The Wine Voyage

Table of Contents - What Is Cava? - Cava Grapes - How Cava Is Made - Cava Quality Tiers - Sweetness Levels - Cava vs. Champagne vs. Prosecco - How to Serve Cava - Pairing Cava with Food - Producers Worth Knowing - Cava in Corporate Events - The Bottom Line on Cava - Further Reading Cava is one of the best values in the wine world, and most people still treat it as a budget Champagne substitute rather than what it actually is: a distinct, food-friendly sparkling wine with its own grapes, its own flavor profile, and its own identity worth understanding on its terms. I've poured Cava at events where people assumed they were drinking something French and were surprised to hear it was Spanish. That's not because Cava is an imitation — it's because Cava made by the traditional method is genuinely excellent. The confusion says more about how underestimated Spain's sparkling wine tradition has been than about any lack of quality. This guide covers everything you need to know: t...

Table of Contents - What Makes a Wine a Dessert Wine - Major Styles of Dessert Wine - Dessert Wine Styles Compared - How to Serve Dessert Wine - Pairing Dessert Wine with Food - Common Mistakes When Buying Dessert Wine - Dessert Wine and Team Experiences - Finding Your Entry Point - Further Reading Dessert wine gets a bad reputation in circles that confuse "sweet" with "simple." That reputation is completely undeserved. Some of the most complex, age-worthy, and flat-out thrilling wines on the planet are dessert wines. I've poured them at corporate events where people who insisted they "don't drink sweet wine" went back for a second glass without realizing what happened. The key to understanding dessert wine is this: sweetness is not the point. Sweetness is the vehicle. What makes a great dessert wine great is the way residual sugar balances against acidity, the layers of flavor that develop through unusual winemaking techniques, and the concentrati...

Table of Contents - What Makes a Wine a Dessert Wine - Major Styles of Dessert Wine - Dessert Wine Styles Compared - How to Serve Dessert Wine - Pairing Dessert Wine with Food - Common Mistakes When Buying Dessert Wine - Dessert Wine and Team Experiences - Finding Your Entry Point - Further Reading Dessert wine gets a bad reputation in circles that confuse "sweet" with "simple." That reputation is completely undeserved. Some of the most complex, age-worthy, and flat-out thrilling wines on the planet are dessert wines. I've poured them at corporate events where people who insisted they "don't drink sweet wine" went back for a second glass without realizing what happened. The key to understanding dessert wine is this: sweetness is not the point. Sweetness is the vehicle. What makes a great dessert wine great is the way residual sugar balances against acidity, the layers of flavor that develop through unusual winemaking techniques, and the concentrati...

Table of Contents - How Fortified Wine Is Made - Port - Sherry - Madeira - Marsala - Vermouth - Fortified Wine Comparison - How to Serve Fortified Wine - Pairing Fortified Wine with Food - Fortified Wine for Corporate Events - Where to Start - Further Reading Fortified wine occupies a strange corner of the wine world — neither fully wine nor spirit, yet more interesting than either on its own. I've watched people discover Fino Sherry mid-meal and completely rethink what wine can be. I've seen Tawny Port turn skeptics into believers. Fortified wine rewards curiosity more than almost any category, and yet it's among the most overlooked. The concept is simple: a neutral grape spirit (essentially unaged brandy) gets added to a wine either during or after fermentation. When added during fermentation, the alcohol kills the yeast, leaving residual sugar and creating a sweet, stable wine. When added after, you get a dry or off-dry fortified wine. The spirit raises the final alcohol...

Table of Contents - What Is Beaujolais? - The Gamay Grape - The Beaujolais Hierarchy - The 10 Crus of Beaujolais - Beaujolais Nouveau vs. Real Beaujolais - Notable Beaujolais Producers - How to Serve and Drink Beaujolais - Beaujolais Food Pairings - Beaujolais vs. Other Light Reds - Beaujolais for Wine Events and Team Tastings - Further Reading Beaujolais has spent decades being underestimated. The Beaujolais Nouveau craze of the 1980s and 90s — a marketing phenomenon that shipped the year's new vintage to every corner of the world in November — left the impression that Beaujolais was simple, forgettable, and cheap. That impression is wrong, and the wine world has been quietly correcting it for 20 years. The cru Beaujolais wines — the ten named villages at the top of the hierarchy — are among the most undervalued wines in France. Some rival Burgundy in complexity and age-worthiness, at a fraction of the price. What Is Beaujolais? Beaujolais is a wine region in eastern France, south...

Table of Contents - What Is Beaujolais? - The Gamay Grape - The Beaujolais Hierarchy - The 10 Crus of Beaujolais - Beaujolais Nouveau vs. Real Beaujolais - Notable Beaujolais Producers - How to Serve and Drink Beaujolais - Beaujolais Food Pairings - Beaujolais vs. Other Light Reds - Beaujolais for Wine Events and Team Tastings - Further Reading Beaujolais has spent decades being underestimated. The Beaujolais Nouveau craze of the 1980s and 90s — a marketing phenomenon that shipped the year's new vintage to every corner of the world in November — left the impression that Beaujolais was simple, forgettable, and cheap. That impression is wrong, and the wine world has been quietly correcting it for 20 years. The cru Beaujolais wines — the ten named villages at the top of the hierarchy — are among the most undervalued wines in France. Some rival Burgundy in complexity and age-worthiness, at a fraction of the price. What Is Beaujolais? Beaujolais is a wine region in eastern France, south...