Wines can be spicy, too. The same chemical compound that occurs in that mound of black pepper (rotundone) occurs in the Syrah grape. Rotundone comes from a class of aromatic compounds called terpenes, which create the floral or herbal aromas in plants and, of course, wine. We find abundances of these floral aromas in wines made with the Gewürztraminer grape (würz is, uncoincidentally, the German word for spice), which we will taste today. The last kind of wine spiciness comes from oak, giving wines the nutmeggy or clovey aromas that remind us of tasty holidays. So let’s get festive, singe some nose hairs, and dig into these spicy lil wines.