WHAT & HOW - The Grape
Dear readers,
It is Saturday morning, so time to invest some time in the grape berry!
When I started studying wine in South Africa, we had a basic sentence to describe what wine is.
"Wine is a beverage from fermented grape berries, that transform due to a natural process (with some help of the human being) in an alcoholic beverage".
When fermenting grape berries, sugar will be converted into alcohol. I would like to explain where a grape berry exist of and explain why these aspects are important when making wine.
The correct word for wine making is the vinification process, but I would like to keep it simple.
A grape berry, consists of the following aspects which are essential during the wine making process.
- Water 70% to 80%: this is extremely important for growth of the grape. When the summer season starts the bunches and leaves will start to grow, for this water and sun are necessary. For one bottle of wine around 1 or 2 liters of water is needed....small detail!
- Sugars: during the ripening process sugars will develop, the grape is getting sweet. This aspect is highly necessary for ALCOHOL. During the wine making process the sugars will convert into sugar (How; that is for later!)
- Pips and stems: these ingredients are important for the red wine making process. You will think now why!? "These are harsh and do not add any taste"!. You are totally wrong at the moment! Why? When drinking red wine your mouth will get that feeling of dryness, this is due to the fact that red wine has its tannins. These flavors are mostly coming from pips and stems! This will gives a wine a distinctive taste in the end, I actually love it:).
- Natural ingredients like proteins and vitamins A, B,& C - Wine is a healthy drink!
- Minerals: when the grape vine is searching for water, it will bring up different minerals. The soils of the grape can be different and you can taste this in the wine. I can better assess this in a white wine than in a red wine.
The above picture gives an overview of the most important aspect of the grape. As you can see in the picture you can find also; malic acid, tartaric acid, acidity and more. I would like to elaborate on these aspects when the vinification process will be discussed.
If you have in the mean time questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Wine love,
Annalia
It is Saturday morning, so time to invest some time in the grape berry!
When I started studying wine in South Africa, we had a basic sentence to describe what wine is.
"Wine is a beverage from fermented grape berries, that transform due to a natural process (with some help of the human being) in an alcoholic beverage".
When fermenting grape berries, sugar will be converted into alcohol. I would like to explain where a grape berry exist of and explain why these aspects are important when making wine.
The correct word for wine making is the vinification process, but I would like to keep it simple.
A grape berry, consists of the following aspects which are essential during the wine making process.
- Water 70% to 80%: this is extremely important for growth of the grape. When the summer season starts the bunches and leaves will start to grow, for this water and sun are necessary. For one bottle of wine around 1 or 2 liters of water is needed....small detail!
- Sugars: during the ripening process sugars will develop, the grape is getting sweet. This aspect is highly necessary for ALCOHOL. During the wine making process the sugars will convert into sugar (How; that is for later!)
- Pips and stems: these ingredients are important for the red wine making process. You will think now why!? "These are harsh and do not add any taste"!. You are totally wrong at the moment! Why? When drinking red wine your mouth will get that feeling of dryness, this is due to the fact that red wine has its tannins. These flavors are mostly coming from pips and stems! This will gives a wine a distinctive taste in the end, I actually love it:).
- Natural ingredients like proteins and vitamins A, B,& C - Wine is a healthy drink!
- Minerals: when the grape vine is searching for water, it will bring up different minerals. The soils of the grape can be different and you can taste this in the wine. I can better assess this in a white wine than in a red wine.
The above picture gives an overview of the most important aspect of the grape. As you can see in the picture you can find also; malic acid, tartaric acid, acidity and more. I would like to elaborate on these aspects when the vinification process will be discussed.
If you have in the mean time questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Wine love,
Annalia
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