Grapes For Wine Guide, Flavor, Characteristics, Explained

This page focuses on the main grapes used to produce the wines usually covered in The Wine Cellar Insider from Bordeaux, The Rhone Valley and California. Wine gets its flavor profile from a combination of the grapes used to produce the wine, the soil and weather patterns where the fruit was grown and the choices exercised by the winemaker.

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The type of grape has the largest bearing on the flavors and characteristics found in a wine. Like wine, each grape variety offers its own, unique, flavor profile. While any grape can be planted in any region, today, vintners are more aware than ever, that the type of soil, exposure and weather patterns will effect the ability of the fruit to achieve the desirable level phenolic ripeness the grower is seeking. Grapes have complex structures and for that reason, so does wine. In fact, scientists have discovered more than 250 different chemical compounds in wine. That means wine is even more complex than blood serum! All this complexity and flavor starts with the type of grapes planted in the vineyard used to produce wine.

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Wine comes in all shapes, sizes and colors. In America, wine is produced in all 50 states! Wine is made in more countries than I can count. There are between 5,000 and 10,000 different grape varieties used to produce wine. However, most of the worlds popular wines are produced from closer to 100 unique varietals.

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We’re going to focus on the main types of grapes that are used to produce red and white Bordeaux; Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot , Cabernet Franc ,  Petit Verdot and Malbec for the red wine and Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon for the white wine. We’ll look at Syrah, which is used in Cote Rotie and Hermitage in the Northern Rhone as well as in other countries along with Grenache and Mourvedre, the other most popular grapes used in Chateauneuf du Pape, in the Southern Rhone Valley. We’ll cover Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and the single grape that is most identifiable with California wine, Zinfandel. All the red and white wine grape varietals mentioned are used in the production of California wine, as well as in wines from a myriad of other countries.

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