Understanding Wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink that’s loved the world over. It became popular during the time of the Romans and Greeks when it was first produced, and has grown in popularity ever since. There are a whole range of wines out there, and as such understanding wine can often be difficult. So, here’s a very brief explanation of wine and its various types to help to give you a better understanding.
The two main types of wine are red and white, which are both made using different grapes and fermentation techniques to result in the different colour and taste. Red wine is, as you would expect, made from red grapes and is fermented by keeping the skins of the grapes in contact with the juice. The pigments from the skin colours the juice and results in the colour of red wine.
White wine, however, can be made from either red or white grapes. Making it with white grapes is just as easy as making red wine, and if you want to use red grapes to make white wine the skins have to be removed to prevent the additional colour. Rose or blush wine is a combination of the two – the skins of red grapes are allowed slight contact with the juice during fermentation but not for long enough to create red wine.
All types of wine have different levels of alcohol, and also have different levels of sweetness in white wine and fullness in red wine. In white wine, for example, the scale runs from 1 all the way up to 9, with 1 being the driest and 9 being the sweetest. There are a lot more dry varieties of wine available than there are sweet, with 9 being reserved for only the sweetest of dessert wines.
Wine can be made in countries all over the world, with the different varieties of grapes used in each country resulting in a different flavour of wine. This is why some people prefer some wines to others – it’s often to do with where the wine and its grapes originated.
There are also certain varieties of wine that suit some foods more than others, with some suiting fish for example and others being more preferable with desserts. Drier wines are normally served earlier in the meal and sweeter wines later, with the sweetest option usually being reserved for dessert.
This is just a basic guide to understanding wine, and there’s obviously a lot more that needs to be covered before you can be called a wine connoisseur. If you’re interested in wine then do your research to find out as much as you can, and there are always wine clubs and wine tasting events to give you an even better insight into this popular alcoholic drink.
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