The core of fermentation is the conversion of sugar into alcohol, thanks to tiny microscopic yeast. These microbes are naturally found on grapes; so when I say all you need are grapes and time, that's all ancient winemakers used since yeast comes along for the ride. Nowadays, winemakers have the option to control fermentation and produce more precise wines by using commercial yeasts. Some winemakers choose this option, while others choose to let nature guide the process (often referred to as “minimal intervention” or “natural” wine). People will argue until they're blue in the face about which is better, but, in my opinion, it all depends on if you personally like it in your glass.

Grapes have a few things tucked inside that are key for winemaking: water, sugar, and acid. If you've ever known the pain-staking process of trying to grow tomatoes, you're in-touch with some of the challenges with growing grapes for wine. Underripe grapes (think green tomatoes) are unpleasantly acidic and flavorless. Pop one in your mouth and you definitely won't be able to keep a straight face. Over the growing season, the acid level reduces while the sugar level increases. Unfortunately for grape growers, it's not a 1:1 swap. One (of the many) challenges with producing wine is perfectly timing the balance of sugar and acid in the grapes. Pick too late, and your grapes won't have enough acid, resulting in a flabby and flat-tasting wine that might end up wildly high in alcohol. Pick too early, and your wine might be puckeringly high in acid and not have enough sugar to ferment to the level you want, meaning you might need to add sugar (aka chaptalization, which is not allowed everywhere). As for those mysterious aromatic compounds? Those are in the grape juice right alongside our other key components. The kinds of grapes used are what dictate the eventual flavor of the wine, in more ways than one.

Subscribe

In addition to the juice, the skins, seeds, and stems play a role. These three other parts can add complexity, texture, and, the easiest thing to spot about a wine, color. White wine can be made from green (aka white) grapes or red (aka black) grapes, since the juice is usually quickly pressed off the skins. Red wine needs to be made from red (black) grapes, since that's where the color comes from. Orange wine (aka natural wine) is white wine made with some skin contact. Rosé wine can be made in a few different ways, but the main one basically comes down to it being a super-light red wine. We're talking skin contact of a few hours, maybe a day or two. The thickness of the grape skin also comes into play: thin-skinned grapes developed in cooler climates and produce lighter wines (think Pinot Noir). Thick-skinned grapes grew to withstand blazing heat and droughts, creating punchy, rich wines.

Subscribe

So how does this all apply to real world wine drinking? The more you know about what you're drinking, the better you can find other things you enjoy. For example, if you like Pinot Noir, you'll likely enjoy Gamay (famous in the Beaujolais region of Francr) since it's another light-bodied, thin-skinned red grape. If you like Sauvignon Blanc, you should try an Albariño/Alvarinho from Spain/Portugal, as both have a unique greenness to their color and flavor. The world of wine opens up once you start keeping an eye out for these small clues. Happy drinking!

We always rotate through which family is hosting dinner each day. There were some staples like my Aunt Julie's pasta, Aunt Tara's tacos, or Turkey London Broil at my parents', but there has only been one constant that is always present: s’mores.

Now, my family is competitive, type A, and vocal. From woods bike races to Survivor to muck-grabbing from the bottom of the lake (reigning champion here), everything is about who does it best. Nothing quite hits the same as toasting marshmallows. The perfect golden-brown marshmallow is an art: you have to wait until the fire burns down to bright red embers, hold your marshmallow at the perfect distance away, and slowly rotate it rotisserie-style until it's puffed, golden brown completely all over, almost-liquified in the center, and, if you're at expert level, drooping off of the stick to the point of almost losing it all.

The key to this is patience. I'm not sure if it was our parents’ way of keeping us still for a little while, but my (18) cousins and I would be locked in to making s'mores every year.

Subscribe now

Cue my shock and horror when I first went to my now-husband’s grandparents’ house in upstate New York and everyone was toasting their marshmallows by sticking them right into the flames to set them on fire. The audacity! The texture would be all wrong, with a still “raw” firm marshmallow in the center and incinerated crust! I told him that he could not do it like that in front of my family or he'd be humiliated.

It's now however many years later, and my husband was sitting around the fire with my cousins, toasting his marshmallow in the flames in peace. It didn't have to be perfect, especially since that's how he enjoyed it.

In the same way, wine pairing doesn't have to be “perfect” to still be enjoyable. Sure, there are some guidelines for structure and balance that we'll get into later, but there’s a piece sometimes missing from pairings that I've only recently realized: fun. It's easy to fall into the trap that you can only enjoy certain foods with certain wines because it's the “best” pairing. But these can easily lack the whimsy and fun that's meant to be enjoyed with wine. Memories of past dinners, visits to regions, a wine you shared with a friend - all of these can be reasons to pick one bottle over another for a pairing. For me, my favorite pairing isn't technically the “best.” I know there's wines that would work better with s'mores on paper. But I love s’mores and Lambrusco together.

Lambrusco is a sparkling red wine from Italy (specifically Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy) that fell into a bad reputation for being sickly-sweet after one producer’s style choice became the most popular and profitable. Nowadays, it ranges in style from dry to sweet, with notes of wild strawberry and cranberry to even mushrooms and flowers with pleasant minerality. I first learned about it in college and have loved telling more people about this unique wine.

Does Lambrusco “work” with s’mores? Absolutely: the red fruit notes complement the chocolate and sweetness in the sweeter styles match the sweetness of the marshmallow. Is it perfect? No. But there's an inherent fun to sipping on this niche bubbling Italian wine with the flavor of summer in one of my favorite places in the world. And to me, that's the best kind of pairing.