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2008 - Wine Recipes

Wine Recipes For Your Reading Pleasure

Making Red, Rose And Sparkling Wines


As touched upon in the preceding article, ?Making White Wine, a Labour of Love? making wine is a very time consuming and difficult job. Timing must be perfect as does combinations of ingredients. The same goes for all other types of wine: red, rose and sparkling.

Ros? wine is a red wine that is made with the same methods of a white wine. The production is the same except that the skins are thrown in with the juice. Few winemakers prefer to make ros? wine by mixing some red wine into white wine, but this is not the popular method. When using the skins to make ros? wine most important thing is to only leave the skins in with the juice for a short period of time, long enough to give it that rose color and make it ever so slightly tannic.

Making red wine involves using the entire grape except for the stalks. The grapes are de-stemmed and crushed, but instead of filtering the skins from the juice the skins are transferred to open top tanks where they are continuously stirred so the flavor and color from the skins will become infused with the wine during fermentation. The wine is then filtered to remove the skins and put into barrels to age from six months up to two years before being bottled and sold.

Then you have sparkling wine or Champagne. Because of the Treaty of Madrid in 1891 and the Treaty of Versailles in, only wines from the French region of Champagne are allowed to be called as such, which is why everything else is referred to as sparkling wine. However it is important to note that the United States never ratified the treaty and therefore some wine makers today use the term Champagne on their bottles, only if the original place of origin is on the label as well to prevent confusion. The wines most commonly used are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier. The first step is to have a ?base wine? which is usually made from very acidic grapes giving it a horrible taste. The next step involves getting the bubbles into the wine.

There are three methods that can be used to get bubbles into wine, carbonation, transfer method and m?thode champenoise. Carbonation, the same method used in soft drinks, is the cheapest. Carbon dioxide is pumped into a wine tank and then the wine is bottled under pressure to prevent the case from escaping. The transfer method is when a sweetened base has yeast added to it and is allowed to ferment a second time in an enclosed tank so the building carbon dioxide cannot escape. After fermentation, the wine is then clarified and re-sweetened if necessary before being bottled under pressure. This method is used to produce medium price range sparkling wine. The final method is m?thode champenoise, which is when the wine has a second fermentation in the bottle. This method is used to produce the best quality wines.

Making wine is an art form. It takes knowledge, skill but most of all patience. The process of making wine from picking the grapes to bottling can be months or years, which is why winemakers are so passionate about their work. So the next time you pour yourself a glass, think about the voyage those little grapes have made.


About the Author:

Ken Finnigan is the CEO of Finest Wine Racks a website specializing in quality decorative wine racks and durable wine storage systems.





Thoughts about Wine Recipes

Making Red, Rose And Sparkling Wines


As touched upon in the preceding article, ?Making White Wine, a Labour of Love? making wine is a very time consuming and difficult job. Timing must be...


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Wine Recipes in the news

Grapes And Accolades Keep Growing (Scoop.co.nz)

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:46:40 -0800
Heading into summer, the grapes are growing, and in Saint Clair’s case, so is the winery’s list of accolades.

The Grape Merchant Wine Boutique & Bar - South Florida

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:56:45 -0800
The Grape Merchant Wine Boutique and Bar features a sophisticated variety of wines from across the globe. We strive to make your experience unique whether you are building your wine collection, putting together a gift basket, or just stopping by for a glass of wine.

Grapes of Wealth, Potentially

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:14:51 -0800
A region once known for its leafy tobacco fields is trying for a new image: a mini-Napa in the heart of Southern Maryland. Difficult climate and local laws will make repeating the success in Virginia's wine industry tough.

Free the Grapes!: Massachusetts Ruling Could Thwart Wholesaler Campaign to Ban Legal, Regulated Wine Direct Shipping (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:13:00 -0800
NAPA, Calif.----Since the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Granholm v. Heald, wine wholesalers have sought legislative barriers that sidestep the high court’s ruling in order to prevent legal, regulated wine direct shipping, according to Free the Grapes, a national coalition of thousands of wineries and 300,000 wine lovers.


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9:10 PM

November - Wine Caddy

Another Great Wine Caddy Article

Making White Wine: A Labor Of Love


Wine is made in winery and wineries exist all over the world and come in a variety of sizes. The grapes are grown at the wineries and then turned into wine and there are many varieties of grapes; each one either used either alone or combined to make different wines. But how exactly is white wine made?

