Your Wine Horoscope

A Silicon Valley-based company has developed StarSip, a wine-horoscope app that makes wine recommendations for each sign of the zodiac. Based on an interdisciplinary approach the company calls Biodynamic Astrology, the app’s algorithm aligns solar and lunar cycles in both viticulture and cosmology. StarSip subscribers who enter their signs are sent a list of wines that possess the most “harmonic convergence” for the month. (Ok, we made this up. But hey, it’s California where anything is possible).

The designation “Napoléon” on a bottle of Cognac indicates that the grape-based spirit inside is over 50 years old.

Answer: False.

Unlike virtually all wines, most Cognacs are expected to be consistent year after year. Cellar masters achieve consistency by a complex and continual process of blending different lots of brandy, each of which may be a different age. Cognacs are classified according to the age of the youngest oak-aged brandy (or eaux-de-vie) in the blend. So, the average age of a Cognac is usually considerably older. The original age designations of Cognac are in English because Cognac has been exported for centuries, and the first importers were English. Today 96% of production is sold outside of France. Dozens of other nicknames in both English and French have joined the lexicon, making Cognacs labels notoriously difficult to decipher.

The official aging classifications used most often:
VS – Very Special, 3 Etoiles, ***, Sélection, De Luxe minimum of 2 years
VSOP – Very Superior Old Pale, Réserve, Vieux, Rare, Royal minimum of 4 years
XO – Extra Old, Hors d’âge, Extra, Ancestral, Ancêtre, Or, Gold, Impérial minimum of 10 years
XXO – Extra Extra Old minimum of 14 years

Other aging classifications:
Supérieur, Cuvée Supérieure, Qualité Supérieure minimum of 3 years
Vieille Réserve, Réserve, Rare, Réserve, Royale minimum of 5 years
Napoléon, Très Vieille Réserve, Très Vieux, Héritage, Très Rare, Suprême minimum of 6 years

Punt

The indentation found in the bottom of most wine bottles. The punt may be shallow or, as in the case of Champagne bottles, quite pronounced. The punt adds stability to the bottle by weighting the… Continue reading

Your Wine Horoscope

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