Weekend barbecues, backyard bonfires, and starry night skies… is there anything better than summer? The time spent with friends, family, and other loved ones is some of the most important.

But when you go to one of these events, how do you know which wine to bring for everyone? Sure none of you may be sommeliers, but you don’t want to bring something that’s going to clash with the party.

It would be like wearing a white dress to a wedding! No one is gonna stop you, but you’ll definitely be the talk of the party. And not in a good way.

Hannah brings Kyle 4 different scenarios of various summer events and they talk through what wines might be best to bring. Overarching this whole message keep in mind…

it’s not what wine you drink, but who you drink it with.

Sure, if we let grapes sit in a bucket for months on end, they would eventually turn into wine. It wouldn’t taste very good, but it would work.

This fermentation process - converting sugars in grape juice to alcohol in wine - is a direct result of the bacteria on the grapes or in most cases yeast that’s added by winemakers.

But what does the yeast actually do turn convert everything?

It’s not like they have a magic wand…

It would be a safe bet to guess that green grapes make white wines and red ones make red wines. Duh. That’s an easy one.

But, what if we were to tell you that red grapes can also make white wines? In fact, some of the most famous white wines in the world are made using red grapes.

No it’s not magic, but with one specific step the final outcome of the wine can be totally changed.

Let’s all pretend we’re going to quit our jobs and take up wine grape farming in the hills of Tuscany, Italy. What elements do we need to consider when planting our vineyard?

It’s very similar to growing any other plant. They still need (1) soil / nutrients, (2) water, (3) air, and (4) sunlight. It’s all four of these elements that factor in to the “terroir” of a grapevine and impacts the final wine in the bottle.