Understanding Wine A Beginners Guide
This lens offers excellent information for those who would like to learn more about wine. This outstanding lens features:
A Brief History of Wine
"Grape growing and winemaking spread throughout Europe in the Greek and Roman times. Wine became such a valued trade
item that the Romans, in 97BC, ordered the known world to pull out all vines in an attempt to protect their wine industry."
What Wine Is
"Wine is an alcoholic beverage produced through the fermentation of fruits, mainly grapes, containing natural sugars. Then during
fermentation, yeasts will convert the sugars into carbon dioxide and alcohols, primarily ethanol, and other chemicals that add to
the character of the wine. Many different flavours are produced depending on:
1. the colour of the grapes (See 'The Colour of Wine')
2. the variety of the grapes (See 'Grape Varietals')
3. the ripeness of the grapes"
The Color of Wine
"The colour of wine comes from the skin of the grapes. The juice that comes from most varieties of grape when pressed is white or clear.
This is true of red grapes as well. The colour or pigments of red grapes are found in the skins of the grapes. In order to make a red wine
from red grapes, it is necessary to leave the skins in contact with the juice during fermentation, this is called maceration. When the skins
are placed in the fermenting 'must', the pigments leech out of the skins and colour the wine. When red grapes are pressed and the skins are
kept out, the colour of the wine remains white and is considered a 'blanc de noirs' (a white wine from red grapes)."
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