The color of wine comes from the skin of the grapes. The juice that comes from nearly every variety of grape when pressed is white or clear. This is true of red grapes as well as white wines. The color or pigments of red grapes are found in the skins of the grapes. In order to make a red wine from red grapes, it is necessary to leave the skins in contact with the juice during fermentation. When the skins are placed in the fermenting 'must', the pigments leech out of the skins and color the wine. When red grapes are pressed and the skins are kept out, the color of the wine remains white and is considered a 'blanc de noirs' (a white wine from red grapes).

A vertical tasting involves wines from different vintages but all the wines will come from the same winery. If the winery produces more than one type of wine, you would select a single wine from that winery and taste multiple vintages of that wine. For instance, you might have 5 vintages of Chateau Mouton Rothschild (a famous wine from Bordeaux in France). When you hold a Vertical tasting, you are learning more about the differences between different vintages rather than the differences in wineries.

Argentina's vineyards were originally established by Spanish monks when they arrived in the 1500's. The primary wine production area is in the Mendoza Valley which is located on the eastern side of the Andes mountain range. The vineyards are at higher altitudes than most other growing regions (ranging from 1500 to over 5000 feet). They receive virtually no rainfall and as a result, the vineyards are irrigated.