Posted on 06 July 2012. Tags: Different Types Of Wine, flavor, fruit, honey moon, honey wine, Mead, Mead wine, number, Wine
A number of different types of wine can be made and not all of them have to be made from grapes or fruit. Mead wine is one such wine and it is made from honey, it also happens to be one of the oldest forms of wine and it is known also known as honey wine. It is primarily made from three main ingredients and these are honey, yeast and water. The yeast is natural and comes from the version which is known as wild yeast.
In modern times these wines are made much more like other versions of wines but they tend to have longer fermenting times and the yeast is used in order to speed up the process. This ancient beverage also comes along with a number of other traditions, one of such traditions comes from the term honey moon which actually refers to an ancient tradition where a couple would take honey wine for a month after marriage because it was believed that it would help them give birth to sons.
At a certain time, people who made mead wine were skilled and specially trained men. The art of such winemaking was also a closeted and respected process, so much so that people who made wines in ancient times were considered very important persons.
For those who wish to change the flavor of their mead, certain things can be added in order to change the flavor. If spices are added to the mix, the name changes to metheglin. What this word means is medicinal liquor and the etymology comes from the welsh language. This name was given because spices and herbs in ancient times were known to cure medical problems and honey wine was used along with the mixture because it didn’t freeze during the cold winters.
Certain people added fruit to their honey wine and called it melomel. This helped these people make their fruit last much longer in summer when such fruit was usually prone to rot. In winter spices would be added and then warmed in order to create a winter delight. If medicinal purposes were intended, lavender or chamomile would be added. In order to spice everything up properly cinnamon or nutmeg would also be added too. Certain fruits were used and mixed along with the honey wine and these fruits included strawberries as well as blackcurrants. If the honey was required to be stronger tasting, more honey was used and the mix was called sack instead. Slavs from the East made honey wine and it tended to come with much more alcohol and they called their version Medovukha. It was much more like vodka with some honey mixed with it. One more type of mead was called Pyment and it was a mixture of honey wine as well as grapes. If white grapes were used in the mix, it was called white mead instead.
Different types of honey were used to make these wines and they all tended to depend on the place were a person usually lived. This honey could either be light colored with a light taste or as dark as buckwheat honey with a heavier taste but regardless, they all tended to result in very good honey wine.
Posted in Recipes
Posted on 29 June 2012. Tags: Carbon Dioxide, Certain, Fermentation Process, fortified wines, fruity wines, number, way, White Wine, Wine, Wines
If you want to attempt winemaking, you should ensure that you know the different names that these wines are called and what these names or classifications mean. If you learn what these classifications are before you start making wine, you’ll enjoy the whole winemaking process a whole better.
The first thing that is essential is that you understand how both red and white wines get their color. Most people tend to think that these wines derive their color from the grapes. This is wrong, red wine actually develops its color based on how long it has been left with its skins. It is on separation from the juice and the skins that you determine the color of your wine.
In the case of white wine, the skins tend to be removed a whole lot earlier in order to eliminate the color. What this tells you is that you can make white wine from any type of grape as long as you separate the skins and juice almost immediately. A Rose’ wine is made from red grapes which are left together with the skins for just a number of hours. When white wine is made, it is created from very dark colored grapes and which leave a pinkish or even blue color.
Winemakers who make sparkling wine leave the carbon dioxide in the wine by means of a two-step fermentation procedure. The primary stage involves leaving the wine open and allowing the carbon dioxide escape. In the secondary stage a sealed fermentation container is used to keep the carbon dioxide in.
The carbon dioxide stays in the wine and creates an effect that is bubbly. Champagne is a wine that is very bubbly and which has worldwide recognition as a French bubbly wine.Certain wines are called fortified wines. What this means that the fermentation process has been stopped or that certain things have been added to it after the process of fermentation.
These wines tend to have a much sweeter taste. Brandy falls into the category of a distilled wine and it is usually made from a number of leftovers such as the pulps, seeds as well as stems.Wines may be classified in very many ways and the ones listed above are just a few. Other wines tend to be classified based on the way they taste. Wine is dry, sweet or fruity. When wine is dry what it means that it has a very small amount of sugar left in it. Residual sugar is the sugar which is left at the end of a fermentation process. A sweeter wine tends to have a lot more sugar left over than other wines. Certain other things give wine the taste and tend to classify wine into a particular category.
In certain cases, particular additives are added into wine in order to change the way that the wine tastes. These things may make this wine into fruity wines or blends of wines.
These wines may also be classified in terms of the way that they smell. The smell or aroma of the wine will also determine the way that people tend to describe the wine. Wine could be somewhat smoky or it could have a hint of chocolate, pepper or peaches. As long as you have made a successful classification of the wines that you like, you should know how to make one that is similar to them.
