Swirl and taste: Plums, blackberries, and black currant; sometimes violets or rose petals, and often mint, mocha, and eucalyptus or cedar; strong tannins underneath. Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the more complex and layered wines out there. It has higher tannins and a savory character often described as black pepper and tobacco.

Swirl and taste: Green apple, pear, melon, creamy lemon, and sometimes pineapple, rounded out with butterscotch and vanilla. With complex fruit flavors and often a rich, creamy texture. Chardonnay is the most popular white wine in the U.S. to date

The most popular red wine in the U.S. (the Sideways effect notwithstanding), Merlot has dark fruit flavors like Cabernet Sauvignon, but is generally a little rounder and softer.

Swirl and taste: Blackberries, blueberries, plums, cassis, and dried cherries combined with chocolate, cedar, and tobacco and sometimes hints of black olive.

Merlot carries the same complex flavor package that Cabernet Sauvignon does, but generally has softer, mellower tannins.

Pinot Grigio is usually crisp, light, and steely, with great acidity; Pinot Gris (the same grape) is often made into a rounder, more complex wine.

Swirl and taste: Pear, lemon (sometimes leaning toward lemongrass), melon, and sweet spice flavors often come with a flinty edge ― imagine wet stones.

A light-bodied, low-tannin, silky, sensual red, handed stardom by the movie Sideways in 2004 (but still only the fifth most-popular red wine in the U.S.).

Swirl and taste: Red or dark berries, cherries, plums, violets, warm spices (cloves, cinnamon), herbs, sometimes orange peel with an underside of cedar, smoke, leather, mushrooms, and loam.

A crisp, aromatic wine, considered the noblest white of all by much of the wine world, that goes with just about everything.

Swirl and taste: Delicate white peach, green apple, and lime flavors ― or riper apricot, nectarine, and mandarin orange. Riesling often has a pleasant minerality akin to wet stones and a haunting diesel-like aroma (if you can imagine that as a good thing).

A lean, crisp, white wine that's extremely flexible with food, and a great alternative to Chardonnay.

Swirl and taste: Tart lemon, grapefruit, melon, and tropicals like passionfruit ― even gooseberry ― over a pleasant grassiness and herbal quality.

Swirl and taste: Dark fruit (blackberries, blueberries, and cherries), black olives, and herbs against a backdrop of earthy leather, tobacco, and meaty bacon, laced with black pepper.

Swirl and taste: The most American wine of all (it's grown almost nowhere else) ― a juicy, jammy, spicy red wine that can turn your teeth purple intense dark berries, dried cherries, plums, chocolate, and black pepper ― a mouth filling wine.

Swirl and taste: Malbec is typically a medium to full-bodied, dry red wine with plenty of acidity and higher tannin and alcohol levels. Dark, inky purple color profiles and ripe fruit flavors of plums, black cherry, and blackberry can give this wine a decidedly jammy character. Smoke, earth, leather, wild game, tobacco and white/black pepper along with a slew of high-profile spices can make for an interesting medley of aromas and flavors, adding to layers of complexity and unique food pairing profiles.

Swirl and taste: Carmenere is a dark-skinned grape variety originally from the vineyards of Bordeaux, and which has found a particularly suitable home in Chile. A late-ripening variety, Carmenere needs high levels of sunshine and a warm summer to reach its full potential, but in the right environment it can produce fine, deeply colored red wines, with the attractive meaty plumpness of Merlot and the gently herbaceous, cedary notes of Cabernet Sauvignon.

Swirl and taste: The flavor profile of Sangiovese is fruity, with moderate to high natural acidity and generally a medium-body ranging from firm and elegant to assertive and robust and a finish that can tend towards bitterness. The aroma is generally not as assertive and easily identifiable as Cabernet Sauvignon, for example, but it can show a strawberry, blueberry, faintly floral, violet or plummy character.

Swirl and taste: The unmistakable candied fruit roll-up and cinnamon flavor is what gives Grenache away to expert blind tasters. It has a medium to full weight in taste, but has a deceptively lighter color and is semi-transulcent. Depending on where it's grown, Grenache often lets off strong smells of orange rinds and ruby-red grapefruit. It can have herbal notes of dried oregano and tobacco.

Swirl and taste: medium-bodied red wine whose origins likely lie in the Basque country of France. The wine is loved for its savory, bell pepper-like flavors, medium-high acidity and mouthwatering taste. It is an ideal food pairing wine. You can find single-varietal Cabernet Franc wines, but the variety is also quite popular as blending grape in the famous Bordeaux Blend.

Swirl and taste: is a full-bodied red wine that originates in southwestern France (in Bordeaux). It is highly desired as a blending grape in red Bordeaux blends because of its plentiful color, tannin and floral aromas of violet. Because Petit Verdot is such a bold wine, it is commonly added in less than 10% of most wine blends.

Moscato wine is famous for its sweet flavors of peach, orange blossom and nectarine. The name originates from Italy, but the Muscat grape may be one of the oldest cultivated varieties in the world. In most cases Moscato wine is a sweet, slightly bubbly (aka frizzante) white wine made from Muscat Blanc grapes.

Swirl and taste: highly perfumed and quite full-bodied, more so than all other white wine grapes, with the exception of Viognier. In fact, the combination of Gewürztraminer's strong, heady, perfumed scent, exotic lychee-nut flavor and heavy-oily texture can be overwhelming and tiring to many palates. There is also a slight tendency to bitterness that seems exacerbated by ripeness, so a light touch is needed at the wine press. Many makers finish their Gewürztraminer with a spot of residual sugar. Gewürztraminer can be made into an excellent dessert wine

Swirl and taste: Torrontés is similar to other aromatic white wines including Riesling and Muscat Blanc (Moscato). The major difference between Torrontés and these aforementioned white wines is that Torrontés is commonly made in a dry style. This makes it a very interesting wine to enjoy because its salty lean taste is in opposition to its sweet perfumed aromas.