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Joseph Stalin drank the semi-sweet Georgian red Khvanchkara. Fidel Castro developed an unexpected enthusiasm for Chablis. Nicolae Ceaușescu’s preference for the obscure Romanian wine Zghihară de Huși reportedly helped determine what the communist state planted. Josip Broz Tito produced his own presidential wines. Mobutu Sese Seko accumulated an extraordinary wine cellar and sought out bottles from his birth year. And Kim Jong-il’s taste for luxury included imported Bordeaux and Burgundy.

In this episode of The Wine Lab, we explore the wines associated with six authoritarian leaders, and what their drinking habits reveal about wine, history, culture, wealth and political power.

Along the way, we explore Georgian wine and Khvanchkara, Chablis and Chardonnay, Romanian indigenous grape varieties, Bordeaux and Burgundy, vintage Port, wine aging and the fascinating relationship between wine and politics.

We also separate documented history from some of the myths surrounding famous dictators and their supposed favorite wines.

Because appreciating great wine doesn’t necessarily make someone refined and it most certainly doesn’t make them good.

Wine can tell us about taste, geography, nostalgia, wealth and power.

Character is another matter entirely.

Stay curious, cheers!

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Texas is far too large and diverse to have a single wine climate, grape or style. In this episode of The Wine Lab, Andreea travels through the state’s major wine-growing regions, from the High Plains and Hill Country to North, West and Gulf Coast Texas, to look at what makes winegrowing here so distinctive. We explore Tempranillo and Tannat, the surprising promise of Picpoul Blanc, the versatility of Blanc du Bois, increasingly impressive sparkling wines, and why blends may ultimately make more sense than searching for a single signature grape. There’s also phylloxera, Thomas Volney Munson, the pioneers of the modern industry, international competition success, and more than 600 wineries, most of which Andreea apologizes in advance for failing to mention by name.

Glossary

American Viticultural Area (AVA) — A legally defined wine-grape-growing region in the United States distinguished by geographic features that can affect viticulture.

Texas High Plains — A high-elevation, relatively dry grape-growing region in northwest Texas that produces a large proportion of the state’s wine grapes.

Texas Hill Country — A large AVA and major wine-tourism region in central Texas, home to many wineries and tasting rooms.

Vitis vinifera — The European grapevine species that includes most familiar wine grapes, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Pierce’s disease — A bacterial grapevine disease transmitted by insects such as sharpshooters. It strongly influences which grape varieties can be grown successfully in warmer, more humid parts of Texas.

Blanc du Bois — A Pierce’s disease-resistant hybrid white grape grown extensively in the southern United States. It can be used for dry, sweet, sparkling and fortified wines.

Black Spanish / Lenoir — A dark-skinned, Pierce’s disease-tolerant grape with a long history in Texas and other parts of the southern United States.

Tannat — A deeply colored, tannic red grape originally associated with southwestern France and now particularly famous in Uruguay. It has also shown considerable promise under Texas growing conditions.

Picpoul Blanc — A Mediterranean white grape known for retaining lively acidity. Its name is commonly interpreted as “lip stinger.”

Diurnal temperature variation — The difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures. High-elevation vineyard regions can have hot days followed by substantially cooler nights.

Phenolic ripeness — The development of compounds in grape skins and seeds that influence wine color, tannin, bitterness, aroma and mouthfeel. It doesn’t always progress at the same rate as sugar accumulation.

Traditional-method sparkling wine — Sparkling wine produced through a second fermentation in the bottle, followed by aging on the yeast lees, riddling and disgorgement.

Blending — Combining wines made from different grapes, vineyard sites, lots or sometimes vintages to create the desired balance of acidity, aroma, color, tannin, structure and flavor.

Phylloxera — A tiny grapevine pest that devastated European vineyards during the nineteenth century. Grafting Vitis vinifera onto resistant American rootstocks provided the long-term solution.

Thomas Volney Munson — Texas viticulturist and grape breeder whose extensive work with native American grape species contributed to the selection of rootstocks used to combat the European phylloxera crisis.

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For thousands of years, winemakers have been trying to solve the same problems: wines that were too acidic, cloudy, unstable, oxidized, or simply didn't taste very good. The solutions, however, could get interesting.

