June 15, 2018

JEFFERSON VINEYARDS Viognier 2016

(Charlottesville, Virginia) $30

Lovely and fresh with just the right edge of delicious bitterness. Thomas Jefferson would have been proud.

Which one of the following Italian wines is not made using the appassimento method?

A. Recioto di Valpolicella

B. Bardolino

C. Torcolato

D. Amarone

Wow, this was a tough question, right? Bardolino is one of the most important simple wines of Italy’s Veneto region, but it is not made by the appassimento method. Recioto di Valpolicella, Torcolato, and amarone are all produced this way. The appassimento method involves taking whole bunches of grapes and spreading them on mats in special drying rooms or leaving them to hang in cool lofts, usually for a few months. This allows the water in the grapes to evaporate and their sugars to concentrate. As the grapes dry and raisinate, they can lose up to a third of their weight. Both dry and sweet wines can be made using this process, the best known being dry red amarone and the sweet red recioto di Valpolicella.

30K

Number of acres of vineyard in Canada. Although the country is very large (3,855,000 square miles), Canada has fewer vineyards than the tiny 30-mile long Napa Valley of California. That said, the quality of Canadian… Continue reading

JEFFERSON VINEYARDS Viognier 2016

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