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There are roughly 10,000 known grape varieties in the Vitis vinifera family, but only about 1,370 are actually used to make wine commercially. Even more striking: just 13 varieties account for a third of the world's vineyards. Cabernet Sauvignon leads the pack, planted on over 340,000 hectares globally.
Wine changes flavour over time because of slow chemical reactions happening inside the bottle. Tannins link together and soften. Bright fruit aromas fade into earthy, leathery, truffle-like notes. Colour shifts from purple to brick-red (for reds) or from pale gold to amber (for whites). These changes happen through controlled oxidation, molecular rearrangement, and ester breakdown — all driven by time and temperature.
To organize a wine tasting at home, plan 5-8 wines around a theme (region, grape variety, vintage), provide proper tasting glasses, water, and neutral bread. Serve wines from lightest to fullest-bodied at appropriate temperatures.
Mouthfeel is the physical sensation wine creates in your mouth — its weight, texture, and body. It's the difference between skimmed milk and double cream. A full mouthfeel comes from alcohol, glycerol, tannins, and dissolved solids working together. When a wine fills your mouth with rich, velvety texture, that's impressive mouthfeel.
A single-varietal wine is made from just one grape variety. It lets that grape's personality shine through without blending. Under EU law, a wine can be labelled as a single variety if at least 85% comes from that grape. Regions like Burgundy (Pinot Noir or Chardonnay), Alsace (Riesling, Gewurztraminer), and much of the New World are famous for this approach.
A blend is a wine made from multiple grape varieties, vineyard plots, or vintages combined to create a more complex and balanced flavor profile. It's the dominant practice in Bordeaux (Cabernet Sauvignon + Merlot + Cabernet Franc) and Champagne.
Still wine is flat — no bubbles. Sparkling wine is fizzy. The difference comes down to carbon dioxide: still wines let the CO₂ escape during winemaking, while sparkling wines deliberately trap it through a second fermentation, either in the bottle (traditional method, like Champagne) or in a pressurised tank (Charmat method, like Prosecco). The pressure ranges from about 1 bar (lightly fizzy) to 6 bars (full-on sparkle).
The 'nose' of a wine is simply what it smells like. Wine professionals break it into three layers: primary aromas from the grape itself (fruits, flowers), secondary aromas from fermentation (bread, butter, yoghurt), and tertiary aromas from ageing (leather, tobacco, earth). A single wine can contain over 800 different aromatic compounds — which is why smelling wine before you sip it reveals so much.
That little tingle in certain wines comes from dissolved carbon dioxide (CO₂) left over from fermentation. Sometimes it's totally intentional — winemakers bottle early to trap a bit of fizz, giving the wine a fresh, lively feel. Muscadet sur lie, Vinho Verde, and many young whites are known for this. Other times, it's accidental (a hint of refermentation in the bottle), which can be a flaw — or a happy surprise.
A 'vin de pays' is a French wine classification that sits between basic table wine and the strict AOC/AOP appellations. Since 2009, it's officially called IGP (Protected Geographical Indication). These wines must come from a specific region but follow looser rules — giving winemakers more creative freedom. The Pays d'Oc in southern France is by far the biggest, producing over 6 million hectolitres per year.
A cuvée refers to a specific batch of wine from a particular selection of grapes, plots, or barrels. In Champagne, the term historically means the first press juice (the purest 2,050 liters from 4,000 kg of grapes), considered the highest quality.
A good wine is recognized by its balance between acidity, alcohol, tannins (for reds), and residual sugar. It shows notable length on the palate (flavors persist after tasting), aromatic complexity, and a clean finish.
A tannic wine is one where you really feel the tannins — those natural compounds from grape skins, seeds, and stems that create a drying, gripping sensation in your mouth. Think of the feeling when you drink strong black tea. Cabernet Sauvignon, Nebbiolo, and Tannat are famously tannic grapes.
Red wine stains teeth because of chromogens (color pigments from anthocyanins) and tannins that bind to tooth enamel. The wine's acidity temporarily opens enamel pores, letting pigments seep in.
A wine's finish (or length) is how long its flavours linger on your palate after you swallow. It's measured in caudalies — basically, one caudalie equals one second. A great wine can hang around for 10-12 seconds or more, while an everyday bottle fades after 2-4 seconds.
Beaujolais Nouveau is a young red wine released just weeks after harvest, traditionally on the third Thursday of November each year. Made from the Gamay grape using a rapid winemaking technique called carbonic maceration, it is designed to be drunk immediately — fresh, fruity, and fun.
Red wine gets its colour from anthocyanins, natural pigments found in the skin of dark-skinned grapes, which are extracted during maceration — the period when juice ferments in contact with the skins. The juice of most red grapes is actually clear or slightly pink.
A medium-sweet wine (moelleux in French) contains between 12 and 45 grams per litre of residual sugar, sitting between off-dry and fully sweet dessert wines on the sweetness scale. It offers gentle sweetness balanced by the wine's natural acidity.
A wine blend (assemblage) is the art of combining different grape varieties, vineyard parcels, or vintages to create a wine that is more balanced and complex than any single component alone. Around 75 % of Bordeaux wines are blends, typically of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc.
Hosting a wine tasting at home means choosing 4-6 wines around a coherent theme, providing proper glasses, preparing simple tasting cards, and offering neutral food to cleanse the palate. A budget of EUR 50-100 for the wines is enough for a memorable evening with 6-10 guests.