Posted in Winemaking 101
Posted on 31 May 2012. Tags: art, Community, Fruit Wine, Homemade Wine, number, university, use, wine business, Winemaking
For those who are interested in making homemade wine, there are a number of ways to do so. You can hop off to the Internet and learn about recipes for the different types of wines which make use of different fruits in other to get their particular base. After this then you should select the particular wine that you want to make and get a recipe so you can begin. Alternatively you can easily purchase books, videos or DVDs which will teach you how wine is made. At the library you can also spend a huge amount of hours taking stock of the library books and making notes until you have heard all the things that are possible about the winemaking procedure.
You can also talk to people who have been making wine successfully for a long time and this would usually be in the case where you have tasted some wonderful wine that they made and you want this experience for yourself. If you find yourself with enough time on your hands, you can also opt for winemaking classes at a local institution or one which offers its courses online.
The art of winemaking has become very popular and so much so that courses at the university which offer to teach people about winemaking exist. Other things that can be discovered here are the types of grapes which are used to make certain types of wine and which types of these grapes you should grow. These courses are things you take all year round but lighter courses which will still earn you credits. Other more complete courses also exist where you will learn everything from wine growth, chemical reactions to the financial facts necessary to maintain a wine business. These courses may even teach about the comparisons between large wineries and smaller ones and they also give you the tax advantages and accounting strategies which are necessary for the running of any business.
People who want to learn how to make wine just for themselves also have courses which cater to them. Not only can you find classes which will teach you how to make wine, but if your enroll you will have at least a minimum of sixty bottles of wine just to prove that you have attended the course. These courses are so simple and they cost less than a hundred dollars but you should probably factor in an extra fifty, in order to account for associated costs such as ingredients, bottles and some other stuff which may be needed.
Some institutions offering these courses will even permit you to utilize their cellar space in order to allow your wine ferment more conveniently. Encouragement and assistance will also be provided to enable you design a label for your foray into the world of winemaking.
Another thing that these classes will teach other than making grape wine is the art of making fruit wine. While some of these classes will be at university level, not all will be, most will be provided by community colleges and community centers. If you aren’t up for joining any of these efforts however, you can simply stay at home instead of taking a winemaking class. You also have the options of distance learning and purchasing your own winemaking kits.
Posted in Winemaking 101
Posted on 23 March 2012. Tags: Bottle, concise, Corked wine, Ethyl Alcohol, flavor, number, rot, way, Wine, wine mix, Winemaking, Winemaking Process
While looking through different winemaking terms, you will see that a number of them explain what the processes involved in winemaking are. These terms are not always concise and it is essential that you understand the different terms which are used in the winemaking process.
It is difficult to learn these terms but in the end it will be easier when you learn from people trying to tell you about winemaking process and what it entails.
A number of different explanations exist online about the different winemaking terms or you can go to the library or bookstore and pick up a few books that teach you about the winemaking process.
People sometimes talk about letting wine breathe; this usually entails allowing the wine mix with air by letting the wine remain in a bottle that has been opened or in your wineglass. It is a short process which lets the wine come to full flavor before you take a drink.
If wine has too much acetic acid in it, this is a bad thing. All wines tend to have acetic acid but too much of this acid is bad for wine.
If your wine smells like vinegar or tastes like it, it means that you have made a mistake. This wine will be flawed and shouldn’t be drunk at all.
If wine is referred to as corked it means that the cork of the wine is moldy or damaged in some in some way. What this does is that it creates a chemical reaction within the wine which changes the bouquet as well as the flavor in the negative sort of way. Corked wine isn’t drinkable as well.
Yeast and sugar react together to create ethyl alcohol. The percentage of alcohol in wine is determined by the presence of alcohol in the wine.
Bottle sickness is also called bottle shock and the term is used when wine in a bottle has been shaken too much during travel. This usually occurs when wine is still in its early stages after it has been bottled. This wine can be remedied by being left for some days so that it settles down.
Botrytis is a double-edged sword and it can either destroy you or be to your benefit. It is actually a fungus which tends to attack grapes and which may eliminate a vineyard. It is also a good thing sometimes, especially when it causes noble rot instead of destroying the grape crop.
Noble rot takes water away from the grapes and this leaves behind a sugary juice which makes sweet and great tasting wine.
Chaptalization is the process through which sugar can be added to juice before you ferment it. This way, more alcohol is made during the process and the name comes from the man who invented this procedure Jean-Antoine Chaptal.
