Wine Terms | Giggly Grapes

Nebbiolo vs Sangiovese: Italy’s Two Great Reds Explained

25/09/2026

Nebbiolo vs Sangiovese, two glasses side by side

Nebbiolo and Sangiovese are the two grapes behind Italy’s most famous reds. Nebbiolo makes Barolo and Barbaresco in the fog ...

Wine Serving Temperature Chart: Red, White, Rosé and Sparkling

25/09/2026

Chilled white wine and red wine glasses beside an ice bucket, illustrating wine serving temperature

The exact temperature for every wine style, why it actually changes the taste, and three easy ways to get there without a wine fridge.

Zinfandel vs Primitivo: Same Grape, Different Passports

21/09/2026

Zinfandel vs Primitivo, two glasses side by side

Zinfandel and Primitivo are the same grape. California’s Zinfandel and Puglia’s Primitivo have identical DNA, and the original vine turned ...

Mango Wine: What It Is, How It Is Made and Where to Buy It

23/08/2025

A glass of golden mango wine beside two ripe mangoes on a dark bench

Mango wine is fermented mango pulp, usually 6 to 12 per cent alcohol. Here is how it is made, why it does not taste much like mango, and where to buy it.

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.

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.