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Thursday, October 13, 2011




Wine is a popular and important beverage that accompanies and enhances a wide range of European and Mediterranean-style cuisines, from the simple and traditional to the most sophisticated and complex. Wine is important in cuisine not just for its value as a beverage, but as a flavor agent, primarily in stocks and braising, since its acidity lends balance to rich savory or sweet dishes. Red, white, and sparkling wines are the most popular, and are known as light wines because they are only 10–14% alcohol-content by volume. Apéritif and dessert wines contain 14–20% alcohol, and are sometimes fortified to make them richer and sweeter.

Blended wine names are marketing terms, and the use of these names is governed by trademark law rather than by specific wine laws. For example, Meritage(sounds like "heritage") is generally a Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and may also include Cabernet FrancPetit Verdot, and Malbec. Commercial use of the term "Meritage" is allowed only via licensing agreements with an organization called the "Meritage Association".

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

WINE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN SLOVENIA
Wine tourism development in Slovenian wine regions is analyzed and compared with similar research on determinants for life-cycle of wine tourist products and growth of wine tourist providers in world class tourism and wine tourism destinations (Getz & Brown 2006). The high  quality of wine production is an important element for initial, an introductory stage in wine tourism development.
In the second stage of  development a part of wine production is sold in a bottled form as well as there are introduced additional offers, which lead to a shift from  traditional winery into an open winery with wine sales. In the third stage, progress made in wine quality and growth in winery progress follows,  which requires improvements in marketing. This is accompanied with investments into tourist accommodation facilities in the winery to provide  n additional employment of other members of households for tourism activities.
Finally, in the fourth mature stage of wine tourism  development, tourist activities become the main source of income for the winery, which requires establishing of family or similar run firm, which is engaged in tourism and wine marketing at domestic and international markets.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Wine tasting is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. Wines are made up of chemical compounds similar or identical to those in fruits, vegetables, and spices. The sweetness of wine is determined by the amount of residual sugar in the wine after fermentation, relative to the acidity present in the wine. Dry wine, for example, has only a small amount of residual sugar.
Individual flavors may also be detected, due to the complex mix of organic molecules such as esters and terpenes that grape juice and wine can contain. Experienced tasters can distinguish between flavors characteristic of a specific grape and flavors that result from other factors in wine making. Typical intentional flavor elements in wine are those imparted by aging in oak casks; chocolate, vanilla, or coffee almost always come from the oak and not the grape itself.
Banana flavors (isoamyl acetate) are the product of yeast metabolism, as are spoilage aromas such as sweaty, barnyard, band-aid (4-ethylphenol and 4-ethylguaiacol), and rotten egg (hydrogen sulfide). Some varietals can also have a mineral flavor due to the presence of water-soluble salts (like limestone).
Wine aroma comes from volatile compounds in the wine that are released into the air. Vaporization of these compounds can be sped up by twirling the wine glass or serving the wine at room temperature. For red wines that are already highly aromatic, like Chinon and Beaujolais, many people prefer them chilled
 Pressing wine after the harvest tacuinum sanitatis 14th century
 grape vineyard
wine grapes on a vine
16th century wine press

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest known production of wine, made by fermenting grapes, took place as early as 8,000 years ago in Georgiaand 6,100 years ago in Armenia.These locations are all within the natural area of the European grapevine Vitis vinifera.
Wine is usually made from one or more varieties of the European species Vitis vinifera, such as Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gamay and 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.
               Red wine may help us live longer.
The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients.Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast consumes the sugars in the grapes and converts them into alcohol.
Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts produce different types of wine.Wines made from other fruits, such as apples and berries, are normally named after the fruit from which they are produced (for example, apple wine or elderberry wine) and are generically called fruit wine or country wine (not to be confused with the Frenchvin de pays). 

Others wine, such as barley wine and rice wine (i.e., sake), are made from starch-based materials and resemble beer and spirit more than wine, while ginger wine is fortifiedbrandy. In these cases, the term "wine" refers to the higher alcohol content rather than the production process.