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Happy Sunday! In this week’s issue, you will read about why wine by the glass is expensive, the cool-climate Grenache, the” booze trails” and much much more. Keep reading to find out more!

📣 DECORKED Rewind (monthly edition) is now available for just 1 referral (see the bottom of the email).

📣 PARTNERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT - we have amazing news to share! Read below to find out more.

INTERESTING THIS WEEK

🌼 Inside the art of making dandelion wine at Minneapolis' Urban Forage Winery READ HERE

📊 Millennials vs. Gen Z: what we wish our generations knew sooner about wine READ HERE

🍷 The 3 main types of Sherry and bottles to try now READ HERE

🧊 How do I keep my wine cool at a picnic? READ HERE

💻 Meet Youtube’s Master of Wine READ HERE

🇪🇸 Strikes threatened in Rioja READ HERE

📣 In this issue, we are pleased to announce our exclusive partnership with Amble Wine, a respected provider of premium wine education resources.

We invite you to explore the World Wine Map Workbooks, a comprehensive tool offering a detailed visual representation of wine regions globally. This resource facilitates a deep understanding of the distinct characteristics of each region and includes an interactive workbook for hands-on learning. For those seeking to challenge their knowledge, the Wine Quiz Workbook offers a rigorous assessment of your understanding. This resource includes 1000 multiple-choice questions covering all aspects of viticulture, winemaking, and global wine varieties.

Both resources, designed by esteemed wine scholar Lea Gatinois, are crafted with sustainability in mind, utilizing 100% recycled paper and vegetable-based ink.

As our valued reader, we are pleased to offer you an exclusive 5% discount on these exceptional resources. Use the code DECORKED at checkout. Expand your wine expertise with these exclusive offerings from Amble Wine.

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UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BLENDING AND CO-FERMENTING

If you spend a lot of time in natural wine shops — or with people who frequent them — you’ve probably heard someone mention co-fermentation. This ancient technique is increasingly popular with winemakers, especially those who favor minimum-intervention approaches. Co-fermentation isn’t limited to the natural wine community, nor is it the only tool in all winemakers’ arsenals. There’s also blending, another practice with a long history. Though, for reasons that aren’t always clear, it tends to come up less frequently in conversations about natural wine.

At first glance, these practices look similar but are actually quite different—as are their impacts on the final product. Blending is an ancient technique that goes back hundreds of years. It allows winemakers to essentially matchmake the characteristics of the complementary grape. Co-fermentation entails combining the juice and/or must of multiple grape varieties in the same vessel to undergo fermentation together. There are many ways to do this. For example, you can co-ferment the juice from white wine grapes with must from one or several red wine grapes, you can co-ferment white wine juice with rosé juice, and so on.

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WHICH COUNTRIES DRINK THE MOST WINE?

World wine consumption likely dipped last year as higher prices contributed to people uncorking fewer bottles, a recent report has said, but which country drank the most? Here is an updated list of the 10 countries that drink the most wine, according to OIV’s preliminary figures for 2022 (million hectolitres - mhl).

USA: 34mhl, up 2.8% versus 2021

France: 25.3mhl, up 1.5%

Italy: 23mhl, down 5%

Germany: 19.4mhl, down 2.5%

UK: 12.8mhl, down 2.2%

Russia: 10.8mhl, up 3.3%

Spain: 10.3mhl, down 0.1%

China: 8.8mhl, down 16%

Argentina: 8.3mhl, down 1.3%

Portugal: 6mhl, up 14.3%

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THE COMING OF COOL-CLIMATE GRENACHE

Inky in the glass, intensely aromatic on the nose and tannic and structured on the palate. These are not the usual hallmarks of Grenache. The grape, originally from Spain and widely planted in France’s Rhône Valley, is known more for medium-to-lighter-bodied expressions of red fruit and baking spice, best consumed quickly. But recently, what you can expect from a bottle is changing. These unexpected qualities are exhibited by a growing number of Grenache bottlings from cool-climate vineyards on California’s Central Coast. There, chilly temperatures, foggy mornings, and windy afternoons starve the grape vines of the sunshine they crave, forcing grapes to ripen extremely late in the harvest season.

