Wine Manual: The Essential Guide to Wine

By Daniel Silva

At the same time, learn about wines. Everything you need to know without any unnecessary complications. 396 responses to the questions you're continuously asking yourself. Direct, clear, informative, instructive, amusing, and entertaining. A must-read for everyone who wants to know everything there is to know. Life is too short to waste on terrible wine. From these pages to the last sip, start living it well.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Edwards Howard
• Release date: May 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223798002

Book preview

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Table of Contents

1. The Wine

2. The Wines

3. Grapes and Wines

4. Tasting

5. Wine Service

6. Wine and Food

7. Wine and health

Dicciovino

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Wine Manual: The Essential Guide to Wine

Author: Daniel Silva

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1.  The Wine

How and where the wine is produced.

Why are some wines better than others?

What are the differences?

How to get the best wine?

1.1 What is wine?

Wine is fermented grape juice. Officially, wine is the product obtained exclusively by the total or partial alcoholic fermentation of recently harvested grapes, pressed or not, or of grape must. Biochemically, wine is a drink that comes from fermentation by yeast cells and also, in certain cases, by lactic acid bacteria cells from the juice of the squeezed cells of the grape. It can be defined as a hydroalcoholic, acidic, aqueous solution, with more than 300 substances, mineral and organic, in a solid, liquid and gaseous state, of which a hundred are volatile and odorous. But wine is much more than that. Wine is primarily pleasure. It contains elements of culture, hedonism, prestige, participation, coexistence and is essentially a factor of life. It has been linked to the history of man since birth and has accompanied him in his moments of weakness and greatness, bringing him closer to the gods. That is why poets have asked themselves: what is life without wine?

1.2 What is the best wine?

The one you like the most! All appreciation is subjective and beyond the technical characteristics that experts can offer about a wine, the most important thing is that you like it. The mysterious taste system does not have clear rules and we are the only ones who can decide what we like or don't like to drink or eat. The most important thing about wine is its taste and how pleasant it may seem to our senses. Each of us has his own taste and each of us may like different wines. The wine that we like the most will always be the best... for now, until the next wine.

1.3 How do you learn about wine?

drinking! It is the only way to develop the taste of wine. everything else is complementary. But in order to learn to drink, you need to be informed beforehand and become aware of what you are drinking. Obviously it is much more fun to drink than to read, but the greater the knowledge, the greater the enjoyment. Every time one tastes a wine of any color, level, price or category, it is important to know where that wine comes from, what grapes it is made of, what year it is harvested, etc., in order to fix it in our memory and then be able to compare it with other wines to develop and enrich the taste.

1.4 Is more wine drunk today than before?

No. World wine consumption has dropped significantly in the last fifty years. How is it then explained that wine is becoming increasingly important in the world? For the increase in quality. With new technologies developed since the 1970s, wine quality has improved substantially and today good wines are made in all parts of the world where vitis vinifera occurs .

1.5 Do you drink better wine today than before?

Absolutely. Better wine is drunk today than before and much more is paid for it. Until not long ago , In the middle of the last century, most of the world's wines were of very poor quality or simply mediocre. Good wines were scarce and expensive. Happily, this has changed and the wine that is made today in the world is superior in every way to what was previously known, it continues to improve and will improve even more. Today we drink better wine.

1.6 How is wine made?

In short, wine is made by pressing grapes and letting the wine ferment. must to transform the sugar of the fruit into alcohol. But the process is much more complex and requires intense techniques and care to obtain the highest quality.

1.7 How is white wine made?

A white wine can be made with white or red grapes , as long as the juice of the grapes does not come into contact with the skin, since the coloration is in the skin of the grape.

1) The grapes are deposited in a press and they are squeezed to extract the must.

2) The must is separated from the skins and undergoes a settling process to remove impurities.

3) The fermentation of the must then begins, which can be done in stainless steel, cement or fiberglass tanks or oak barrels, depending on the type of wine to be made, all this at controlled temperatures to obtain greater concentration and aromas.

4) Then the wine is filtered and stored in stainless steel, cement or fiberglass tanks until its final bottling, depending on the type of wine. The white wines for

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aging are aged in oak barrels to obtain greater structure and complexity.

1.8 How is red wine made?

A red wine can only be made with red grapes since the coloration _ It is in the skin of the grapes.

1) The bunches are stripped of their herbaceous part by passing them through a destemmer and the grapes are squeezed.

2) The must is put to ferment with the skin of the grapes in stainless steel, cement, fiberglass or wood tanks, and manually or mechanically it is removed so that it is in contact with the layer that is forms with the skin and stems of the grapes, in order to extract color and tannins, in what is called first fermentation .

3) The liquid is separated from its solid parts and racked in stainless steel, cement, fiberglass or wood tanks, depending on the type of wine to be made. The second or malolactic fermentation then takes place , where malic acid is transformed into lactic acid, reducing its acidity and making it smoother and more pleasant.

4) Then the wine matures in different tanks, depending on the type of wine you want to make. The aged wines are kept in oak barrels for a determined period that can last up to 36 months, before filtering and final bottling.

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1.9 How is rosé wine made?

