Great Chardonnay wines are as classic as pearls. And just like pearls, they go in and out of style, ubiquitous in some decades, less so in others, sometimes styled one way, sometimes another…but always persisting, frequently imitated and with huge variations in quality.

If you thought of pearls as grandma’s go-to before finally picking up a version of your own, it’s probably time to revisit her Chardonnays, too. They’re so much more than the 90’s-style butter bombs you might have tried in the past. This tasting highlights the regions and countries that have defined modern Chardonnay while offering 3 style categories to help you figure out where your own preferences lie. After all, no two pearls are exactly alike, even before being styled…and neither are Chardonnays.

Orange wine. A wine style that’s been considered faulty, painfully trendy, overblown and undeniably hip. Whether you call it orange, amber, macerated, skin-fermented or skin contact, orange wines are essentially white wines are made like reds. Rather simple for wines that inspire such polarized opinions.

Orange wine has become trendy in recent years, but the style is ancient. Orange wines are made all over the world, from different varieties of white grapes using different methods by different winemakers in different terroirs. This tasting zooms in on some of the styles and countries that have come to be the best known in the wide range of shades of orange.

Sherry, Sherry baby! If you haven’t heard the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons song before, you’ve been warned that it will be on repeat in your mind for at least the time it takes to read through (or skim) this tasting guide.

I have to be honest; my first tastes of sherry were baffling. I couldn’t decide what to think about the strange, strong flavors that were sometimes reminiscent of a yeasty beer, sometimes coffee, sometimes briny seawater. I’d never tasted wines like sherry before, and I couldn’t entirely wrap my head around how they were even considered wine, much less how the extremely different styles were all considered sherry.

If you’re British or read as much as I do, you might think of sherry as the stuff grannies keep in their cupboards, that sweetened stuff drunk out of a teeny little glass at the end of a long day, or to prevent the so-called swoons I find it hard to believe anyone ever actually had. Or, you might only know sherry in the context of cooking, often showing up in recipes with chicken, mushrooms or gravy, Thanksgiving-style.

If, on the other hand, you’ve never given sherry much of a thought, and haven’t yet developed your own opinions about the various styles, I hope you’ll take this tasting as your chance. If nothing else, this theme is the perfect opportunity to go all-in on tapas, the OG girl dinner.

In contrast to last week’s full-bodied fruity reds, this week’s tasting is focused on the savory side of big, bold red wines. Now, I get that “savory” is yet another one of those words that when used to describe wine just isn’t entirely clear. In this case, I’m referring to wines that usually do have ripe fruit flavors…but also flavors that lean more floral, herbal, meaty, earthy, spicy or leather-y. These are wines in which the fruit plays in the chorus line, instead of taking center stage. Wines that might not seem immediately attractive, but like your secret crush, reveal themselves more fully on a second (or third) glance.

Body-wise, these wines are all biggies. They have the grape ripeness, alcohol and tannins that stylistically feel more akin stout than IPA on your palate, or whole milk rather than skim. Body is always going to be a weird word for a liquid, but in lieu of a better alternative, we’ll let it slide.

I have to admit, I don’t often reach for full-bodied fruity red wines. I’ve also judged some unfairly, as many a too-cool wine geek is wont to do at some point or another. But the great thing about studying and working with wine is that you get to taste everything, often, and there’s nothing like regular tasting to convince you that there are top-notch wines in every style, no matter which are supposed to be trending. And just like with food; one should never rule out a whole category from just one “meh” experience. Count this tasting as my mea culpa: full-bodied fruity red wines will always deserve a place on my wine rack.

Some clarifications:

1. I will forever maintain that body is a weird word for a liquid, and I have mixed feelings about “full-bodied” as a descriptor, too. But the words have been in use long enough that they’ve been enshrined in wine lore, so in this case, I’m using “full-bodied” to talk about wines that carry plenty of weight on the palate, thanks to grape ripeness, alcohol and tannin that together, make them feel more akin to a stout than an IPA, or whole milk rather than skim.

2. This tasting is focused specifically on the fruity reds within the full-bodied red wine category. “Fruity” here refers to how fruit-forward the wines taste, not how sweet or dry the wines are. In these wines, ripe fruit flavors take center stage, usually with supporting cast members like spices and herbs adding complexity to the show.

Ok, now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk tasting.

Since next Friday is Valentine’s Day, this week’s tasting theme is focused a grape variety that produces some of the most plush, velvety wines around: Merlot.

Merlot has been the unfortunate recipient of some hate over the years, especially in 2004’s Sideways, in which main character Miles screams that he’s “not drinking any fucking Merlot!,” a line that tanked Merlot sales for years afterward in the United States.

If you’re giving Merlot a second (or first) chance, I think you’ll find that many of these wines are like the warm, cozy and always-forgiving cocoon coats of the wine world. Comforting, yet with structure that gives them a simple sophistication in a Scandi style kind of way.

And even if you’re a fellow Valentine’s Day skeptic, a mid-February hug in a bottle shared with people you love sounds pretty good to me.

I am, admittedly, very much a sucker for a great nose on a wine. Tasting many wines over the years has taught me to seek other things, like texture, concentration, balance and length, but I will probably always remain a sucker for a really pretty aromatic bouquet.

If you’re the kind of person who likes to smell all the things, whether you’re at a spice shop, a glamorous Diptyque boutique or in one of those over-the-top gas stations with tchotchkes and scented candles galore, I am your people, and this is a must-try tasting. All of the white wines in this tasting have aromas that practically leap out of the glass, making it clear that they’re something worth sniffing at.

