| VINSIGHTS |

A wine education infographic worth 1,000 words

by MARNIE OLD

Understanding a few core wine truths can help beginners visualize how and why grape variety alone cannot pinpoint how a wine will taste. All fruits go through predictable changes to their sweetness— acidity and flavor as GRAPE they ripen— but not

RIPENESS:

ALL OVER THE MAP all wines are made The same grape variety can

from grapes of produce wines that taste equal ripeness. radically different, depending on where they’ re grown

The degree of and when the grape ripeness is fruit is picked. controlled both by exposure to sunlight and warmth, so factors such as a wine region’ s climate, the vineyard’ s terrain and the winemaker’ s decision on when fruit should be picked all have a tremendous impact. As a result, fruit ripeness can have a stronger influence on how a wine will taste than the type of grape grown.

Since fruit ripeness correlates very strongly with most of wine’ s sensory traits— from alcohol content to acidity to flavor intensity and even color— it’ s possible to picture where wines fall on a ripeness-based“ flavor map” of sorts, as shown here.

This visualization can help make sense of one of the biggest wine mysteries by explaining why two wines made from the same grape variety can taste wildly different when grown in different conditions. It also shows why two wines from different grape varieties can share a stylistic resemblance when grown in similar climates and picked at similar ripeness levels. •

Marnie Old, formerly the director of wine studies for Manhattan’ s French Culinary Institute, is best known for her visually engaging books published by DK such as Wine: A Tasting Course and her popular Wine Simplified series of wine tutorials on YouTube.

WWW. CHEERSONLINEATHOME. COM CHEERS @ HOME • SPRING 2026 | 7