WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UNOAKED AND OAKED CHARDONNAY ?  You’ve probably seen winemakers or brands promote their Chardonnay as oaked or unoaked. A winemaker who wants their Chardonnay to taste crisp and bright often uses stainless steel to ferment and store the wine before bottling. This limits the influence of oxygen and retains the wine’s fresh character. When a winemaker seeks to create a fuller-bodied wine with secondary flavors of vanilla and spice, they can ferment and age the wine in oak, or ferment in stainless steel and age in oak afterward. Oaked Chardonnay often undergoes partial or full MLF while in barrel, as well as sees contact with the lees (dead yeast). The vanilla and spice flavors, plus round, creamy texture from micro-oxygenation, lees contact, and MLF produce a wine that is the stylistic opposite of unoaked Chardonnay. The Essential Guide to Chardonnay BY WINE ENTHUSIAST

White Wine 101 With hundreds of varieties of wine white grapes, there’s as much white wine information to learn about as there are white wine grapes planted in all corners of the globe. That being said, you’ll likely encounter only a handful of these grapes most often. In this white wine basics section, we cover the flavor profiles and regions of the most common white wine grapes. You can certainly choose to discover more beyond this short list, but for a quick and easy white wine 101 White Wine Basics BY PAUL GREGUTT

Red Wine 101 With hundreds of varieties of red wine grapes, there is as much red wine information to learn about as there are red grapes planted in all corners of the globe. That being said, you’ll likely encounter only a handful of these grapes most often. Here, we cover the flavor profiles and regions of the most common red wine grapes. You can certainly choose to discover more beyond this short list, but for a quick and easy red wine 101 Red Wine Information & Basics BY PAUL GREGUTT

WHAT IS NATURAL WINE ? This type of wine is made naturally as it used to be made before chemical and fertilizers were developed. Natural wines use no additives.

WHAT IS BIODYNAMIC WINE ? Like biodynamic agriculture in general, biodynamic grape-growing stems from the ideas and suggestions of Rudolf Steiner (1861.1925), which predate most of the organic movement. The principles and practices of biodynamics are based on his spiritual/practical philosophy which includes understanding the ecological, the energetic, and the spiritual in nature.This term pertains to wine that is made of grapes planted according to the farmer's almanac taking in consideration the phases of the moon, and the affects of earth's gravity. The holistic health of the vineyard is taken into account rather than just of the grapes. 

IS ALL WINE VEGAN ? The majority of people are unaware that wine, although made from grapes, may have been made using animal-derived products. During the winemaking process, the liquid is filtered through substances called “fining agents.” This process is used to remove protein, yeast, cloudiness, “off” flavors and colorings, and other organic particles. Popular animal-derived fining agents used in the production of wine include blood and bone marrow, casein (milk protein), chitin (fiber from crustacean shells), egg albumen (derived from egg whites), fish oil, and isinglass (gelatin from fish bladder membranes).
Thankfully, there are several common fining agents that are animal-friendly and used to make vegan wine. Carbon, bentonite clay, limestone, kaolin clay, plant casein, silica gel, and vegetable plaques are all suitable alternatives. We  recommend a great vegan wine such as Timorasso, Timox.

WHAT IS ORANGE WINE ? ​Orange wine is  a white wine treated like a red wine: juice from white grapes spends time with the skins, leading to its characteristic sunset color. The term “orange wine” isn’t officially defined, so it can mean different things to different winemakers. Length of skin contact, grape varieties and aging techniques are all open to interpretation. Despite the range, there are a few consistent characteristics in orange wines—notes of hazelnuts, almonds, citrus fruits (even oranges!) and dried fruits are often found in the glass. Most commonly found in red wines, tannins are also present on the palate. This versatile wine pairs with a range of foods: hard cheeses, pork, seafood, sausage and chicken all partner perfectly. Duck also works especially well.  guide.michelin.com/us/washington-dc/features/orange-wine-explainer/news
Try our Timorasso, Timox, and Ribolla Gialla.
​
WHAT DOES DOCG, DOC, and IGT MEAN ? In the second half of the 20th century, Italy decided to establish a series of laws to safeguard the quality and authenticity of their wine.These safeguards take the form of protected zones where growers and producers must adhere to strict regulations in order to be certified by these laws. The laws also govern things like the type of grapes used, the alcohol content, and how long the wine is aged.
Certification falls into three categories of decreasing strictness: DOCG, DOC, and IGT.
Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG): Seeing this on the label of your wine bottle means that the wine producers followed the strictest regulations possible to make that wine. The wine is tested by a committee that then guarantees the geographic authenticity of the wine and its quality. 
Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC): DOC wines are much more commonly found. The rules governing quality and authenticity are still very strict, but they are a little more generous than those for DOCG status. For instance, the geographic zone might be a little bigger or the rules about what kind of grapes might be a little more relaxed.
Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT): This designation was created a little after the DOC and DOCG designations in order to accommodate growers who couldn't meet all the DOC or DOCG regulations for one reason or another, but were still producing great wines.

DENOMINATIONS BY QUALITY-The lists below categorize the Italian wine denominations by their official quality level designation. The highest quality level in Italy, in principle, is Denominazione d’Origine Controllata e Garantita 
simply “wine” or vino.