That extended growing period, and the specialized farming strategies required to get the grapes that far, create a version of Grenache that these vintners believe is unlike anywhere in the world. The meticulous management techniques include shading the grapes from the sun to block bleaching, which is a common problem for Grenache. Additionally, winemakers must frequently drop otherwise healthy clusters to ensure that the remaining fruit reaches the sugar levels required for red wine. More cool-climate Grenache is on the way. These grapes routinely sell out faster than Pinot Noir, so growers are actively adding acreage each year.

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THE MAIN REASON WINE BY THE GLASS IS SO EXPENSIVE AT RESTAURANTS

If you study a restaurant's wine list, you might notice that the bottles are priced significantly higher than in wine or liquor stores. Likewise, the price of a single glass will set you back more than it would if you were going off a bottle's retail price. Rest assured that this is not the global restaurant industry's bold-faced way of swindling customers out of more money. It's a means of staying in business. Caleb Ganzer, the New York City French-Mediterranean bar Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels owner, told Food & Wine that those steep wine prices help restaurants cover operating costs. "When you buy a bottle in a store, you literally just pay the retailer to have bought it and the producer to have made it," he said.

But when you shell out for a bottle at a restaurant, you're paying for "...the costs that come with enjoying it in a nice place." When pouring individual glasses, restaurants are at an even higher risk of losing profits. When your server opens a bottle for a single pour, there's a possibility it won't get any more orders that night. According to Ganzer, opened bottles are ticking time bombs. After 24 hours, that liquid money is either going down the drain or into the glasses of the staff. When in doubt, ask your server their preference when you're having trouble deciding or want to hear them rattle off words like "salinity." You can think of their sage advice as a part of the drinking-out experience, and it might make you feel better about shelling out $15 for a glass of chilled Beaujolais.

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WHY YOU SHOULD STOP BEING AFRAID OF SULFUR IN WINE

A winemaker grabs a disc, a hunk of elemental sulfur, ignites it, and hangs it from the hole in the top of the empty barrel from a hook. He repeats this for each barrel in each row, the smoke wafting in the air, filling the winery with something almost medieval. Winemakers still do this. Though it’s far from the most common way to add sulfur to wine, it’s common enough that you might be touring a winery in Calistoga and see and smell the smoke rising from barrels. The practice of using sulfur to protect wine from spoilage, volatile acidity (turning vinegary), and bacteria dates back to at least the 18th century. The idea that sulfites in wine is why you have a headache in the morning after downing a bottle the night before is much, much more modern. When used responsibly, in minuscule parts per million (ppm), the average person should never be affected—except that they may be aware of a noticeable lack of VA or mousiness. Adding minimal sulfur to wine to protect it is less like injecting steroids and more like taking zinc to boost your immunity.

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ENGLISH BUBBLES PONDER THE PROSECCO PATH

England built a reputation on Champagne-style sparkling wines, but could a lurch towards Prosecco derail its progress? What started as a brave experiment by Felsted and Philton Manor in 1976 has transformed into a serious industry, with a handful of well-established brands, some wealthy investors – essential in this marginal climate – and no paucity of ambition. Trailblazing wineries like Nyetimber, Black Chalk, Hambledon, and Gusbourne benchmark their wines at Champagne NV prices – or higher. And they continue to sell. According to MCDV UK firm's chief executive Gary Smith, the aim is to transform the industry and create a landmark building that consumers readily associate with domestic bubbly. "There's 80m bottles of Prosecco shipped from Italy every year. If we're producing up to 5m bottles of wine, we have an opportunity to tap into that market and bring people into English wine," Smith told The Guardian.

