Food & DrinkThe BestieBeginner
Decoding the Wine List, a free food & drink course on Tomo

Decoding the Wine List

Like Duolingo, but for Decoding the Wine List. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.

A short one: 11 levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Finding Your Style and Drinking with Confidence. It starts from scratch.

11 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Vinny the Vole, the guide who teaches the Decoding the Wine List course
Decoding the Wine List
with Vinny the Vole
11
Levels
2
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in Decoding the Wine List

  • Grape juice is naturally clear regardless of the skin color
  • Tannins are compounds found in grape skins and seeds
  • Color is extracted from the skins during the soaking process
  • Tannins create a physical texture or drying sensation rather than a flavor
  • Longer contact with skins results in deeper, darker wine colors
  • Red wines have high tannin levels because they are fermented with their skins
  • How wine color is determined during the winemaking process
  • The source and sensation of tannins in red wine
  • White wines lack the heavy tannins found in reds
  • Acidity provides the 'refreshing' or 'crisp' quality in white wine
  • White winemaking focuses on preserving delicate fruit and floral scents
  • Rosé is made by letting red grape skins soak in the juice for just a few hours
  • Mixing red and white wine is generally not the standard practice for quality Rosé
  • The pink color is a result of stopping the skin contact before the wine turns fully red
  • The primary sensory focus of white wine styles
  • The authentic production method for Rosé wine
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives Decoding the Wine List the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

The Secret Life of Skins

If you squeeze a red grape and look at the juice inside, what color would it be?

Get it right to open this lesson and 10 more in the app.

Course map

Where Decoding the Wine List takes you

Stop guessing at the grocery store and start choosing bottles you actually enjoy. Learn to identify your personal palate and pair wine with your favorite meals.

  1. 1

    Finding Your Style

    • The Four Main Styles
    • Speaking the Language of Taste
  2. 2

    Drinking with Confidence

    • Pairing Wine with Food
    • The Perfect Pour

2 sections · 4 units · 11 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
The Bestie

Decoding the Wine List is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.

Start free

Start Decoding the Wine List today.

Download Tomo, search Decoding the Wine List, and play your first lesson in under a minute.