Ancient wines were treated with seawater, pine resin, herbs, honey, cedar oil, powdered marble, gypsum, ashes and, in some cases, dangerously, lead. Later winemakers clarified wine with egg whites, fish swim bladders, milk proteins and even bullock's blood.

In this episode of The Wine Lab, we travel through roughly 8,000 years of people trying to “fix” wine. Along the way, we look at what these strange additions were supposed to accomplish, the chemistry that sometimes made them surprisingly effective, and the practices that survived into modern winemaking.

From ancient aromatized wines to modern vermouth and from powdered marble to today's calcium carbonate, some historical ideas are much less bizarre than they first appear.

Others involve bullock's blood.

Those are harder to defend.

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Thomas Jefferson knew his Bordeaux, traveled through European wine regions taking meticulous notes, ordered Château Lafite directly from the source, and spent years trying - mostly unsuccessfully - to grow European grapes at Monticello. In this episode of The Wine Lab, we follow Jefferson from the vineyards of France and Italy to his own stubbornly uncooperative vines in Virginia. Along the way, we explore his surprisingly modern ideas about wine provenance, his legendary presidential cellar, wine as a tool of diplomacy, and why calling him the “father of American wine” may be giving him a little too much credit.

Glossary

Château Lafite — The Bordeaux estate now known as Château Lafite Rothschild, one of the most famous wine properties in the world. Jefferson visited Bordeaux and later ordered its wine directly from the estate.

Provenance — The documented origin and history of a wine, including where it was produced, bottled, stored and handled. Provenance is especially important for valuable and collectible wines.

Estate bottling — Wine bottled by the producer associated with the vineyard or estate rather than being transported in bulk and bottled later by a merchant or other intermediary.

Cask — A wooden vessel used for storing or transporting wine. Historically, large quantities of wine were shipped in casks rather than individual bottles.

Nebbiolo — A red grape variety from northwestern Italy, best known today for Barolo and Barbaresco. Jefferson encountered Nebbiolo in Piedmont and was particularly impressed by it.

Madeira — A fortified wine produced on the Portuguese island of Madeira. Jefferson used Madeira as one of his sensory reference points when describing Nebbiolo.

Champagne — Sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France. Jefferson was an enthusiastic buyer of Champagne, although eighteenth-century Champagne styles were not necessarily identical to those we know today.

Chambertin — A prestigious Burgundy vineyard associated with Pinot Noir. Jefferson purchased Chambertin among other important French wines.

Sauternes — A Bordeaux wine region famous for sweet white wines, traditionally produced from grapes affected by noble rot.

Hermitage — A historic wine appellation in France’s northern Rhône Valley, particularly famous for Syrah.

Tokay — An older English spelling associated with Tokaji, the celebrated wines of Hungary. Tokaji wines appeared at Jefferson’s presidential dinners.

Vitis vinifera — The European grapevine species responsible for most of the world's classic wine grapes, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling and Nebbiolo.

Phylloxera — A tiny insect native to North America that attacks grapevine roots. European Vitis vinifera is particularly susceptible to it.

Black rot — A fungal grapevine disease native to North America that became one of the major challenges facing early attempts to establish European grape varieties in the eastern United States.

Philip Mazzei — An Italian physician, merchant and agriculturalist who settled near Monticello in 1773 and worked with Jefferson on early attempts to establish European grapevines and wine production in Virginia.

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What does “dry” wine actually mean? How much sugar can a dry wine contain? And why can two wines with the same residual sugar taste very different?

In this episode of The Wine Lab, Andreea explores the science and sensory side of sweetness in wine. We look at residual sugar, acidity, aroma, temperature, and balance; how winemakers create sweet and off-dry styles; and why Riesling, Champagne, Sauternes, Port, icewine, and other wines can make the language of sweetness surprisingly complicated.

We’ll also decode confusing terms like Brut, Extra Dry, Demi-Sec, trocken, Spätlese, and Auslese, and explain why sweetness is a wine style rather than a measure of quality.

Glossary

Residual sugar (RS) — Sugar remaining in wine after fermentation, usually expressed in grams per liter.

Dry wine — A wine containing very little residual sugar. Under OIV definitions, wines may qualify as dry at up to 4 g/L sugar, or up to 9 g/L when sufficiently balanced by acidity.

Off-dry — A wine with a small but noticeable amount of sweetness. Exact definitions vary between regions and regulatory systems.

