Food

Wine is a very wide spread term that is simply fruit being distilled and fermented for the product of an alcoholic drink. When most people think of wine they immediately think grapes, but there are so many different sources for wine production these include rice (sake), various fruits (elderberry, grapefruit, cherry, etc.), barley, and even honey (mead).

To make everything simple with will touch mostly on the wines that are made from grapes alone. These are all put into their separate categories these are Taste, Method of fermentation, vinification and vintage. Quite a lot of unsuspecting wine consumers out there would not really care for the small differences to such categories, after all the majority of wine drinkers only go by the wine taste. Although for many of you perfectionists out there wine is your heart and soul.

These wines have to abide by the highest levels, everything has to be exactly dead on, the type of grape, taste and quality of he vintage must all conform to the best standards before any wine master will even think about having it as part of there collection.

Vinification

Vinification is the process by which grape juice is fermented into wine. The process of fermentation determines how the wine turns out and it is this quality that determines the price. The 1 mistake made by the early wine drinkers is that the juice from the grapes varies; this isn’t the case as juice from either grape is colourless.

For wine colour determination it is essential that the skins or left on or kept off, red wines are made with the grape skins left on and with white grapes the skins have been removed, rose wine is the 2 varieties of wine mixed. For carbonated wines such as champagne the key here is to add carbon dioxide to the wine production, the grape juice here ferments twice to achieve perfection.

The 1st fermentation takes place in opened vats this allows all the C02 to be released. Then for the 2nd fermentation the vats are closed, this has the effect of keeping all the carbon dioxide in and mixed with the wine.

Taste

Most wines are described as dry, off-dry, fruity, or sweet. This is a direct result of the amount of sugar that is left over after the fermentation process has ended, Dry wine has very little sugar content, while a sweeter wine has a higher sugar content. Past this basic taste testing, wine tasting enthusiasts have came up with a good method of classing wine, this would entail more levels of taste and the different smells that the wine releases. Most wine drinkers who are less up to date on their wines have a difficult time comprehending this, but for those of you who are knowledgeable in the wine field think the ability to be able to tell the subtlest of differences to a wine to be a good achievement. As a good example, Cabernet Sauvignon which is loved everywhere around the world has been said to taste of currants, tobacco, chocolate and mint.

Vintage

Vintage is a straight forward classification when wine is concerned, this refers to the year of the grapes harvest from which the wine was produced. This is very important as a lot of wine makers have very well producing grape harvests only in particular years. In addition to this the very finest grapes are specially set aside to be used in the making of special vintage bottles. You then reap the best quality wine from the good harvest that year.