Lesson number one: when we speak of wine grapes that one plucks from the vine, that is a variety. When one grabs a bottle of wine off of the shelves, the name on the label is the varietal.
No matter if you like your wine white, red, rosé or orange (yes, that's a thing), it never hurts to know a thing or two about the grapes in question. The notes on the pages below come from straight from my curriculum at Le Cordon Bleu Cambridge. I wish I could take all of the credit, but this was a fully collaborative process with my colleague, the lovely Betsy Swan.