What Every Wine Enthusiast Should Understand
Friday, December 5th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
There is a lot more to being a wine enthusiast, they are not just lovers of wine. There are a few factors you should know to enhance your judgment as to what makes a good wine and its taste. One factor is that the wine is made from fermented grape juice. But you should know a few other things, such as the grape varieties wines are made from and the process of wine making itself.
There are many varieties of wines. The most commonly known ones are red, white, rose and champagne. Wines are usually classified according to the grape varieties used to make them. One variety that is often used for red wine is the Barbera. Grown mainly in Piedmont, Italy, this variety is quite adaptable to other regions, and is also grown on a limited scale in the United States. Barbera grapes produce wines with a full-bodied fruity taste as they have a high natural acidity.
There are many varieties of wine. Wine enthusiasts know about one variety that is widely grown in many parts of the world: Cabernet Sauvignon. This grape variety, grown primarily in Medoc, France, has found its way to California, Australia and other wine-making countries. Wine enthusiasts would consider Cabernet Sauvignon wines to be among the best red wines in the world. They have a distinct aromatic flavor, and have hints of the taste of berries, olives, coffee, mint and herbs all blended together. Among the white varieties, the Chardonnay is easily the most popular, producing some of the world’s finest white wines.
A basic understanding of the wine-making process is important to a wine enthusiast, especially if he is interested in going into wine production himself if only for personal consumption. Wine making is an age-old technology and is really simple. It is not necessary to have sophisticated equipment to make wines.
First you have to know what type of grapes to use, where they are grown, the right age for picking, and things like acidity and sugar levels. If you want a particular aromatic flavor, you should be able to tell which grapes will produce that kind of flavor. After the picking comes the pressing to extract the juices, then fermentation.
The fermentation process is quite delicate. To stimulate the fermentation process, yeast is added to the juice. In simple terms, fermentation is the conversion of the sugar in the juice into alcohol. The success of your grape juice turning into good wine, is the kind of yeast used and the absence of any contaminants getting into the mixture during the entire process.
There is so much more to understanding the differences between a Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon, but the knowledge to the types of wine available is just the beginning for a wine enthusiast.
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