Italy is the world’s largest producer of wine. France is a close second. Between them France and Italy are responsible for about 50% of the world’s wine production. *If California were a separate country, it would be the world’s fourth-largest wine producer.

The wreck of the Titanic holds one of the oldest wine cellars in the world and despite the depth and wreckage, the bottles are still intact.

Try to ascend in quality and flavor, but do consider what food you are serving if the wine is to accompany a meal. Serve cheap before expensive: a step back in quality is noticeable. Drink dry before sweet: sweet wines make dry taste very acidic. Light wines come before full-bodied: weighty and fortified wines will [...]

Much to the agony of winemakers, wines that have recently been bottled occasionally develop bottle shock-a temporary condition wherein the wine tastes lifeless, as though it has lost its aromas and flavors. Bottle shock can happen to any wine. It is thought to be the result of the agitation and, possibly, exposure to oxygen that [...]

The longest recorded champagne cork flight was 177 feet and 9 inches, four feet from level ground at Woodbury Vineyards in New York State.

If you do not smell a wine or simply take a brief cursory whiff, very little information goes to the brain, and not surprisingly, you have trouble deciding what the wine tastes like. You want to start by swirling the wine in the glass. Swirling aerates wine. As for actually sniffing the wine, nothing is [...]

Elected in 1994, Nelson Mandela was South Africa’s first black president and the first to be elected with voter participation from all races. Mandela’s release from prison in 1990, after more than twenty-seven years in confinement, signaled a new era in South African politics and paved the way for the lifting of trade sanctions and [...]

Yes! The color of wine comes entirely from the grape skin. When the skins of red grapes are removed early in the winemaking process, their color does not affect the wine’s appearance. For example, this New Year’s Eve you might have been drinking champagne made from Pinot Noir grapes…however, the winemaker did not let the [...]