Wine is formed when grapes are crushed and the juice ferments. It ferments due to the naturally occurring yeast on the skins of the grapes. Of course there is a great deal more involved in the making of a good wine. It starts really with the planting of the vineyard – or even before that with all the planning and preparation that goes into it first. Some grapes are more suited to making wine than others, so this has to be taken into consideration as well.

Once the grapes are successfully growing on the vine, it’s important to choose the correct time for harvest. Sugar levels of the ripe grapes must be at a maximum. An expert in the field, chewing on the seeds and skins and sampling the sweetness of the grape juice, discerns this. Once it is decided that the grapes are at the perfect stage for harvesting, workers commence cutting the bunches as quickly as possible. Every delay means that the grapes will be over-ripe and thus unfit for making wine. The bunches of grapes are dropped into bins and transported to the winery.

In the old days, harvested grapes were crushed by means of people treading on them with their bare feet. These days they are crushed by machine– a rather more hygienic way – and the fermenting process is carried out in stainless steel vats. Although yeast occurs naturally on the skins of the grapes, the wine-maker will add more yeast of a special culture for winemaking. During fermentation, the yeast that is present in the mixture will begin to digest the sugars that are present. When all the sugar has been digested, the yeast then gradually drops to the bottom of the liquid. This is then poured off into barrels to complete the aging process. These barrels are traditionally made of oak and play an important part in the process of wine making. During the aging process, the wine is moved from full to empty barrels several times, with the solids in the bottom of the barrel removed, and the barrel used again. This process is called racking.

After several months in barrels, the wine is poured into bottles where the aging process is continued. Eventually the wine will reach the consumer in top condition, ready to help him celebrate life – or mourn death. Most wines are made from grapes, however wine can also be made from other fruits and even from the flower of the dandelion.

As always, I hope you enjoyed today’s featured article, and thanks for reading!
Before you go, would you be interested in a whole short course about being a wine connoisseur that will get you started with your expertise – FAST?
If so, go to this site right now:

http://wineconnoisseur.howto-you.com

Thanks again for reading and have a great day!

What does that first swirl and sniff mean? Is it just a ritual or is there a reason for it? According to wine experts there’s an important reason. The sense of smell is one of the strongest senses we have. It is not only directly connected to the brain, but to the memory as well. Thus the sense of smell may immediately make us remember a scene from our childhood or a holiday we enjoyed. If we sucked the nectar from honeysuckle as a child, then the smell of it as an adult will transport us back to those days immediately.

We’ll remember the hot sun on our back, the wind in the nearby trees, the dog barking. So you see how important our sense of smell is.

When we use our sense of smell to explore wine, we can often smell things that are familiar to us. It might be a whiff of blackberry, blueberry, cigar smoke or any number of other aromas. We know of these scents from our experience of the world and so they become a reference point. To smell them in a wine increases our sensory enjoyment and makes the drinking of wine an even more pleasurable experience.

The shape of the glass is important to the sniffing of wine. A larger bowl and small rim keep the bouquet from dissipating before we can enjoy its fragrance. Swirling the wine around the bottom of the glass helps to release the aroma. The first sniff should be small and light to catch the most delicate hints of fruit or whatever is offered from the type of wine we have.

The second sniff should be heartier and be done with the mouth slightly open, so that the aroma can wash over mouth, throat and olfactory senses. So what does wine actually smell like? According to Roy Cadman of the English Wine Society, most white wines have the aroma of tropical fruit. Wines that have aged for some time in oak barrels absorb a number of interesting aromas from the wood, while those that have been fermented in stainless steel tanks have a pleasing fruit flavor more true to the grape than others.

There are many reasons why people sniff wine. Firstly, it increases their enjoyment of the whole process of drinking wine. It also educates their senses to understand their wines. The experts do it when trying to tell where the wine came from and what vintage it is. But perhaps the most important reason of all is the simplest. It’s great fun!

I hope you enjoyed today’s featured article, and thanks for reading!

Before you go, would you be interested in a whole short course about being a wine connoisseur that will get you started with your expertise – FAST?
If so, go to this site right now:

http://wineconnoisseur.howto-you.com

Thanks again for reading and have a great day!”

Basically an Ice wine is one that has been made from frozen grapes. The grapes must be frozen on the vine though, not after they are picked. This means that workers must go out in temperatures of at least –10 C to –13 C to pick the grapes – certainly a cold occupation. It is actually the water in the grape juice that freezes and remains in tiny crystals in the skin. So a small amount of highly concentrated grape juice is extracted and used to make the wine.

