Drinking Wines

Wine has been a popular drink to serve with meals for centuries but many people get confused as to which wine goes best with what type of meal. To make matters worse, there?s more to wine than just red and white, there are many different varieties of wine to choose from as well. Here?s a guide to some of the most widely available wines, their flavor and what types of meals they go best with.

Sauvignon Blanc

This popular white wine has an herbal, sometimes peppery aroma. When compared to Chardonnay you might find this to be a bit more acidic. It goes great with any type of seafood dish.

Semillon

This wine has a rich golden color and gives off an aroma of lemons and figs. Due to it?s low level of acidity, it is often blended with Sauvignon Blanc. While most white wines do not age gracefully, Semillon is one of the few that ages rather well. Semillon is a perfect match for cheese and should be added to the list for your next any wine and cheese party.

Riesling

Another wine that has low acidity it can be paired with a variety of foods. It has the aroma of mineral stone, tropical fruits and flowers and makes a good match with white fish and pork as well as Chinese cuisine.

Chardonnay

This is the king of white wines and a popular dinner beverage. With it?s smoky or vanilla aroma it goes well with both white meat and fish.

Pouilly-Fuiss?

This French white wine is a medium full bodied wine. It is a dry wine with a pale golden color and a fruity or floral aroma that hints at hazelnuts and honey. If you plan to serve Pouilly-Fuiss?, make sure you serve it at 55 degrees Fahrenheit and pair it with turkey, pork, poultry, fish in a sauce, smoked fish or creamy cheese.

Frascati

This wine is said to have been favored by the ancient Romans and according to rumor was the favorite wine of Pope Gregorio XVI. This pale yellow wine is crisp, dry and fresh. Best served cold it goes well with light dishes including seafood and poultry as well as soups.

Silvaner

This wine which originates in Austria has a very slight fruity taste and low acidity. It goes best with mild non-spicy dishes.

Pedro Xim?nez

This syrupy desert wine hails from Spain and has a very strong taste reminiscent of molasses and raisins. This wine goes good with coffee and is often used poured right over vanilla ice cream.

Cabernet Sauvignon

This is one of the most popular red wines and goes great with fish such as salmon and trout as well as sauce free meats.

Merlot

Another popular red wine, Merlot has a high alcohol content and full body. It can have 3 flavors - an herbish plumb flavor, a currant and cherry flavor and a chocolate and cherry flavor. This dark colored wine goes great with game meats, pate and even casseroles.

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is an exceptionally flavored wine with a high alcohol content and medium to high acidity. It has the aroma of wilted roses with a hint of cola. It is a challenging wine to make and may cost a bit more but the flavor is worth the expense. Pinot Noir goes well with rabbit, chicken, ham, steak, boeuf bourguignon, and coq au vin.

Zinfandel

Has a fruity taste and lush texture that makes it popular among many Americans. It tastes of red berries and bramble and goes well with pizza and burgers or any meals with a red sauce such as pasta. For best taste, serve Zinfandel at 65 degrees.

Chianti

This Italian red wine has a bold taste that goes with almost any dish especially tomato rich dishes like braised rabbit as well as nature cheeses. Chianti has a bright red color and the aroma of violets.

So there you have it - a list of common wines and their best pairings. The next time you serve an important dinner, you?ll be sure to have the right wine for the meal.

Lee Dobbins writes for http://www.online-gourmet-foods.com where you can read more about gourmet foods and wine.

Don’t just sip it, eat it!

Want to enhance and improve the taste of your favorite dish? Think that adding wine to your recipe will make it more scrumptious and mouth watering? Well then, you’re absolutely right!

Wines are widely used in the cooking world because they intensify taste and zest. They are also capable of releasing flavors from food that are not possible by regular means of cooking.

The main question you must have now is this: What type of wine goes with what type of food?

You have red wines, white wine, sparkly champagne, sherry etc. You have grape vine types like merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, zinfandel, syrah, and Riesling. With the wide variety of them available, picking a wine is pretty tricky. The secret here is to know what combinations are used by professionals.

1. Red Wine

There used to be a rule in cooking that ?red wine goes with red meat, white wine with white meat?. Although it’s not really true anymore, most chefs still go with that.

