But here’s the bottom line: An ice water and salt bath is the fastest way to chill wine. It’s much faster (and has less risk of freezing your bottle solid if you forget about it) than just putting your bottle in the freezer.

The word “varietal” is among the most misused in wine. Many people think of it as a synonym for “grape,” as in, “What varietals are in that wine?” Not to be pedantic, but that is wrong. Varietal is not a noun, it is an adjective. One may properly refer to a “varietal...

A friend graciously brings a bottle of champagne or wine to your New Year's eve party. The problem? It's warm. Your internal Veruca Salt is screaming, "I want my wine — and I want it now!" Don't panic — or stash the bottle in the freezer for the next 45 minutes. We've...

Sonic decanters, slip-on wine thermometers, devices to pour your wine without pulling the cork -- the list of fancy wine accessories is growing apace, as global wine enthusiasts look for newer, better ways to appreciate their favorite tipple. But James Molesworth,...

If you nose a wine and get a distinctive whiff of salad, don’t be alarmed. A green, vegetal aroma that presents itself as bell pepper, jalapeño, or grass is characteristic of some of the world’s most famous wine varieties. These aromas can be fresh, spicy, overripe,...

You probably do it without realizing: You see a bottle of wine with a screw top and assume it’s a cheap bottle of wine. This, friends, is actually wrong (in many cases, at least). Screw top may have once been reserved for cheap jugs of red, but no longer. Good...

For his 50th birthday, my friend reserved a table at his favorite restaurant. He brought along his own bottle of 2005 Haut-Brion, and asked the sommelier to uncork it for him. The sommelier poured a thimble-sized splash of it into a glass and offered it to my friend...

The smell of young wine is called an “aroma” while a more mature wine offers a more subtle “bouquet.”[1] A “cork-tease” is someone who constantly talks about the wine he or she will open but never does.[6] Red wines are red because fermentation extracts color from the...