Wine – A Comprehensive Study

Wine is an alcoholic drink made from fermentation of fruits (mainly grapes). Grapes have a property of fermentation without addition of any enzymes, sugars, acids, or other elements. The most popular fruit used in making wine is Grapes, but apples, strawberries, and orange are also used for making wine. The resultant wine is usually named according to its ingredient fruit, like grape wine, blackberry wine, and orange wine. Wine is produced after fermentation of crushed grapes using different types of yeasts that consumes sugar found in grapes and converts that sugar into alcohol.

Types of Wines
According to number of grapes species used in wine making, there are two types of wine:
1. Varietal Wines – The wine which is made primarily from fermentation of a single grape variety is known as Varietal Wine. You can identify the type of grapes used in making of a particular varietal wine from printed label. One fine example of Varietal wines is Burgundy red wine made after fermentation of the single variety of grapes 'Pinot noir'.
2. Blended Wines – Blended Wines are made from fermentation of two or more varieties of grapes. Example of blended wine is Bordeaux red wine, which is blended from of up to five varieties of grapes, Cabernet sauvignon, Cabernet franc and Merlot, Malbec and Petit verdot.

Blended wines are in no way inferior to varietal wines. Some of the world's most valued and expensive wine like Bordeaux, Tuscany and Rioja are blended grape wines.

Vintage Wine
Vintage wines are primarily made of grapes grown in a single specific year. The percentage of grapes used in making vintage wine can vary according to the country of origin. In U.S. it's mandatory for a vintage wine to contain at least 95% of wine volume from grapes harvested in a single year, if its labeled with country of origin. Whereas if it's not labeled with country of origin then the limit is reduced to 85% of wine made of grapes grown in a single year. These wines are generally bottled in a single batch to maintain similar taste in each bottle. Vintage wines generally have prices more than normal wine varieties.

About the Author

For more information on wines and wine tasting events in and around London, visit: http://www.winelines.co.uk