Pinot Noir, the great grape of Burgundy, is a touchy variety. The best examples offer the classic black cherry, spice, raspberry and currant flavors, and an aroma that can resemble wilted roses, along with earth, tar, herb and cola notes. It can also be rather ordinary, light, simple, herbal, vegetal and occasionally weedy. It can even be downright funky, with pungent barnyard aromas. In fact, Pinot Noir is the most fickle of all grapes to grow: It reacts strongly to environmental changes such as heat and cold spells, and is notoriously fussy to work with once picked, since its thin skins are easily bruised and broken, setting the juice free. Even after fermentation, Pinot Noir can hide its weaknesses and strengths, making it a most difficult wine to evaluate out of barrel. In the bottle, too, it is often a chameleon, showing poorly one day, brilliantly the next.
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Known for its dark hue and firm tannins, Petite Sirah has often been used as a blending wine to provide color and structure, particularly to Zinfandel. On its own, Petite Sirah can also make intense, peppery, ageworthy wines, but few experts consider it as complex as Syrah itself.

There has been much confusion over the years about Petite Sirah’s origins. For a long time, the grape was thought to be completely unrelated to Syrah, despite its name. Petite Sirah was believed to actually be Durif, a minor red grape variety first grown in southern France in the late 1800s.
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As long as the weather is warm, Mourvèdre likes a wide variety of soils. It’s popular across the south of France, especially in Provence and the Côtes-du-Rhône, and is often used in Châteauneuf-du-Pape; Languedoc makes it as a varietal. Spain uses it in many areas, including Valencia.
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Merlot is the red-wine success of the 1990s: its popularity has soared along with its acreage, and it seems wine lovers can’t drink enough of it. It dominates Bordeaux, except for the Médoc and Graves. Though it is mainly used for the Bordeaux blend, it can stand alone. In St.-Emilion and Pomerol, especially, it produces noteworthy wines, culminating in Château Pétrus. In Italy it’s everywhere, though most of the Merlot is light, unremarkable stuff. But Ornellaia and Fattoria de Ama are strong exceptions to that rule. Despite its popularity, its quality ranges only from good to very good most of the time, though there are a few stellar producers found around the world.
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Beaujolais makes its famous, fruity reds exclusively from one of the many Gamays available, the Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc. Low in alcohol and relatively high in acidity, the wines are meant to be drunk soon after bottling; the ultimate example of this is Beaujolais Nouveau, whipped onto shelves everywhere almost overnight. It is also grown in the Loire, but makes no remarkable wines. The Swiss grow it widely, for blending with Pinot Noir; they often chaptalize the wines.
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If you think of values when you think of Chilean wines, think again. Two red wines in the $50 range are about to be released that by their price and their pedigree seek to place Chile among the world’s top red wine producers. One is made by veteran Chilean vintner Aurelio Montes, and the other is a joint venture between California’s Robert Mondavi wine group and Chile’s Viña Errazuriz.

Leading the charge is Montes Alpha M, which at $54 a bottle is the most expensive Chilean wine to date. The Montes Winery recently introduced its 1996 luxury red at a tasting in New York. The wine is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, with some Cabernet Franc and Merlot blended in. It stands apart from other super Chileans, remarkable for its understated elegance.
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Good red wines are extremely popular worldwide and there are more and more wine lovers who know a good wine to truly appreciate. There are many great wine regions around the world and certainly Italy is one of the best known. Italy is particularly famous for its tasty red wine and these include among others the famous grape Nero d’Avola. This is a very old Italian variety, which is predominantly found in the region around Sicily.
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Nebbiolo is a red grape and is also Chiavennasca, Spanna, Spana, Lampia, Michet, Picotrendo, Picontener, Prugnet, or Pugnet called Rose. The origin of this red wine is located in Piedmont Italy. It is an elegant Burgundian wine Gnarled up. Seen in cherry red color of the wine shines through brick.
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Mullerrebe of red wine is often referred to as the little sister or little brother of Pinot Noir because the wine grape of the two places are very similar. However, the price and the quality of the Pinot Noir is slightly higher than those of red wine Mullerrebe. Nevertheless, the Mullerrebe red wine is very popular in many places, because he’s very good on price-performance ratio.
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The grape variety Montepulciano grows in the main growing areas of Marche, Umbria, Puglia, and get in the Abruzzi, where this wine its name “Montepulciano d’Abruzzo has given. To these names, you must have the grapes share the grape variety Montepulciano be at least 70%. Efforts Montepulciano is also Morellone, Primaticcio, Uva Abruzzi or Cordisco called.

Montepulciano is characterized by several features:
Strong and with a high alcohol content (about 13 to 14.5%), a large color intensity, as well as his native and spicy taste. Depending on the admixture of other varieties can taste the flavor of Montepulciano slightly dark berries, plums, sweet and sour cherries, spices and a touch of fine tobacco.
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