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What is Wine? What's all the fuss about? Here are some basic wine facts.
Wine is generally understood to mean the fermented juice of grapes,
although a wine can be made from the fermented juice of the other
plants too. Wine is a truly 'natural food' as it is will develop on its own
wherever sweet plant juices are allowed to collect and ferment.
But man, the interfering creature that he is, has learned to help the
process along through Viticulture - the science of growing and harvesting
grapes and Viniculture - art of making wine. What he has developed is
not one simple beverage, but a entire array ranging form the downright
simple to the incredibly complex.
It helps most to know that all wines fall into few basic
categories-appetizer and dessert wines, red and white table wines and
sparkling wines.
When you have to make that all-important decision about which wine to
buy/order, consider the use you'll make of it. Do you need something to
have with appetizers before dinner or is the need of the hour a wine to
toast a newly wed couple. In the first case select an appetizer wine, in
the latter a sparkling wine.
APPETIZER & DESSERT WINES
Sometimes these two categories are grouped separately, but since there
are no many similarities between these two classes it is simpler to
consider them a single class. Appetizer and Dessert wines usually have a
higher alcoholic content and a more pronounced flavour than other wines.
In some cases the same wine can be sipped as an appetizer or as a post
prandial beverage. The difference is in the 'dryness' of the wine. 'Dry'
versions (with the absence of sweetness) are served as an aperitif and
sweeter forms as dessert. The exception here is Vermouth, which is
popular in both its sweet and dry forms during the before dinner hour.
Since wine rules are flexible there is nothing wrong in even pouring some
of the wine meant for the main course to sip prior to the meal. For
everyday meals this is a popular practice.
Dessert wines, like desserts themselves should be sweet and 'full bodied'.
In addition to sweet ( or 'cream') sherry there are several other distinct
types, including Red port, Tawny port, Sauterness, Sweet semillion and
wines made from the 'musact' grape.
…And then there is the Chateau d' Yquem, the worlds greatest sweet
white wine.
TABLE WINES
To be part of this category, a wine must be compatible with other
flavours. In contrast to the aggressive flavours of dessert wines, table
wines are good harnonisers. They are also dry, with the alcohol,
percentage hovering at approximately 12.5 %. Red, whites and Rose's are
a part of this category.
SPARKLING WINES
Champagnes are part of this elite category. The effervescence of a
sparkling wine is brought about by secondary fermentation that takes
place in the bottle ( or in closed containers - in the case of regional and
mass produced sparkling wines). Their alcoholic strength like still table
wines averages at 12.5 %
In France, Champagne can only be produced in the legally defined region
called 'Champagne'. In other countries, including our own the name is
attached to a white sparkling wine by virtue of the production process
used in the making of these wines, what is called the 'method
champenoise'