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There are 3 main categories of wine aromas and flavors: primary, secondary, and tertiary. They come from the grapes themselves as well as the fermentation process (primary), post-fermentation winemaking (secondary), and aging techniques (tertiary).

Wine geeks are always talking about oak barrels (French? American? Slavonian?), stainless steel tanks, cement eggs, clay amphorae, and other vessels that only dorks care about. But how does this make a difference in the wine that's in your glass?  Stainless Steel vs Oak vs Concrete & Clay Oak (especially new oak) and stainless steel are on opposite sides of the spectrum, while concrete and clay offer a happy medium... Stainless Steel Helps preserve freshness and acidity (this is why it's so popular for crisp white and rose production) Provides neutral vinification environment, so (unlike new oak) there's no external aromas/flavors...

Folks like us live for excuses to gather around a table, pop bottles, tell jokes, share cheap laughs, and enjoy home cooking that took all day to prepare. But every year, until we're all piled into one house, we seem to forget about the awkward political conversations, strange family dynamics, nosy personal conversations with Aunt Suzy, and off-color jokes from Uncle Bob. And that's where wine comes in. Have enough of it. And maybe stash a reserve bottle in the coat closet just in case.     Thanksgiving Dinner Wines It's not about Turkey wines, it's about Thanksgiving wines. C'mon....

Faults, Flaws, & Natural Wine The conventional wine people lovveeee to hate on natural wines, claiming that they're chock full of faults. And, as much as it bothers me to admit, it's not completely untrue. Low-intervention winemaking is more difficult. There's more risk involved. There's no retroactive "corrections," alterations, or any other cheating or tinkering. You really need to be anal af and constantly monitor the chemistry of the vineyard's grapes and the winery's fermenting juice. It's not like natural wine is immune to bad vignerons. So do these wines have faults? Flaws? What's the difference?   Check out our Insta!...