Valerie Stride, WSET ADV Certified

A Wine Shopper’s Guide: Facts & Quick Tips

June 9, 2015

If you are headed to your local wine store to purchase some vino and you’re feeling a bit intimidated, check out these facts & quick tips.

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list, but it is a good starting point to help you feel more confident with your purchasing power.

Remember to try new things, explore, and be open to picking up that bottle that you have always deemed “must not be good”; you never know if it will surprise you. My personal suggestion: avoid buying big producers all of the time. You can often find a wine of much better quality for only a wee bit more coin.

Cheers!

An Infographic: Noble Grapes & Their Key Wine Characteristics

June 4, 2015

There are many winelovers out there who wish they could know more about wine. Consistently, I hear the comment, “Oh, I can’t tell the difference between a white and a red wine.” Okay, let’s start with colour, right? But I get it. It’s not about the colour of the wine. It’s about all that mumbo-jumbo that surrounds picking out key characteristics in wine and how those differentiate one varietal from another.

At that point, I usually find myself wanting to demystify those key characteristics because, well, I’m an educator. As such, I’ve created a quick reference guide for (most) of the Noble grape varieties. Noble grapes are also known as “Key Grape Varieties”. Syrah is considered to be a key grape variety as well, but I couldn’t work it into my web. Shout out to Syrah…you know I love you!

For those of you not entirely well-versed in wine, use this to help you on your wine journey. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list. There are many more characteristics used to describe these individual wines. The characteristics I have included are the most common for each grape and how that grape shows itself in its final product.

Enjoy, and remember to “like” the Demystified Vine on Facebook for fun facts, memes, and other wine-related articles.

Cheers!

The Demystified Vine

Gambero Rosso ‘Special Wine Awards’ Masterclass Displays Italy’s Best

Valerie Stride, WSET ADV Certified

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June 2, 2015

June 1st, 2015 Having been offered the opportunity to attend the Gambero Rosso ‘Special Wine Awards’ Masterclass, I realized one thing. Okay, well, I realized a few things throughout the course of the seminar, but that is also what I am here to talk about. What I realized was that I really adore wine. No …

All About Bordeaux

May 31, 2015

I am headed to Bordeaux in just over a weeks time to attend one of the largest wine expos in the world. In preparation for all of the blogging and tweeting I am going to be doing, I have been brushing up on my Bordeaux knowledge. I happily created a little graphic with some interesting (and demystifying) facts about Bordeaux. Feel free to share if you learned something new! Enjoy!

2012 Robin Ridge Gamay Wine Review

Valerie Stride, WSET ADV Certified

1 comment

May 30, 2015

The 2012 Robin Ridge Gamay is proof that Gamay can be made in a few different styles. The Blind Taste I was given this wine to blind taste on Monday, May 25th, 2015. As I was going through the process of tasting, I was feeling a bit flabberghasted. Now, blind tasting really does keep a …