Uderstanding the Label

Still Wines

Appelation Controlee (AO or AOC) 
This is a guarantee of origin and production method and
a guide to wines of quality and value.

Vins Delimites de qualite Superieure (VDQS)
Regions without the over-all quality necessary for Appelation
Controlee may be classified as VDQS, they are often good
wines from less well-established regions.

Vins de Pays 
This standard is applied to wines of a particular region and
indicates that the wine has a certain minimum alcohol content.

Vins de Table 
Ordinary wine that may be from more than one regions; fine
for day to day consumption with meals.

Champagne

Vintage - (e.g. 1976, 1981) The wine of one outstanding year.

Non-Vintage - (without a date) A blend of wines from different
years.

Cuvee - Blend: all champagne is blended.

Blanc de Blances - Made from the juice of wine grapes only.

Cremant - Half sparkling or "creaming".

Rose - Pink champagne made by blending in a little red wine.

Reserve - Any wine can be called Reserve.

Brut - Bone dry.

Extra Sec - Dry.

Sec - slightly sweet.

Demi Sec - Sweet.

Doux - Very sweet.


The word "Champagne" can only appear on a bottle of
wine which was produced in the Champagne region of
France.

Basic Types of Wine

White Wine
White wine can be made from either black or
green grapes. The grape juice is squeezed out
and placed with yeast in large metal containers
to start the fermentation. When all the sugar has
turned to alcohol, the yeast drops to the bottom
of the tank.
The wine is then siphoned off and left it clear. it
may be placed in oak barrels, at this stage, where
it takes on some of the flavor of the wood. You may
notice this woody flavor with wines such as Char
donnay.

 Red Wine
Only black grapes can be used to make red wine.
The grapes are crushed and the juice and skins are
left to ferment together. The black skin of the grapes
gives red wine its colour and the essential tannin. When
you drink heavy, rich red wines, you will notice a sticky
dryness on your palate; this is caused by the tannin
which acts as a preservative. The tannin is also important
to the way the taste of red wine changes over time, even
long after it has been bottled.

 Rose Wine
Rose wine is made by allowing some of the color in skin
of the black grapes to tint the juice. About half way
through the fermentation period, the skins are taken out
and the remaining juice is left to finish fermenting.


Champagne
For most people, Champagne means celebration; anything
from a birthday to a successful business deal.
It was Benedictine monk, Dom Perignon, who first experi
mented with blending wines from this region to improve the
quality. When new bottles and cork stoppers were developed
in 1715, wine makers discovered how to give the wine its 'fizz'
with a second fermentation in the bottle. This made possible
champagne as we know it today.
All Champagne is cuvee, which means blended. The famous
champagne houses taste the young, un-ripe wines of the champagne
region and blend them to create a unique taste, then after the
second fermentation, the drink is store for at least two years in
huge limestone cellars before it is released for sale.

What and History of Wine

What is Wine?
Wine is fermented grape juice.
And it is the complexities of the fermentation
process that make it such a fascinating drink.

Fermentation is a chemical process which changes
normal juice into wine. Added yeast turns the sugar
in the juice into alcohol.
Carbon dioxide bubbles are also formed as a by-
product of this process giving some wines a little fizz.

Champagne, which is one of many different type of
wine, receives a second fermentation in the bottle
which gives it enough fizz for the characteristic "pop"
when it is opened.

There are three types of ordinary wine:
White.
Red.
Rose.

Each wine type offers hundreds of different wines
and tasted.

A little History
Although the earliest records of wine making date
back as far as 6000 BC, we hav the Romans to thank
for modern wine making.

In broad terms, wherever the Romans established a part
of their empire they introduce wine making.

And in France the climate and soil were particularly well
suited to growing vines; hence the strong tradition of wine
making in France, the country that still sets the standards
for quality wine.

Wine Producing Countries of the World
The most drinkable wines are found in countries which
provide ideal weather conditions for the cultivation of
grape vines. These occur in two "temperate zones"
which stretch as bands right around the world.

World wines areas;
-west coast of America
-east coast of America
-part of south America
-most of Europa
-south Africa
-southeast and southwest Australia
-part of NZ
-part of Japan
-part of Korea
-Bali

Weather and the skill of the wine-maker are perhaps the
two most crucial factors in the development of good wine.
Too much sun and grapes become too sweet; too little and
they don't contain enough sugar to turn into alcohol.

Tradition and Technology
In wine making regions, traditional skills are handed down
from father to son.
Wine makers work throughout the year, tending the vines
in winter when they look almost dead and watching as they
come alive and bear fruit with the change of the seasons.

When frost threatens, they rush to light fires to keep the
young vines warm. And sophisticated modern chemical
help in the battle against diseases that may destroy the
growing vine.
At the winery too, art and science combine to help in the
mysterious process that turn grape juice into wine.

From the first fermentation right through to bottling, the
head Cellar Master controls everything; constantly tasting,
deciding how long the wine should be left in wooden barrels,
how much to blend for the perfect flavor.