In this grape miniseries, I cover one of the greatest yet little known red grapes of Italy: Sagrantino.

Photo: Sagrantino. Source: Arnaldo Caprai

This grape is likely native to Umbria in Central Italy, although there is speculation that it is from more far-flung parts of the globe. Nevertheless, most of the world’s plantings are in Montefalco and the surrounding areas and it is firmly rooted (literally and figuratively) there.

With outrageously high polyphenols, Sagrantino is dark in color, high in tannin,  and needs lots of heat to ripen. Its brambly berry notes contrast with savory herb, smoke, tobacco, and baking spice aromas and flavors to give this wine a sweet yet savory profile that you’d be hard pressed to find in any other bottle.

In the show I review the history of the grape, its behavior in the vineyard, its flavors and aromas, and the various regions in which it is grown, including Australia, warmer parts of the US, Argentina, and Brazil.

Although it requires age to live up to its true potential, Sagrantino is a grape you should try – it is truly one of the great reds of the world and as winemakers learn more about making dry wine from it, it’s only getting better every year.

Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Join the community today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

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As part of the series on the greatest wines in the world, I cover Saint-Émilion on the Right Bank of Bordeaux. With its legacy of winemaking, its unique terroir, and its small producers who are constantly innovating and improving, this region is indisputably one of the top in the wine world.

As with all the regions in "The Greats" series, I go in depth on the fascinating history of Saint-Émilion, the complex terroir, the (convoluted) classification, and the grapes and flavors that are possible from this outstanding "Great."

As promised, here are the Premiers Grands Crus Classes A & B from the 2022 Classification...

PREMIERS GRANDS CRUS CLASSES AChâteau Figeac Château Pavie 

PREMIERS GRANDS CRUS CLASSES B

Château Beau-Sejour Becot Château Beausejour Heritiers Duffau Lagarrosse Château Belair Monange Château Canon Château Canon la Gaffeliere Château Larcis Ducasse Château Pavie Macquin Château Troplong Mondot Château Trottevieille Château Valandraud Clos Fourtet La Mondotte

Sources used:

"Inside Bordeaux", Jane Anson

Les Vins de Saint-Émilion

The Wine Cellar Insider

"St Emilion: True grit", James Lawther, MW Decanter

"Ian D’Agata on the Great Wines of Saint-Emilion: Terroir and Grand Vins, to Be or Not to Be…" TerroirSense

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Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

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Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

This week I take a fresh look at European Classification Systems, going into detail on the history of how and why they evolved, what the current EU scheme is based on, and what the major wine nations’ systems are structured (and how they differ from what the EU would like them to look like!).

I discuss:

• How Europe classified its wines to protect the names of specific products and link them to their place of origin, to the benefit of consumers and producers.
• A history of wine classifications from the monks in medieval Burgundy to the winemakers of Tokaj in the 1600s to Chianti, Port, and Bordeaux in the 1700s and 1800s.
• A detailed look at the evolution of the French classification system. I go through the steps that the French took to prevent fraud, protect the origin of their wines, and ultimately create the system off which the EU system is based.

I address the EU system with its two main categories:

-Wine without a geographic origin (table wine)

-Wine with a geographic origin:

Protected Geographical Indication (PGI): At least 85% of the grapes used have to come exclusively from the geographical area where the wine is actually made. These wines cover large areas, and a lot of grapes and winemaking methods are permitted. There is only a minor influence of place of origin

Protected Designation of Origin (PDO): Every part of the production, processing and preparation process must take place in the specific region. Grapes have to come exclusively from the geographical area where the wine is made. Origin and terroir are essential to the identity of the wine.

Then I review the major countries’ classification categories

France:

• Vin de France=Table wine
• IGP, indication géographique protégée (PGI)
• AOP=appellation d’origine protégée, often called AOC (contrôlée) (PDO)

Italy:

• Vino=Table Wine
• IGP=indicazione geografica protetta, producers frequently use the old IGT = indicazione geografica tipica (PGI)
• DOC = denominazione di origine controllata (PDO)
• DOCG = denominazione di origine controllata e garantita (PDO)
• DOP = denominazione di origine protetta, the new name, conforming to the EU standard that includes DOC and DOCG. DOP is rarely used (PDO)

Spain:

