Wine 102

Wine 102 - By the Wine Bug   

What is Wine?

What is wine?  Seems like a stupid question as we all know what wine is.  Wine can be simple or complicated.  Making wine is a scientific biological process of fermentation and how the variables are manipulated make a big difference in the outcome.  So I have asked friends this question, What is Wine? and I got some interesting answers.

Wine is adult grape juice. This was the most popular answer that I got.  Well yes it is.  Wine is adult because of the alcohol content.  How does that happen?  It happens in a natural scientific biologic process.

By definition wine is the fermented juice of grapes, made in many varieties such as, red, white, sweet, dry, still or sparkling, for use as a beverage, in cooking, in religious rites etc., and usually having an alcohol content of 14% or less.¹

In real words it is grape juice mixed with natural occurring yeast from the vineyard, or so they say.  The yeast, any yeast feeds on the natural sugar in the juice and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide in the fermentation process.  Fermentation is a change brought about by a ferment, such as yeast and it’s enzymes that convert sugar into ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Man can influence the fermentation process by manipulating or changing variables:

•  Type of container - Oak barrels or Steel
•  Size of container - The volume or how much it holds
•  Temperature - A critical variable in the fermentation process
•  How long to age the wine - The time from bottling to popping the cork

If making wine was easy we would all be making it.  Please feel free to leave your comments or opinions

References:

1.  Wine for Dummies 4th edition, McCarthy & Ewing-Mulligan

2.  Winefolly.com


You can find the wine bug at http://www.WineBugAccessories.com