Riesling is the Best White Wine, Yes Or No?

The Riesling grape variety is quite unique in that it preserves its identity wherever it is grown, unlike many other varieties. Not only is it grown in Germany, from where it originated, but also in neighbouring Alsace and Austria, Italy, California, cooler parts of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Chile.

Most wine drinkers would give the Riesling a wide berth in the supermarket aisles when searching out a white wine, aiming for the highly over rated Chardonnay or the safer Sauvignon Blanc. But, very few people would consider a Riesling dry wine to be of interest, and there are several reasons why it is considered by some professionals, to be the queen of wines.

Unfortunately, most wine drinkers have come across those dreadful sweeter Rieslings produced in Germany, in the 1970’s and later, for a very unsuspected mainly British market. These wnes were produced for consumers who only wanted one thing from a wine, low cost. The word ‘quality’ was not really big in the vocabulary then, so quantity certainly outstripped quality. Many drinkers indulged on those insipid, sickly sweet, uncharacterful wines – but how things have changed for the better. Continue reading “Riesling is the Best White Wine, Yes Or No?”

Washing Wine Glasses: From a Chore to an Art Form

No one is particularly fond of washing dishes, with many people reserving it for times when the tower of dirty dishes in the kitchen sink begins to resemble the Tower of Pisa. But, for those who have a collection of wine glasses, particularly crystal wine glasses, washing dishes correctly becomes essential in preserving the glasses ability to fully do their job.

Non-Crystal Wine Glasses

Non-crystal wine glasses are not as high maintenance as crystal wine glasses, but they still require a certain know how, knowledge on what to do for everything from using dish soap to removing a rabid wine stain that, no matter how much you yourself whine, will not come out.

Just Add Water: A simple method in wine glasses is to just add water. Rinsing the wine glasses three or four times in hot water should be enough to remove all residual wine. And, placing the wine glasses upside down on a clean cloth, when finished, will help the wine glasses in their quest to air dry. Continue reading “Washing Wine Glasses: From a Chore to an Art Form”

How to Make Wine at Home in a Pickle Bucket

Yep. You can make wine at home in a pickle bucket. Here’s how:

Go to your local fast food restaurant and ask for the manager. Tell him or her that you would like 2 empty pickle buckets.

These buckets are food grade buckets and will not outgas any weird chemicals into your wine. Although they are food grade, they do have a big problem: they were filled with vinegar. Vinegar is a natural enemy of wine.

So – you’ll have to sterilize and clean the pickle buckets, let them air dry, and then sterilize and clean them again. I use oxyclean and it seems to work pretty good.

Once you have cleaned and dried them twice, you are ready to go. Continue reading “How to Make Wine at Home in a Pickle Bucket”

Characteristics and Disadvantages of Using Cooking Wine

Wine is one of the most popular beverages in the world. It has become an important drink during ceremonies, events, rituals and even fun sessions with friends.

But wines are more than drinks. There are some wines that are used in the preparation of delicious meals. These wines are called cooking wines.

Cooking wines or cooking sherries are inexpensive. They are used as one of the main ingredients in cooking food. Cooking wines are synonymous with salt as a preservative, flavor enhancer and food coloring.

A chemical reaction happens when a bottle of cooking wine is opened. Exposed to oxygen, a process of fermentation converts the alcohol in the wine to acetic acid. This produces what is called as wine vinegar after some time. The salt in cooking wine slows down this transformation by slowing down the growth of microorganisms that produce acetic acid. The salt is quite important since a bottle of cooking wine may be opened and used occasionally over a long period of time. Continue reading “Characteristics and Disadvantages of Using Cooking Wine”

The Romance of Winery Tourism

Winery tourism seems to be the new buzz word at the moment when it comes to talking about visiting a winery for fun. Actually we’re really just wanting to go there to taste the wine and experience the atmosphere, and maybe have some food.

So, why all this ‘winery tourism’ lark? Well, look at it from the wineries point of view. You, and millions like you, are the bread and butter of these friendly businesses – of course along with their wine sales – they NEED you just as much as you desire to visit them.

The wine industry has such a lot to offer apart from just making wines, and this is why the word ‘tourism’ is being tagged alongside. Vast sub industries are formed, when wineries add-on areas of interest to their existing wine armoury in that they now offer the public. These areas encompass tours, tastings, wine clubs, restaurants and even wedding ceremonies – all held in and around the winery itself. Continue reading “The Romance of Winery Tourism”

Yeast-Free Living – Can I Drink Wine?