• Vino de España=Table wine
• IGP / VT = indicación geográfica protegida, usually called vino de la tierra (VT) (PGI)
• VC = vino de calidad con indicación geográfica (PDO)
• DO (DOP) = denominación de origen, sometimes called DOP (PDO)
• DOCa = denominación de origen calificada (PDO)
• VP = vino de pago (PDO)

Germany

• Deutscher Wein =Table wine
• Landwein =PGI
• Qualitätswein (also called Qba from the 13 regions, PDO)
• Prädikatswein – Prädikat means special attribute and refers to the ripeness of the grapes and the type of harvest. Pradikat levels:
  • Dry or sweet: Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese
  • Sweet (expensive and rare): Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese, Eiswein

Other terms: Trocken is dry, Halbtrocken is “Half Dry” or “Off-Dry, “Feinherb” is an unofficial term for off-dry wine

The VDP is a German marketing organization that includes many of the country’s top producers. Producers can use the VDP eagle and the VDP classifications WITH “Qualitätswein” or “Prädikatswein”

• ·       Gutswein: First wines of a wine year to be bottled and sold, Estate-grown grapes
• ·       Ortsweine:  Village wines
• ·       Erste Lage:  Premier Cru wine from first-class vineyards
• ·       Grosse Lage:  Grand cru  or highest quality German vineyards. Dry wines within this category are called Grosse Gewächs or GG

Portugal (I don’t discuss in the show because it follows the French/EU model)

• Vinho=Table Wine
• IGP = indicação geográfica  protegida, often called vinho regional (PGI)
• DOP = denominação de origem protegida, still sometimes called DOC, denominação de origem controlada (PDO)

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Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

_______________________________________________________________

Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

Château Talbot is a 4th Grand Cru Classé of Saint-Julien in the Médoc of Left Bank of Bordeaux. It’s an historic and large property – its vineyards extend over 110 hectares/272 acres in a single block. The story of Talbot is a long and interesting one, but the chapter being written by the current family and management of the Château may be the best yet. With extreme dedication to quality, an eye towards the environment and careful winemaking, Talbot has a focus on making unbelievable wine that overdelivers for the price, vintage after vintage.

In this show, General Manager of Château Talbot, Jean-Michel Laporte, joins to discuss Saint-Julien and Talbot.

Photo: Jean-Michel Laporte. From  Château Talbot. 

We discuss:

• Saint-Julien and it's terroir. We talk about how it stacks up to the other communes on the Left Bank and even discuss comparisons with the Right Bank, where Jean-Michel got his start
• The history and terroir of Talbot. The château is hundreds of years old, but got it's name from an English general who won Bordeaux back from the French in the 1400s!

Photo: The Chai of Château Talbot. From the Château site. 

• Winemaking, aging, their amazing chai (barrel room, pic above), spectacular vintages and how long to hold both the Grand Vin -- Chateau Talbot and the second wine, Connetable de Talbot. We also discuss Caillou Blanc, their fascinating white wine!

Château Talbot makes excellent wines. They are around US $70 and although that will set you back, it is so high quality and over delivers for the price. If you have some extra money at some point, and want to invest in a wine to age,  this is one to seek. I love the floral and dark fruit aromatics, the complexity, the medieval church notes, the earth, and the perfect tannin and acidity.  Saint-Julien is indeed, incredibly balanced, and Château Talbot is a great example of the AOC.

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Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

_______________________________________________________________

Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

Alto Adige, in the far northeast of Italy,  is a small wine region that makes incredibly high quality reds and whites. In this episode I discuss the unique terroir, grapes, and mixed culture of this region, with its heavy Germanic and Austrian influences. 

I cover:

• The long history of Alto Adige wine
• The varied soil types and geology
• The range of climates and growing conditions
• The unique grapes (including Kerner, Schiava and Lagrein)
• The DOCs and subzones of Alto Adige

A truly beautiful and unique Italian wine region, and one I hope I've convinced you to explore! 

Copyright: Wines of Alto Adige

Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

_______________________________________________________________

Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

This is a grape mini-series like no other! This time I untangle Malvasia, which I share is not a single grape at all, nor is it even a family of grapes. This ancient grape has unknown origins and, in many respects, is more of a brand name than a grape. 

