Know your étiquette! Finding meaning in wine labels
“Once you label me, you negate me,” wrote philosopher Søren Kierkegaard – so eloquently quoted in Cantonese by Mike Myers in Wayne’s World. It’s a bit different in wine, where labels mean a lot and nothing much all at once. This video series from Vininspo! looks at specific terms that carry countless clues as to what you might expect when you pour yourself a glass.
Wine is a travel experience
The concept of wine as a travel experience is a central tenet of Vininspo! But what do we mean by it? The simplest interpretation is that by tasting wine we’re travelling through time, across cultures to a specific place.
But there’s another important angle. As when we embark on any hopeful adventure, we should be free to experience wine wide-eyed and whole-heartedly, without the slightest sense we don’t belong.
Variety show: Chardonnay
It’s the world’s most widely planted quality white wine grape - so widespread that you may ask yourself what constitutes a “typical” Chardonnay. Ed Merrison of Vininspo! gives a nutshell version of what this wonderful grape variety is all about.
Variety show: Mourvèdre
Born in Spain, on the up in France, the Mediterranean-hugging, warmth-loving black grape Mourvèdre is enjoying a day in the sun. Ed Merrison from Vininspo! digs a little deeper into its personality.
Maps and Legends
It mightn’t look like much but this childhood Christmas gift sparked the lifelong wanderlust that inevitably led to a love of wine.
A glass with Jancis Robinson
“Oh, I learn things every day!” says Her Royal Vinous, Jancis Robinson. “I suppose that’s one plus point of the world of wine expanding so much, and then there are all the new consumers.” Jancis talks to Ed Merrison of Vininspo! about her universal wine glass and the 8th edition of The World Atlas of Wine.
Imagination and wine
In Imagination & Time, British philosopher Mary Warnock says imagination’s the key if we’re to go beyond witnessing beauty to actually feel it. “The difference is this: in feeling the beauty of objects, we enjoy not only the common, shared pleasures of the senses, but also the private pleasures of the imagination, peculiar to ourselves, and such that we have to struggle to articulate them.” Vininspo! ponders what this means for wine.