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Wine Match
Five guilty pleasures, yes or no. Ben finds the wine you’d actually like. You don’t need to know anything about wine. Ben certainly doesn’t.
Wine Underdogs is for readers of legal drinking age.
BenFive things. Yes or no. I'll do the rest.
Every wine fact here comes from the grape guides on Wine Underdogs. Ben has never opened a bottle, and neither does this game. For readers 21 and over.
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From the journal
All stories →Editor’s pick
Florida, United States
Can Florida Grow Real Wine Grapes? The Disease, the Hybrids and the 13 Cases
A bacterium carried by insects kills European grapevines across the Deep South. Florida bred its own answer in 1987, UC Davis released five more in 2019, and the first Florida-grown wine from them came to 13 cases.
Chris Berry · November 3, 2026
Latest
- Öküzgözü · Eastern Anatolia, TurkeyÖküzgözü and Boğazkere: The Turkish Reds Almost Nobody Is Allowed to Talk AboutNovember 8, 2026
- Producer · GreeceMonemvasia Winery: The Wine That Named Malvasia, Back Where It StartedNovember 7, 2026
- Producer · ItalyAlois: The Grapes That Were Once Illegal to MakeNovember 6, 2026
- Silvaner · Franken, GermanySilvaner: Germany's Dry White That Isn't RieslingOctober 31, 2026
This week’s underdog
Schiava (Vernatsch)skee-AH-vah
If you love Pinot Noir, start here.
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More from the journal
All stories →Rheinhessen, Germany
Liebfraumilch: The Ghost of German Wine, and the Grape That Outlived It
Liebfraumilch was once half the wine Germany sent abroad. The bottle faded; one of the grapes inside it, Silvaner, is now the wine worth finding.
Wine Guide
A Chemistry Map of 126 Grapes, Read for the Underdogs
Scientists in Trentino mapped 126 grape varieties by what their berries are made of, not by their DNA. Twenty-one grapes this site covers are on it. Here is what the map says about them, and what it can't.
Wine Guide
Most Red Wine Is Wearing a Costume. Saperavi Came as Itself.
Squeeze almost any red grape and the juice runs clear: the red is a costume borrowed from the skins. A Halloween guide to the grapes that dress up, the few that don't, and the one worth finding.
Why underdogs
I started Wine Underdogs because the same handful of grapes kept crowding out hundreds worth drinking. Great wine doesn’t have to be famous — it just has to be honest, and a little overlooked.
Notes from Chris Berry
Founder, taster, and full-time champion of the world’s overlooked grapes, from Portugal’s Alentejo to the cellars of Georgia, Armenia, and the Italian Alps.
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