by Gus Clemens
Gus Clemens writes a syndicated wine column for Gannett/USA Today network and posts online reviews of wines and stories of interest to wine lovers. He publishes almost daily in his substack.com newsletter, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on his website. The Gus Clemens on Wine podcast delivers that material in a warm, user-friendly format. <br/><br/><a href="https://gusclemens.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">gusclemens.substack.com</a>
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Publishing Since
2/22/2022
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April 22, 2025
<p>This is the weekly column</p><p>Answers to common wine questions:</p><p><strong>• What is the difference between my home refrigerator and a wine refrigerator?</strong></p><p>Your home frig’s internal temperature is around 35 degrees, while a wine frig is between 50 and 60. Your home frig is designed to extract humidity, a potential danger to wine corks. A wine frig strives to have a cork-friendly 45-60 percent humidity. Your home frig likely uses a compressor that causes vibration. A wine frig likely uses a thermoelectric cooling system without moving parts, thus no vibration. A constant temperature between 50-60 degrees, a humidity of 45-60 percent, and no vibration is the ideal way to store wine. Your home refrigerator or a cool, dark closet will work to store wine, but a dedicated wine frig is the ideal way to go.</p><p><strong>• What affects the sensation of “body” in a wine?</strong></p><p>Wine is described as light, medium, and full. Milk provides an easy comparison. Skim milk is light body, whole milk is medium body, and cream is full body. Higher alcohol typically results in fuller-bodied wine. Higher tannins, residual sugar, glycerol, and polysaccharides (from yeast and grape cells) contribute to fuller bodies wines with richer texture. The grape variety also influences the sensation of weight and body.</p><p><strong>• Can I ask for a taste before I order wine by the glass in a restaurant?</strong></p><p>Depends on the restaurant. Some restaurants will offer a very small taste, but offering a taste usually is to determine if the wine is off or flawed, not to give you a chance to see if you like it. BTW, if you plan on drinking two or more glasses of the wine, it usually is cheaper to buy the whole bottle. If you do not finish the bottle, you typically can take the corked bottle home, often covered in a bag. Put the partially consumed bottle in the trunk when driving.</p><p><strong>• Is there a difference between table grapes and wine grapes?</strong></p><p>Absolutely. If you taste a wine grape, it is much sweeter, juicier, and softer than a table grape. Wine grapes also have thicker, chewier skins, and prominent seeds. Table grapes usually are bigger, more crispy and more crunchy. Table grapes have thinner skins and smaller seeds or no seeds at all. Table grapes are picked sooner to capture the acidity and freshness—and to allow for travel and handling before sale and eating. Wine grapes are picked later to achieve ripeness and juiciness. They begin processing the grapes in the winery within hours of their harvest.</p><p>Last round</p><p>What do you call a lazy kangaroo? A pouch potato. Wine time.</p><p>Email: [email protected]</p><p>Newsletter: <a target="_blank" href="https://gusclemens.substack.com/">gusclemens.substack.com</a></p><p>Website: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gusclemensonwine.com">Gus Clemens on Wine website</a></p><p>Facebook: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/GusClemensOnWine/timeline/">facebook.com/GusClemensOnWine/posts/</a></p><p>Twitter (X): @gusclemens</p><p>Bluesky <a target="_blank" href="https://bsky.app/profile/gusclemensonwine.bsky.social">https://bsky.app/profile/gusclemensonwine.bsky.social</a> .</p><p>Long form wine stories on Vocal: <a target="_blank" href="https://vocal.media/authors/gus-clemens">Gus Clemens on Vocal</a></p><p>Apple podcasts <a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=apple+podcasts+gus+clemens+apple+p%E2%80%A6&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8">https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=apple+podcasts+gus+clemens+apple+p…&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8</a>.</p><p>Linkedin: Gus Clemens on Wine</p><p><strong>Links worth exploring</strong></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://victoriadelamaza.substack.com/"><strong>Diary of a Serial Hostess</strong></a> Ins and outs of entertaining; witty anecdotes of life in the stylish lane.</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://asweeat.substack.com/"><strong>As We Eat</strong></a> Multi-platform storytelling explores how food connects, defines, inspires.</p><p></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://gusclemens.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2">gusclemens.substack.com/subscribe</a>
