Toasting

Charring the inside of new barrels over an open flame. Charring caramelizes the staves of the wood. Wine stored in barrels treated this way will pick up a VANILLIN, toasty character.

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.

Garagiste

A French term first used in Bordeaux in the 1990s, the word garagiste (gare-a-JEEST) refers to an innovative (possibly renegade) professional winemaker without much financial capital, who began making small lots of fine wine in… Continue reading

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