For all the talk what “wine snobbery” does wine expertise come do to? In the end wine is nothing more than simply fermented fruit juice. And “rotten” or “fermented “fruit juice at that. The earliest evidence suggesting wine production comes from archaeological sites in Iran and Russian Georgia, dating from 6000 to 5000 B.C. (Before Christ). Wine has long been used as a safe storage form of precious water for human consumption, and for its use in religious and important cultural mores. Almost every culture and societal group on earth each somehow learnt to make simple alcoholic beverages.
This is no mere accident. Humans early on learnt the psychological effects that alcohol provides . Along the way they learnt to like affect and desired and even craved these effects of alcohol. Wine is even generally considered as a sexual anaphrodisiac among many cultures.
Today many important wine regions in Europe are proud of their wine histories which they date back all way to the early Roman era.
Wine itself in the end can be sourced from any fruit juice – although most commonly known as the fermented liquid of crushed grapes. Wine of course can be derived from grapes, plums, peaches, pears and in the end most fruit juices.
What about the different colors found in different varieties of wines. The color of the wine is the result of the length of time the skins remain with the juice doing the fermentation process. Basically wine comes in three colors- red ( reddish purple to light brown), whites ( whitish pale yellow to amber) and the mid range blush: which is of peach to light pink coloration.
Should wine be sweet or not sweet that is “dry”? Most wines are naturally dry. “Sweetness occurs when the fermentation is interrupted before all of the sugar can be converted to alcohol during the fermentation process. The producer of the wine can also add unfermented grape juice or a sweetener such as liquid sugar to the wine during its manufacturing process.
Most wines do not have extra alcohol added to them. That is they are in their “natural “or “virgin state”. These wines are referred to as not being fortified. That is they contain only the alcohol that was provided for in the fermentation process itself. However there are some wines – for example “Sherry”and “Port” are two wine family products that have their alcohol content enhanced and increased. This can be done in effect artificially and not by the normal standard fermentation process through the addition of straight alcohol to the wine. A kinder gentler means to adding alcohol to wine is to add distilled wine that is brandy to the wine.
Lastly wines can be bubbly themselves or have no effervescence. In the first category are “Sparkling” which have effervescence .These wines are bottled in thick heavy –set bottles with wire bound corks to keep the pressure in , whereas “Still” wines are wines bottled without Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and therefore have no bubbliness or effervesce. Still wines can be found bottled in ordinary bottles with ordinary corks.
In the end though it is safe to remember that wine is nothing more several different types of fruit juices , of different colors that is presented to you in different types of glasses, from different types of storage and transport containers which is presented to you to quench your thirst.
