Wine Instruction

This is a neat little article on the history of Oak Barrels, how they came to be part of the wine manufacturing process and what benefit they provide.  Not everyone uses oak barels today, in fact, I had seen someone making wine in a plastic bucket with what is pretty much a wine kit.  If you were to make wine at home that is probably the way you would make it.  To get that oak flavor, instead of putting it in oak wine barrels, oak chips were added to the wine.  This goes to show that wine is really a chemistry project.  However there is one element that is not discussed very often, and that is the love and care that the winemaker puts in his/her wine.  That shows in the number of awards they win.  Anyway, read on for more on the oak wine barrel and the wine manufacturing process.

The person who makes oak wine barrels is called a cooper. It comes form the latin word "cupa" which means vat. Research has not uncovered who actually made the first wine vats, but it is known that the Celts arrived in Burgandy, France, in the 13th century BC. They were a much progressed "tribe" who worked with all the materials of the day, such as wood, clay, stone, iron and precious metals. They were into building wooden boats and are credited as the people first to realize that wood could be bent using steam and heat, allowing them to make boats that were more efficient in the water. The hulls of their boats were smooth and moved through the water much easier than the earlier designs. This also allowed them to build bigger boats.

 

The idea of bending wood was then used in building wooden containers that were the ancestors to the modern barrel. This was a large improvements on the clay or earthenware containers that were used previously. The wooden containers could be made almost any size and they were not as heavy.

 

Sometime over the centuries, the cooper became the tradesman who made wooden barrels. The barrels were initially used to transport fluids and they were made from all types of timbers. However, it seems by chance it was discovered that French Oak was the ideal timber to make barrels for wine making. The French had planted a number of oak forests during Napoloen's time to ensure that there would always be enough timber to build boats. With the introduction or iron, steel and other products, French oak was not required for ship-building, so alternative uses were found in manufacturing furniture and wine barrels. The French oak was found to enhance the wine with the addition of vanilla and oak overtones. The oak also allowed a small amount of evaporation, and this was known as the angels share".

 

During the early times, the cooper not only made the barrels, but also looked after the early fermentation process. It was only when wine was bottled that other trades developed in the wine industry. Oak is still recognized to have advantages over steel and plastic, in that carbon dioxide and ethers that mask the aroma of wine evaporate through the oak. It is claimed that the oak also adds color and flavor to the wine.

 

French oak is argued by most as the superior oak in wine making, better than American and English oak. It is also at least twice the price. The French experts will also match the oak from particular forests with wines in order to produce the best product.

 

There is no doubt a long tradition in using oak in the preparation of certain wines, which is expected to continue for many years to come.

 

For more information on port and items relating to the consumption of port go to http://enjoyingport.googlepages.com

 

More Oak Wine Barrel related articles:

The Art of Home Wine Making | Vintner's Circle Winemaking Shops

For instance, you may have heard someone describe a wine as “oaky” – it's not that the wine is oak-like, but rather, this is a simple way to describe all the aromas and textures that oak barrels pass on to wine during the wine making ...

Publish Date: 03/17/2010 10:14

This article is a good introductory article about the wine label phenomenon.  This article talks about the different parts of the wine lable and what each part means.  As you read the article, you will learn about:

• Brand Name
• Vintage
• Appelation of Origin
• Wine Type
• Producer/Bottler
• Other Information

Once you read this article, you should get a better understanding of the wine label when you are out looking for wine.

 

Wine Label Savers - Clear

Even for the avid wine drinker, deciding on a bottle of wine can be a daunting task with so many varieties of wine on the market today. Wine labels don't help either with the various terms in foreign languages and the small print. Sometimes reading a wine label makes you feel like you need a secret decoder ring, but rest assured that this is not to confuse you the customer, but rather to help you. The information on the label is there to tell you about the wine and also the winery and conditions of production. Once you have an idea of what to look for on a wine label, deciphering it shouldn't require much effort.

The Brand Name: This is the name of the company that has produced the wine. Most often this is the name of the winery or bottler if the winery has several different brands.

Vintage: Most wines will carry the vintage somewhere on the bottle, although this is not a mandatory requirement and will not be on all bottles. A vintage is the year that the grapes used were harvested. Most wine producing countries have laws that require at least 85 percent of the grapes used to be harvested in the specified year of vintage although in the United States this figure can be as high as 95 percent.

