Chapter 24

“This one smells like mocha,” Leo said, pouring one of the red wines into their glass cups.

The last time he’d done some wine tasting was in Italy with Douglass and Sofia. Isla’s chestnut eyes twitched in excitement as she tasted her first glass.

“Intense flavor. I like it,” she said.

He sampled another red wine.

“A little too bitter, I think,” she mumbled, dropping the glass of wine on the table.

“That’s because it’s got a lot of tannins.”

“What’s that?”

He asked her to describe the way it’d felt in her mouth.

“I’ll say puckery. Quite harsh.”

“Then, it’s astringent, meaning it has a lot of tannins in it. The amount of tannins in red wine determines how bitter it will taste.” He drank some more of the red wine.

“Too much,” he said. “If the amount of tannins were moderate, it would be firm, leaving your mouth feeling dry. And if it were less than moderate, it would be soft.”

She gently clapped for him, leaving him emba