Wine is served at almost every dinner party, social gathering, work event, food and wine festival, bar, pub, club, or hotel, to name a few places, making it imperative to understand the basics of this delicious drink.
In this complete guide to wine, we’ll take you through some of the most important attributes of this treasured drop and equip you with the preliminary knowledge to choose wine with confidence.
Wine, in its most basic sense, is an alcoholic drink that is the product of fermented grapes. With hundreds of different wine grape varieties in existence, understanding this drink can appear very difficult, however, there are some pointers to consider when looking to decide on the right wine for you.
Generally speaking, there are five types of wine found in most bars and bottle shops, including:
Each of these wine types have their own sets of flavours, colours, aromas, and mouthfeel characteristics that make them appropriate for a number of different occasions or taste preferences. For a full guide on each individual style, explore the separate wine style guides found below.
Although it is technically possible to produce wine from any kind of fruit, wine as we know it today is almost solely produced from grapes, unless stated otherwise on the label.
The grapes used to produce wine, however, are not the same as those purchased from the grocery store, with those used for winemaking being smaller, sweeter, thicker skinned, and containing seeds.
Grown on grape vines, which are long living plants that produce a crop once a year, the geographical conditions in which the grape is grown significantly affects all attributes of the eventual wine, such as its sweetness and alcohol content.
Not all grape varietals can be grown in every location around the world either, with some requiring very strict growing conditions to be able to ripen properly or at all.
Some of these important conditions include the amount of rainfall it receives, the amount of sunlight and heat it’s exposed to, the type of soil it's grown in, the altitude it’s grown at, and the amount of oxygen it receives.
As mentioned, where and in what conditions the grapes are grown greatly impacts the flavour profile of the resulting wine, making wines from different places around the world true and unique representations of that region, even when comparing wines produced from the same type of grape.
For those wishing to learn more about how the grapes in winemaking are grown, harvested, and fermented, read this useful article.
Within wine, colour is mainly produced from pigments contained in the skins of the grapes that are imparted during production, although whether the wine has been barrel or steel tank aged is another decisive factor.
In white wines, winemakers prevent their grapes from remaining in contact with the skins, producing lighter and more transparent colours.
In red wines, on the other hand, the juice of the grapes are allowed to soak with the skins of the grapes for varying periods of time, otherwise called maceration, producing wines in colours of red to violet to purple.
For a demonstration of how important pigmentation in the skin is to the eventual colour, look at the pulp of red and white wine grapes.
You will notice that they will almost always be of the same or similar colour, helping to explain how the red pinot noir grape is often used in Champagne and other sparkling white wine blends without producing a reddish tint.
Beyond pigmentation, ageing in stainless steel tanks prevents any oxygen from interacting with the wine inside and imparts no flavour, preserving the wines natural colour and flavour.
The opposite is true when ageing wines in oak barrels, which adds various layers of colour and taste to the wine from both the oak itself and the small amount of oxygen it’s allowed to interact with. To learn more about how the colour of wine is influenced, and how it appears, visit this page.
Understanding and categorising all of the different tastes and flavours in wine can be confusing, especially as winemakers and sommeliers often like to use their own special language when describing it. Follow through to our handy guide on the flavour profiles of wine, which will explain how wines are easily and quickly distinguished.
Varying in its tastes, colours, and serving suggestions, white wine has a well deserved place as one of the most popular types of wine. Review our guide to white to find out not only what the prominent white wine varieties are but also how each one tastes and how to pick one suited to you.
Served prominently in times of celebration and fun, bottles of sparkling wine can be some of the most expensive and premium examples of wines available anywhere. Our guide to sparkling wine will share with you all that you need to know about this wine type, including its popular styles and tastes.
Easily some of the best wines to consume when the weather is hot and the sun is out, rosé wines vary in their flavour profiles and ideal consumption patterns. In our guide to rosé we help enlighten you as to the prominent styles that exist in this type of wine and explore common serving suggestions.
Varying immensely in its flavours and production methods, fortified and dessert wines are often overlooked and misunderstood. In our guide to fortified and dessert wines, we go into detail about many of the different styles in this category and how to effectively pick the right bottle for you.
