successfully store wine for centuries with minimal breakages. Yet, more recently I have had a few instances where the bottles of lower-priced wines had broken. I sat down with winemaker Pau Gomez to ask him why some bottles fail so easily and this is what I learned. Wine bottles …
Over the years I have attended numerous wine tastings, mostly informal tastings hosted by wine estates and a handful of formal blind tastings as well. Each wine presented at a tasting would be at its ideal temperature. Some of those would be well chilled, some slightly chilled while others were served at room temperature. This …
Every time I open a bottle of refreshing Vinho Verde on a warm summer day I hear the satisfying hiss of gas escaping the bottle. Remembering that made me wonder if wine ferments in the bottle. If it does, how often does it happen? Wine will ferment in the bottle if there is sugar and …
Every time I walk around a wine shop, I am always amazed by the variety of different shapes and sizes of wine bottles. My wine rack at home works best with the high-shouldered Bordeaux bottles. So, do these other wine bottle shapes actually matter? Other than Champagne bottles which are thicker and heavier to contain …
If we look at wine as fermented grape juice, it seems illogical that prices can range from as little as $2 up to $1000 or more. What differences make some wines so expensive while others remain cheap? Can we detect those differences easily when we taste wine? Expensive wines are produced from grapes with more …
I remember when I first attended a young wine show, and every winery had its young wines in carafes and decanters to open up their aromas. The thought crossed my mind about what would happen to those wines at the end of each day of the show. Did the wineries store their wines overnight in …
When I first began exploring the world of wine, I was intrigued by the metal foil and plastic coverings over the corks of wine bottles. They didn’t seem to have a purpose, so I set about learning more, and this is what I found. The metal foil coverings over the corks of wine bottles are …
I spent summer vacations on the family wine farm when I was young. I remember a day when my older cousin and I walked in the vineyards, picking and eating grapes. I may have eaten too many grapes and got a stomach ache. My cousin laughed and said that it was the alcohol in the …
When I was first introduced to the world of wine, I thought using a decanter was reserved for expensive ancient wine. Once I learned a little more about wine, I realized how much decanting improved the taste of my wine. But how long should I decant my wine without the risk of ruining it? I …