Everything You Wanted to Know About Wine.

By Jack Frisks

Have you ever wanted to really enjoy wine and share your enjoyment with others? Perhaps you have wanted to go to a wine tasting and actually know what you are talking about? Whatever your reasoning, everything you could want to know about understanding wine is between the covers of this book!

 

"Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Wine" not only shares some incredible wine based facts, but it also includes what you need to know to accurately critique a wine of your choice. Want to know how wine is made? The difference between red wines and white wines? Or maybe you just want to know more about the different wine types and varietals? This easy to read and easy to understand guide has a chapter for all of that and more!

 

From what makes wine, wine, to how the different types of wine differ, to the distinguishing features of each wine variety, this book has the answers to it all. Go from a wine novice to a knowledgeable wine connoisseur who knows how to judge a good wine!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Today Crafts
• Release date: May 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393864738

Book preview

Introduction

For thousands of years, wine has played a pivotal role in societies all around the world. From religious ceremonies to hobby production, wine has held ritual significance as well as personal enjoyment for individuals from all walks of life. 

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Wine takes a look at wine from the beginning of the wine production process to bottling. Whether you are interested in the different types and varietals of wine or the actual process of assessing wine, read on to satisfy your curiosity!

Chapter 1: Interesting Wine Facts

Before we begin discussing the different wine varieties and the wine making process, let’s begin by taking a look at some intriguing wine facts. From the scientific to the unusual, these 25 tidbits will teach you more about wine than you ever imagined!

In this chapter, you will learn plenty of interesting wine related facts including:

Wine History Facts

Wine Science Facts

Unusual Wine Facts

Facts About Wine Consumption

Wine World Record Facts

Wine History Facts

In early Roman history, women were so forbidden from drinking wine, that husbands could divorce or kill their wives if they found them drinking it!

The Romans preserved and flavored their wines by adding lead to it. While lead added a sweet flavor to the wine, it also resulted in an incredible number of cases of lead poisoning. Some historians partially blame this prevalence of lead poisoning for the decline of the Roman Empire.

In Ancient Egypt, kings refused to drink wine because it had a resemblance to blood. They believed that wine was the blood of individuals who took on the Gods in battle and lost. The kings also used this explanation as a way to understand the temporary madness that individuals experienced after drinking wine.

The phrase drinking to one’s health comes from ancient Greece. Hosts of large dinners would always be expected to take the first sip from a container of wine to prove that it was not poisoned, or was healthy to drink.

Wine was originally consumed as a way to make local water supplies safe to drink. By mixing up a cup of 75% water with 25% wine and leaving it for half an hour, the wine purified the water making it safe to drink!

Wine Science Facts

A significant portion of our sense of taste is influenced by our ability to smell. Since women have a better sense of smell than men – particularly women of child bearing age, they make better wine testers than men.

The female stomach, unlike the male stomach, has less of the enzyme needed to metabolize alcohol. For this reason, women are known to be more easily overcome by the effects of wine consumption, suffering effects such as dizziness, nausea, and other signs of intoxication.

The flavor of a wine is directly influenced by the soil in which the grapes that made the wine are grown.

Wines that have darker color to them are almost always from grapes grown in warmer climates. Wines that have lighter color to them are almost always from grapes grown in cooler climates.

In the 1600’s thermometers used in the wine making process contained brandy instead of mercury.

Unusual Wine Facts

Many people mistakenly tend to smell wine corks in order to determine more about the wine’s scent and flavor. In actuality, the cork of a wine tells very little in terms of the wine, other than the date the wine was bottled, whether the cork was broken or molded (and the wine compromised,) or other printed information.

The sweeter a wine is, the more calories it has.

Seagull wine is a variety of wine made by putting a seagull (yes, the bird) in to a bottle full of water and then leaving it to ferment in the sun. Unsurprisingly, it does not come highly recommended.

As white wines age, they tend to become darker in color, whereas red wines will become lighter as they age, eventually turning an orangey red.

The Chinese are the world’s largest consumers of red wine worldwide per capita.

Facts about Wine Consumption

A wine that is referred to as a vintage wine is a wine that has been produced from grapes collected from a single year’s grape harvest. A wine that is considered non-vintage is a wine that is made from a blend of multiple years grape harvests.

Wine that is made in Europe is named for the geographical location in which the wine was made. Wine that is made outside of Europe, however, is named after the grape types that were used to make that wine.

It takes between four and five years for grape vines to mature to the point where the grapes can be harvested. It then takes 2.8 pounds of grapes to make a single bottle of wine.

Wine that is corked with a proper cork (as opposed to an artificial cork) is better stored on its side. This storage position makes sure that the cork remains wet and doesn’t shrink or dry leading to oxidation of the wine.

Many people believe that wine needs to be aged before being consumed, this is not true for the most part. 90% of wines are ready for consumption upon being acquired and should be consumed within one year to prevent degradation of flavor.

Wine World Record Facts

The oldest bottle of wine discovered to date can be found in Speyer, Germany in the Historiches Museum der Pfalz. The wine was discovered in a Roman sarcophagus from 325 A.D. and was discovered close to Speyer.

France leads the world in terms of being the largest wine producer. Following France is Italy, Spain and California.

20 million acres of land worldwide are planted with grapes to produce wine. This makes wine the largest fruit crop planted annually in terms of acreage. One acre of grapes planted results in 5,000 pounds of grapes and 398.5 gallons of wine.

The Vatican is the country responsible for drinking the most wine per capita in the world, consuming 74 liters per capita every year.

The largest bottle for wine is referred to as the ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ which contains 15 liters of wine or 20 standard sized bottles of wine!

Chapter 2: Types of Wine