What Is Wine? and 4 Other Basic Wine Questions

Posted by Wine Welfare | Filed under Education

What is Wine?Thought it would be a fun idea to answer some very basic wine questions I’ve been asked here at Wine Welfare. These are some basics that everyone getting into wine should know about, whether to impress others or simply show the wine producers that you give a damn about the delicious product they produce.

1. What the heck is wine, actually?

Wine, whether still, sparkling, fortified, or aromatized, is nothing more than fermented grape juice. Or, to put it another way, wine is grape juice that is left out too long.

2. How many kinds of wine are there?

If you are talking about kinds of grapes (referred to as “varietals”) then we might be here for awhile. There are thousands of different kinds of grapes around the world, and all of them can technically be made into wine, but most are not simply because their flavor does not really convert to good wine (don’t try to take those green grapes you buy at the grocery store and turn them into wine, please!). Some of the most popular kinds of grapes used to make wine are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel, Riesling, Grenache, Syrah and Chenin Blanc.

If you are talking about colors or styles of wine, that’s a little easier. Wine can be red, white, or pink (called rose). Wine also comes in different styles, like dry, medium or sweet. The amount of alcohol in wines varies, though most fall between 4% and 15% alcohol-by-volume (ABV). When it comes to fortified wine, the alcohol content is usually between 15% and 22% because to fortify wine means to add grape spirit (essentially plain old alcohol) to it.

3. How do you make wine?

Contrary to what I said in #1, you can’t simply leave grape juice out for a few months and expect to get wine, although you would come somewhat close (mental note: buy grape juice, leave out). Here is the Reader’s Digest Condensed version of how wine is made:

  • Decide the kind of wine you want to make and plant the grape vines. I could get way more specific, but I’m trying to keep this short and sweet.
  • Harvest the grapes.
  • Press the grapes (to get the juice out, obviously)
  • Ferment the grapes. This pretty much involves letting the grape juice be. Natural yeasts attach themselves to grapes and grapevines while growing, and these find their way into the juice and start the fermentation process.
  • Filter, or at least separate the juice from the skins if necessary. Technically you have wine now, but it’s time to work out flavor and structure. Some winemakers do this by blending other varietals in, some use a particular type of oak barrel to age the wine, and some use both.
  • Age the wine. This varies depending on a lot of factors, but most red wines are oak aged for 1 to 2 years. Whites are aged in either stainless steel tanks or oak barrels as well.
  • Bottle it, cork it, label it, sell it.

4. What’s with the wood barrels?

Nearly all wines aged in barrels are aged in oak barrels. The wood helps “calm” the wine down and creates more complex, mature flavors. The highest quality, thus the most expensive oak barrels are French. French Oak is used more than any other kind because of the flavors it imparts to wine: spiciness, fullness, vanilla-ish flavors that are generally pleasing to the palate. You can also find American and Hungarian oak barrels at lower prices, though they impart different characteristics that are not as popular. The thing to remember though, is that French oak barrels are good for aging wine only once. After about a year of use, they lost most of their flavor-enhancing abilities. Most wineries will buy new French oak barrels to age certain wines, then simply re-use them to age wines that do not need any oak flavors.

5. How many countries make wine?

This one is slightly tough, but I can list most of them. Overall I’d say it’s around 50, but I’m sure it’s more. The major producers are Italy (makes the most wine of all), France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, Peru and the United States. There are many more that produce small amounts of wine, some of them you would never even think of when it comes to wine: England (yep, they make some!), India, China, Japan and more.

I hope some of these answers were helpful and showed you a bit more about the world of wine. I plan to do more of these in the future, so if you have any questions you’d like me to address, just send them to me via our Contact page.

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Comments (0) | June 21st, 2010

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