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THE BIG BUSINESS OF BOOZE TRAILS

Linking distilleries, wineries, and breweries in a tourist-friendly map or trail raises the bottom line for the producers involved, but also gives local economies a much-needed boost. Whether visitors are meandering along the backroads of Kentucky between bourbon distilleries or checking directions to an out-of-the-way brewery in Maine, it’s no secret that the rise of tourist-driven trails has influenced how people travel and drink. For the public, it’s as simple as following a boozy treasure map linking up local producers, but establishing a beer, wine, or liquor trail requires a keen understanding of both the industries they serve tourism and beverage and the communities around them. This makes the process of creating these lucrative tourist pathways both deeply region-specific and collaboratively driven. Trail structure varies widely, but local personalization and an understanding of how visitors will make the most out of their experience are of utmost importance. Sometimes, that means offering a signature hat or a recipe-packed trail passport. Other times, it means focusing specifically on seasonal events. The "Booze Trails" could also be very helpful in reviving the rural areas and attracting more attention to them.

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WINE REGION OF THE WEEK: VALE DOS VINHEDOS, BRAZIL

Vale dos Vinhedos is a Brazilian wine region in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. It has the longest tradition of any wine region in the country, dating back to the 1870s and the arrival of Italian immigrants. Along with many of their vineyards, the Venetian dialect still exists today.

In 2002 the region was the first in the country to be granted a geographical indication, the Indicação de Procedência. Nine years later it was the first to be promoted to the more stringently regulated Denominação de Origem title. Red wine production majors on Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. White wines are less common, with Chardonnay being the principal grape variety. Sparkling wines made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are also exported.

Vale dos Vinhedos covers 82 square kilometers (32 square miles) in the Serra Gaúcha (Gaucho Highlands) in part of the Pedrinho River basin. Its territory mostly sits within the municipality of Bento Gonçalves, with smaller sections lying within Garibaldi and Monte Belo do Sul municipalities.

The region is home to over 30 wineries, as well as a major national grape and wine research facility. Small estates alongside large wineries provide plenty of options for wine tourism. The valley is also known for growing bananas and for its Araucaria (monkey puzzle) trees. The wider area is home to many Brazilians of not only Italian but also German descent.

Text by: Wine-Searcher

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GRAPE OF THE WEEK: CABERNET SAUVIGNON

Often synonymous with Bordeaux wine blends and the Napa Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon is found worldwide – in no small part due to its prized combination of black fruit aromas, structural tannins, and fresh acidity. This is one of the most famous red wine grape varieties on Earth.

Cabernet Sauvignon is rivaled only by its Bordeaux stablemate Merlot, and its opposite number in Burgundy, Pinot Noir. From its origins in Bordeaux, it has successfully spread to almost every wine-growing country in the world. This is now the key grape variety in many top New World wine regions, most notably Napa Valley, Coonawarra, and Maipo Valley. Wherever they come from, the wines always seem to demonstrate a handful of common character traits. these are deep color, high tannin content, moderate acidity, and aromas of black currant, tomato leaf, dark spices, and cedarwood. They tend to range from medium- to full-bodied.

Cabernet's good acidity, tannins, and punchy cassis notes go a long way in a blend. On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that these qualities can make cooler climate Cabernet Sauvignon an awkward customer in the glass. Nonetheless, Cabernet Sauvignon has a large number of common blending partners. Apart from the obvious Merlot and Cabernet Franc, the most prevalent of these are Malbec, Petit Verdot and Carmenère (the ingredients of a classic Bordeaux Blend), and Shiraz (in Australia's favorite blend). In Spain and South America, a Cabernet – Tempranillo blend is now commonplace.

As a late-flowering and late-ripening variety, Cabernet Sauvignon grapes mature slowly. This can also work for or against wine quality; in a cold season or climate there is a risk of the grapes failing to ripen fully, while in most other conditions the steady rate of progress offers producers a wider choice of harvest dates

Text by: Wine-Searcher

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DID YOU KNOW THAT?

🌬The "Angel's share" refers to the portion of wine lost to evaporation during aging in oak barrels.

🍇 Wine grapes are categorized into two main types: Vitis vinifera (commonly used for winemaking) and Vitis labrusca (commonly used for table grapes).

❄️ Ice wine is made from grapes that have been left to freeze on the vine, resulting in intensely sweet and concentrated flavors.

🗺 A "cru" refers to a specific vineyard or group of vineyards known for producing high-quality wines.

📖 Enology refers specifically to the science and study of winemaking, while "viticulture" focuses on the cultivation and care of grapevines.

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