Ranking wines with points is not a new phenomenon.

You should keep wine the same way you'd keep a teenager: cool, on its side, in the dark, and free from vibration.

At present, 330 zones throughout the country carry a DOC designation and 73, a higher one, DOCG (DOC + e Garantita, “and guaranteed”). Photo from Alessandro Sacchi at unsplash

The correct glass can have an enormous effect on a wine's aroma and taste.

Some of the great vineyards of the world are hillside vineyards. When it comes to making terrific wine, slopes aren’t for dopes. 

Even if a restaurant wine list is long, it’s certain to be organized in some way or other.

People collect wine in different ways and for different reasons.

Distinct from other areas of Bordeaux, Graves [grahv] is prized for both red and white wines—the latter often as expensive as the former—although, on balance, the more renowned are the red wines.

No commune in the Médoc shares the allure of Pauillac. In it reside three of the fabled five First Growth châteaux of Bordeaux—Lafite Rothschild, Mouton Rothschild and Latour. No trio like them exists in the world, much less elsewhere in the region. Photo from Angell Guillèn on unsplash

The wines of Australia are like its people: straightforward, outgoing, exuberant.

Margaux has the distinction, among the Médoc’s six winemaking communes, of being both the largest in area and diverse in style.

This just in—Austria is not Germany.

Sicily and Sardinia (or Sicilia and Sardegna, in Italian) are, in turn, the largest and second-largest islands in the Mediterranean. Both, of course, are two of the 20 regions of Italy, although both are characterfully distinct from the mainland as a whole—and from each other.

Argentina makes outstanding wines with grapes that are far less successful elsewhere. Photo from Matt Bloch on unsplash

Pomerol, at a mere 2,000 acres in vine, is Bordeaux’s smallest red wine district, but it produces wines more highly sought-after than some of the most famous in all of Bordeaux. Photo from Elliot Paris on unsplash

Piedmont (in Italian, Piemonte) takes its name from the Latin roots for the words “foot” and “mountain,” in this case a vast rolling land that spreads out from its base at the Alps. Photo from Michael Heintz on unsplash

The Veneto produces alone, of Italy’s 20 regions, fully one-fourth of all Italian DOC and DOCG wine. Photo from Alberto Caliman on unsplash

Tuscany and its wines are as familiar to English-speaking folk as they are to the Tuscans themselves.

If you envision the whole of Bordeaux as an outstretched right hand, the Médoc would be the thumb. Photo from Pierre Ducher on unsplash

The Romans planted vines in St.-Estèphe, although the area did not flower commercially until the 18th century and the establishment of most of the well-known châteaux. Photo from Angell Guillèn on unsplash