Castello

The word for castle. Several famous Italian wine estates are housed in what were once castles—Castello dei Rampolla in Tuscany, for example.

A full bodied wine has more flavor and a longer finish than a light bodied wine.

Answer: False.

Though it might seem like a full bodied wine would be bigger in every possible way, a wine’s body has nothing to do with its flavor intensity or the length of its finish. A wine’s body is its weight on the palate. A full bodied wine has a weight similar to Half n Half, while a light bodied wine has a weight more similar to skim milk. But either a full bodied or a light bodied wine can be intense in flavor and either can have a long finish. Finally, you might ask: what gives a wine weight? The answer is alcohol. The more alcohol, the fuller the body, and the heavier the wine will feel.

“Oak should fit into a wine like a shoulder pad in a coat–barely there. But if the guy is too scrawny or the shoulder pad is too big, the whole thing looks stupid.”

—John Kongsgaard
Kongsgaard Wine, Napa Valley

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