Grapes are required to make quality rosé wine inks. There are two ways to make rosé wine The simplest consists of mixing red wine and white wine until obtaining a product with the desired coloration. They are generally generic wines, without personality. In the European Community this method is only accepted in the Champagne region of France. But the best way is when the must is left to ferment for a brief period in contact with the skin of the grapes (1 or 2 days) until the color is obtained. The liquid is then extracted through an action called bleeding and continues its vinification process like any red wine. It generally does not go through wood.

1.10 How is sparkling wine made?

Natural sparkling wines are made with red or white grapes, and are characterized by bubbles of dioxide carbon (CO 2 ) released when opening the bottle. This is possible thanks to what is known as second fermentation in the bottle , which consists of bottling the still wine, adding yeast and sugar (tirage liquor) and then covering it and leaving it in a horizontal position for months and even years. Subsequently, the sediment that forms in the bottle is extracted and the lost liquid is replaced with an expedition liquor until the bottle is completely filled. This is known as the traditional method and was developed in the Champagne region of France. Only wines produced in Champagne can bear this name. There is another method of making sparkling wines and it is called charmant . The difference is that the second fermentation is not carried out in the bottle but in large closed tanks for a minimum period of at least twenty days. In Spain, these wines are called granvas (large containers). Artificial sparkling wines are those that are gasified by adding carbon dioxide at the time of bottling. (see 2.19)

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1.11 Is wine produced anywhere in the world?

No, absolutely not. For the cultivation of vitis vinifera , the grape from which wine is made , require certain weather and temperature conditions. If you look at a world map, you will see that the main wine-producing countries are located from 30º latitude north or south of the Equator. In the Northern Hemisphere that strip goes from 30º to 51º North. In the Southern Hemisphere the strip goes from 30º to 45º South. There are some exceptions in other latitudes such as Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela, in America; Zimbabwe and Madagascar, in Africa; India and China, in Asia. Venezuela is the only country in the world to produce wine in the tropics, at 10º North.

1.12 What are the main wine-producing countries?

Measured in hectoliters, the top ten wine-producing countries in the world are: France, Spain, Italy, the United States, Argentina, Australia, Germany, South Africa, Portugal and Chile. Those with the highest growth in the last decade have been Australia (142%), Chile (50.4%) and the United States (50.1%). Measured in area of cultivated vineyards, the ten main producing countries are: Spain, France, Italy, Turkey, the United States, Portugal, Romania, Argentina, Chile and Australia. These ten countries concentrate 63.7% of the world total of vineyards. World wine production amounts to about 280 million hectoliters per year. Most of it is concentrated in Europe (72%) and the rest in the New World countries (28%), which show the highest annual growth figure.

1.13 What are the main wine consuming countries?

France is the largest consumer of wine, with 34.5 million hectoliters per year; then comes Italy with 30.8 million; and they are followed by the United States, with 21.2 million; Spain, with 13.8 million and Argentina, with 12.4 million. Annual per capita consumption stands at 63.5 liters in Luxembourg, 57 liters in France, 54.7 liters in Italy and 50.2 liters in Portugal.

1.14 Does the soil influence the wines?

Of course. The type of soil where the vine grows is decisive in the quality of the wine, and depending on the grape variety and the climate, it can produce different results. Contrary to what one might think, the less fertile the soils, the better they will be for wine, regardless of geological composition. The main soils where the vine is grown are granitic and sandy, gravelly, slate, clayey, ferrous, calcareous, etc. The soil-climate pairing is the basis of the concept of French terroir.

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1.15 Does the weather influence the wines?

Of course yes, in all agriculture. However, at the same latitude, whether in the Northern Hemisphere or in the South, the conditions are not the same. In the Northern Hemisphere there is a greater land mass than in the South, where the oceanic mass predominates. This makes the north warmer than the south at the same degree of latitude. At higher latitudes, summers are cooler but have more daylight hours. At lower latitudes, spring begins earlier and fall is later. All this conditions the maturation of the grapes and, consequently, the quality of the wine. With global warming of the earth, an increase of four degrees Celsius in temperature is calculated in a hundred years. For each degree there is a climatic leap of 180 kilometers towards the poles, which means that the territory for wine growing will expand and the current traditional areas will change their behaviour. Bordeaux, the most emblematic wine area in the world, will no longer be the same.

1.16 What kind of wine is drunk the most in the world: white or red?

Currently, more red wine is consumed than white and the trend seems to continue increased. Of the total wine produced in the world, 70% is red wine and 30% white wine. The growth is due to scientific discoveries that show that red wine is good for health, especially thanks to the tannins it contains (see 7.1).

1.17 What factors determine the taste of wine?

The wine comes from the grape and the grape is born in the vineyard. The vineyard is cultivated on a certain soil. That soil is subject to specific weather conditions. This trilogy of grapes, soil and climate will determine the flavor and personality of a wine.

1.18 Are the most expensive wines the best?

The most expensive wine is not necessarily the best wine. Making good wine is difficult and with today's modern technology , good wines are being made in all parts of the world. The cost of a wine has to do with the value of the land, the quality of the grape, the time used in its vinification and storage,