April 15, 2025
<p>This is the weekly column</p><p><strong>Some answers to common questions:</strong></p><p><strong>• What does “fruity” and “sweet” mean in a wine review?</strong></p><p>They are two different concepts. Fruity or “fruit-forward” wine is one where fruit flavors dominate over other flavors such as vanilla, oak toast, minerality. Sweet wine has perceptible residual sugar because not all of the grape sugar was converted into alcohol or sugar was added after complete fermentation.</p><p>Confusion arises when a dry wine with little or no residual sugar has very ripe fruit flavors. Our minds and tastebuds associate vivid fruit flavors with sweetness. We think the wine is sweet, even if lab results show there is little or no residual sugar. Most table wines are dry or off-dry (0-35 g/L). Dessert wines such as sauternes, porto, and sherry usually have significant residual sugar (120 or more g/L).</p><p><strong>• What do “perlage,” “mousse,” and “bead” mean in sparkling wine?</strong></p><p>Broadly, they all refer to the bubbles. Perlage can indicate finer, softer, smaller bubbles. Mousse can imply creamier bubbles. Bead can refer to the trail of bubbles rising in the glass. There is no hard definition and the terms can be used interchangeably.</p><p><strong>• What should I do if I break my wineglass at a restaurant?</strong></p><p>Notify a staff member immediately. No need to be embarrassed or make excuses; this happens all the time. The staff will want to clean it up themselves so you won’t cut yourself and make the situation even worse. The staff has the tools and experience to make the problem go away quickly. You might sweeten the tip, however.</p><p><strong>• What is “structure” in a wine?</strong></p><p>Structure is an abstract term that is hard to define. Structure is about the relationship between all the components in a wine—tannins, acidity, alcohol, body, glycerol, and more. When a wine has “good structure” it means all the parts work together harmoniously. Tannins are the base element of wines with good structure, but structure is the sum of all the parts of a wine. You may not be able to define it, but you will know it when you taste it.</p><p><strong>• How do I open a bottle of wine with a wax seal?</strong></p><p>Ignore the wax seal, insert the worm through the wax into the cork and twist it down. Pull the cork. The wax seal will shatter to bits and fall away. If some wax clings near the opening, peel it away before fully pulling the cork.</p><p>Last round</p><p>May your troubles be less, your blessings more, and nothing but happiness come through your door. I think that means a wine delivery. Wine time.</p><p>Email: [email protected]</p><p>Newsletter: <a target="_blank" href="https://gusclemens.substack.com/">gusclemens.substack.com</a></p><p>Website: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gusclemensonwine.com">Gus Clemens on Wine website</a></p><p>Facebook: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/GusClemensOnWine/timeline/">facebook.com/GusClemensOnWine/posts/</a></p><p>Twitter (X): @gusclemens</p><p>Bluesky <a target="_blank" href="https://bsky.app/profile/gusclemensonwine.bsky.social">https://bsky.app/profile/gusclemensonwine.bsky.social</a> .</p><p>Long form wine stories on Vocal: <a target="_blank" href="https://vocal.media/authors/gus-clemens">Gus Clemens on Vocal</a></p><p>Apple podcasts <a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=apple+podcasts+gus+clemens+apple+p%E2%80%A6&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8">https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=apple+podcasts+gus+clemens+apple+p…&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8</a>.</p><p>Linkedin: Gus Clemens on Wine</p><p><strong>Links worth exploring</strong></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://victoriadelamaza.substack.com/"><strong>Diary of a Serial Hostess</strong></a> Ins and outs of entertaining; witty anecdotes of life in the stylish lane.</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://asweeat.substack.com/"><strong>As We Eat</strong></a> Multi-platform storytelling explores how food connects, defines, inspires.</p><p><p>Gus Clemens on Wine is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.</p></p><p></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://gusclemens.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2">gusclemens.substack.com/subscribe</a>
April 8, 2025
