Some Fun Facts About Wine
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Wine has been produced for many centuries from just two simple ingredients: yeast and grape juice. Actually, just about any fruit juice can be used, but by far the majority wine is made from the juice of the grape.
Historically wine was the drink of choice because of the sometimes poor quality of the drinking water in so many regions. Today, of course, we tend to open a bottle of fine wine at times of celebration or offer it as a welcome gift as part of a wine gift basket.
Since there are yeast spores in the air, wine could be made without effort simply by allowing grape juice to stay in an open container for an extended period of time. You probably wouldn’t find that so enjoyable, though.
Yeast is a living organism. In wine making, the yeast feeds off the sugars. That process is called fermentation. The action of fermentation converts the sugars in the juice into alcohol with a biproduct of carbon dioxide. In contemporary times, special types of yeast have been cultured solely for their use in wine making. The particular strain of the yeast, along with other factors, determines the flavor of the wine.
Once all of the fermentable sugars have been consumed, the yeast will fall to the bottom of the container. The wine is removed from the container, leaving the yeast, and is trasferred to another container to mature while waiting to be bottled.
How does wine get its color?
There are black grapes and green grapes and grapes of various gradations in between. Regardless of the color of the grape the juice is always clear, or nearly so. If the skins are left in the juice during fermentation, a red wine is the result. A white wine results when the skins are removed.
What gives each wine its taste?
Many factors contribute to the eventual flavor of any wine. They include the strain of yeast, the type of grape, the soil conditions, the weather during the growing season, the technique and temperature during fermentation and even the nature of the oak barrels in which the wine matures.
Never fear, with all of these factors considered even the most avid wine drinker would ever be able to experience all of the different varieties of wine on the market today. Let the treasure hunting begin!
All wines have tannin. That is the component that provides that sort of drying feeling on the tongue. It comes from the stems, seeds and skins, so red wines will have more tannin than will white wines. That accounts for the different tactile feeling between reds and whites.
Clearly, this has been a quick overview of wine, but hopefully it has filled some of the voids in your understanding of this historic drink.
Tagged with: wine • wine basket • wine gift basket • wine making
Filed under: Italian Food
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