Appellation of Origin: This is the geographical area where the grapes were grown, for example 'California' or more a more specific vineyard. Most countries have strict laws regarding an appellation classification, which is why like the vintage; at least 85 percent of the grapes used must be from their specified region.

Wine Type: This specifies the grapes used to make the wine. Again this can be as broad as 'Red Table Wine' or as specific as Merlot or Chardonnay. Most wine producing countries allow the use of some non-varietal grapes in the blend. In Europe and Australia, at least 85 percent of the wine's content must be from the named varietals, while in some parts of the United States this figure is much lower at about 75 percent.

Producer and Bottler: What this part of the bottle signifies varies greatly depending on where the bottle of wine originates from. If grapes are harvested and bottled at the winery it is considered to be 'estate bottled' and the label will state this using Mise en bouteille(s) au Chateau (French), Gutsabfüllung/Erzeugerabfüllung (German) or simply Estate Bottled.


Icon: Art of the Wine Label by Jeffrey Caldewey, Chuck House

According to Napa Valley Vintners online (napavintners.com) it is even more specific for American bottled wines and the terminology even more specifically determines how the wine was bottled: ''Produced and bottled by' certifies that the bottler fermented 75% or more of the wine. Used in combination with other information on the label, such as a vineyard, this term provides the consumer with significant information about the origin of the wine and who is responsible for its production. 'Cellared and bottled by' indicates that the bottler has aged the wine or subjected it to cellar treatment before bottling. 'Made and bottled by' indicates that the bottler fermented at least 75% of the wine (10% before July 28, 1994). 'Bottled by' indicates that the winery bottled the wine, which may have been grown, crushed, fermented, finished, and aged by someone else.'

Other Required Information: This depends on what country the wine is from. For example, wines sold in the United States are required to have (at least on the back label) alcohol content, contents size, and consumer warnings from the Surgeon General as well as a sulphite warning while in Germany wine are required to have an Amptliche Prüfungs Nummer which is a number received while in testing. The famous wine regions of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Alsace in France will carry the term Cru somewhere on the label to indicate that the wine is from a town or producer of high quality.

While this still might be very overwhelming, when looked at from a point of view of the winemaker, a wine label really is there to help you as the consumer, not hinder your decision making. Everything on a wine label is there to inform you of where the wine came from and how it was produced, and while it might take you a lifetime to be able to completely understand every single term that is put on a wine bottle, being able to understand the basics will be advantageous. It is important to remember that rules will vary from country to country as to what is required to be on a wine bottle or specific terms used. What might be required in France might not be required in Chile.

 

 

 

Wine tasting is more than just an activity, it is an experience as well as an artform. It is a multi-sensory experience involving the eyes, tastebuds and nose. How do you use all of these senses to enhance your wine tasting experience and begin to understand more of the subtleties of the wine? This article gives you a good jumping off point of what you should train your different senses to detect.

In this bit of how-to, wine tasting information regarding the senses most involved will hopefully be fully understood. You see, it isn't merely the senses of taste and smell, but it's also the sense of sight which comes into play, and in fact is the first among these three to be used in analyzing wines. Let's go over all three, starting with sight. There are two major ways to judge wines for body and clarity by sight, and these are as follows...

For clarity, we use our sense of sight. How to do this in wine tasting is we view red wines through the side of the glass, perhaps tipping the glass slightly for better detection - we're focusing on the edge of the surface of the wine here. If at the edge it is fairly dark, we can tell that it is a somewhat young wine, while if the clarity of the color appears lighter than the rest, we can then know that it is an older wine.

With white wines, we instead look down into the wine from above the glass, perhaps swirling it about a bit, viewing the sparkles to judge its clarity. In either case, red wine or white wine, gently tipping the glass or swirling the wine about within it, look to see if the wine adheres a bit to the glass as it falls to rest. Some wines won't adhere at all, but the more it does, the greater the body.

Next up in this "how to", wine tasting using the sense of smell... the nose knows, as they say, and we want to take in the full scent. Swirl your wine about in its glass just a mite, in order to release the aroma and then inhale it slowly and deeply into your nostrils. Besides the fruitiness or berry-like scents, you may also detect spice-like scents, as well as something resembling chocolate - this would be a young wine. Older wines smell more like prunes or raisins.

The final point on this list of how-to wine tasting tips is the sense of taste. Smell and taste are related, so now that you've gotten yourself a snootfull, bathe your tongue with the wine, swirl it about in your mouth, maybe even gargling a little... this will wet the back of your throat and sinuses so that your related senses of smell and taste can work in unison. If your mouth experiences a dryness of flavor, this is due to the tannin content of the wine. You'll notice this more with the deeper, darker red wines, most of all.

If you'd like to learn more about wine tasting or putting together a successful wine tasting party, grab some free wine recipes, learn some wine making tips or want to build a wine cellar, please feel free to drop on by my website on wine information for an informative read on these and other wine making related topics.

This is a great article because it discusses what you should really care about or bother to remember when you are drinking wine, that way when you are looking for it again, (and if you like it you will look for it again) you have enough information to let the wine store staff help you. read on for what you need to remember, how you can communicate to your local wine store so they can help you. Read on and get more great wine instruction.

Many people are willing to try a new wine but when they try to recall it later all they can come up with is a vague memory of what the bottle's label looked like. I can't tell you how many times I've had people walk into my shop and say, "I had this great wine last week. It was white and the label had a blue dog, or a white dog on a bluish background..." No matter how individual a label may seem when it's sitting on your kitchen counter, when you go to the shop all of the hundreds of labels look disturbingly similar. Marketing people still claim that many of us buy wine based upon how the label looks - that may be true and there is a lot of money spent on designing interesting labels - but label design is no way to remember a wine.

Here's how to remember that wine you liked.



As a start, take a moment with your first sips of any wine to notice, really notice how it looks, smells and tastes. Bright or dark in the glass? Clean or intriguing and powerful in aroma? Clear and fresh? Fruity? Tart? Rich and full bodied? Long lasting? Experience the wine briefly with all your senses. Most of what we think is taste is actually our sense of smell. The average human can distinguish about 10.000 distinct aromas and our olfactory bulb feeds those sensations of smell directly into the part of our brain that governs memory and emotion. That's why, on a basic level, we all really enjoy good experiences of aroma and taste.



Look at the label. The design may be interesting or fun but there are three details that are way more important.



1.) What grape type is used to make the wine? Most labels today do indicate the grape or blend of grapes that are used in the wine making. Outside of Europe this is universally true, except in the case of some very unusual blends, but many European wines today reveal the grape type on the front label if not the back label.



There are hundreds, no, there are thousands of different grapes used all over the world to make wine, but all you have to remember is one or two with any single wine. I think of different grapes as having different personalities of aroma and flavor. If you're at a party meeting a lot of new people it may seem overwhelming but you meet and talk with one person at a time. If you run into the same grape again later you can recall that you've met before, especially if you can recall the name. In time, you'll start to recognize each grape's personality and you might start to seek out particular ones that you like.



Practically speaking there are about thirty grape types that are used to make the vast majority of the world's wines. They have names like Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Sangiovese. They are all members of the same vine family (genus) Vitis Vinifera. They're like brothers and sisters. They make all the white, red, pink and sparkling wine in the world. Some are closer cousins than others. For instance, Cabernet Sauvignon is a genetic offspring of Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc. Some have unusual names but it's no big deal. You can get to know them over time. Just remember, each time you meet one, shake their hand and try to imprint their name on your memory.

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This article is about how to make your own quality wine at home. There really aren't a lot of steps to making wine. I saw it being made once at a winery and was amazed at how simple the equipment truly was to making the wine. If you have a decent kit, some 5 gallon drums with a special top, some yeast and some grape juice, for the most part, you have everything you need. You can also get into the specialties of adding oak chips for flavor to capture some of the complex tastes the award winning wines have, and this is where the art form comes in. Read on to get the steps you need to make your own quality wine.

Get your own wine making instruction kit

Wine is a wonderful drink. It is a deep mix of flavors and aromas, and it takes a certain kind of person to appreciate these in addition to the time and effort put into the wine making process.

Wine is no longer the province of snobby and snooty people who come from old moneyed families though. The new trend is home wine making: people make small batches of wine at home.

Home winemakers are appreciative of wine without the pretentiousness of the traditional wine makers. They like to share wine making instructions and each other's wines, like having a collective wine cellar.

If you want to make wine at home, the best way to start is to ask someone who is already doing it. There are specialty supply stores that deal in the equipment and ingredients for making wine at home.

Often, these are also meeting places for enthusiasts in the surrounding area, so these are good places for picking up information and wine making instructions too.

It would be best to start off with a prepackaged kit; unless you happen to know someone with roots deep in the wine business and they agree to help you.

These packages can range from the very basic to the advanced. If this is your first time, it is recommended that you pick the most affordable package. These kits will have everything you need to make your first home wine.

The equipment is mostly tanks and hoses, nothing too fancy or complicated. Indeed, the winemaking process itself is simple; the complexity happens when you try to achieve particular properties by controlling the many factors.

The beginner packages will also usually include wine making instructions, so do not fret too much. These are common instructions for a 4-week wine kit.

Start off with sterilizing your fermenting tank, usually a 27-liter tank. To do this, you will need some sort of sterilizing powder mix like sodium metabisulphite, which will usually be included in the package.

After cleaning it out, it is time to start making the wine itself. Keep your excitement in check though; you will need to pay attention to some minute details.

Pour the syrup packet into the fermenter and try to get every little bit, then add a little hot water to it. Then start filling it with water, until just below the 23 liter mark. You can use tap water, but using distilled water usually produces a better wine. Stir it vigorously to aerate it, the yeast need this.

Take the temperature of the water; it should be between 20 and thirty degrees Celsius. Add cold or hot water as needed until you get to 23 liters. Add the yeast, but do not stir the mixture. Seal the lid and add an airlock, half-filling it with water.

Try to keep the temperature constant for about a day or two. When the air lock starts bubbling, you know you have done it right. You can then move it to a cooler 18-20 degrees Celsius.

On day 6, clean and sanitize a carboy. Siphon the fermented liquid into it, and add water until you come up to 3 inches from the top. Again, attach the airlock half-filled with water. Leave it in a dark cool place. On around day 20, use your hygrometer to check for alcohol content.

Read your kit's wine making instructions and add any additional ingredients as specified. A specific gravity of .990 to 1.000 is good. If it does not come out like that, leave it for a couple of days and check again. After meeting the required specific gravity, siphon the liquid into the bucket. Try to minimize the amount of sediment at the bottom of the carboy that gets into the bucket. Add any packets as instructed by your kit. Stir for a few minutes to release carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide gives wine a sharp taste and cloudiness. Clean and sanitize your carboy, and siphon the liquid back in. For two days after that shake it 3 or four times a day to make sure as much carbon dioxide is expelled.

On the 28th day, your wine is almost ready for bottling or drinking. Dissolve two Campden tablets in a half-glass of water and add it to the wine. Wait for two more days of standing.

After that, the only real thing left to do is to filter out the sediment and bottle it up. Most 4-week wines taste best after aging for 6 months, but they may be enjoyed right away. These are the basic home wine making instructions.

Eddy Lee is grape growing and wine making expert. For more wine making instructions and make wine visit http://www.winemakinganswers.com

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Tags: how to make wine - wine manufacturing

This article gives a great background on how to manufacture wine. The actual process is simple, yet it is an artform with a touch of science behind it. The winery equipment is crucial to keeping the right biochemical balance during the fermentation process. If you want to be your own wine distiller, this is a great article that will get you off to a good start.

Personal Winery Equipment Kit

The dominant factor in a wine's character is the kind of grapes being used. Grapes decide the wine's flavor, alcohol content, acidity, and its color. From white grapes white wine is produced, and it is straw to golden-yellow in color. Red wine is made from red grapes. The only difference with production methods is that in white wine only the juice is used for fermentation whereas with red wine the skin of the grapes is also incorporated during fermentation. Red pigments are called anthocyanins and other compounds in the grape skins are extracted during the fermentation process to pass on the red color of the wine. Red grapes not fermented with the skins produce blush or rose wine, which is pink in color.

The grapes are harvested from the vineyards and taken to a winery, then are passed through a Destemmer that separates the fruit from the stems and crushes the grapes to release the juice. With white wine, the must is transferred to a press where pressure is applied to separate the juice from the skins. The amount of pressure used decides what flavor is derived from the skins. Now, the juice in white color without the skins is transferred to a fermentation tank. For red wine preparation, the must from the crusher is directly transported to a tank for fermentation.

Stainless steel or wood containers are used for fermentation and the type of container and the temperature of fermentation decide the character of the wine. Due to the volatile nature of many of the aroma components of wine at higher temperatures, the temperature of fermentation must be controlled to retain fruity characters in the wine. This is done by direct cooling of the fermentation tanks.

Fermentation can be started with the yeast naturally present on the grape skins and in the winery equipment, or by adding some extra yeast in a procedure known as inoculation. Yeast is to blame for the presence of positive and negative aroma characters in wine. When yeast is under stress it produces hydrogen sulfide, which smells like rotten eggs. To avoid this, winemakers add nutrients to the fermentation tank. How long the fermentation takes place also decides the character of the wine being made.

Other microorganisms may grow in the must or juice, affecting the flavors and aromas of the finished wine and reducing the wine's acidity. They must be kept in check. When fermentation is complete the clear wine is racked or drawn off the lees and stored in a clean cask. The wine maker may further clarify the wine in a process called fining.

Now starts the grand job of aging the wine. Aging of wine affects the flavors and aromas present, and quite a few different techniques are used. Aged wine in oak barrels picks up some aroma character and flavor from the oak wood. Air exposure during aging can produce tannins. As time passes the tannins become so large that they form reddish-brown sediment in the bottle. This reduces wine's unpleasantness and astringency. Then, it may continue to slowly age for many years. When the wine has been aged, it is ready to be poured into bottles.

Didier LeScraigne is a grape growing expert and experienced wine maker. For more great tips on how to grow grapes and make wine visit http://www.growinggrapesandwinemaking.com

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Tags: winery equipment - winemaking kit

Mulled wine is a warm wine that is flavored with spices, much like hot apple cider. The spices used in the wine are usually some variation of

• sugar
• star anise
• cinnamon
• cloves

The spices are usually not served with the wine but allowed to seep in the hot wine, much like an herbal tea.

A red wine is usually used with this kind of recipe, and Shiraz are usually the best type of red wine and works well with making it into a mulled wine.

Mulled wines can be purchased pre made, or made at home and are typically consumed during the holiday season. It also makes a great gift for the wine lover as well.

There are a number of places online where you can purchase mulled wine kits. The list will follow in this post at a later time.

I thought this article was very interesting. I knew vaguely about counterfeiting in the wine industry and taking expensive bottles and switching out the wine with cheaper wine, but I didn't know the extent to which it was done. This is because for most of us wine drinkers, we don't run across this issue very much. Wine counterfeiters don't bother with wine in anything that is not in the highest tier as it's just not worth their time, and most of us get our wine from reputable distributors at the local liquor store. Usually this is a problem with rare vintages that command tens of thousand of dollars that you would get at an auction house, or some other private sale. Anyway, read on for more!

ARGONNE, Ill (Aug. 1, 2008) — When the Roman historian Pliny
the Elder wrote " in vino veritas " – in wine, there is truth – he must
not have been drinking from a counterfeit bottle. Researchers
Roger Johnston and Jon Warner of the U.S. Department of Energy's
Argonne National Laboratory have created a device to ensure that
modern wine connoisseurs can have faith that they are drinking
what they pay for.

In the past few decades, bottles of rare premium vintages have begun
to command tens of thousands of dollars apiece at auction, and thousands
of other wines retail for hundreds to thousands of dollars a bottle.
Although there may be no match for quality of the product inside,
the ease and accuracy with which fraudsters can pass off bottles
of "two-buck Chuck" with ritzy labels have allowed wine
counterfeiting to grow into a booming criminal enterprise.

This work represents an offshoot of the work by the Vulnerability
Assessment Team (VAT) in Argonne's Nuclear
Engineering (NE). While
the VAT conducts R&D on broad security issues, including nuclear
safeguards, Argonne 's NE division has a long history of addressing
nuclear safeguards and security issues.

"As often happens," Johnston said, "R&D on one
problem can lead to unexpected inventions; that is what happened
here. We were working on tamper and intrusion detection projects
for nuclear safeguards, courier bags, and cargo security, and also
on security for pharmaceuticals. Various concepts and technologies
that were developed for those projects led to the current wine application."

"One of the biggest problems buyers of very expensive wines
have at auctions is that they have no way of being absolutely sure
if the bottle contains the wine it purports to without actually opening
the bottle and taking a swig," said Johnston.

To combat this problem, Johnston and his colleagues in Argonne 's
Vulnerability Assessment Team (VAT) have created a cap that winemakers
can fit over the bottle's cork. The cap contains a small circuit
that completes when it is removed, triggering an electric pulse that
creates electronic evidence someone has tampered with the bottle. "There's
no alarm that screams at you if the wine's been opened," Johnston
said, "but there's no way of getting rid of the evidence of
tampering because basically, when tampering occurs, information is
erased—a kind of anti-alarm."

By connecting the cap to a laptop through a USB cable, the auctioneer
or the consumer can check whether or not the wine has already been
opened or altered. Each cap has a unique bottle number that is registered
to the winemaker, preventing wine counterfeiters from putting the
Argonne caps on their fake Bordeaux and Burgundies.

In addition to the outright counterfeiting of fine wine, buyers
face another potential problem when assessing the purity of a bottle.
To preserve the life of some of their wines, some winemakers will
remove the cork from the bottle and blend in a small quantity of
wine from a newer vintage in a process known as "reconditioning."

Although reconditioned wines may have longer shelf lives, some winemakers
try to pass off their reconditioned bottles as purely the older vintage,
Johnston said. With the Argonne cap, bottles cannot be reconditioned
without the buyer eventually finding out.

Because the vast majority of wine fraud targets the very highest
tier of wine manufacturing, the Argonne cap could become a "status
symbol" among wineries potentially interested in the Argonne
technology, said systems engineer Jon Warner, who works alongside
Johnston in the VAT. "Our device may be able to generate a certain
snob-appeal factor among winemakers; they can say, 'our wine is so
good, we needed to spend money on this security device, although
only a few dollars of parts are used in the device."

Johnston and Warner plan to enhance the security of the cap even
further by connecting it to a high-quality color sensor chip. The
top of the cork would then bear a tie-dye pattern of color swirls
that the chip would have to recognize. According to Johnston , the
sensitivity of the color sensor would make it extraordinarily difficult
for someone to open the cap and put it back close enough to the original
position to fool the sensor.

By Jared Sagoff.

Tags: counterfeit wine - wine - high end wine

This is a great article about the different ways of how to have a wine tasting party. I have heard of some of the ways before but not all of them. This is a great place to get some ideas for your next wine tasting party. It's also fun to mix it up a bit and do something different for a change. Read on for some great ideas on putting on your next wine tasting party, and don't be afraid to make up your own version... like the blind wine tasting party. Everyone should be blindfolded, and if you can find your wine glasses and the wine, then 10 points for you... Throw in another 5 points if you can get the wine in the wine glass!

So you've decided to dive in and host a wine tasting party. Good for you... they are lots of fun and relatively easy parties to plan and host. One way to make the planning and hosting of the party easy on yourself is to chose a theme for your wine tasting party. Here are six great themes to consider for any wine tasting you're hosting. Throw in some cheese and a few appetizers and you're set. "Horizontal Wine Tasting"

In a horizontal wine tasting you are focused on one wine variety from a single year yet from multiple vineyards and producers. For example, you could focus on a 2003 Chenin Blanc from four to six different wineries.

With a horizontal wine tasting the variables to consider are whether you would like to taste wines from the same region or whether you would like to mix it up and feature the same wine and year from different regions such as a 2003 Chenin Blanc from California, Italy, and Australia. Using the same region would be using all 2003 Chenin Blancs from lets say the Napa Valley.

"Vertical Wine Tasting"

Vertical wine tastings are conducted by tasting one wine variety (such as a Chenin Blanc) from the same wine producer but from several different vintages (years). With this type of tasting you get a feel for a particular producer's varietal style and composition.

For example you can set up a wine tasting featuring Keyes Vineyard Merlot from 2002, 2003 and 2004. The only variable in this type of tasting is the year which allows the wine tasters to see how dramatic or subtle a vineyards wine can change from year to year.

It might be interesting for this type of wine tasting to get literature on the particular wine and winemaker to determine if they had a tough year with weather or insects or were there changes made to the production of the wine in a particular year such as the barrels they were using. These would all be fun points of conversation at a wine tasting party.

"Priceless Wine Tasting"

Priceless wine tasting keeps the bias out of the wine tasting game. With this type of wine tasting the price of the various wines are withheld. Your tasters are able to be completely objective about the wines because they do not know if they are drinking a $120 bottle of Cabernet Savignon or a $10 bottle of Cabernet Savignon.

It is only natural that people perceive the higher priced wines to be the better tasting wines. At time this may be the case, however marketing and label recognition are often responsible for the higher priced wines selling better and it has nothing to do with the actual quality of the wine. In priceless wine tasting the wine itself cannot be judged by it's label...or for that matter it's price.

