Once the tryptophan haze from the turkey from Thanksgiving wears off and the big post-T-day sales have eased, we can look ahead to gift giving for Hanukah or Christmas. This week’s blog from City Vino focuses on some potential gifts to give for the upcoming holidays.
Have you ever put a glass of wine up to your nose and noticed prominent aromas of flower, and wondered those notes come from? I can, with good conscience, confirm that floral scents in wine DO NOT come from a winemaker dipping an extra-large tea bag of dried flower petals into their tank or barrel of wine. The answer to the question, “Well, from where then?” is chemistry. I know that your eyes are now glazing over, and you are being flooded with memories of high school lab, and the smell of burning sulfur is filling your nostrils and making you cough. Bear with me, okay?
When we think of certain grapes, we may immediately think of the specific country, region, or specific city, and it is often the place where the grape originated or first attained notoriety. The Albariño grape may lead you to think of Northwest Spain’s Rias Baixas region, and Pinot Noir may bring you to Burgundy, in France. If you shop wine store shelves, often you may see the name of a familiar grape, but from a place far away from the grape’s origins.
This week City Vino’s tasting will feature wines made with the grapes that will perhaps lead you to say (or at least think) “I didn’t know they grew that there.”
Raise a glass of sparkling wine to the end of the year 2021! Join City Vino this week, as we feature four sparkling wines that can take you to Sparkletown. Sing along with us to wine-altered lyrics to the Lipps Inc song from 1979, “Won’t you take me to Sparkletown, Won’t you take me to Sparkletown?”
“Pét-Nat,” or “pétillant naturel,” is the term given to sparkling wines made with a single fermentation. Fermentation is started in-tank, then the wine is put into a bottle and topped with a crown cap, like those on beer or glass soda bottles. The yeast in the bottle will continue to ferment the sugar in the grape juice, and the carbon dioxide that is a byproduct of fermentation has nowhere to go, except into the wine itself, yielding a sparkling wine.
