What the H E Double Hockey Sticks is Malolactic (or Non-malolatic) Fermentation?

This is a term that gets thrown around and most people just smile and say "Oh yes, well that makes sense" but they really have no clue as to what the term means or what it does to the wine.

If you are drinking Champagne, you should really expect to be drinking a sparkling wine from the north of France. Isn't all the bubbly called Champagne, you ask? Well the truth is, Champagne a common name of a sparkling wine from a region of France of the same name.  The Champagne region produces several types of wine, not all of them sparkling.

This seems a bit confusing because here in the United States, we are usually interested in the type grape in the wine first  followed by the growing region.  It really works for us since who would get excited if their host opened a bottle of wine from the central valley of California and ask, "Hey, does anyone want a glass of Fresno?"

I used to think that wine scores really meant something. A wine that got 85 out of 100 should be fairly decent. That is a solid B. It won't knock my socks off, but I would be happy taking it home to my parents. A score of 90 is an A. It should rock, right??? After a few recent disappointments tasting wines in the 90 point range, I did some reading. I have to say I was quite surprised by what I found.

On a recent trip to a local grocery store, a unique wine label caught my eye. Below the bottle was a sign that read, “Voted California’s Best Sangiovese”. Hmmm, I thought, I love Sangiovese wines, good price point. I picked it up and gave it the standard ‘turn’. That’s when I saw it was made a short distance away in Plymouth, CA. YES!! One of our local winemakers is producing a product competing with the very best. That’s when I started researching and planning a trip to visit the winery, Vino Noceto, for myself.