Understanding Wine
Below are our 12 articles in the 'understanding wine' category:
In the world of wine the wine box (that is the cardboard box that houses some kind of plastic bag incorporating a tap with which to ‘pour’ the wine) is not very respected. It is not often (never, in ...
For many of us the choice of where to buy wine has significantly narrowed – we buy either at an Off-Licence or a supermarket. The wide proliferation of chain off-licences and supermarkets on our high ...
Virtually all wine is produced from the cultivation of one broad variety of grape – ‘Vitis Vinifera’. This particular form of grape was originally cultivated in the Middle East and Europe and has ...
Non Alcoholic Wine (otherwise known as ‘alcohol free wine’) is a viable alternative for those who wish to celebrate, or who wish simply to enjoy the taste of wine, without experiencing the effects ...
Terroir is a French word that resists precise translation into English as such it is often oversimplified as meaning ‘earth’. This is not far off as a translation, but does not account for other ...
Of course to drink wine is to taste wine: One cannot very well drink without tasting. However, to really appreciate a wine and to experience the range of idiosyncratic flavours specific to a grape ...
The way in which a wine is served will have a significant impact on how it is enjoyed. Serving a wine at the correct temperature and allowing a wine to ‘breathe’ are essential in letting the full ...
Vintage is often taken simply to mean ‘old’ but has its origins in the root word ‘vin’, which if French for wine. A vintage is a particular year that a wine was produced in. With the varied results ...
Blended wines are wines made from two or more grape varieties from the vitis vinifera species of grape. If an EU wine contains less that 85% (in the New World 75%) of the predominant grape variety ...
A varietal wine is a wine made using predominantly one grape (75% minimum in the EU; 75% minimum in most new world countries). A varietal wine can then be a vintage (using grapes harvested in one ...
Wine is generally bottled in glass bottles – to this date the most satisfactory method of storage and one far preferable to alternative methods, such as storage in a carton or ‘wine box’.
Bottles ...
Wine is a phenomenon that in a sense is largely supported by the constant dialogue that surrounds it. Of course this dialogue is helped by the fact that wine tends to loosen one’s tongue and also by ...
