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Most people believe that green grapes
make white wine and red grapes
make red wine. That is largely
true, but you should know that
white wine can also be made
from red grapes. The
inside of a red grape is
essentially “white” —
and most wines are made
with just the inside of the
grape. The red color in
red wine is created by
allowing the fleshy interior
to mix with the pulpy skins
during the crushing process,
which infuses red wines with “tannin,” an ingre
dient that gives red wine its distinctive flavor. So
you can make white wine with red grapes — like
White Zinfandel, a white wine made from a grape
with a decidedly red exterior — but not red wine
with green grapes. To top it off, most champagnes
are made from red grapes. Weird, but true.
If you don’t know jack about wine,
you’re really missing out —
but you’ve
come to the
right place.
This stuff has fueled
gatherings for thou
sands of years and
made France, a country
the size of Vermont, one of
the world’s most visited hot spots.
Remember, one day you won’t have
the option of ignorance on this topic;
you’ll be expected to bring a bottle to
friends’ houses, to order at a nice restau
rant, and to serve a respectable glass at
your own dinner parties. We’ll give you an
overview of the pricey liquid, from how it’s
made to the important differences between
colors of wine, their regions and vintages,
and, of course, how you can best enjoy them.
Learning the basics about wine and wine
making is useful because it allows you to
(a) credibly evaluate the wines you taste and
i
i
(b) impress your date.
So what exactly is this stuff and why is every
one all up in arms about it? Wine isn’t just
high-octane grape juice. Making good wine is
a process; if you don’t believe us, try drinking
some really cheap wine and you’ll quickly learn
why Monty Python claimed that it “opens the
sluices at both ends.’’ Fine wine involves taking
a great grape vine, growing it in the right soil,
ushering the grapes through the fermentation
process, aging the wine properly, and releasing
it at exactly the right time. In short, there are
plenty of things to screw up. The English have
been botching it for years.
There are four major types of wine: red,
white, rose (or blush), and champagne. As far
as dining is concerned, we’re going to focus
only on the first two types, since champagne is
its own animal and most wine advisers
recommend chilled rose only for a picnic on a
hot day. And anything that comes in a can, a
box, or a 40-ounce container isn’t technically
wine; it will be listed on the menu under the
heading “Cheapskates.”
Vtaal j§ Viwe?
Essentially, wine is fermented grape juice, but
with some twists. God left us with a few
remnants of Eden when he gave us the boot,
and one of the best is the fact that any fruit con
taining sugar will turn to booze if you leave it to
ferment. In the process of fermentation, yeast
converts the sugar into alcohol. Yeast is found all
over the place, and in the wild, it lands on the
skins of grapes. And although grapes will fer
ment naturally, vintners nowadays don’t take
any chances. They labor over the precise strain
of yeast to be used in their recipes, because dif
ferent choices will lead to different results.
TV fiw§s
The grapes are first crushed, with or without *
the skins, and then left to ferment. A disinfec
tant is used to neutralize any contaminants in
the juice, such as mold and bacteria, that may
have been on the grapes. The fluid, or “must,” is
then left to complete the fermentation process
in either big steel vats or small wooden barrels.
Fermentation in barrels requires a longer process
and is harder to keep at the right temperature,
but supposedly leads to a better finished prod
uct, for which you will, of course, end up pay
ing more. Once the wine is properly fermented,
the vintner plucks out all the little nibblets, and
then matures the clarified vino. The better vine
yards age the wine for years in oak barrels,
which infuses the wine with positive woody
hints. The lamer vineyards shove the stuff in a
steel vat just long enough for it to be squirted
into bottles with plastic spigots.