- For red meat, young and full bodied red wines are recommended. Try going for Zinfandel Red or Merlot.
- For red sauces, robust, full bodied wines are best. Make pasta, pizza or other tomato-sauce based dishes with it.
- Using root veggies with beef stock? You might want to look for an earth red, full bodied wine. The color it imparts to the meat makes it all the more wonderful.

2. White Wine

Cream based sauces, butter and herbs. Yum. White wine is usually used with white meat and best for light colored dishes.

- If you fancy a zesty dish, add some sparkling champagne.
- For chicken, pork or veal, try cooking with white wine. Spice up your grilled chicken by mixing dry, white wine with butter as the sauce.
- Crisp, dry white wines are ideal for seafood soup and shellfish dishes. Bouillabaisse, anyone?
- Leftover sweet white wine in your fridge? Why make delicious, delectable desserts? Whip up some Bavarian cream.

3. Fortified wine

Fortified wines are what they are: fortified. Additional neutral alcohol is added to them. Then they are aged for a long time. Examples are sherry, port and vermouth.

- Sherry is great for poultry meat and vegetables soups.
- For sweet, fruity dishes or desserts, splash some port or vermouth. Your dry vermouth can also be a good substitute for white wine.

4. Cooking wine

Cooking wines are relatively less pricey wines that use salt as a preservative. They can be found in supermarkets and groceries. Most professional chefs disdain the use of cooking wines because the salt content is hard to work with. You may need to adjust your recipe to work with the saltiness.

5. Exotic wines

Cooking is an experiment. If you’re feeling bold and daring, you could try cooking with exotic wines. Asian wines are popular choices for an all together different meal. There is the sake, bekseju and seol joong mae.

- Sake is a rice based wine from Japan. Although it’s mainly a beverage, it is popular as an additive to many Japanese dishes.

- Beksuju is a Korean wine made from raw rice and herbs. It can be used in vegetable dishes to increase the ‘herbal’ feel. Seol Joong Mae, a fruit wine made from plum, can be used for desserts and fruity dishes.

I hope that clears up some of your confusion. With that said, here are some few reminders for the novice cook:

- Cook only with wine that you would drink. There is no sense in cooking something that you wouldn’t want to taste.

- There are a lot of good, quality yet inexpensive wines out there. Don’t get too carried away and buy something that’s way off your budget.

- Don’t cook using aluminum or cast iron cookware. Alcohol is reactive with these materials and could cause harm to your dish.

- After adding your wine, try to wait for 5-10 minutes before tasting it. Wine needs to simmer for a while before it can impart flavor to your food.

- Got some left over wine? Put them in your ice cube tray and freeze them. This makes them good for future use.

Get your favorite recipe, pick a wine and start cooking!

Lee Dobbins, an avid wine drinker, writes for http://wine.leisure-webzone.com where you can learn more about wine and when to use it properly.

Rioja is Spain?s version of the Italian Chianti. It is the best-known and best-loved type of Spanish red wine, the one red wine type from Spain that has found a home for itself on wine lists and retail shelves everywhere in the world.

Rioja wine comes from the Rioja wine region of Northeastern Spain. Three subzones exist there and the climate and soil profile of each zone influences the quality and character of its grapes. Most Rioja wines are blends of grapes or wines from more than one subzone, although some bodegas (Spanish wineries) make their wine from only one area. The name of that area is rarely identified on the label of the wine.

Rioja is a blended wine not only in geography but also in its grape content. The grape most often associated with Rioja is Tempranillo which forms the base of most of the finest Rioja reds. The Tempranillo is also usually blended eith Grenache and up to two other locally grown grapes like Mazeulo or Graciano. Some Riojas are even made of almost entirely Grenache grapes.

Depending on which grapes the winery decides on and where the grapes came from, the style of red Rioja varies. Those wines with a high percentage of Grenache are usually higher in alcohol, less tannic and less fruity than those with less Grenache.

Rioja wines also vary considerably in the style according to how long they age at the winery in oak bottles and in bottles before they are released. Although you usually can?t know the exact grape and subzone(s) by studying the label of red Rioja, you can usually figure out the age-style of the wine.

