Lese

Harvest. Harvest dates generally range from September to December, according to the variety of grape, weather conditions, and the kind of wine being produced. One exception is eiswein which can be harvested in January of the year following the main harvest.

When critics describe a wine, they refer to all of these except for its:

A. Head

B. Legs

C. Nose

D. Body

A wine’s “nose” is its aroma. Wine pros will say, for example, that a given wine has a nose of apricots and peaches. Similarly, a wine’s “legs” are the rivulets of wine that inch up the inside surface of the glass above the wine, then run slowly back down. It’s often said (erroneously) that the thicker the legs, the better the wine. Legs are a complex phenomenon related to the amount of glycerol and alcohol in the wine, plus the rate of evaporation of the alcohol. A wine’s “body” is its weight on the palate. Light-bodied wines feel about as heavy as skim milk on the palate, while full-bodied wines feel like half-and-half or even cream. Medium-bodied wines are somewhere in the middle. Head? Um, that falls in the beer department.

A Champagne-Seeking Robot

This story is actually more of an “Oh Yes” than an “Oh No.” On February 23, 1900, as a result of a violent storm, the cellars of Pol Roger Champagne collapsed, burying the equivalent of… Continue reading

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