Homemade Pisco Sour Cocktail with Lime and Bitters

Pisco

Today marks Pisco Sour Day. For us, this is a special day.  Why you ask?  Well, yes, we love Pisco Sours, but that is not the reason alone, nor the main reason.  We’ll elaborate… The Pisco Sour, while known to be a very, very popular Peruvian cocktail, was…

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Cloying

Wine Term: Cloying Variations: Sweet, Flabby What it really means: The wine is noticeably sweet, to a fault. The wine is sweet.  Destructively so.  It’s flabby, unidimensional, and well…cloying. Nothing good comes from this description of a wine, it’s a fault, even if the winemaker intended to make…

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Angular

Wine Term: Angular Variations: Lean, Thin What it really means: the wine shoots straight through the center of the palate to the back of the mouth, generally the finish feels centered as well. This is the opposite of a round, smooth, or fleshy wine.  Painting in broad strokes:…

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Appellation

Wine Term: Appellation Variations: Viticultural Area, Wine Growing Region, Region Alternate Usages: AVA, AOC, DO, DOC, QbA, DVA What it really means: Where is the wine from? You never want to say, “What city is the wine from?” – that just sounds uninformed.  It is best to ask,…

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Customer Take Over Version: Knit

If you’ve ever been verbally accosted by a Sommelier at a restaurant or Wine shop/bar, you’ve probably heard them throw out something about a wine being “open-knit” or “tightly-wound” – but what does that actually mean?  Our Customer (and fan of Jessica) Danielle P. asked that exact question:…

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Customer Take Over Version: Minerality

Our customer Andrew writes: “I really want to understand what “minerality” means when applied to wine. Does “exhibits minerality” = “not fruity” or what? Thanks.” Aaaaaand away we go! Wine Term: Minerality Variations: Flint, Wet Stones, Gun Flint, Flinty, Pebbles, River Stones, Slate Alternate Usages: Dry, Austere, Chalky…

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Customer Take Over Version: Graphite

Graphite, much like wet stones, as a wine term (believe it or not) is a hard pill to swallow for a few.  We’ll let our customer Steve Dummit take it from here… “C’mon now, Cameron. Graphite has no odor or taste! It is a very inert 3-dimensional carbon…

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Customer Take Over Version: Tannin

Wine Term: Tannin So, this one comes from our customer Bill Carroll: “I’d love a better understanding of tannins and how they effect (sic) the overall taste and enjoyment of certain wines.” Away we go! Variations: Grip, Grippy, Grab Alternate Usages: Unfiltered, sediment, solids What it really means:…

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Customer Take Over Version: Jammy

Wine Term: Jammy Our customer Pete Hovde inquired: “I have seen some wines described as “jammy”. Is that considered a good or bad characteristic?” Well, here we go… Variations: Fuited, Fruit-forward, Juicy Alternate Usages: n/a What it really means: A wine with lots of fruit smells, generally sweet…

Bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau with cork lying next to the bottle and a wine label reading The First wine of the harvest

Beaujolais Nouveau Day is Coming…

For those of you who religiously follow this blog, you already know about our Lord & Savior, Beaujolais Nouveau. Being a brand that exists entirely on surplus from high-end wineries, Beaujolais Nouveau is that unattainable grape, a wine that no matter how hard we tried, we’d never get…