<p>This is the weekly column</p><p><strong>Wine has an image problem that is both its biggest asset and its Achilles heal. Wine is the most complex alcohol drink.</strong></p><p>If you examine wine’s consumer base, wine drinkers tend to be older, better educated, upper-middle class or above. The popular image: wine drinkers are old, snotty, rich people. Not an ideal demo if you are a marketeer striving to expand your winery’s customer base.</p><p>Let’s admit the basic truth behind the stereotype. Wine is complicated. I don’t need to know where the hops or barely or water came from to slam back a light beer. Just put the 18-pack in the cooler and start pulling pull tabs. Most wine drinkers do not approach wine that way.</p><p>As Baby Boomer wine drinkers began to savor the complexity of wine in the 1980s, words like “terroir” and “new French oak” and “malolactic conversion” and “whole cluster fermentation” and “carbonic maceration” and “sur lie” and “bâttonage” and “solera system” became part of their vocabulary. Not words typically blurted out by beer Bubbas at the local dive bar during happy hour.</p><p>As wine appreciation soared beginning in the 1980s, so came slick wine magazines, wine books, wine websites, wine gurus, wine tourism, wine clubs, and states opening up to direct-to-consumer wine sales from an exploding number of winemakers dedicated to quality. Ah, what heady times those were.</p><p>No trend lasts forever, although it can be argued that after 8,000 years wine hardly is a trend. But the wine world certainly faces headwinds in the 2020s. Wine is not going away, but the intoxicating wine burgeoning of the last 40 years appears to have reached an apogee.</p><p>And so winemakers have to assess who they are and what their product is. I suggest embracing wine for what it is—complicated, sophisticated, and still down-to-earth enjoyable. Dumbing down will not convince 21-something newbies to spend $18 on a bottle of wine instead of $10 on a six-pack of beer, hard cider, or malt beverage. But when, by happenstance, they experience a quality meal with a quality wine, then comes the “ah-ha” moment. This is what wine is all about.</p><p>Tasting notes</p><p><strong>• Domaine Bousquet Malbec, Tupungato Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina 2022:</strong> Fresh, crunchy, flagrantly ripe fruit. Simple but decadently indulgent in pleasuring your palate. $10-14 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gusclemensonwine.com/domaine-bousquet-malbec-tupungato-uco-valley-mendoza-argentina-2022/#more-20088">Link to my review</a></p><p><strong>• Bonterra Sauvignon Blanc, California 2023:</strong> Easy drinker, nice introduction to famously food-friendly sauv blanc. Round, smooth, happily approachable, pleasurable mouthfeel. $15 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gusclemensonwine.com/bonterra-sauvignon-blanc-california-2023/#more-20127">Link to my review</a></p><p>Last round: My wife told me: “I never listen to her.” Something like that. I don’t recall exactly. I don’t pay that much attention to what she says. Wine time.</p><p>Email: [email protected]</p><p>Newsletter: <a target="_blank" href="https://gusclemens.substack.com/">gusclemens.substack.com</a></p><p>Website: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gusclemensonwine.com">Gus Clemens on Wine website</a></p><p>Facebook: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/GusClemensOnWine/timeline/">facebook.com/GusClemensOnWine/posts/</a></p><p>Twitter (X): @gusclemens</p><p>Bluesky <a target="_blank" href="https://bsky.app/profile/gusclemensonwine.bsky.social">https://bsky.app/profile/gusclemensonwine.bsky.social</a> .</p><p>Long form wine stories on Vocal: <a target="_blank" href="https://vocal.media/authors/gus-clemens">Gus Clemens on Vocal</a></p><p>Apple podcasts <a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=apple+podcasts+gus+clemens+apple+p%E2%80%A6&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8">https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=apple+podcasts+gus+clemens+apple+p…&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8</a>.</p><p>Linkedin: Gus Clemens on Wine</p><p><strong>Links worth exploring</strong></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://victoriadelamaza.substack.com/"><strong>Diary of a Serial Hostess</strong></a> Ins and outs of entertaining; witty anecdotes of life in the stylish lane.</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://asweeat.substack.com/"><strong>As We Eat</strong></a> Multi-platform storytelling explores how food connects, defines, inspires.</p><p><p>Gus Clemens on Wine is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></p><p></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://gusclemens.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2">gusclemens.substack.com/subscribe</a>
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