Overview To Sampling Wine
The fundamentals of tasting red wine are reasonably straightforward to find out. As soon as the basics are understood, the nuances and details can be enhanced over a lifetime. Like any kind of various other skill, More »
Red Wine Types
Red wine has a lot of different types, among which, the most popular include Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. Moreover, More »
Category Archives: Zinfandel
Cuisinart Wine Cellar
How do you measure the quality of a wine? Obviously it’s taste and flavor of the liqueur. Taste and flavor can be increased outstandingly by storing and aging liquor in a fresh and ideal storing place. Maintaining ideal maturity with aging that makes the taste and flavor superior, is not that easy. It needs special attention and care to do so. Wine lovers know it and they use different cooling cabinets to maintain right temperature and humidity to their preserved wine collection.
Cuisinart CWC-600 Private Reserve 6-Bottle Stainless-Steel Counter top Wine Cellar is such an wine storage device. Specially to those who want to keep their wine storage small, very private and special.
Measuring 21.5 x 11 x 16 inches and weighing 28.5 pounds when shipping, Cuisinart Wine Cellar like any other wine coolers, comes with temperature control panel. Glass covered front door of stain less steel body of Cuisinart Wine Cellar is shielded from entering Ultra Violate rays from natural light, which prevents forming mold to the storing wines by natural light.
Unlike refrigerators which use compressor, Cuisinart Wine Cellar uses thermoelectric cooling system, which is propositionally continuous. What that means is that its cooling fan will be off and on automatically depending outside and inside temperature. This system always electronically moving heat from the inside of the unit to a heat sink on the outside. The amount of heat moved depends on the interior temperature, the exterior temperature, and a voltage setting (you set the voltage when you select the temperature on the control panel). Unlike refrigeration this system consumes much less power.
It could be little bit noisy when the cooling fan is on but if you want to trade it for much lower electricity bill, then Cuisinart Wine Cellar will be your right choice. You can also deal with that occasional fan noise by placing the unit to already noisy area like kitchen or any remote part of your house.
Wine Making
The science of wine making is called enology. Most home wine makers are not scientists and may not be familiar with the term, but they are wine lovers that appreciate the great taste of wines. If you make wine yourself the satisfaction is especially rewarding. Making your own wine has a number of benefits. First, it is less expensive than buying wine commercially. You have control over the recipe and the ingredients that go into the wine you produce. Second, making your own wine is enjoyable, especially when you share it with friends and family.
Making wine is extraordinarily simple. Wine is made when yeast is added to grape juice or most any other kind of juice. The basic ingredients are juice, yeast, sugar and water. The yeast consumes the sugar in the juice mixture and produces carbon dioxide gas and alcohol. The carbon dioxide gas bubbles out of the juice and what is left is wine. It’s just that simple.
The question is often asked “is drinking wine healthy?” Beyond the fact that wine contains alcohol, which taking in moderation, is not considered adverse to good health. The presence of other compounds in wine, particularly red wines, promotes good health for most wine consumers. The compound poly-phenolic flavonoids, which are antioxidants, are of particular benefit in promoting good health. Chiefly found in red grape skins, the concentrations tend to be high in red wines because the skins are included in the fermentation process.
Alcohol’s health benefits favor the cardiovascular system, and dramatically reduces the risks of atherosclerotic heart attacks, ischemic strokes and limb amputations due to compromised blood supply. In addition, the antioxidants in wine modulate the blood clotting that climaxes heart attacks and strokes. They also help by inhibiting the oxidation of LDL, the bad cholesterol, to its dangerous form. Research data supports moderate consumption of wine with a longer and healthier life than that of abstainers.
However, wine is not for everyone. Certain medical conditions are worsened by the consumption of wine, so it’s vital you seek the advice of your personal physician if you are in less than good health.
How to Make Wine
The easy way is to purchase a home wine making kit that usually consists of a three to five gallon container (fermentor), hydrometer, stopper and fermentation lock, syphonhose, sterilizer and reference book. The ingredients (grape juice, sugar, and yeast) are usually sold separately. There are many different types of kits to choose from or you can obtain the items separately from local resources. Typically a four or five gallon water container serves very well as a fermentor.
Any fruit juice may be used to make wine. The basic fruit must be mashed or liquefied to release the active ingredients in the fruit. This can be done with a small fruit press or even a kitchen blender. My basic recipe is as follows:
4 gallons of red grape juice
Approximately 4 pounds of sugar. The amount of sugar is determined by the specific gravity of the mixture. I usually shoot for a specific gravity reading of 0.9960 of the mixture before fermentation. Determining the specific gravity at start will determine the alcohol content at finish. The amount of sugar also determines if the finished wine will be dry or sweat. Carefully read your hydrometer as each hydrometer is different. You should consult the booklet that comes with the hydrometer for correct use.
Approximately one gallon of water to dissolve the sugar
One half teaspoon of baker’s instant yeast dissolved (activated) in water.
Stir the mixture and install the fermentation lock. I use a cork with a quarter inch plastic hose that ends in a small bottle of water. This trap is necessary to prevent the atmosphere from contaminating the mixture.
