Enjoying Wines

Archive for August, 2009

There have been many reports in recent years extolling the health benefits of red wines. Red wines are high in anit-oxidants and contain iron. The dry varieties of red wine contain tannins which are beneficial to digestion. Red wine has been credited with reducing cancer risks and lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels. It is recommended that the average person drink one glass of red wine a day to achieve maximum health benefits. Too much wine, red or white is not healthy since the alcohol can damage the liver. If you are on any medications, ask your doctor about drinking wine. Never drink wine or any alcohol if you are taking medication that contains acetaminophen (Tylenol) as the combination can cause liver damage. A glass of red wine with dinner is the perfect accompaniment to a nice meal and helps relieve the stress of your day.

Wine

There are many types of red wine on the market today. This is beneficial to consumers because they can find the type of red wine that fits the meal that they are preparing or fits their palate. There are certain types of red wines that are more palatable to people who are just beginning to appreciate red wine and there are other types that are full bodied and great accents to spicy meals and heavier red meat dishes.

Many wineries have wine tasting where you can sample different types of red wine. There are also wine clubs. Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon are medium dry wines with a fruity taste and a smooth finish. Burgundy and Chianti are darker in color and dryer in taste. Port is a desert wine and is quite sweet. The different varieties of wine are produced by using different grapes. Red wines are fermented with the skins of the grapes. For white wines the skins are removed before fermentation.

Experiment with different wines and try the wines with different foods un! til you find the wine, or combination of food and wine, that you like best. You dont have to be an expert to enjoy a glass of any type of red wine. New varieties are being created all the time, as countries like Australia, Israel, Chile, Hungary and Romania enter the wine exporting business. The new varieties of grapes and the different climates and soils add a new richness to the world of wine.

Ice wine is fantastically different from its more common counterpart, table wine. Ice wine takes a a bit more more understanding regarding the making process .

Ice wine or icewine in German is also called Eiswein, originated in Franconia, Germany in 1794. It is a type of dessert wine that is made from frozen grapes which produces the best ice wine in the world. 

Ice wine is produced under only incredibly extreme weather conditions and is largely grown and processed in the Pacific Northwest Region, where the weather conditions are ideal for growing it.

Be {sure|certain} to select a wine that has no artificial freezing. Distinctly different from the table wine, ice wine is made from crushed, frozen grapes. The finest ice wines are made from naturally frozen grapes that have been frozen for nearly 36 hours.

Instead of harvesting grapes in the fall, the grower leaves them on the vine to freeze, which forces most of the water outside of the grape in the form of ice. What’s left inside is a trace amount of semi-frozen, super-concentrated, super-sweet juice. When you apply normal winemaking techniques to these grapes, you get a honeyed, rich dessert wine — one of the enormous pleasures of after-dinner drinking.

At least for grapes, freezing is eagerly anticipated by vintners in certain parts of the world. It’s a key factor in the production of  the expensive selection of dessert wine  known as ice wine.

Temperatures need to settle below 18 degrees for a few days. the grapes stay frozen due to the water content being frozen and the very sweet nectar of the grape is then collected for fermentation. The end result is usually a wine with moderate alcohol, a high level of natural sweetness and laser-focused flavors. Usually fetching $40-$100 per half bottle (375m

 Huanren, a picturesque, mountainous county in Liaoning province, is currently building the biggest ice wine estate in the world, which is referred to as “town of ice wine”.

 There are some small wineries that create an superb  ice wines.  Schulze Vineyards & Winery just received a gold medal for their 2008 Vidal Ice wine at the Riverside Wine Competition in California. 

As recent as last April 2009, Wine Enthusiast included a photo and review of Niagara Landing’s 2007 Vidal Ice wine with a score of 86 points. Last year the same wine was awarded a gold at the New York Food & Wine Classic. Arrowhead Spring Vineyards & Winery also got rave reviews from Wine Spectator recently for their 2005 Vidal Ice wine with a 90 point score, a unusual achievement for a New York State winner.  An Ice wine out of Canada  that you might want to try is their 2003 Vidal Ice wine from Yost Vineyard in Nova Scotia.

 The history of Ice Wine. The story goes, that, approximately two hundred years ago, a winemaker in Germany found that some of his grape crops had been “ruined” by a frost. Determined not to lose this frozen crop, the winemaker went ahead and pressed the frosted grapes to make wine. He was astonished to find that the frosted grapes produced a sweet, acidic alcoholic drink that was tasty to the palate. Since that time, winemakers have been recreating fine Ice Wine.