The first Ice wine was made by accident in Germany. The grapes froze on the vine, but it was decided to go ahead and use them anyway. The saying that necessity is the mother of invention was certainly true here. Ice wine was made intentionally from the 1800s on, but it was Hainle, a Canadian vineyard who made the first commercially available Icewine – that was in 1978. Since then, demand has increased and now many countries that can depend on a winter of minus eight or ten make Icewine.

As previously mentioned, for true Icewine the grapes must be left on the vine till they freeze. This means that there is a possibility that some will be lost due to rot, falling off, or animals eating them. Picking them is labor intensive, but so is the fermentation process because the conditions must remain very cold to keep the grapes frozen. Freezing increases the sugar content of the grape, so fermentation takes some months longer than with ordinary grapes. All this is what makes the price of the finished product so high. Icewine is often sold not in big bottles, but in half-bottle amounts. And frequently it is gift-packed in bottles as small as 200ml and even 50ml.

The grape varietal used for Icewine depends on the country it is made in. Germany prefers Riesling, while Ontario, Canada and British Columbia use the Vidal varietal as well Cabernet Franc, a red grape. Other species are being trialled, with Pillitteri Estates Winery in Ontario claiming to be the first to make Shiraz Icewine.

Icewines can be either red or white, with the white Icewine color changing to deep amber as it ages. The red varieties are not as dark as ordinary red wine, often looking more like the color of a rose wine than anything.
Although the sugar content is high, Icewine is not cloying in taste or texture due to its high acidity. If they are from Germany, their alcohol content may be as low as 6%, but Canadian Icewine is higher at up to 13%.
I hope you enjoyed today’s featured article, and thanks for reading!

Before you go, would you be interested in a whole short course about being a wine connoisseur that will get you started with your expertise – FAST?
If so, go to this site right now:

http://wineconnoisseur.howto-you.com

Thanks again for reading and have a great day!

There are many things to look for when you ‘taste’ wines, but first what is the best way to do this? You don’t just drink a glass of wine like you do a glass of water. When you go to a wine tasting, it is to sample many different wines, so that you can tell what you like and what you don’t. This will save you the expense of buying a wine that you may not like. But if you scoff down glass after glass you’ll soon be too drunk to discern the many different flavors. In this article we explore what you need to know to ‘taste’ wines.

At a wine tasting you will be given a small amount of wine in a glass. You must hold the glass by the stem so that the temperature of it remains as it is supposed to be. If a white wine warms up, the taste may be spoiled. Red wines are meant to be a little warmer, but perhaps not as warm as your hands may be. You want to ensure the fullest taste possible. What you are looking for are those delicate aromas that may have been added to the wine by fermenting in oak barrels. Some flavors added by fermentation in the barrels may be vanilla, chocolate, cider, cinnamon, cloves and many others. You may even detect a tang of something that was growing near the grapes in the vineyard.

Using just a wrist movement, twirl the wine around the glass and then take a sniff with your mouth open, allowing the aroma of the wine to penetrate both nostrils and throat. Think about what you can smell and see if you can put a name to it. Allow a few seconds before repeating the process. When you take your first sip, make it a small one, allowing the liquid to roll over and around your tongue for a few seconds. This will ensure that all 10,000 taste buds are reached. Some wine tasters like to ‘chew’ their second mouthful, but swishing it around the mouth works just as well. Go with whatever suits you best. As you swallow the second mouthful, exhale through your nose. This allows the aromas of the wine to linger longer.

As the wine runs down your throat, it will leave trickles called ‘legs’. You will be able to feel whether these legs go off quickly from the throat like water would, or if they linger.  Is it light like water, or more full-bodied, like milk? This is the texture of the wine.

If you don’t like the particular sample you have tasted, don’t force yourself to drink the rest of it. There will be a container available to dispose excess before you go on to the next taste. Your host may be able to supply tasting notes with each sample so that you know what to look for. Wine tasting helps to develop your sensory processes so that you will soon begin to discern and enjoy more subtle aromas than you did before.

I hope you enjoyed today’s featured article, and thanks for reading!
Before you go, would you be interested in a whole short course about being a wine connoisseur that will get you started with your expertise – FAST?
If so, go to this site right now:

http://wineconnoisseur.howto-you.com

Thanks again for reading and have a great day!