Wine Basics
There's so much to learn about wine that it would literally take a lifetime to learn only half of what there is. Since you don't have a lifetime to spend on this enormous yet worthy pursuit, why not take a few minutes to peruse this section you may pick up some information that will help you understand how wine is made, what varieties are out there, the regions from which they come, and what to look for when deciding which bottle to match with that new recipe you've been longing to try. Not sure about the basics of tasting or serving wine? That's here too.
Perhaps more than any other beverage, the serving of wine tends to bring out the hidden poseur in us. There is a certain celebratory, haunting, ageless mysticism about the ritual of pouring fermented grape juice into a glass vessel that evokes great reverie and piety.
Not only are there plenty of opportunities to spill, spatter and dribble; we seem to know instinctively that we are participating in an act much larger than ourselves. Wine has symbolized so much heritage, culture, and reverence over its history that it is treated in some places as akin to a religion. Insofar as there are many dos and don'ts for the wine snob extraordinaire that may have more to do with form than function, there are a few that are generally accepted more for comfort and sense than pomposity.
