Puckery

Used to describe a wine that is so high in TANNIN that it causes your mouth to pucker with dryness. Most often the wine will have been made from insufficiently ripe grapes.

Ok wine pros. Here’s a WineSpeed Challenge. The following four varieties—lemberger, sauvignon vert, zinfandel, and trebbiano Toscano—are also known by which of the following names respectively? (If you get this right, you really know your stuff!)

A. kékfrankos, sauvignon blanc, primitivo, and garganega

B. zweigelt, sauvignon gris, bonarda, colombard

C. st. laurent, sauvignonasse, plavac mali, and gros manseng

D. blaufränkisch, friulano, tribidrag, and ugni blanc

What’s called lemberger in New York State is known as blaufränkisch in Austria and kékfrankos in Hungary. Sauvignon vert, which is widely grown in Chile, is distinct from sauvignon blanc; sauvignon vert’s synonyms include sauvignonasse and friulano. Zinfandel is the same grape as primitivo in Italy and tribidrag in Croatia. Originally from Italy, trebbiano Toscano is called ugni blanc in the Cognac and Armagnac regions of France. Whew.

Enoteca

Historically, an enoteca was a wine library; a place where bottles of wine were displayed. Today, the word enoteca is also used to indicate a wine bar where a curated collection of wines is available for… Continue reading

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