Drinking wine is easy. Tasting it is hard. That’s why I’m introducing The Tastemaker, an occasional series on STBNY about the challenges, joys and mysteries of wine tasting.

I like to tell people that wine isn’t as complicated as it’s made out to be. And that’s usually the case … except, of course, when it’s not. Take, for example, Bonarda.

Viognier is the finest white wine grape of the Rhône. These are wines with meat on their bones.

There’s obscure, and then there’s obscure.

Sorry for the lofty title, but it’s been a culturally edifying few days here at STBNY. On Sunday I went to the Metropolitan Museum and on Monday, we saw our friend perform in an opera. Delightful experiences both, they got me thinking about — what else? — wine. Specifically, about the importance of paying attention.

Wine, like people, wants to live within a narrow temperature range. I often get questions about the right temperature for wine storage, but the more pressing question for most of us is the ideal temperature for serving wine.

My latest entry: Zweigelt. A crisp, easy-drinking red from Austria, it’s a great match for the kind of rib-sticking cuisine that makes winter bearable.

In my welcome post, I mentioned that when given a choice, I prefer to drink organic wines, biodynamic wines, or, at the very least, “sustainable” wines. Here’s why.

Inspired by Stephen Colbert and his genius “Better Know a District” segment, I’m kicking off an occasional feature profiling some lesser-known grapes. First up: Petit Verdot.

Alcohol is the most obvious component of wine — but the hardest to talk about. We’re all familiar with its effects on us, both good and bad, but we’re much less conscious of how alcohol influences the way a wine tastes and feels in our mouth.