If you’ve ever stopped to consider the ‘alcoholic’ part of ‘alcoholic beverage,’ you’ve probably moved on to the next sip fairly quickly. But if you’re actually curious, the primary mechanism that makes wine alcoholic is alcoholic fermentation. This natural biological process involves yeast consuming the natural sugars present in grape must (freshly crushed grape juice) […]
Those ‘wine legs’ you obsess over tell you almost nothing about the quality of the wine in your glass. They are not a secret signal from the winemaker about excellence, nor are they a reliable indicator of sweetness. What they primarily reveal is the wine’s alcohol content and, to a lesser extent, its viscosity. If […]
The air in the cellar hangs heavy, sweet with fermenting grapes, a quiet, insistent fizz rising from vast stainless-steel tanks or ancient oak barrels. This transformation, from simple fruit juice to complex wine, is almost entirely orchestrated by yeast. While many types of yeast exist, the undisputed champion, and the primary answer to understanding yeast […]