You know the deal, the more some folks learn about a topic, the more shortcuts/slang/acronyms/initials/technical jargon can be tossed around. I’m here to help you understand those sometimes mysterious words and phrases, thus – Wine Words Demystified! This week’s word/phrase is Botrytis According to Karen MacNeil‘s The Wine Bible: A beneficial fungus, also known as noble rot, which is necessary to…
Tag: Dessert Wines
How Port Is Made
From the “A picture (or moving pictures) is worth a thousand words” file, is this short that is the final installment in my dessert wine series. The video explains how Port wine is made. This video is a one of the finalists in the Wine Spectator 2011 Video Contest. Click here to check out the…
Dessert Wine Primer – Part 2; Late Harvest Dessert Wines
Late harvest is a term applied to wines that are made from grapes left on the vine longer than usual. Allowing the grapes to “hang” longer (to the point where the grapes may be similar to raisins) increases their sugar levels, making a sweeter wine. How long the grapes are left on the vine determines…
Dessert Wine Primer; Part I – Fortified Dessert Wines
Dessert wines are sweet wines served with, or instead of dessert. Dessert wines are also known as “stickies” because picking the grapes makes the workers hands sticky. The term originated in Australia, but has become ubiquitously synonymous with dessert wines around the world. There are essentially two types of dessert wines, fortified and late harvest. In…