Basic Intro to Wine

Basic intro to w i n e

So what is wine …. Wine is an alcoholic beverage made with fermented grapes, Wine grapes are different from the grapes we eat as they are smaller, sweeter have seeds and a thicker skin - proven to be better for the making of wine. They grow on grape wines which are woody plants that crop once a year. The different climates where they are grown affect how sweet (or tart) the resulting wine tastes There are thousands of different wine varieties ( e.g. merlot ) and most originate from just one species of grape vine.

Vintage - tells us the year that the grapes were harvested Non - vintage - are wines made from a blend of several vin- tages. A single varietal wine is a wine made with mostly or only one grape variety A wine blend is made by blending (mixing) lots of different varietal wines together A field blend is made with different varieties that are harvest- ed and vinified together Basic intro to w i n e

Five Main Types of Wine All wines can be organized into five basic groups.

Red Wine - Still wine made with black grapes. Red wines range from light to bold. White Wine - A still wine produced from white and occasionally black grapes. Flavors in white wines span from light to rich. Rosé Wine - Still wine from black grapes produced by removing the skins before they stain the wine deep red. Rosé is also made by blending red and white wine together. Both dry and sweet styles of rosé are common. Sparkling Wine- A style of winemaking involving a secondary fermentation that makes bubbles! Sparkling wine can be red, white, or rosé and ranges from lean and dry, to rich and sweet. Dessert Wine - A style of winemaking involving fortifying wine with spirits. Typically, dessert wines taste sweet, but many dry, fortified wines exist, such as dry Sherry.

3 ways wines are labelled By Variety Varietal wines (wines labelled by grape) are made with one or mostly one grape variety Wine labelled by variety doesn’t guarantee that the wine is 100% of the listed variety. Each country has their own set of minimum requirements to label wine by variety

By Region Wines like Bordeaux, Chablis, Chianti, Sancerre, and Rioja are labelled by region. This style of labelling is used mostly in old world wine countries like France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Re- gional labelling likely came from a time when many different varieties grew together in the same vineyards and were blended together into wine. Each wine region dictates what grapes can be used in the regional wine. By Name Wines that are labelled by name include wines using a made-up or fantasy name. More often than not, named wines are unique blends invented by the wine producer. Named wines are often blends or unusual wines that don’t fit the wine laws of a particular region. Wine & Food pairing cheat sheet