Okay, so you’ve recently found out that you need to avoid yeast. But you’re wondering about alcohol. You like the odd glass of wine with an evening meal. Who doesn’t? You’ve heard that drinks such as bear have yeast in them, but what about wine or other alcoholic drinks?

Well, the good news is, it’s very unlikely that any commercial bottled wine has yeast in it. If it still had any yeast in it, then it would start to ferment again, it would turn cloudy, taste horrible, and possibly even the cork could end up being pushed out. This is different to beer, which does contain yeast and should therefore be avoided if following such a diet.

You see, the thing is, when wine is made, although it is initially fermented using yeast, it is refined to take away any dead yeast cells once the fermentation process has completed. This is the reason why wines you buy in the shop look clear when you pour them into your glass. All of the other remains of the fermentation process have been removed. Continue reading “Yeast-Free Living – Can I Drink Wine?”

Wine and Health – An Introduction

The use of wine and our strong convictions of its health benefits, abstainers and teetotalers notwithstanding, are probably as old as wine itself dating back to the first civilizations in the ancient world. In Mesopotamia ca. the third millennium BC, the Babylonians believed wine to have medicinal and therapeutic effects and it was considered so pure and free of contaminations that it was preferred-along with beer-over water. In Ancient Egypt more than two thousand years BC, wine also became a common ingredient in “prescription drugs” for curing a variety of ailments. The drugs were formulated using other ingredients too, such as water and particularly those derived from medicinal plants.

And stories abound from the Far East where the Chinese would lace wine with animal parts to concoct drugs to cure just about any ailment. Even Hippocrates, the father of medicine who had a keen sense of physiological and metabolic reactions in the human body not only used wine as a prescription drug in Ancient Greece but also pioneered it into an antiseptic for treating wounds. Continue reading “Wine and Health – An Introduction”

6 Must-Haves for Building Your Own Wine Cellar

For people wanting to build the best wine cellar possible, there are certain crucial, ‘must-have’ conditions to keep in mind if your wine cellar is to operate at its best.

Temperature

Temperature control is debatably the most important aspect in setting up a wine cellar. The most desirable temperature for long-term wine storage is between 12 and 16 degrees Celsius. However, it is crucial that the temperature is always constant. A gradual shift in temperature (e.g. between seasons) is acceptable, but any major temperature shifts throughout the course of a day or two may considerably cause harm to your wine collection. Warmer temperatures will accelerate the aging process, and frequent temperature changes will ruin the condition of the cork as it constantly expands and contracts.

Location Continue reading “6 Must-Haves for Building Your Own Wine Cellar”

The Secrets to Making Good Mulled Wine

Traditionally mulled wine is a warm drink that only seems to appear around Christmas time, but why is this so? We all associate drinking mulled wine in cold weather and during holiday time, this obviously gives us the feel-good factor for the beverage. Therefore, if we feel so good whilst drinking mulled wine, why don’t we drink it anytime during the year especially during the cold, dull winter months when we really need cheering up?

Mulling a wine (or any beverage for that fact) is simply infusing it with herbs and spices and then heating it up to release these wonderful aromas. In days gone by when a wine had lost it’s freshness and started to oxidise, mulling it was a good way of rejuvenation and making it palatable again. By adding spices and a little honey this ‘old’ wine was given a new lease of life, and what’s more tasted really good. Continue reading “The Secrets to Making Good Mulled Wine”

Wine Investmentment: Pros and Cons of Investing in Wine

Investing in wine is a wise option since there are a lot of advantages to such an investment. Still you need to be aware of a few common pitfalls to protect yourself. We will explore the Pro’s and Con’s of investing in wine in the following article.

Pros:

i) The yield from investing in wine can be exceptional when compared to other kinds of investment products that most people traditionally invest in. Wine investments can typically yield up to 30% per year. Additionally, wine investments have consistently outperformed the stock market for about 3 decades (which honestly, is not saying a lot).

ii) Investments in wine can be good for both short term, as well as long term investments. Short-term investments can be as little as one year, and long term investments in wine span a period of about five years. Wines investments are also hedged because the supply keeps diminishing while demand keeps increasing constantly. Continue reading “Wine Investmentment: Pros and Cons of Investing in Wine”