I cover the history of how the many Malvasias got their single name, discuss some commonalities in growing conditions (they are at least all Mediterranean!), and then call out the specific Malvasias of quality from Friuli, Tuscany, and Sicily in Italy; in Madeira, Douro, Dão and Colares in Portugal, and in the Canary Islands and Rioja in Spain. 

Photo: Malvasía de Rioja. Credit: Rioja DOCa

I wish I could say this was a straightforward grape mini-series, but this will take many twists and turns -- hopefully I served as good enough navigator to help the ride be a little less bumpy!

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Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

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Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with me or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

Napa Valley is unquestionably one of the great wine regions of the world. Located about 50 mi/80 km north of San Francisco, Napa is renowned for its decadent Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay and its glamourous, fancy and expensive tasting rooms. Napa only represents 4% of California’s wine grape harvest, but it holds the highest reputation among all US regions.

But the region isn’t all show – it has excellent terroir to make world class wines.

Photo: Napa Valley Vineyard. Source: Pixabay

Napa Valley stretches southeast to northwest for approximately 35 miles (60 km) from just north of the San Pablo Bay to the northern reaches of Calistoga. Nestled between the Vaca and Mayacamas mountain ranges, the Valley is about 4 miles wide at its widest point. It contains half the soil types in the world and its mountains, benchlands, and valleys have so much diversity that each wine made here reflects a different character.

In this show I go over the history, the geology and terroir, the main grapes and wine styles, and then I go into detail on the 16 American Viticultural Areas in Napa and what to expect from each.

This is a comprehensive look at this great wine region of the world that made the reputation of American wine as we know it today.

Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

_______________________________________________________________

Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

This week, I'm joined by Patron and friend Steve Tocco is the wine buyer and manager of a fine wine store near Boulder, Colorado -- Atlas Valley Purveyors (yes, I've been there!). He is great at what he does -- creative, community oriented, great palate -- basically he is the wine guy we all want!

I asked him  to come on the show to share tips on how to best work with a local wine retailer to create great relationships that lead to better wines. 

We discuss:

• How to figure out your shopping style
• How create a relationship with your wine shop person
• How to glean what someone knows so you can decide if you want to go back to the store
• Corporate buying v. small retail
• Important questions to answer before you go into a shop (and if you don't ask those quesitons, what the wine shop person should ask you!)
• How to take advantage of discounts and special things the store may offer

It's a fun show and a great checklist of things to look for to make sure you find the right local shop for you! 

Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

_______________________________________________________________

Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

This show features an overview of an essential place in the wine world: South Australia. There is much to learn here but I try to break it down into what is important to know. The show is somewhat heavy on history, since that is an essential part of why South Australia is important today. 

South Australia is an Australian state located in the central south of the continent that refers to itself as Australia’s “Wine State”, and rightfully so: it produces 50% of all bottled wine and about 80% of the country’s premium wine. Most large wine companies (8 of the 13 continuously operating wine companies in Australia are here), many small wineries and almost all the official wine trade organizations, including Wine Australia, the government body responsible for regulating and promoting Australian wine, and the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI), which plays a crucial role in wine research, are based in South Australia.

South Australia consists of 18 regions, and although I address most of them, I also point out that there are a handful that are essential to truly knowing about South Australia: Barossa, Eden Valley, Clare Valley, Adelaide Hills, Coonawarra, and McLaren Vale.

Map: Wine Australia

This is a bit of a whirlwind show, but hopefully it gives you a flavor for this famed, and essential corner of the wine world. My hope is that heard one or two things I said that you may not have known and that you seek out those wines. Australia is under appreciated in the US, especially, and when you get a good one, it is usually unbelievably good!

Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

_______________________________________________________________

Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

Touriga Nacional is, beyond a doubt, the most important, praised, and discussed red grape in Portugal. An essential part of Port and the dry wines of the regions of Dão and Douro, this powerful grape has spread throughout Portugal and has captured the imagination of winemakers from Australia to South Africa to California and more.

Photo: Touriga Nacional. Credit: Unsplash

In this show, I go through the highlights of this beautiful grape and talk about how it went from near extinction to the Queen grape of Portugal.

I review the origins, vineyard habits, aromas and flavors, and then discuss the specific places the grape grows and why it thrives where it does. 

Touriga is not just a fantastic grape, it will be an important factor in dealing with our changing climate. Take a listen to the show and see why this grape is so outstanding. 

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Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

_______________________________________________________________

Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes