Category: Zinfandel Wine
Making Homemade Wine
Posted onMaking homemade wine is a tradition that many people still continue today. Many people assume that making wine is a difficult process and I am here to tell you that it is not. Making home brew is simple but it can be time consuming and once you start it is hard to stop and what was once a small hobby becomes more like an obsession.
There are definite tools of the trade and instructions you should follow in order to make your wine taste great and that is safe from bacteria or other harmful things that could stand in your way of great wine making. Also, you should realize that you are not stuck just making grape wine, you can use any fruit juice you wish and make any blend that sounds good to you! Creating the perfect blend of fruit and flavor can open up a whole new world for you in regards to wine.
To start making your own homemade wine you will need some basic tools. It is EXTREMELY important that you follow all sanitation guidelines for your tools during the wine making process. Harmful bacteria can quickly ruin a perfect batch of wine, not to mention make you sick, so be sure to be careful when handling and sanitizing all tools used during the process. Here is a list of tools you will need:
Turkey Baster
Old wine bottles (for final product, sterilized)
Siphon (vinyl tubing)
Sanitizer (bleach or other recommended alternatives)
A plastic water bottle or glass jug (unscratched on the inside)
Rubber stopper (#8 or #9)
Airlock (balloon, PVC pipe, or commercial airlock)
Stirrer small enough to fit through opening of bottle
Funnel
This is a basic list to make simple wine, but you can also make very complex wine with just these simple tools. There are many companies today that provide you with kits and that is perfectly fine, but you can also make your wine with the things you have laying around your house already. Either way, once you have your equipment you are ready to begin the fun part!
By this time you probably already know the flavor of wine you want to make and no matter what the flavor you will be needing the juice from the fruit or fruits you choose to use. You can get this juice from one of two ways. You can either buy the juice from the store making sure that it does not contain additives other than Vitamin C, or you can make your own juice from the raw fruit. You will need a few other ingredients such as sugar, yeast and possibly the following chemicals:
Potassium Sorbate
Sodium/Potassium Metabisulfite
Yeast Nutrient
Be careful of allergies when using any substances for your wine making endeavors. There are some substitutions that can be made so do your research!
Now find a recipe to follow and do that to the letter and you will soon be drinking your own special homemade wine. Many recipes can be found by doing a simple search on-line. Soon you will understand the basics and be able to make your own recipes!
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Learning About Wines
Posted onLearning about wine takes practice and patience. What tastes good to you may not fare the same with someone else. Trying different wines at restaurants will give an idea of what white and red wines taste like with certain foods. This article will give tips in pairing wines with foods and what temperature to serve them.
Wine is usually made from grapes, but other fruits or berries can also be used. White wines usually go well with chicken, seafood, pork or turkey. Red wines are usually paired with proteins such as beef, duck, lamb, veal and some types of pasta. These suggestions are not always the norm. As you are learning about wines, your personal preference will play a role in what is pleasing to you.
Learning about wine means tasting different varieties. Trying them with different foods at restaurants is one way to get started. Once you’ve found a wine that pleases your palate, your next stop is the local wine shop. If you can find the type of wine that was served in the restaurant, that’s your best bet. If not, browse the section that closely matches your chosen wine. For example, if you enjoyed a white wine, glance through the white wine section.
Once you’ve chosen your bottle of wine, you’ll need to know the best serving temperature. White wines should be served chilled, around 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Some people may want to let white wines warm up to around 50 degrees before serving. When serving red wines, room temperature is the norm-around 60 degrees. If you want to get technical, there are devices that will show the temperature of your wine. You can find these gadgets online or in fine department stores.
Wine doesn’t have to be expensive to be good for you. When consumed in moderation-one to two glasses per day-wine has many health benefits. Wine can reduce coronary disease, promote healthier blood vessels, and decrease the risks of some types of cancer. Learning about wines can not only be a worthwhile hobby, it can also be beneficial to your health.
Wine Rating Systems
Posted onA few wine ratings sites that will help you determine which wine is worth paying for. It serves as a little background information on the history of the wine rating scales.
One of the top and most widely used wine ratings system is Parkers 100 Point Scale. The scale, which was founded by Robert Parker and his friend Victor Morgenroth, rates wines from 50 – 100, 100 being, “An extraordinary wine of profound and complex character displaying all the attributes expected of a classic wine of its variety. Wines of this caliber are worth a special effort to find, purchase, and consume,” and 50 being, “A wine deemed to be unacceptable.” All wine rankings are based on the wine’s color, appearances, taste, aroma, bouquet, flavor, finish, and overall quality level or potential.
Another wine ratings scale is Wine Spectator’s 100 Point Scale. The scale was imitated from Parker’s Scale and used mostly for their magazine readers. It has the same principles as Parkers, but a little less detail in the actual rating and it’s more frank. A wine rated at 100-95 is considered a “Classic: a great wine,” and 74-50 is rated as a “Not recommended.” A score that was given a range is usually the preliminary score and is usually based on barrel tasting.
As of March 2008, the wine ratings have switched to rolling four point spreads for unfinished wines. Wine Spectator believes it will “better reflect the subtle differences between wines, and give our readers better information for their buying decisions.” A different wine ratings site is Wine Enthusiast Magazine.
