Each of us is evolving in our personal cultural experience. Perhaps you too have come to the place where you're ready to experience more adventure as a connoisseur. There is culture in wine. It can be found in the ritual of drinking it, appreciating the craft of the winemaker, and in the wine's stimulation to our taste buds. And now, let us pursue the pure taste enjoyment of wine.

When we drink wine, our taste buds are stimulated in a unique way and the alcohol has a calming effect on the brain. Human taste has four components: sweetness, saltiness, acidity and bitterness. The acidity and sweetness in wine are the two factors that balance together to produce a pleasant sensation on our sense of taste. We taste the acidity with the middle of the tongue and sweetness with the tip of the tongue.

Wines with excessive acidity taste harsh, those with insufficient acidity taste uninteresting and their flavor does not linger in the mouth long enough. Tannins contribute to the relationship of bitterness on the tongue. If you've ever chewed into grape seeds, then you've tasted the dry bitterness of tannin. Wine with too much tannin is unpleasantly bitter. The right level of tannin has an effect of bringing all the flavors together with a good "grip" in the mouth. The various fruit-like flavors detectable in wine contribute nuances to the sweetness we taste. It's fun trying to detect different fruit characteristics, such as berries, plums, apples, pears...

Our other senses are involved as well. Our sight enjoys the color and our sense of smell enjoys the fragrances. Much of a wine's character is revealed only through the aroma it exudes. This adds richly to the dimensions found in wine.

Wine Grape Varieties

There are many species of grapes, but most of the world's wine is made from the Vitis vinifera family, of European origin. Wine grapes have various unique, signature characteristics. Check out the following varietal grapes:

Popular Red Varieties

Cabernet

Sauvignon

Grenache

Merlot

Pinot Noir

Sangiovese

Syrah (Shiraz)

Tempranillo

Zinfandel

Popular White Varieties

Chardonnay

Gewürztraminer

Grüner Veltliner

Pinot Blanc

Riesling

Sauvignon Blanc

Semillon

How Wine is Made

Wine grapes, Vitis vinifera, grow easily in any temperate to warm climate. A solution of sugar and water develops in ripe grapes and the skins easily allow the growth of natural yeasts. In the fermentation process, these single cell organisms consume the natural sugar and change it into ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. This rather simple process has been observed and used for thousands of years in human culture. In the past hundred years or so, technology and new ideas from winemakers have played an ever-increasing role in the making of wine. It's becoming more and more a science and an art.

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