These are just a few of the simple terms that concern winemaking and a number of other terms exist which you can familiarize yourself with over time depending on how interested you are in the winemaking process.
Posted in Featured
Posted on 27 December 2011. Tags: amount, California climate, fact, Grape Juice, Grape Varieties, grapes, number, optimal, percent, season, Wine, Winemaking
The winemaking industry is a global one and as such the industry is very large. In the United States alone, California is responsible for 90% of the wine which is consumed there. The reasons for this being that the California climate is excellent for the growth of grapes, optimal conditions for the growth of wine include a growing season of at least a 100 days and temperatures which do not exceed 95F during the day and 40F at night. Though a lot of wine is made in the United States, they only export five percent of the amount which is sold around the world.
The making of wine for public consumption is guided by a large number of rules and regulations which must be followed explicitly. One of these is that wine which isn’t classified as a blend but consists for more than one grape should have a least 75% top 85% of a particular grape type, so it is not called a blended wine. The whole point here is not that there is something bad in wine being blended but the fact that the public must be duly informed. A number of blended wines exist and these wines include some of the most expensive wines that exist in the world today.
Certain grapes which are bred by vineyards are termed hybrids, what this means is that they are created by genetic manipulation and the combination of two grape varieties. The winemakers feel that these properties are worth combining due to the fact that having both types together tends to give better pulp or sweeter juice which thrives under different conditions. In addition to this, hybrids tend to grow effectively in cooler climates. American legislation explicitly forbids hybrid wine from being made into wine that is sold publicly; rather these grapes are used for jams and grape juice as well.
Grapes may also be grafted and grafting is a means through which different grape varieties are combined together and grown on one vine. The need for this is in order to create grapes which are resistant to diseases such as phylloxera. This method of growing for resistance is used in a large number of wine growing countries.
Due to all the different flavors that are made by winemakers, so many things tend to influence these wines, this usually starts with the kinds of grapes which are used but this is only the beginning. The places where the grapes are grown will also influence their overall quality. Another thing which may influence the quality of the grapes and ultimately the wine, is a method called pasteurization. What is done here is that the grape juice has all the natural yeast within it destroyed so that only those which are specifically needed are used in the process of winemaking. A number of other things may be added to the wine which influence and may change the flavor.
Over the years, winemakers tend to try various methods and learn from trial and error in order to know what creates a great wine. You are bound to experience this sort of thing when you start out in winemaking. Be prepared for successes as well as failures.
Posted in Winemaking 101
Posted on 08 December 2011. Tags: agent, Bottle, cork, cost, number, sort, typical wine bottle, Wine, Wine Bottles, Wine Corks
When you are buying your winemaking supplies, you have to also think of if you’ll have enough bottles which you can put your wine in when it is time to age the wine. Certain people collect wine bottles as soon as they have decided to start making wine. These people save the sort of bottles that have long necks in order to be able to cork them and they ask people who they know to help them collect such bottles as well. It also saves you the cost of buying new bottles which may not be particularly expensive but which saves money anyway.
You should also ensure that the bottles which are being reused are clean and have been sanitized as well. This is usually because the smallest bit of anything in a bottle can easily ruin the quality of your wine. You should commence by soaking all the labels off these bottles. The bottles should be soaked in a strong detergent. A good sanitizing agent should also be used to ensure that they are really clean as well. If you own a dishwasher, you should also make extra precautions and check if these bottles are really clean. If you’re making your first batch, you’ll usually need something between thirty to fifty bottles. Bottles when bought tend to be sold in dozens.
If you couldn’t get enough free and used bottles for your winemaking, buying should be an easy thing for you. A lot of bottles exist for purchase and they vary in size and shape but in the end you have to choose what works for you. Some of these bottles tend to gave various purposes but they are usually purchased depending on personal preferences. They also tend to come in a number of colors and these colors are clear, green, amber or blue for a number of the regular bottles.
A typical wine bottle should hold an average of 750ml of wine. Smaller bottles also exist which tend to hold 375ml and larger ones which may take up to 1.5l also exist. Using the typical one is usually what most people choose to do instead. You can make use of larger ones if you’re planning for a family event of if you need to do so for logistical and storage reasons.
In terms of corks, you can get those which are natural or synthetic. Some people prefer natural corks while others have a positive bias for man made ones. Any wine corks that you use should be FDA approved and should seal instantly, they should also be trouble free in the aging process and easily extractable with good corkscrews. When you are purchasing corks you should also remember that the size of cork which you purchase depends on the length which you want your wine to age. Anything more than six months will usually require much longer corkscrews. Any good winemaking supply store should have all that is needed. You can either find such stores on the web or by visiting one that is close to you.
Posted in Winemaking 101