The producers of red Rioja aren?t in agreement about how to make Riojas and this disagreement offers an array of tastes from just one region. At one extreme the wines are deeply colored and show concentrated fruit flavor and on the other side are wines that have lost their adolescent fruitiness in favor of complex, silky dimensions.

Red Rioja wine in its most classic manifestation is a medium-bodied, soft and mellow type of wine with only moderate levels of tannin. This wine has wonderful vanilla aroma and flavor that comes from the barrels in which the wine ages and, depending on how mature the wine is, it can have aged aromas and flavors of dried red fruits.

John Gibb is the owner of Wine guides For more information on wine check out www.Wines-Guidance.Info

Good news! A recent study suggested that resveratrol, a red wine compound, may extend our life.

The study was conducted on fries and worms to see if resveratrol can extend life in these creatures. Previous studies suggested that yeast life can be extended with resveratrol.

It was found that worms and fires fed resveratrol live 30% longer than those that were not fed resveratrol.

Fries and humans share many biological processes. Therefore, there is a chance this red wine compound may also extend life in humans.

Previous studies have found that resveratrol is protective against heart diseases largely due to the antioxidative properties of this compound.

However, the current finding, life-extension with resveratrol, may not be due to its antioxidative properties. Rather, resveratrol may act just like calorie-restriction that activates proteins called sirtuins similar to sir2. Sir2 is an important protein that is present in many animals and participate in the aging regulations.

More good news with resveratrol! Resveratrol does not have any negative impact on the fertility while calorie-restriction may cause infertility. Actually, resveratrol boosts the fertility of fries.

The researchers plan to continue their work on mice. If they can duplicate the same results in mice, resveratrol can be a wonder chemical that can help us extend our life to certain degree.

This study was done by David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues at the University of Connecticut and Brown University in Rhode Island. The study was published in the July 13 issue of journal Nature.

About The Author

John Roberts is a freelance writer for foodconsumer.com

Wine has been called the drink of the gods. This may be debatable, but it has definitely been the drink of the ages. Here is an overview of wine you can sip on.

An Overview of Wine ? The Drink of Gods

Wine is one of the oldest drinks known to mankind. Although historians may not be entirely sure that this is how the fermentation of wine started, an overview of the history of wine is full of interesting tidbits.

Made of fermented grape juice, wine is an alcoholic beverage that is both made and drunk in many parts of the world. The history of wine starts over 5000 years ago. It was said to have been discovered when grapes were left for too long in amphorae or earthenware jugs. These grapes somehow became tainted with wild yeast, which caused the grapes to ferment. Some courageous individual took a drink and realized the fermentation process had produced something that would be come known as wine.

There are several different basic types of wine. The most basic breakdown is red wine and white wine. When the grapes that make these varieties of wine are combined, a rose or blush wine can be created. If the wine is allowed to ferment in a way that produces carbon dioxide bubbles, it becomes a sparkling wine. If the sparkling wine comes from a particular region in France called Champagne, it is known as Champagne. There are also fortified wines ? these wines are also fermented from grapes, but additional amounts of alcohol from other sources are added to the wine to raise its alcohol content. An example of a fortified wine is brandy.

Making wine is not an easy process ? the fermentation of a really good wine may take years or even decades to complete. The type of oak barrel that wine is typically fermented in is also the result of a difficult process. Out of the 400 species of oak that grow on Earth, only 20 species are used in oak barrels for winemaking. Of those 20 species, only 5 percent of the wood taken from these trees is deemed good enough to be made into wine barrels.

The amount of grapes needed to produce quality wine is another of the many mind boggling wine tidbits known. Generally, it takes four clusters or 300 grapes to produce just one bottle of wine. Since there are only about 40 clusters of grapes produced on a grapevine per year, this means that each vine is only capable of making 10 bottles of wine. Given this fact, it is pretty amazing that wine is as cheap as we find it.

As you can see, wine is a not a simple fermentation process. The next time you drink a glass of your favorite chardonnay, think about the difficult journey that it made from grape to bottle.

Xavier Moldini is with WineriesforYou.com - a directory of wineries.

There are a few varieties of wine that taste almost identical, yet have different names. Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio, Sparkling Wine and Champagne and the newly popular Shiraz and Syrah are a few of these mystery names of wine. So what?s the difference between a Shiraz and a Syrah? Like most differences in wine names, the answer is Location Location Location.

