Written by Peter Rockwell | 10 December 2007

When we have big family dinners, we never seem to pick wines that please the whole clan. Can you recommend some choices with universal appeal?

A wise man once said, “You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your relatives.” And I know from experience that nothing fans the flames of smouldering opinions like a big family food-fest. Whether it’s your sister’s know-it-all husband (the expert on everything) or the mother-in-law who never met a pause in conversation she couldn’t fill, you should realize right now that nitpicking will always be more important to some people than finding satisfaction with what’s put in front of them to drink.

Written by Peter Rockwell | 10 December 2007

I’m new to wine and am still having trouble coming to grips with what tannins are and where they come from. Can you help?

Though I wasn’t much of a chemistry student (too much time spent with a calculator and not enough with a Bunsen burner), tannins are pretty straightforward. If you’ve ever taken a sip of over-steeped tea or twisted the stem off an apple with your teeth and felt that astringent, bitter impression on your palate, you’re already well on your way to a doctorate in tannins.

Tannins are natural chemical compounds found in the skins, seeds and, yes, stems of fruit and in other organic materials like tree bark and tea leaves. Though white wines rarely come into contact with tannin-carrying compounds during their making, the juice for red wines is exposed to the grape skins for extended periods of time (that’s where the colour comes from, kids) and, during pressing, to the seeds and stems.