The Wine Voyage

Table of Contents - What Is Corvina? - Corvina and the Appassimento Process - Corvina vs. Amarone: Same Grape, Different Wine - Where Corvina Wine Comes From - How to Taste Corvina - Bringing Corvina Into a Group Tasting - Food Pairings for Corvina Wine - Buying Corvina Wine: What to Look For - Further Reading Corvina is one of those grapes almost nobody asks for by name, even though half the people who love Italian wine have a bottle made from it in their collection right now. Ask someone what's in their glass of Amarone and you'll get a shrug — "it's the raisin-y one from Veneto" — but rarely the actual grape. That's a shame, because Corvina is the backbone of one of Italy's most distinctive wine traditions, and understanding it changes how you taste everything from a Tuesday-night Valpolicella to a serious, cellar-worthy Amarone. This guide covers what Corvina wine actually is, how the appassimento process transforms it into something completely differe...

Table of Contents - What Is Picpoul, Exactly? - What Does Picpoul Taste Like? - Where Picpoul Comes From - Picpoul vs. Muscadet vs. Sauvignon Blanc - Food Pairings - Building Picpoul Into a Group Tasting - Common Questions - Planning a Picpoul-Focused Tasting for Your Team - Further Reading I keep a bottle of picpoul in my fridge more consistently than almost any other white, and every time I pour it for someone who's never had it, I get some version of the same reaction: "wait, why haven't I heard of this?" Picpoul de Pinet — the wine most people mean when they just say picpoul — is one of the best values in French white wine, a bone-dry, lemon-and-sea-spray coastal white from the Languedoc that's been quietly building a following among sommeliers for years while staying mostly under the radar with everyday drinkers. If you like Muscadet or a crisp Sauvignon Blanc, picpoul deserves a spot on your radar. This guide covers where picpoul comes from, what makes the g...

Table of Contents - What Is Picpoul, Exactly? - What Does Picpoul Taste Like? - Where Picpoul Comes From - Picpoul vs. Muscadet vs. Sauvignon Blanc - Food Pairings - Building Picpoul Into a Group Tasting - Common Questions - Planning a Picpoul-Focused Tasting for Your Team - Further Reading I keep a bottle of picpoul in my fridge more consistently than almost any other white, and every time I pour it for someone who's never had it, I get some version of the same reaction: "wait, why haven't I heard of this?" Picpoul de Pinet — the wine most people mean when they just say picpoul — is one of the best values in French white wine, a bone-dry, lemon-and-sea-spray coastal white from the Languedoc that's been quietly building a following among sommeliers for years while staying mostly under the radar with everyday drinkers. If you like Muscadet or a crisp Sauvignon Blanc, picpoul deserves a spot on your radar. This guide covers where picpoul comes from, what makes the g...

Table of Contents - What Is a Piña Colada? - Where the Piña Colada Comes From - Piña Colada vs. Mai Tai vs. Mojito - How to Make a Proper Piña Colada - Building a Group Tasting Around the Piña Colada - Common Questions - Bringing a Cocktail Tasting to Your Team - Further Reading I've now written guides to the Negroni, the Martini, the Manhattan, the Cosmopolitan, the Paloma, and the Mojito, and there's one cocktail that kept getting passed over for being "too simple" or "too touristy" to deserve its own treatment: the piña colada. That's a mistake. It has a real, documented origin story, it's the official national drink of an actual country, and like most cocktails with a bad reputation, the bad version everyone's had at a resort bar has almost nothing to do with the real thing. This guide covers what a properly made piña colada actually is, where it genuinely came from, how it compares to the cocktails it gets grouped with, and how to build it i...

Table of Contents - What Is a Piña Colada? - Where the Piña Colada Comes From - Piña Colada vs. Mai Tai vs. Mojito - How to Make a Proper Piña Colada - Building a Group Tasting Around the Piña Colada - Common Questions - Bringing a Cocktail Tasting to Your Team - Further Reading I've now written guides to the Negroni, the Martini, the Manhattan, the Cosmopolitan, the Paloma, and the Mojito, and there's one cocktail that kept getting passed over for being "too simple" or "too touristy" to deserve its own treatment: the piña colada. That's a mistake. It has a real, documented origin story, it's the official national drink of an actual country, and like most cocktails with a bad reputation, the bad version everyone's had at a resort bar has almost nothing to do with the real thing. This guide covers what a properly made piña colada actually is, where it genuinely came from, how it compares to the cocktails it gets grouped with, and how to build it i...

Table of Contents - What Is Sylvaner? - Where Sylvaner Comes From - Sylvaner vs. Riesling vs. Pinot Blanc - Food Pairings - Building a Group Tasting Around Sylvaner - What to Look For When Buying Sylvaner - Common Questions - Bringing a Sylvaner Tasting to Your Team - Further Reading I've poured a lot of white wine flights over the years, and Sylvaner is one of the few grapes that consistently gets waved off before anyone's even tasted it — usually with some version of "isn't that the cheap one?" It's a fair reaction given the grape's history: for decades Sylvaner was planted for bulk production in both Alsace and Germany, and its reputation never fully recovered even as serious producers started treating it with real care. That's a shame, because a well-made Sylvaner is genuinely one of the more food-friendly, quietly satisfying whites you can put in a glass. This guide covers what Sylvaner actually is, where it comes from, how it compares to its more...

Table of Contents - What Is Sylvaner? - Where Sylvaner Comes From - Sylvaner vs. Riesling vs. Pinot Blanc - Food Pairings - Building a Group Tasting Around Sylvaner - What to Look For When Buying Sylvaner - Common Questions - Bringing a Sylvaner Tasting to Your Team - Further Reading I've poured a lot of white wine flights over the years, and Sylvaner is one of the few grapes that consistently gets waved off before anyone's even tasted it — usually with some version of "isn't that the cheap one?" It's a fair reaction given the grape's history: for decades Sylvaner was planted for bulk production in both Alsace and Germany, and its reputation never fully recovered even as serious producers started treating it with real care. That's a shame, because a well-made Sylvaner is genuinely one of the more food-friendly, quietly satisfying whites you can put in a glass. This guide covers what Sylvaner actually is, where it comes from, how it compares to its more...