Learning about wine can seem like an endlessly confusing and intimidating prospect. To make it easier, husband-and-wife team Steve and Deborah De Long have broken the process down into its elements. Their new Wine Grape Varietal Table, modeled after the Periodic Table of the Elements that we remember from the walls of our middle-school science classrooms, is a guide to the 184 grapes commonly used in wine production.

The Varietal Table places each grape in its own “cell,” listing the grape’s typical flavors (for Sauvignon Blanc, “aromatic, grassy, herbaceous, vegetal, elderflowers, gooseberries”), the countries where it is grown, and the specific appellations, or wine regions, within those countries (“Sancerre, Pouilly-Fume…” etc).The table also maps out both the body and acidity of its wines: grapes generally yielding the heaviest wines, for instance, have the lowest location on the table and the darkest cell shadings; the thicker the cell’s border and the closer to the middle of the chart, the more acidic the wine tends to be.

An 88-page booklet, “Wine and Grape Indexes,” accompanies the chart. Its first section lists all 184 grapes alphabetically and cross-references their locations on the table; the later chapters catalog European appellations for red, white, rose, sparkling, and dessert wines.

The table, which measures 24 by 36 inches, is printed on acid-free, archival paper, and is handsome enough to be framed as a gift for a wine lover (Ms. De Long is an interior designer and Mr. De Long an architect, so both have experience in the field of visual design – they are currently at work on a wine map of the world, to be published this summer, and a guide to the “anatomy of wine taste,” due out next winter). The table costs $35 and is available at www.delongwine.com and select stores.