About Wine

Red wine is made from red grapes; as most red grapes have juice that is clear, the color of a red wine is the result of skin contact during maceration prior to fermentation.

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What is it? That’s the most frequent question asked by those seeking to buy a bottle of saké. Is it rice wine? Is it more similar to beer? The simple answer is that saké is saké. It’s neither wine nor beer, but saké is made using fermentation methods similar to those used in making both wine and beer. To jump to the end, saké is a distinctly unique alcoholic beverage, made from rice, using a fermentation method unlike that used to make any other alcoholic beverage.. Sake has an alcoholic content of 18%-20%, although it is sometimes diluted down to 15% with the addition of water.

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White wines are those made from so-called "white" grapes, in which the skins have been removed form the juice before fermentation. This results in a white wine, yet the hue of a white wine ranges from straw to golden yellow and everything in between. As some grapes used for white wine have a pink or copper color (such as Gewurztraminer or Pinot Gris, respectively), white wines made form these varieties will tend to have a copper or slight golden or silver color.

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Rosé is wine made from red grapes that has had minimal contact with the grape skins to yield a blush, copper, salmon or pink color. Rose's can be made form any number of red grapes, from lighter-styled, such as Grenache to a more robust style of red, such as Cabernet Sauvignon. While a rosé could be a blend of white and red wines, most of the finest and most famous rosés are made exclusively from red grapes; of course; the color of the wine can only come from red grapes. (note that for a Rosé sparkling wine, white wines are often part of the blend with red wines).

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Sparkling wine has effervesence - bubbles- that are the result of a secondary fermentation. This fermentation can take place in the bottle itself or in a tank, after which it is then bottled.

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A sweet wine is one that contains enough residual sugar to be considered too sweet for dinner. Some of these wines are naturally sweet, while others are fortified. Examples of the former category include Auslese from Germany or passito from Italy, while fortified dessert wines include port as well as sweet sherries such as oloroso.

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A fortified wine is one in which a neutral alcoholic spirit or grape brandy has been added to increase the alcoholic level. Famous examples include port, sherry and vermouth.

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We have extolled the virtues of traditionally made American fruit wines for some years now; the category is full of well made and downright excellent wines. Perhaps most surprising is the fact that some of the best wines are actually made in dry table styles. These are often at their best with food. 'It's really exciting to match these wines with food,' said Maine blueberry winemaker Bob Bartlett, 'because there's no history, no precedent.' He suggests serving blueberry wine with Italian dishes or grilled lamb, and pear wine with smoked fish. A tasty thought indeed.

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Cider is made from fermented apple juice. As with wine, the character and quality of the resulting product will bear heavily on the variety and quality of the fruit used. The cooler climate of Vermont is well suited to high quality apple production, and produces a sizeable amount of quality sparkling hard cider. The finest ciders in North America may well emanate from the province of Quebec in Canada, which has an established artisinal cider industry with historical ties to Normandy cider. These Quebecois ciders are slowly starting to appear on the US market.

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Mead is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermentation of a honey & water mixture. Simple enough, but the breadth of mead is expanded with the use of other fermentable ingredients, non-fermentable additives, and various other techniques. Mead is sometimes called “honey wine”. This is technically incorrect, as wine involves the fermentation of fruit; however, the alcoholic strength (and taxation) and flavor profile of mead is not dissimilar from wine. Mead should be considered its own category of fermented beverage, a cousin of the more well-known beer and wine.

Some producers flavor white wine with honey and other spices after fermentation; these should not be considered meads. To qualify for the category, honey must undergo fermentation, and must contribute the good majority of the fermentable sugars (the exact amount necessary being debatable).

Mead is sometimes considered to be the most ancient of fermented beverages. The yeast in fermentation convert sugars into alcohol; where wine requires the harvest and/or cultivation of fruit, beer the mashing of grains (typically barley), and sake the conversion of rice starches into sugars, mead is based on honey – a readily available source of immediately fermentable sugar. Readily available to primitive man, who quickly found the effects most enjoyable.

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A non-alcoholic beverage - wine or beer - is legally defined in the United States, as having less than 0.5% alcohol. As any beverage can have a trace of alcohol - even orange juice has a small percentage - it is important to note this distinction as technically there is no such thing as an alcohol-free beer or wine.

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Flavored wines span a broad range of styles, but typically involve the addition of various fruit juices, fruit flavors, and even chocolate to a wine base. They are currently experiencing a surge in popularity in various formats.

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Wine cocktails are simply bottled and branded cocktails made with a wine base instead of spirits. Popular examples include: Sangrias, Mimosas, and Wine Spritzers.

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