Place the fermentation container in an environment that is between 70 and 80 degree. Fermentation (bubbling) will start almost immediately.
Fermentation will end (bubbling stops) in about 21 days at which time drain the contents less the sediment into another container using a siphon hose. This is called racking.
Let set for three to six months and bottle
This is a basic recipe that can be altered by experience and personal preference.
Happy wine making.
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Wine Labels
Generally, Wine labels are used to a certain style of a bottle wine. Notwithstanding the design abilities of the artist in question, every label is legally required to include certain information. Understanding what that information is telling you can be the key to picking a good bottle of wine and avoiding a bad one.
The first thing you are going to see is the name of the winery. There really isn’t much to it other than the creativity of the winery when it came up with a name when it first started. That being said, watch out for names that are close to something that might also be seen as a bit of a misrepresentation.
The next information to be provided should be the vintage of the wine in question. The vintage is simply a reference to the year the grapes were grown. Ah, but this doesn’t mean that 100 percent of the wine in the bottle comes from grapes grown in the year indicated. A winery in an AVA region can have 5 percent filler grapes, while a lesser appellation can have up to 15 percent. That’s rather sizeable and suggests that AVA region wineries produce higher quality wines.
The next indication on the label should be the type of wine. A label might read “Chardonnay” for instance. As with the vintage, this does not mean 100 percent of the wine in the bottle is the indicated type. Varietal wines must have 75 of the type indicated, but the percentage drops with other wine variations.
The label may next indicate a specific vineyard. Importantly, you want to look for the actual word “vineyard”. Why? This indicates that at least 95 percent of the grapes used for the wine in the bottle came from the vineyard. Wines without vineyard on the label have no such requirement and can be severely mixed.
The final bit of information you may see on the label is “contains sulfites”. This is a government required warning that must be on the label if sulfites are indeed present. Sulfites are a byproduct of the wine production process. A very small number of people can be allergic to them, but massively so. Thus the reason for the warning.
Understanding how to read wine labels is important because it allows you to grasp what you are really buying. Only then can you really choose a wine that meets your preferences.
Wine Cellars and Wine Coolers
People often get confused about wine cellars and wine coolers. You might be doing and not even realizing that you are and also not be aware of the difference. Well, now be informed that the disparity between the wine cooler and the wine cellar is huge although to make sure, they’ve got something to do with storing wine. Since they are both used to store wine, people forget thet they’re two different things.
WIne cellars are like rooms where people keep their wines. Wine cellars are frequently in basements where wines are stored at the right temperatures. You can think of these wine cellars as being a kind of library that’s stuffed with wine rather than books; also a library that as a controlled temperature and beautifully made. Guests might be invited inside the wine cellar if the owner wants to discuss his wine collection. These wine cellars are popular with wine enthusiasts because they’ve got lots of room to build a great wine collection.
Next you will discover the wine coolers which can be used to store wine like wine cellars are. Wine coolers are akin to miniature wine cellars. A wine cooler may fit into a wine cellar since they are small. If you have a wine collection and yet you do not have a wine cellar, then obtain a wine cooler. By keeping the wines at the proper temperature, it is possible to enjoy them more. Depending on how big your wine cooler is, you might even put it on top of your counter. There is one trusted brand that creates good wine cellars that are very affordable and great at storing wines. You will find that there are many makers of wine coolers each having a marketing strategy all their own. You may be easily swayed but consider how your wines will wind up if you choose a product that makes promises it has no intentions of delivering?
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Wine- and the Healthiest Wines
Wine is very good for our health. But are they the same impact? What is the healthiest wine? We can list many kinds of wine, such as Ports, Tables, Red, Whites, Rose’s, Fume’s, Ice…This article will give you much information about wines.
Well let’s start with the obvious. Any wine you drink too much of is not going to help you. One glass per day is recommended for men and no more than 3 per week for women. (Women can’t digest alcohols as well as men. I’m not making this stuff up, Dr. Nancy Snyderman actually reported this on the Today Show recently). Any more than that and the alcohol content is linked to cancer, obesity and other health problems.
So, answer 1 – the healthiest is the one you enjoy drinking in moderation.
Let’s move on to the different types. Red’s rule the health roost. White’s don’t use the healthy grape skins in the fermentation process, ice has too much sugar, Rose’s are a combo of red and white and tables/ports are pretty much reds.
So answer 2 – red wines are the healthiest choice in wine
Of the red wines, which are the healthiest? We’ve got two answers here. The first is organic wines. Organic aren’t always the best tasting but some are surely good. You’ll have to try a few to find your favorite. Organic wines are grown without pesticides and chemicals so the grapes are left to fend for themselves. Do you know what chemical grapes produce to help fight disease and fungus? You guessed it – Resveratrol!
The second category of reds are the Italian and French wines grown in the mountain regions. Because these zones are colder, the plants must battle more fungus, which means more resveratrol – which means healthier wine.
Bottom line – If you can find an organic red wine grown in the mountains of Italy or France, you’re going to live forever (well in theory). 🙂