French Wine !!

France is the most influential wine-producing area in the world and has developed superfine natural still wines and the finest sparkling wine—champagne.
The Bordeaux region furnishes red wine known as claret (or simply Bordeaux) and white wine, both dry except for Sauternes.
The best-known Bordeaux wines are those of Médoc (red), classified and known by the vineyard names, as Château Lafite-Rothschild, Château Margaux, and Château Latour; Graves (red or white); Sauternes (white), sweet, made from overripe grapes and including the noted Château d'Yquem; and St.-Emilion and Pomerol.
Burgundy wines, red and white, are somewhat lighter in body than the Bordeaux.
Connoisseurs prize the Burgundies of the Côte d'Or, especially the white Montrachet, and red Clos Vougeot and Romanée. The Chablis area produces fine, white Burgundy.
Good wines are made in the Loire valley (Vouvray), the Rhône valley (Hermitage and Châteauneuf-du-Pape), Alsace, and the Jura Mts.
A great quantity of wine is produced in S France, some of it made into vermouth, distilled into brandy, or used for blending, and some of it of superior quality.

Classification of wine !!

Wines are distinguished by color, flavor, bouquet or aroma, and alcoholic content. Wine is also divided into three main types: still or natural, fortified, and sparkling.
Wines are red, white, or rosé (depending on the grape used and the amount of time the skins have been left to ferment in the juice).
For red wines the entire crushed grape is utilized; for white wines, the juice only. In rosé wines, the skins are removed after fermentation has begun, thus producing a light pink color. Wines are also classified as dry or sweet, according to whether the grape sugar is allowed to ferment completely into alcohol (dry), or whether some residual sugar has been left (sweet).

In a natural wine all the alcohol present has been produced by fermentation.
Fortified wines, such as sherry, port, Madeira, and Malaga, are wines to which brandy or other spirits have been added. These wines contain a higher alcohol content (from 16% to 35%) than the still wines (from 7% to 15%).
Sparkling wines, of which champagne is the finest example, are produced by the process of secondary fermentation in the bottle.
Highly publicized studies of the French, particularly in Lyons, claim that a moderate consumption of red wine might help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Such findings were judged worthy of further investigation by the American Medical Association.

Grape varieties !!

Wine is usually made from one or more varieties of the European species Vitis vinifera, such as Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, or Merlot. When one of these varieties is used as the predominant grape (usually defined by law as a minimum of 75 or 85%), the result is a varietal, as opposed to a blended, wine.

Blended wines are not considered inferior to varietal wines; in fact, some of the world's most valued and expensive wines, from regions like Bordeaux and the Rhone Valley, are blended from different grape varieties of the same vintage.

Wine can also be made from other species of grape or from hybrids, created by the genetic crossing of two species. Vitis labrusca (of which the Concord grape is a cultivar), Vitis aestivalis, Vitis rupestris, Vitis rotundifolia and Vitis riparia are native North American grapes usually grown for consumption as fruit or for the production of grape juice, jam, or jelly, but sometimes made into wine.

Hybridization is not to be confused with the practice of grafting. Most of the world's vineyards are planted with European V. vinifera vines that have been grafted onto North American species rootstock.
This is common practice because North American grape species are resistant to phylloxera, a root louse that eventually kills the vine. In the late 19th century, Europe's vineyards were devastated by the bug, leading to massive vine deaths and eventual replanting.
Grafting is done in every wine-producing country of the world except for the Canary Islands, Chile and Argentina, which are the only ones that have not yet been exposed to the insect.
In the context of wine production, terroir is a concept that encompasses the varieties of grapes used, elevation and shape of the vineyard, type and chemistry of soil, climate and seasonal conditions, and the local yeast cultures.
The range of possibilities here can result in great differences between wines, influencing the fermentation, finishing, and aging processes as well. Many wineries use growing and production methods that preserve or accentuate the aroma and taste influences of their unique terroir. However, flavor differences are not desirable for producers of mass-market table wine or other cheaper wines, where consistency is more important. Such producers will try to minimize differences in sources of grapes by using production techniques such as micro-oxygenation, tannin filtration, cross-flow filtration, thin film evaporation, and spinning cones.

The History of Wine

Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest wine production came from sites in Georgia and Iran, from as early as 6000 BC.
The oldest known evidence of wine production in Europe is dated to 4500 BC and comes from archaeological sites in Greece. The same sites also contain the world’s earliest evidence of crushed grapes. In ancient Egypt, wine became a part of recorded history, playing an important role in ceremonial life. Traces of wine have also been found in China, dating from the second and first millennia BC.
In medieval Europe, the Roman Catholic Church was a staunch supporter of wine since it was necessary for the celebration of Mass. In places such as Germany, beer was banned and considered pagan and barbaric, while wine consumption was viewed as civilized and a sign of conversion to Christianity.
In the Islamic world, wine was forbidden during the Islamic Golden Age. After Geber and other Muslim chemists pioneered the distillation of wine, however, it was legalized for cosmetic and medical uses.
In fact, the 10th-century Persian philosopher and scientist Al Biruni described recipes where herbs, minerals and even gemstones are mixed with wine for medicinal purposes. Wine became so revered and its effect so feared that elaborate theories were developed about which gemstones would best counteract its negative side effects.

How is Wine Made ??

The steps in making wine:

When you visit a winery for the first time, you should take a tour if one is available. A good wine tour will take you to each area of the winery where the winemaking process takes place. It will give you a greater appreciation and love for wine.
The grapes ripen in late August or September depending on the seasonal climate conditions. The winemaker tastes the grapes, chews the seeds, and measures the sugar content to decide when to harvest the grapes .Vineyard workers then work to harvest the grapes in the shortest possible time.

The harvested grapes are dropped into bins that are trucked to the winery where they are crushed. This is the spot where red wine differs from white wine. When the grapes are crushed, the skin and seeds remain with red wines but the skins and seeds are removed for white wines.

The juice, skins, and seeds (not for white wines) are poured into stainless steel fermenting tanks. The winemaker usually adds cultured yeast to this grape juice. Fermentation begins when the yeast begins to digest the sugars present in the grape juice. Carbon dioxide and alcohol are by-products of this process.

Following fermentation, the wines are poured into barrels for aging. Typically, the wine is aged in 60-gallon French or American oak barrels.
During the barrel aging, the wines are racked several times. This means the wine is pumped from one barrel to an empty barrel. Solids are removed from the bottom of the barrel and the barrel is used again.

After months of aging in the barrels the wine is moved into the bottle where it will stay at the winery and continue to age. When the wine is sufficiently aged in the bottle, the wine is ready to be shipped and consumed by the wine lover.