Grand Cru (great growth) is the highest level in the vineyard classification of Burgundy. There are a total of 550 hectares (1,400 acres) of Grand Cru vineyards – approximately 2% of Burgundy’s 28,000 hectares (69,000 acres) of vineyards (excluding Beaujolais) – of which 356 hectares (880 acres) produce red wine and 194 hectares (480 acres)
Old World wine refers primarily to wine made in Europe but can also include other regions of the Mediterranean basin with long histories of winemaking such as North Africa and the Near East. The phrase is often used in contrast to “New World wine” which refers primarily to wines from New World wine regions such
The earliest recorded mention of Merlot (under the synonym of Merlau) was in the notes of a local Bordeaux official who in 1784 labeled wine made from the grape in the Libournais region as one of the area’s best. In 1824, the word Merlot itself appeared in an article on Médoc wine where it was
Zinfandel (also known as Primitivo) is a variety of black-skinned wine grape. The variety is planted in over 10 percent of California vineyards. DNA fingerprinting revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grapes Crljenak Kaštelanski and Tribidrag, as well as to the Primitivo variety traditionally grown in Puglia (the “heel” of Italy), where
White wine is a wine whose colour can be straw-yellow, yellow-green, or yellow-gold coloured. It is produced by the alcoholic fermentation of the non-coloured pulp of grapes which may have a white or black skin. It is treated so as to maintain a yellow transparent colour in the final product. The wide variety of white
Burgundy wine (French: Bourgogne or vin de Bourgogne) is wine made in the Burgundy region in eastern France, in the valleys and slopes west of the Saône River, a tributary of the Rhône. The most famous wines produced here—those commonly referred to as “Burgundies”—are dry red wines made from Pinot noir grapes and white wines
Vinoteca Tohani este rezultatul a 16 ani de ambiție și perseverență alăturată pasiunii pentru vin.
Vinul-licoarea ce poate stinge un foc lăuntric sau poate aprinde cele mai puternici simțiri. Consumul de vin este practic o luptă cu acesta: pentru satisfacția supremă, amândoi trebuie să ieșiți învingători.
In the past Barolos often used to be very rich on tannin. It could take more than 10 years for the wine to soften up and become ready for drinking. Fermenting wine sat on the grape skins for at least three weeks extracting huge amounts of tannins and was then aged in large, wooden casks for years. In order to appeal to more modern international tastes, which preferred fruitier, earlier drinking wine styles, several producers began to cut fermentation times to a maximum of ten days and age the wine in new French oak barriques (small barrels).
“Traditionalists” have argued that the wines produced in this way are not recognizable as Barolo and taste more of new oak than of wine. The controversies between traditionalists and modernists have been called the “Barolo wars”., as depicted in Barolo Boys. The Story of a Revolution, a documentary film released in 2014. Prior to the mid-19th century, Barolo was a sweet wine. The fact that the Nebbiolo grape ripens late in October meant that temperatures would be steadily dropping by harvest. By November and December, temperatures in the Piedmont region would be cold enough to halt fermentation, leaving a significant amount of residual sugar left in the wine. In the mid-19th century, Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour, the mayor of Grinzane Cavour invited the French enologist Louis Oudart to the Barolo region to improve the winemaking techniques of the local producers. Using techniques focusing on improving the hygiene of the cellar, Oudart was able to ferment the Nebbiolo must completely dry, making the first modern Barolo. This new, “dry” red wine soon became a favorite among the nobility of Turin and the ruling House of Savoy, giving rise to the popular description of Barolo as ‘”the wine of kings, the king of wines”.
By the mid-20th century, wine production in the Barolo zone was dominated by large negociants who purchased grapes and wines from across the zone and blended it into a house style. In the 1960s, individual proprietors began estate bottling and producing single vineyard wines from their holdings. By the 1980s, a wide range of single vineyard bottlings were available, which led to a discussion among the region’s producers about the prospect of developing a classification for the area’s vineyards. The cataloging of Barolo’s vineyards has a long history dating back to the work of Lorenzo Fantini in the late 19th century to Renato Ratti and Luigi Veronelli in the late 20th century, but as of 2009 there is still no official classification within the region. However, in 1980 the region as a whole was elevated to DOCG status. Along with Barbaresco and Brunello di Montalcino, Barolo was one of the first Italian wine regions to attain this designation.
Traditionally New World wine used names of well-known European regions, such as Burgundy, Champagne, Sherry, Port, and Hock. This gave consumers a general idea of how the wine might taste. This changed as winemakers developed the confidence to develop their own styles of wine such as Grange. Europeans producers objected to the use of their
