Skip to main content

wine

Alcoholic beverage made from fermented grape juice.

Synonyms
victuals

Wine

Thousands of grape varieties give an incredible varied array of wines. Grapes transfer to the wine the same characteristics of the soil and climate they absorbed while on the vine.

Red wine

Red wine, from light and silky to big and bold: how it’s made, the main styles, the role of tannin, and how to serve and pair it.

Orange wine

Orange wine is not made from oranges, it’s white wine made like a red. Here’s how skin-contact wine is made, what it tastes like, and what to drink it with.

Rosé wine

Rosé is the most misunderstood wine on the shelf — and quietly one of the most useful. It comes in every shade from the palest blush to deep coral, it flatters almost any meal, and yet many people still wave it away as sweet or somehow not serious. None of that holds up. Rosé is not a single grape or a sweet style; it is a way of making wine from red grapes, and most of the good stuff is bone-dry. Here is how it is made, the styles worth knowing, and how to choose, serve and pair it.

Wines for beginners

Getting into wine can feel like being handed a map with no key. The good news is that you do not need to memorise a single region or vintage to start enjoying it. You just need a smart first list. The eight wines below are not simply the most popular bottles — each one teaches you something different, and together they build a little map of your own palate, from crisp and light through to bold and rich, and from bone-dry to lusciously sweet. Taste your way through them and you will know, with real confidence, what you actually like. 

Marsala wine

Ask most cooks about Marsala and they will mention Chicken Marsala, zabaione, or the small bottle in the back of the cupboard used for occasional sauces. That is an accurate picture of how most Marsala is used — and there is nothing wrong with it. But it is only half the story.

Calling all foodies and wine lovers!

Are you ready to spice up your culinary adventures? Subscribe to Fabulous Food and Wine World, the newsletter that brings the delicious delights of the world straight to your inbox.

Subscribe

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from World Food and Wine:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use a marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to this platform for processing.