There are a great many people who consider themselves as something of a wine connoisseur these days. It usually starts of quite innocently with the enjoyment of a couple of glasses each evening, but people often get so engrossed in the wine world it becomes a real hobby. They’ve invested in a vintage collection of wine wines, they’ve converted their spare room into a storage cellar, bought a selection of different wine glasses so that they can get the maximum enjoyment of each wine variety, and have all the required tableware gadgets for opening and pouring their wine.
The one thing that very few wine buffs have however is a wine map, which can show you more about wine regions that most books can. Wine maps have come a long way from the days they were roughly scribbled on a piece of paper and are now researched extensively and updated frequently. The California wine map for example is updated every year due to the complicated layout of the area, especially after Napa Valley was officially recognized as an American Viticultural Area in 1981. This means that there are 108 AVAs in the area, all providing different grape varieties and wine qualities.
Lots of people tend to rely on the information they can cleave from the label on the wine bottle, but if you really want to understand the wines you drink and why they each have their own unique tastes a wine map is a must. Wine regions can be quite confusing to say the least, so if you are actually going to see one for yourself, a wine map is as important to take as a wine glass. Often different terrain overlaps between wine making regions so certain wines can be made up of a combination of different grapes and grape maturing conditions. A wine map will allow you to not only understand the wines better but also identify where the tastes and aromas coming from your wine glasses were born
