WINE BASICS
Long read § wine basics
Reading a Wine Label
Decode any bottle in under a minute. Five facts every label gives you, how Old World hides the grape, and what Reserve actually means.
Easy To Understand
Wine Guides
For Beginners
A people who don't know sh*t about wine and just want answers without the jargon.
§ 01
The basics
Start here. What wine is, how it's made, and the six grapes worth knowing first.
§ 02
Grape varietals
The noble grapes, the forgotten ones, and the ones worth finding.
§ 03
Regions & maps
Annotated maps of twelve wine-making regions. Pronunciations included.
§ 04
How to taste
The vocabulary of flavour, built slowly. Free worksheets at the end of each lesson.
Learn the
grapes first.
Red · Bold
01
Cabernet
Sauvignon
Dense, dark, reliably structured. The grape most likely to still be drinking well at twenty.
Red · Plush
02
Merlot
Softer, rounder, more forgiving. The grape that taught a generation it was allowed to enjoy wine young.
Red · Light
03
Pinot
Noir
Quiet, translucent, endlessly opinionated about where it's grown. The grape of geography.
White · Rich
04
Chardonnay
A chameleon. Buttery and toasted in one hemisphere; lean and flinty in another. Learn the difference.
White · Crisp
05
Sauvignon
Blanc
High-toned and herbaceous. If Chardonnay is a wool jumper, this is a linen shirt: sharp, green, wide awake.
White · Aromatic
06
Riesling
The most misread grape in the world. Dry more often than sweet, and the last one left standing at dinner.
A Free Eight-Part Reading Guide
The Fundamentals
01Reading a label
02The six grapes to know first
03Acid, tannin, body: the three axes
04Why old-world and new-world still matter
05Building a tasting vocabulary
06Food and wine, without the rules
From the journal.
WINE BASICS
Primer § wine basics
The Six Grapes to Know First
Six grapes explain almost everything you'll drink. What each one tastes like, where it grows best, and the one bottle to start with for each variety.
WINE BASICS
Primer § wine basics
Acid, Tannin, Body — The Three Axes
The three structural elements that separate a wine you enjoy from one that just sits there. Learn to identify each one and every glass tells you more.
The top seven
wine-producing
countries.
Each country annotated: hero wines, key regions, pronunciations, and one bottle to start with.
PLATE III
Top seven wine-producing countries
France · Italy · Spain · United States · Australia · Argentina · Chile