Glucose and fructose — The principal fermentable sugars naturally present in grapes.

Acidity — One of the major structural components of wine. Higher acidity can reduce the perceived intensity of sweetness.

Perceived sweetness — How sweet a wine tastes, which may differ from its measured sugar concentration because of acidity, aroma, temperature, texture, and other factors.

Süssreserve — Sterile grape must traditionally used in some German wines to adjust sweetness after fermentation.

Noble rot — Beneficial infection of grapes by Botrytis cinerea under suitable conditions, causing water loss and concentrating sugars, acids, and flavor compounds.

Late harvest — Wines made from grapes harvested later than usual, often with higher sugar concentration.

Icewine / Eiswein — Wine traditionally made from grapes that freeze naturally on the vine and are pressed while frozen, producing highly concentrated juice.

Fortified wine — Wine to which grape spirit has been added. Depending on when fortification occurs, the resulting wine may be dry or sweet.

Brut Nature — A very dry sparkling-wine category, generally containing less sugar than Extra Brut or Brut.

Brut — A widely used dry sparkling-wine category.

Extra Dry — A sparkling-wine sweetness category that is, confusingly, sweeter than Brut.

Demi-Sec — A noticeably sweet sparkling-wine category.

Doux — One of the sweetest sparkling-wine categories.

Trocken — German term meaning dry.

Halbtrocken — German term indicating a wine with somewhat more residual sugar than trocken.

Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese — German Prädikat categories related primarily to grape ripeness or must weight at harvest, not necessarily to the sweetness of the finished wine.

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Cork or screw cap? For many wine drinkers, the answer feels surprisingly personal.

In this episode of The Wine Lab, we explore the history, culture, science, and occasional drama of wine closures. We’ll look at how natural cork became part of the ritual of wine, why screw caps gained a serious following in Australia and New Zealand, how sparkling-wine corks get their familiar mushroom shape, and why the humble crown cap deserves more respect than it usually receives.

We’ll also talk about cork taint, oxygen, aging, synthetic and glass closures, sabrage, restaurant theatre, and the question that refuses to disappear: can a wine under screw cap age as well as one under cork?

The answer, as usual with wine, is more interesting than a simple yes or no.

Glossary

Agglomerated cork: A closure material made by binding small pieces or granules of cork together. It is commonly used in technical closures and in the bodies of traditional sparkling-wine corks.

Cork oak: Quercus suber, the Mediterranean tree whose bark is harvested to produce natural cork. The tree is not cut down during harvesting.

Cork taint: A wine fault most commonly associated with TCA. It may create musty aromas or simply suppress the wine’s fruit and make it seem muted.

Crown cap: A crimped metal closure patented by William Painter in 1892. It is used for beer, some pétillant naturel wines, and bottles undergoing traditional-method sparkling-wine production.

Disgorging: The sparkling-wine production step in which sediment from the second fermentation is removed from the bottle.

Glass closure: A reusable stopper, usually fitted with a flexible sealing ring and used with a specially designed bottle neck.

Lees: Deposits of dead yeast cells and other particles that settle after fermentation. Traditional-method sparkling wines may spend months or years aging on their lees.

Muselet: The wire cage that holds a sparkling-wine cork securely in the bottle.

Natural cork: A stopper cut from cork oak bark. It is elastic, renewable, and traditionally associated with wines intended for aging.

Oxygen transmission: The movement of oxygen through or around a closure over time. The amount varies according to closure type and design.

Pétillant naturel: A lightly sparkling wine usually bottled before its first fermentation is complete. It is often called pét-nat and may be sold under crown cap.

Reduction: A group of wine aromas associated with certain sulfur compounds, sometimes described as struck flint, rubber, onion, cabbage, or rotten egg.

Sabrage: The ceremonial opening of a sparkling-wine bottle by striking the lip with a saber or similar blade so that the top of the neck breaks away.

Screw-cap liner: The material inside a screw cap that creates the actual seal. Different liners can allow different amounts of oxygen transmission.

Synthetic closure: A manufactured stopper designed to resemble cork and provide predictable sealing and oxygen-transmission performance.

TCA: 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, the compound most famously associated with cork taint.

Technical cork: A cork-based closure manufactured from processed cork material rather than cut as one continuous piece of bark.

Traditional method: A sparkling-wine process in which the second fermentation occurs inside the bottle.G

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