Faustino I Rioja Gran Reserva 1996 (Spain)

Who Are We?

We provide information on a variety of wine tastings in London, including whiskey tasting, brandy tasting, sherry tasting, tasting menus and wine tasting weekends. Everything that would be helpful for the discerning wine drinker. Make sure you also take advantage of the following deals:

What Do We Do?

If life was simple and money plentiful, we would be flying all around the world sampling the wines the world has to offer. Unfortunately, this is not our reality so for the moment, we are tasting whatever wine we can get our hands on. Enjoy!

Fancy A Bit of Wine Education?

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast consumes the sugars in the grapes and converts them into alcohol. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts produce different types of wine.

Wines and wine gifts made from other fruits are normally named after the fruit from which they are produced and are generically called fruit wine or country wine. Others, such as barley wine and rice wine like sake, are made from starch-based materials and resemble beer and spirit more than wine, while ginger wine is fortified with brandy. In these cases, the term "wine" refers to the higher alcohol content rather than production process.

Wine has a rich history dating back to around 8000 BC and is thought to have originated in areas now within the borders of Armenia, Georgia and Iran. Wine first appeared in Europe at about 4500 BC in the Balkans, and was very common in ancient Greece, Thrace and Rome. Wine has also played an important role in religion throughout history. The Greek god Dionysus and the Roman equivalent Bacchus represented wine, and the drink is also used in Christian Eucharist ceremonies and the Jewish Kiddush. Though known by the ancients, wine was not drunk in its matured form until the development of the bottle and cork in the late 17th century.

Wine flavours change according to the variety of grapes, location of the vineyard, seasonal weather conditions, grape growing methods, winemaking techniques and equipment, the age of the wine, how it has been stored, the serving temperature, and even by the environmental conditions and context of where the wine is consumed.

Wine is characterized by colour: white, pink or rose, and red, and it can range in alcohol content from 10 percent to 14 percent. Wine types can be divided into four broad categories: table wines, sparkling wines, fortified wines, and aromatic wines. Table wines include a range of red, white, and rose wines; sparkling wines include champagne and other "bubbly" wines; aromatic wines contain fruits, plants, and flowers; and fortified wines are table wines with brandy or other alcohol added.

The name of a wine almost invariably is derived from one of three sources: the name of the principal grape from which it was made, the geographical area from which it comes, or—in the case of the traditionally finest wines—from a particular vineyard or parcel of soil. The year in which a wine is made is only printed on bottles that have aged for two or more years; those aged less are not considered worthy of a date. Wine years are known as "vintages" or "vintage years." While certain wines are considered good or bad depending on the year they were produced, this can vary by locality.

Wine taste is described as sweet or dry, sweet wines being high in sugar content and dry wines containing little or no sugar. Sparkling wines, such as champagne, contain suspended carbon dioxide, the result of bottling the wine before fermentation is complete. Fortified wines, such as port and sherry, contain added brandy. The leading wine-producing countries are France, Italy, Spain, the U.S., Argentina, Germany, Australia, South Africa, Portugal, and Romania.

In general, red wines are supposed to age from seven to ten years before being sold. Because white and rose wines are not enhanced by additional ageing, they are usually aged from only one to four years before being sold. And, since the quality of wine can depend on proper ageing, older wines are generally more expensive than younger ones. Other factors, however, can affect the quality of wine, and proper ageing does not always ensure quality. Other factors affecting quality include the grapes themselves, when the grapes are picked, proper care of the grapes, the fermentation process, as well as other aspects of wine production. Most red and rose wine bottles are coloured to keep light from ageing the wine further after they are on the market.