"Price Point Wine Tasting"

This type of wine tasting features wines in a similar price range. For example you may choose to serve different varietals of Cabs in the under $20 price range or Merlots in the under $40 range. There's a lot of flexibility in this type of wine tasting. The goal is to keep the wines comparable in baseline price...

"The Big Eight Wine Tasting"

The goal of this wine tasting is to let your guests work their way through all eight wine varieties and determine for themselves their own personal preferences. Many times people believe that a "white wine" is just any white colored wine and "red wine" is any wine with a red coloring. This type of tasting will give your guests a new appreciation for which types of white wines and red wines they prefer and is a very educational tasting.

The big eight wines include Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Shiraz as red wines and Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Riesling in the white wine category.

"Blind Wine Tasting"

Take any of the above ideas, remove the labels from the bottles or put them in wine bags or paper bags and voila...you have a Blind Wine Tasting party. A blind wine tasting party is great because your guests will not have any pre-conceived thoughts about the wines they are tasting and it's interesting to see how different people may feel about the taste of a certain wine when they're not looking at the label or the cost of the wine.

Have fun with your parties and be sure to keep your guests scores so that next time you invite them over you'll be ready to purchase just the right one for that particular person.

Jane McGowan is a wine enthusiast. If you'd like to learn more about how to host a themed wine tasting party you can visit her website at Types Of Wine Tasting Parties where she has lots of information on how to host a wine tasting party, types of wine tastings and where you can find wine tasting party kits and invitations. Still

Tags: wine tasting

This article is a high high level overview about making wine and wine processing. It is mostly from the point of view of the consumer making their own wine. Apparently now people can go to a local wine processing place and create their own wines. This is already rather popular in the beer industry where consumers can make their own beer. You get an idea of what you should consider and what you would need when you are going to make your wine. Read on for more!

Tags: make wine - wine processing

For many people, wine is the elixir of life. It has depth, beauty, complexity, and it requires craftsmanship and exacting standards to produce. The process of making wine involves a heritage that has evolved through the centuries, and today this results in a wide of choice for consumers. We can enjoy deep, complex red wines that have been aged for years, or light, fresh whites that are new and meant to be consumed young.

Today, even the casual consumer can purchase or make affordable and delicious wine. It is the potential to make wine one's own that we are discussing today, since it brings easy-to-make, affordable wine to a multitude of people who enjoy the craft as well as the finished product. The industry which enables this has grown from a cottage industry to a full-fledged consumer product producer with many competitors. This competition has been good for the consumer, as companies fought for market share by creating a variety of new offerings and improving the quality and user-friendliness of the kits needed to make wine. Innovation and quality have been the hallmarks of the leaders in the industry, and the top kit makers guarantee the results of their products.

As an individual, making quality wine offers more choices and is easier than ever before. With today's top-notch kits and the easy-to-follow instructions that come with them, any adult can craft fine wine.

The Process

The first step is to ensure you are buying quality ingredients; juice or concentrated juice sourced from reputable wineries, additives packed with care and little or no sugar added. Essentially, the steps involving missing the original ingredients and adding yeast, which will begin (and complete) the fermentation process. Other enhancements may be made during the process, such as the addition of oak or other flavor enhancements.

You will need a set of basic fermenting equipment, which is generally sold in kit form as well, just like the initial ingredients required. Once the fermentation is complete, you will then take steps to clear your young wine, and at the desired time, you will bottle it. Each step is well laid out in your kit instructions, and there are tools available to help with each of the manual labor steps, such as filtering and bottling. At the end of the process, you will have crafted approximately 30 bottles of your choice of wine, at a fraction of the price for similar wines at retail. Most home winemakers take great pride in their wines, and these days the quality and innovation behind the kits makes their friends and family want to share!

Speaking of Innovation...

The latest innovation in the home winemaking industry is in-store wineries. For a fee, customers can now process their wines using state-of-the-art winemaking facilities in their local wine store. There is no equipment to buy" from mixing to bottling, all equipment is available in the winery and the wine itself goes through the process in-store. While not all wine kits stores offer this service, it is a growing trend and those that do are reaping the benefits of loyal and happy customers.

This article is brought to you by Wine Kitz Moncton, a full service wine kit store in beautiful Moncton, New Brunswick.

Shauna Arthurs is a writer, business owner and investor who is passionate about helping others achieve financial freedom and pursue their dreams. She owns and contributes to a network of websites and blogs dedicated to this passion, including Follow Your Path and Women & Money.