Smaragd

Austrian term used in the Wachau region of Lower Austria for the ripest grapes and hence fullest bodied wines. Smaragd wines must have a minimum of 12.5 percent alcohol, but most have considerably more. The word smaragd is also the name of a bright green lizard that suns itself in the Wachau vineyards.

You should rinse your glass with water between wines at a tasting.

Answer: False.

Although it may be tempting to rinse your glass with water between wines when you are at a wine tasting, doing so is actually counterproductive. Even a little leftover water in the glass will dilute a wine, making it taste unbalanced and discombobulated. If you think the next wine will be influenced by the previous wine, the best bet is to rinse your glass with a few drops of the wine to come. Interestingly, in Italy they don’t consider a washed glass prepared to even receive wine until they (as I like to think of the ritual) “baptize” it with rinse wine, a process known as avvinare i bicchieri (ah-vee-NAH-reh ee bee-kee-AIR-reh). There is one big exception to the “rinsing with wine” idea. If a wine is flawed, it’s best to abandon that glass altogether and proceed with a new, fresh glass for the next wine.

Clone

The noun “clone” refers to plants of the same species that have identical physical characteristics. The DNA of a grapevine is not stagnant, so in Nature, clones change and evolve as the result of natural… Continue reading

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