If you have a real passion for wine, then you can be considered a wine enthusiast. But to be a real enthusiast, you need to have the relevant knowledge about wine when it comes to storage, serving and tasting practices. These days, wine adventures are not just for the wealthy and elite members of society, the ones with the passes to the country clubs and such. Basically anyone can decide to participate in wine endeavors and build up a large base of knowledge about wine. A true wine enthusiast will never get enough of the knowledge that comes with understanding certain unique facts about wine.
You can learn how to make your own wine from home, or you can also learn how to acquire and store the great wines that you will purchase or come across. Also, you might decide to engage in wine tasting endeavors. This will involve learning more about wines from other regions across the world. In fact, wine endeavors are considered an art unto themselves. There are some very dedicated wine lovers who will build their own cellars, store their own wine and travel the world in search of wine that can be stored.
If you want to start off in this world of wines, which is large and interesting, you will have to begin with the basics and build up your knowledge bit by bit. Learning the finer points of the elegant world of wines takes time. Read everything you can and attend wine tastings when you get the chance.
Vintage wines are something you will want to learn about as you set off to acquire knowledge. Vintage wine refers to the particular type of wine made from grapes that were grown in the same year. When the wine is produced, the company will label it with the year it is associated with. However, the choice of what will be considered vintage or not will vary from country to country.
The whole point of vintage wine is that they offer great but subtle differences in flavor, body, texture, and palate. This is especially so if you understand that different wines will age in different ways. For a good quality wine, being stored over a long time will actually improve its quality. This time period can vary from a year to over twenty years.
Vintage wines are produced in one major run. This is done in order to keep the bottles in the batch with the same taste. There are numerous factors that can affect the taste of wine. These include soil type, climate, region and also the amount of sunlight and rain that gets to the growing grapes. In essence, the vintage wines are supposed to set standards for the rest of the line that is going to be produced. This way, the producers can maintain consistency while at the same time showing off the highest quality product that they are capable of producing.
Actually, there are some producers that choose to bring out the vintage wine only when the grapes of that year are of a certain quality. This is also a way of increasing the demand for the wine through decreasing the availability of the vintage wines in certain years. The procedure of creating a vintage wine causes each bottle from that run to be more expensive and more sought after.
Vintage wines in the US are given an AVA label. This means that the wine was made from grapes of which at least 95% were grown in a certain region for that year. Even if the wine does not have am AVA label, it can still be labeled as vintage as long as about 85% of the grapes were grown in the same region at around the same annual period.
For the wines that are not of vintage quality, they are composed of a blend of grapes, or even a blend of vintage wines from previous years. This enables the producers to continue production even when the harvest is not good.
Of late, there has been a lot of questioning about the actual quality of vintage wines compared to bottle varieties that are blended. Many people seem to think that these blended varieties are actually just as good as the vintage wines. Others say that vintage wines are much better, since they reflect consistency in the wine industry. Wine tasting competitions seem to support both of these arguments.
Many people wonder why red wine is red in color. This is actually because of the color of the grape skins. Types of grapes vary, with colors as different as purple, maroon, deep red, light red, black and white. Each variety brings a different shade of red to the wine. The color of a specific wine depends on the type of grapes that were used in making it. It also depends on how long the skin was left in the juice before removal.
A dark red wine will have been created by leaving the dark purple or black skins in the juice for a long period of time. When the darker skins are removed earlier, a lighter red or pink wine is produced. White wines are produced from white grapes and no skin left to soak in the juice. The amount of time skins remain in the juice increases the flavor depth as well as the color.
Wines are also categorized as light bodied, medium bodied or full bodied depending on their demand on the mouth and taste buds. A wine’s body can be compared to the varying textures of milk. For example, a light bodied wine may feel like skim milk while a full bodied wine would feel like cream. Full bodied wines are generally higher on the alcoholic content.
After that introduction to wine, head over to our wine accessories category here and find some great supplies to start your wine hobby.