Rosé in winter, whaaaaat? I know, it’s an unusual take. But winter is exactly when dark rosés should be a go-to part of your repertoire, especially once the holiday indulgences are over and meals shift back toward balance. With, you know, vegetables other than potatoes. We’re well into that curry, soup and stew-y time of year, and it’s also the season for brassicas like cabbage, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts and kale, which aren’t known for being the easiest wine pairing-wise.

Enter: dark rosés, the Swiss Army knives of wine selections. There’s room on your table for wines whose color ranges from beet juice purple to candy-bright pink-fuchsia to almost-a-light-red-wine. The ones you might be afraid to pick up off the shelf, for fear that they’ll be sweet or unpopular. This tasting is for those wines.

I will forever maintain that body is a weird word to apply to liquids, but since we don’t have words like skim and whole or categories like lager and stout in wine, I’ll leave it alone and accept that it is what it is. For this tasting, we get to focus on full-bodied whites: the white wines that feel as weighty on your palate as most reds, with richness that is sometimes buttery, sometimes oily, and always decadent.

If you’ve shied away from the very much untrendy full-bodied white wines, take this as your sign to give these wines a chance. What have been at times homogeneously overripe, buttery wines are now often richly nuanced, with clear varietal and terroir expression in addition to the luscious effects from winemaking choices. They’re the wine equivalent of a succulent, satisfying bowl of lobster bisque.

If you get red wine teeth as easily as I do, take your selfies before this tasting really gets going. American red wines are known for being some of the wine world’s biggest, boldest, ripest reds. That means your teeth could end up looking like you’ve befriended Dracula. I can also recommend wearing dark clothes or busy prints, because red wine spills and splashes are real, even for the highly experienced among us.

That said, more and more American producers have dialed back on the ‘bigger is better’ approach, making extremely elegant, nuanced and restrained styles of red wines, so consider mentioning your preferences when shopping for this tasting if you already know that you like one style more than the other.

Either way, this American Reds tasting is going to focus on monovarietal, or single-variety red wines. There are plenty of fantastic red blends in the US too, they’re just not the focus of this tasting, which will help you get to know the differences between the best-known varietal wines in the United States.

Body is such a weird word to describe liquids, isn’t it? I can’t help wishing there was a better word to describe the fullness, weight and texture of wine. Body, to me, just feels so fleshy. As in, in the flesh. Not at all how I think of wine.

But it’s the word that’s widely used, so I’ve accepted it too. This tasting groups styles of red wines together by a body-related characteristic. All of these red wines have light bodies, which in wine’s case, means that their weight is more akin skim than whole milk. Hopefully, I haven’t deterred you with mentions of flesh and milk, because these are some of my go-to styles of red wine.

Pinot Noir is the Goldilocks of grapes. It needs conditions that are just right to make great wine. And it’s also somehow the fifth most planted red grape variety in the world. You’d think that fewer producers would want to mess with such a cruel mistress of a grape, but Pinot Noir wines, when they’re good, are just really, really good. Mesmerizingly good. This tasting focuses on some of the world’s best regions for still red Pinot Noir wines.

No one is surprised that the first Italian tasting here is focused on the reds. Italy is famous for its red wines, but please don’t count out the whites! We’ll get to those another time, don’t worry. This tasting covers the “biggies.” The must-know Italian red wine styles, the ones that are widely exported and have come to represent Italy’s modern wine culture, even though it’s far more diverse than we could ever cover in a single tasting.

I love Champagne. Love the wine, love the place, love the people, love the stories. I am completely biased when it comes to Champagne, but I still hope this tasting helps you sort through what is marketing fluff and what is actually true about these wines. And as always, I hope it helps you discover your own preferences and favorite styles of Champagne.

Bubbles! Effervescence captured in a bottle. Just the sound of a cork popping is enough to inspire a cheer…even though ok, fine, these days I carefully & quietly pop those bottles. And not just because of proper etiquette, but because emergency room visits from poorly popped bottles are a real thing. Safety first, folks. Keeping a grip on the cork once the wire cage and foil are off and carefully twisting the bottle (not the cork) while holding it at a 30-45° angle pointed away from faces and breakable things is not just fancy, it’s smart.

Champagne usually comes to mind first when we start talking about sparkling wines, but this tasting will include 5 other classic styles so that you can get into what makes each style distinct and decide which you prefer.

French reds. Les vins rouges. Some of the most esoteric, expensive and imitated wines in the world. But also some of the most exuberant, relaxed and accessible. Wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux are considered the crème de la crème of the wine auction world, with bottle prices that can rival luxury cars. But those same regions have a myriad of delicious options at affordable prices too. This is a tasting theme that’s full of contradictions, and the good news is that there are enough options out there, so you can decide how deep to go.

First up, there are two things about rosé that I firmly believe to be true:

1. The color of a rosé doesn’t tell you anything about its quality.

2. Rosé is not just for spring and summer.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into it. This tasting is focused on the still rosé wines from around the world. But don’t worry, there will be another tasting focused on sparkling rosés too.

If you’re going to start anywhere, start here. Yes, even those of you who “only drink red wine.” The white wines of France are some of the world’s most versatile and classic wines, and they’re well worth exploring and understanding. I’d even be willing to bet that the most die-hard red wine drinkers among you will find at least one white here to love.