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Articles & Books From Ed McCarthy
Article / Updated 09-28-2023
You drink beverages every day, tasting them as they pass through your mouth. But when it comes to wine, drinking and tasting are not synonymous. Wine is much more complex than other beverages: There’s more going on in a mouthful of wine. For example, most wines have a lot of different (and subtle) flavors, all at the same time, and they give you multiple simultaneous sensations, such as softness and sharpness together.
Article / Updated 09-28-2023
Once upon a time, wine labels were boring, colorless (literally and in spirit), and the opposite of inviting. Now, many wine labels are fun. They catch your eye, draw you in for a closer look, and maybe make you smile. Although we tend to have classic tastes in wine, we love the variety of wine labels because it makes browsing for wine more enjoyable than ever.
Article / Updated 09-28-2023
Your inner child will be happy to know that when it comes to wine, it’s okay to like some colors more than others. You can’t get away with saying “I don’t like green food!” much beyond your sixth birthday, but you can express a general preference for white, red, or pink wine for all your adult years.
(Not exactly) white wine
Whoever coined the term white wine must have been colorblind.
Article / Updated 09-28-2023
Instead of worrying about crisp wines, earthy wines, and medium-bodied wines, wouldn’t it just be easier to walk into a wine shop and say, “Give me a very good wine for dinner tonight”? Isn’t quality the ultimate issue — or at least, quality within your price range, also known as value?In fact, a good deal of wine marketing revolves around the notion of quality, except in the case of the least expensive wines.
Article / Updated 09-28-2023
The tastes of a wine reveal themselves sequentially as the tongue detects them and your brain registers them. We recommend that you follow the natural sequence we describe in the next sections when you try to put words to what you’re tasting.
Sweetness in wine
As soon as you put the wine into your mouth, you can usually notice sweetness or the lack of it.
Article / Updated 01-30-2019
When we first got excited about wine, we tried to share our enthusiasm with a friend who appeared to have some interest in the subject (well, he drank a glass now and then). Each time we served a wine, we’d talk about it in great detail. But he wasn’t interested. “I don’t want to talk about wine — I just want to drink it!
Article / Updated 01-30-2019
Wine is essentially just fermented fruit juice. The recipe for turning fruit into wine goes something like this:
Pick a large quantity of ripe grapes from grapevines.
You could substitute raspberries or any other fruit, but 99.9 percent of all the wine in the world is made from grapes, because grapes make the best wines.
Article / Updated 01-30-2019
You’ll probably recognize several of the myths mentioned here. They all represent common thinking — and common misinformation — about wine.
The Best Wines Are Varietal Wines
One advantage of varietal wines — wines that are named after a grape variety, such as Chardonnay or Merlot — is that you supposedly know what you’re getting.
Wine enthusiasts: raise a glass!The global wine market has expanded rapidly in the past few years and is forecasted to increase through 2019. Consumption, new wine styles, online wine purchasing, and a growing younger population of wine enthusiasts are all contributing factors.In Wine For Dummies, the authors—both recognized wine authorities and accredited Certified Wine Educators—share their expertise, revealing the latest on what's in, what's out, and what's new in wine.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 08-06-2021
Selecting a wine you like is easy when you can correctly pronounce wine names, use appropriate terms to describe wine, decode wine names, and approach the selecting process with confidence.Quick guide to wine pronunciationCorrectly pronouncing wine names is one way to keep from irritating a wine snob; the following table can help you out.