a message from tina jones

Altitude. This is one of those concepts that at first seemed to me like an experts-only subject: too nuanced for the rest of us to understand. But our team organized a tasting that completely changed my mind. They brought together three tasting flights with just two wines in each flight.* The object was to compare wines that differed in almost nothing but the altitude of the vineyards: in each flight, the dominant grape variety or varieties were the same, the vineyards were geographically close to each other, and the finished wines were comparable in quality and price. The effect of altitude became obvious to experts and non-experts alike—it was a remarkable tasting! The wines from a higher altitude were noticeably higher in acidity, even when the ripeness of the fruit was beautiful in both; the grape varieties were almost mirrors of each other, yet the total structure was different. The exercise helped me realize that wine growers and winemakers know a lot more about this than we have recognized. I became a big fan of higheraltitude wines after undertaking this study—and I became convinced that we should share this revelation with you.

I invite you up these hills with our team and me! Mike Muirhead explores the factors that result in those remarkable differences we saw in our tasting. Jill Kwiatkoski takes us on the Autostrada and back roads of northern Italy on a driving tour through the hilly regions of Alto Adige and Veneto. Gary Hewitt helps us understand how being on an airplane affects how we taste wine. Sylvia Jansen and I have some fun with the trending subject of Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio. And our wine experts put together a plantbased comfort meal paired with all the right winter wines. All in all, our team has done it again: they have taken a complex, seemingly experts-only subject and made it into fascinating reading.

Stay warm this winter, and travel with us through this delicious world of wine!

Cheers!

Tina Jones

*Check out the tasting notes from our wine flights in Grapes With Altitude (page 22) and Friends With Benefits (page 38).