Busted! The Truth About 4 Common Wine Myths

Are you excited about wine but also...confused by it? Makes sense! There are many myths about wine floating around and a genuine dearth of accessible information on whether they are true or not. Often, the answers are complicated. Allow us to shed a bit of light on four of the biggest wine myths out there.

MYTH: SUGAR IN WINE IS BAD

Sugar: is it bad, is it good, is it totally misunderstood? YES. The truth about sugar is that it is a crucial component in the winemaking process. Natural sugar, that is. When yeasts munch on naturally occurring sugars (found in wine grapes and all other fruits), they produce alcohol and myriad complex flavors that wine drinkers love.

But things get sticky (ha!) when wine producers ADD cane sugars and concentrates to that naturally sweet grape juice. Many big  producers—such as brands that rhyme with 'shapothic' and even a certain celebrity’s ‘clean’ wine brand— can add cane sugar and other junk to wine to create a richer, more voluptuous mouthfeel that...

Skin Contact Wine, Demystified

Photo: Sharon McCutcheon via Unsplash

Right now, in June of 2020, the words skin contact might totally freak you out. Social distancing is a thing, staying extra safe is on all of our minds, and the thought of touching another human being is suddenly a frought thought indeed. 

But we're not here to talk about that! On THIS blog, we're talking skin contact as it applies to wine. Wine! What a happy topic. 

Soooo, what is skin contact wine, anyway?

It's super simple. Skin contact wines are white wines that are made more like red wines.

The big difference between making a white wine and a red wine lies in the fermentation process. With a white wine, the winemaker presses the grapes and then removes the pomace (all of the residual solids, like seeds, grape skins, etc.)  before fermenting the juice in a tank or other vessel. When making red wine, the winemaker will allow that pomace to hang out in the fermentation vessel with the juice, giving them more time to macerate. All of those lovely seeds and skins impart several things...