WINE BASICS Wine is defined as an alcoholic beverage made from the juice of grapes. It can also be made from the fermented juice of pears, apples, berries and some flowers.
WINE HISTORY The art of making wine dates back to our most ancient civilizations, with wine playing a major role in our culture for more than 8,000 years. Because the alcohol in wine, ethanol, is present in sufficient amounts to kill disease-causing micro-organisms, wine was often considered to be safer to drink than water and milk throughout history. Ancient civilizations even regarded wine as a gift from the gods because it protected them from disease.
WINE CHARACTERISTICS Wine's character, it's taste and smell, depend on factors such as the type of grape, where grown and the individual wine maker's technique.
Natural factors that make wine from a particular region unique include: the local climate (temperature, rainfall, sunlight), location of grapevines (altitude,slope), and soil (structure, composition, water drainage). Grapevines thrive in sandy, chalky or rocky soils. But the most important factor of all is the type of grape used.
Wine Basics:GRAPES USED IN WINE MAKING The most popular types of red grapes used for wine making are: zinfandel,cabernet sauvignon, grenache, merlot and pinot noir.
The most popular types of grapes for white wine are: colombard, chardonnay, chemin blanc and sauvignon blanc.
White wine is produced from white grapes and red wine is made from red grapes. The production of red and white wine is essentially the same, except that white grapes are crushed and the juice separated from the skins prior to fermentation. Red wine is fermented with its skins.
A blush or rose wine is produced from red grapes fermented without the skins.
Wine Basics: TYPES OF WINE Wines are categorized by a number of different methods. The 3 basic groupings are: Table Wines, Sparkling Wines and Fortified Wines.
TABLE WINES In wine producing regions outside of Europe, table wines are often classified by the grape variety they are made from and are called Varietals. The wine must contain at least 75 percent of the grape variety named. Chardonnay for example,is made from at least 75 percent chardonnay grapes. Some other examples include: riesling, cabernet sauvignon and merlot.
The most renowned wine-producing regions in France are Burgundy in central France and Bordeaux on the southwestern coast. Bordeaux ranks its best wineries,(chateaux) and their vineyards (crus) into 5 classes called grand crus. The highest class, "Premier Grand Crus" is held by only 5 wineries: Chateau Margaux;Chateau Latour; Chateau Mouton-Rothschild; Chateau Lafite-Rothschild in Pauillac;and Chateau Haut-Brion in Graves. Wines from French vineyards are considered to be among the highest quality wines in the world.
SPARKLING WINES Sparkling wine comes from table wine that has undergone a second fermentation. The yeast ferments the added sugar, but this time the carbon dioxide remains in the sealed bottle to create carbonation. This gives the sparkling wine its characteristic bubbles.
Only the sparkling wines produced in the Champagne region of northwestern France can officially use the name champagne. All others are simply called Sparkling Wines.
FORTIFIED WINES Fortified wines contain additional alcohol. They are usually sipped in small amounts as aperitifs before meals or as dessert wines after a meal. Port and Sherry are examples.
Brandy, although made from wine, is classified as a distilled liquor.
Wine Basics: REGIONS OF THE WORLD Wine grapes are mostly grown between the 30th and 50th degree of latitude in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
In 2003, the 5 largest producers of wine in the world were: France, Spain, Italy,The United States, and Argentina.
(References for this article came from Encarta and Wikipedia. The links are given below.)