They have a unique search engine that allows you to find wines based on rating, price, type, vintage, blend or varietal, region, brand, special qualifiers, publication date, reviewer, and records per page. Their wine rating system is also based on a 100 point scale with 100 being “Classic,” and 80-82 as being, “Acceptable.” They do not include any lower numbers since none of their users look for anything under 80. You have a choice to either smart search or field search on their web page for the wine of your choice. As a final point, we have our own wine ratings expert Michael Zimberg. He has an actual grading system for wines instead of a point system. He uses the school based method of grading from A-F. He believes that regardless of the cost of wine “region and rarity also play a factor. “He also grades based upon something that is fun and different to try so it may merit a higher grade. He has an exceptional sense of taste and always knows the perfect thing to drink.
Lindsay Aston is a contributing editor for Classic Wines, specializing in wine ratings.
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Wines – Pairing Wine And Pizza
Posted onTill now, beer was seen and considered one of the only options to accompany the popular Italian dish pizzas. But, the pattern has changed now. More and more people liking to combine the Italian treat pizza with classy wines now-a-days. There are various kinds of wines that may be paired with different sorts of pizza toppings. Not all wines can be combined along with all pizzas. There has to have a blend of flavors because pizza has a massive number of flavors ranging from simple onion-garlic pizza to beef and chili pizza.
Considered one of the biggest myths of wine and pizza coupling is that red wine must only be served with pizza owning dark meat toppings. You may pair any appropriate wine together with any meat pizzas, be it dark meat or light meat. Yet, you have to pay extra attention while you’re not following this rule. A gloomy flavored red wine is valued more when paired with seafood pizzas. And among the weirdest combos could be coupling white wine with chili beef or jalapeno flavored pizzas. Along at the end of the day, you need to make use of your own personal judgment and taste buds while coupling any sort of foods and drinks.
All kinds of pizzas might be paired with at the least two nice red and two white wine varieties. All you might want to be careful about is to always select the average wine kinds. Dont go for too bizarre or too strong or excessive sweet. All extreme wine tastes are extremely hard to join up. So, be very simple and usual in your wine selection.
Many of the pizzas are made up of this very acidic tomato sauce, which sometimes retort with wine which makes it a very weak and full-bodied. To attenuate this unenthusiastic result, you possibly can go together with medium-bodied wine choices like Cabernet Sauvignon, California Zinfandel, or Shiraz. You can actually even make it an entire Italian meal by pairing the pizza with Italian Chianti. Additionally, it is better to dish up white pizzas along with earthy Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio.
To match the taste and savor of a pizza sauce and topping, it is always highly recommended that you choose more acidic wines. One of the best wine option for any crusty pizza would be a little strong and flavorful. This may mechanically lessen the crust effect of the pizza in the tasty way. Always, confirm the sauce, base, topping and main ingredient for the pizza prior to a pick any complementary wine to match.
Want Adventures In Wine? Join a Wine Club
Posted onThe Internet is good for quite a number of things – not least of which is its propensity to make information and opportunity available to the masses. Now, with holidays on the horizon and approaching fast, there’s another opportunity arising – and that, of course, is to join up with a wine club, or to get a membership in one for a loved one. What better way to start the festive season or to enjoy what would normally be an ordinary month of January, than by sampling some of the best wines that new and old worlds have to offer?
A wine club works like this. You get wines selected for you, by the expert buying team at the wine retailer of your choice. Generally you’ll then receive a case of wine every quarter, which is composed of bottles and vintages specifically selected by the buyers who source wines for the wine retailer as a whole. The better clubs offer a great deal of flexibility along with their normal bottles – so you can start off by taking their advice completely, and then use the bottles you have liked to inform your future decisions.
A comprehensive selection of tasting notes and information packs further add to the joy of the wine club, allowing novice wine lovers to learn and grow as the year goes on. There are some excellent examples of these clubs on the Internet – notably including the excellent offering from the legendary Colchester Wine Company, which has gone to great pains to tailor a wine lover’s membership that brings a great deal of choice along with very little in the way of commitment. That makes club membership the ideal way to start the New Year, and even to enjoy the festive holidays itself to the fullest. People who know they like wine, but aren’t sure how to go about exploring that like to its best extent, can only benefit from wine club models like the one espoused by The Wine company, which offers a friendly and informative service along with some excellent selections.
It’s this idea of learning without feeling embarrassed that makes the club experience so rewarding. Wine is a wonderful thing, but it is also a famously involved and complicated obsession. The more you find out about the stuff, the more you realise how little you know. In the past, it has been quite difficult to get past this feeling of “novice hood” – before the Internet, the only way to get the information you need to expand your wine tastes was to seek it from people who can (whether they mean to or not) give off the same air that an educated elite does – a kind of “if you don’t know, then you don’t know” feeling that can be very discouraging to the beginner.
Using a wine club to get to know what you really like and what you don’t can be a fun, rewarding and fascinating experience. Enjoyment is always better with knowledge – and knowledge is exactly what the club helps you explore.
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