To make a white wine, once grapes are brought to the winery they are de-stemmed and crushed before anything else is done. A machine is used to split the grapes to remove stems and stalks from each bunch because they contain astringent tannins, which might be acceptable for red wines, but are rare in whites. To stop the fermentation process from starting and turning the grapes brown and oxidizing (causing a vinegar type taste) a chemical called Sulphur Dioxide is added to the grapes. For those with allergies to Sulphur Dioxide, ?sulphur-free? wine is produced as well, however the lifespan on this wine is much shorter and needs to be consumed quickly.

After the grapes are split and the stems have been removed, they are sent to be pressed. Pressing the grapes releases their juices. The press is a large machine that has a canvas like material that separates the juice from the skins and seeds by allowing the juice to escape. The separated juice is then pumped gently to another steel tank where the sediment is allowed to settle to the bottom before being transferred again. The now sediment free juice is either pumped into another steel tank (unwooded wines) or to wooden barrels (wooded wines) where the preferred yeast type is added and fermentation can begin. Fermentation of white wine can take 3 days or 30 days depending on the type of wine being produced.

For unwooded whites, once the fermentation process is over, the wine is removed from the steel tanks and separated from the dead yeast cells. Whites such as Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay are typically unwooded wines, however there are small exceptions. Rieslings in Europe can be made in wooden barrels, though the barrels usually have a crust of tartaric crystals (found in grapes and solidifies in their juices), which acts as a barrier preventing the oak flavor from being infused in the wine. Examples of oaked Sauvignon Blanc can be found in France, however the aging of unwooded Sauvignon Blanc in bottles produces a nutty toasted flavour as if it was stored in wood therefore it really is not necessary.

Why would someone want to produce an unwooded wine? The answer is simple, money. It is much cheaper to produce wine in large steel tanks, and the work required after fermentation is minimal allowing bottling and release to be quicker. This does not, however, mean unwooded wine is in any way inferior to wooded wine. It is simply a different process.

Wooded wines can often begin their fermentation in steel tanks before being transferred to oak barrels to finish fermenting, or they can have a second fermentation known as malolactic fermentation. A third option, barrel fermentation, is to simply ferment the wine once from start to finish in an oak barrel. Malolactic fermentation is the process in wine where malic acid begins to turn into lactic acid. This happens with the addition of bacteria, which in turn gives the wine buttery creamy characteristics. Wooded white wines are in barrels from six to twelve months before being filtered.

The next step in making white wine is filtration. The most common way commercial wineries filter their wine is with a membrane filter, which catches all the particles floating in the liquid. Some winemakers prefer not to filter at all thinking it will remove characters from the wine that were created in the winemaking process. After the wine has been filtered it is bottled and sealed and ready for marketing.

It all seems too easy, but it takes great skill. Climates need to be controlled, ingredients need to be accurately measured and timing needs to be perfect. Sometimes it is easy to forget that a bottle of wine can take so long to make and that patience is key. However, it is this patience and attention to detail that brings out the best in a bottle of wine.


About the Author:

Ken Finnigan is the CEO of Finest Wine Racks a website specializing in quality decorative wine racks and durable wine storage systems.





A Short Wine Caddy Summary

Making White Wine: A Labor Of Love


Wine is made in winery and wineries exist all over the world and come in a variety of sizes. The grapes are grown at the wineries and then turned into...


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News about Wine Caddy

Investing in Winemaking Supplies Can Make Your Hobby Profitable

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:05:31 -0800
Making your own wine or brewing your own beer at home is a very interesting hobby and it can be even a profitable hobby if you are a smart investor in the right winemaking supplies. In this article we will point you in the right direction. Free fruit If you grow your own fruits, wine making is not an expensive hobby at all, its true you need some proper winemaking supplies but when you do some research you can get your supplies very cheap. Producing your own fruits is a good step in the right

“It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.”

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 10:17:23 -0800
credit:The Restoration House “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.” Psalm 106:1 St. Athanasius, 4th C. Bishop of Alexandria, is said to have prayed: We give Thee thanks, our Father, for the holy Resurrection which Thou has manifested to us through Jesus, Thy Son, and even as this bread which is here upon this table was formerly scattered abroad and has been made compact, so may Thy Church be reunited from the ends of the earth for Thy Kingdom, for Thine is the power and the glory

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Sat, 22 Nov 2008 09:38:00 -0800
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