Blog | Giggly Grapes

Residual Sugar in Wine: The Chart and What It Really Means

15/12/2024

Five glasses of wine arranged from pale dry white to deep golden sweet wine

Residual sugar is the sugar left after fermentation stops, measured in grams a litre. Here is the full chart for still and sparkling wine, and why the number on the sheet is not the sweetness you taste.

What Is Port Wine? Sweetness, Styles and Why It Is So Strong

13/10/2024

A glass of tawny port beside blue cheese and walnuts on a slate board

Port is a sweet fortified red from the Douro Valley in Portugal. Here is why it is sweet, what the styles mean, whether French port exists, and why Australian port is now tawny.

The 5 S’s of Wine Tasting: See, Swirl, Sniff, Sip, Savour

12/10/2024

Hand tilting a glass of red wine over a white napkin to check its colour

See, Swirl, Sniff, Sip and Savour, with the physical reason behind each step, plus the two myths the ritual carries and one cheap bottle to practise on.

Best Wine With Raclette: What Cuts Through Melted Cheese

12/10/2024

Melted raclette cheese scraped over potatoes beside a glass of white wine

Dry Riesling, Chasselas or a chilled light red are the best wines for raclette. Here is what melted cheese does to a bottle, what to avoid, and one stock checked pick.

Off-Dry Wine: What It Means and How Sweet It Is

04/10/2024

Three glasses of white wine in a row from pale to deep gold

Off-dry means 4 to 12 grams of sugar a litre. Here is the full sweetness scale in numbers, why off-dry often tastes dry, and why Extra Dry sparkling is sweeter than Brut.

What Is a Fifth Growth Wine? The 1855 Bordeaux Ranking Explained

04/10/2024

Three unlabelled Bordeaux bottles beside a glass of red wine on a timber table

A fifth growth is a Bordeaux château in the bottom band of the 1855 classification. There are 18, twelve of them in Pauillac, and the label says more about 1855 prices than today’s wine.

Chicken Shawarma Wine Pairing: Garlic, Pickles and Spice

03/10/2024

Chicken shawarma on flatbread with pickles beside a glass of rose wine

The chicken is the easy part. Garlic sauce, pickled turnip and the spice rub decide the bottle. Dry rose first, chilled Grenache second, plus one stocked pick.

Best Red Wine for Mushroom Bourguignon: What to Pour (and What to Avoid)

26/08/2024

Bowl of mushroom bourguignon with a glass of Pinot Noir

The best red wine for mushroom bourguignon is Pinot Noir, with Gamay and Grenache close behind. Why the meat-free version needs softer wine than the beef one, and what to avoid.

Miso and Wine: What to Pour (and What to Avoid)

23/08/2024

Bowl of miso soup beside a glass of white wine on a timber table

Miso is salty, sweet and full of umami, which is hard on red wine. What to pour with miso soup, miso black cod and miso ramen, and the reds to keep off the table.