Understanding Wine...
Below are our articles on the subject of Understanding Wine. If you can't see what you are looking for our other categories are displayed on the left under 'Our Quick Links'...
Buying a Box of Wine Instead of a Bottle
In the world of wine the wine box (that is the cardboard box that houses some kind of plastic bag incorporating a tap with which to ‘pour’ the...
Buying Wine
For many of us the choice of where to buy wine has significantly narrowed – we buy either at an Off-Licence or a supermarket. The wide proliferation of chain of...
Different Types of Grapes in Wine
Virtually all wine is produced from the cultivation of one broad variety of grape – ‘Vitis Vinifera’. This particular form of grape was originally cultivated in the...
Non-Alcoholic Wine
Non Alcoholic Wine (otherwise known as ‘alcohol free wine’) is a viable alternative for those who wish to celebrate, or who wish simply to enjoy the taste of wine,...
Terroir and the Growth of Vines
Terroir is a French word that resists precise translation into English as such it is often oversimplified as meaning ‘earth’. This is not far off as a translation, but...
The Conventions of Tasting Wine
Of course to drink wine is to taste wine: One cannot very well drink without tasting. However, to really appreciate a wine and to experience the range of idiosyncratic...
Tips & Advice on Serving Wine For Optimum Enjoyment
The way in which a wine is served will have a significant impact on how it is enjoyed. Serving a wine at the correct temperature and allowing a wine...
Vintage Wine
Vintage is often taken simply to mean ‘old’ but has its origins in the root word ‘vin’, which if French for wine. A vintage is a particular year that a wine was produced...
What Are Blended Wines?
Blended wines are wines made from two or more grape varieties from the vitis vinifera species of grape. If an EU wine contains less that 85% (in the New World 75%) of...
What are Varietal Wines?
A varietal wine is a wine made using predominantly one grape (75% minimum in the EU; 75% minimum in most new world countries). A varietal wine can then be a vintage...
Wine Bottles
Wine is generally bottled in glass bottles – to this date the most satisfactory method of storage and one far preferable to alternative methods, such as storage in a...
Wine Lingo
Wine is a phenomenon that in a sense is largely supported by the constant dialogue that surrounds it. Of course this dialogue is helped by the fact that wine tends to...