Shiraz and Syrah are the same grape, but from different locations in the world. The name Shiraz is only used for the Syrah grapes grown in Australia. Every other Syrah is known as Syrah. (The Californians have adopted the Shiraz name for marketing purposes, but it is widely known that real Shiraz comes from the Aussies.)

Producers throughout the New World and Mediterranean Europe are planting new vineyards and nurturing old ones that have been forgotten in the past years while merlot and cabernets have been the wine of choice. What?s sparked this revitalization of grapes like shiraz/syrah? People are looking full-bodied, spicy wines and there is no better varietals than shiraz/syrah.

Syrah?s home is in the Rhone Valley in France where the berry fruit is dense, inky and more herbal, the acidity is higher and the aroma hints of fresh ground pepper. Syrah can gain complex leathery gamey flavors as it matures. Shiraz is grounded mainly in the Barossa Valley of Australia. The Australian Shiraz is from what?s thought to be from the greatest plantings of Shiraz in the world is found.

In the old vines Shiraz from Australia the grapes are riper, fuller and there is a rich, mouth-filling chocolaty character with a spicy element. The Shiraz wines are intense but more succulent and have a better longevity than it?s counterparts. Shiraz?s made in the southern part of Australia are known for their peppery taste, rarely found in any other wines.

Syrah/Shiraz doesn?t only make expensive, top of the line wines. In Australia where it has regained its position as the most planted red grape, it is responsible for masses of everyday, smooth, spicy, blackberry flavored reds. It is also blended very successfully with cabernet sauvignon at all quality levels and is made into a delicious, full bodied, ripe, spicy red wine.

So whether you?re drinking a Syrah or Shiraz, get ready for a bold, spicy, big red that is perfect on its own, or paired with aggressively prepared foods. Look for Syrahs from South Africa, Chile and Argentina in the coming years, there have been successful plantings in the past years and with the complexity of today?s Syrah?s these will be just as great.

John Gibb is the owner of Wine guides For more information on wine check out http://www.Wines-Guidance.Info

First things first, wine is a kind of beverage - specifically the alcoholic kind - that is produced via fermenting grapes or other types of fruits such as elderberry, plum or blackcurrant.

Wines that are not made from grapes are called country or fruit wine, and those that are made largely from materials such as starch come out as rice wine, barley wine or sake.

Take note that beverages that come from other materials that are fermentable, such as honey, are not really wines.

Basically, wines are produced from one variety (or probably more) of the species Vitis vinifera from Europe. A varietal is produced when one of the varities like Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot are used predominantly (between 75-85% minimum).

Believe it or not, wines that are blended are not inferior to varietals. A lot of winemakers all over the world use multiple varieties of grapes in order to produce different wines. The following are different types of wine and varieties you may encounter in your wine-tasting adventure.

Cabernet Sauvignon

This is a variety that is considered as most famous among the producers of red wine. The best one comes from France in Bordeaux. However, there are already areas in the US that produce wines that are just as great-tasting in their complexity and richness and they are usually in California specifically in Napa Valley.

Chardonnay

This has been considered as the white dry wine that is most purchased all over the world. Chardonnay is actually grown in many parts of the world. This type of wine is aged inside barrels of oak resulting in an aroma and flavor that is strong and rich. This type of wine has a character that tastes fruity and has buttery and vanilla components.

Chenin Blanc

This type of wine has been considered as common and cheap. The grapes used for this wine are grown widely in the United States, specifically California. This wine is also fruity and blends well with the more popular Chardonnay thus adding to its acidity and fruity quality.

Grenache

This is considered as the grape plant variety that is most planted. Grenache actually tastes sweet but does not have much character unless if it is vinnified well. This variety is usually grown in areas where there is drought and heat that is quite extreme.

Merlot

This type of wine is ranked along the same lines as Cabernet Sauvignon, but it has more lush. Merlot’s flavor is actually full-bodied with various flavors available such as plum, cherry, chocolate.

Pinot Blanc

This type produces a dry, soft and fruity white wine the taste of which is compared with Chardonnay. Pinot Blanc actually has tasteful hints of spice and apple and has a high acidity. Unfortunately, Pinot Blanc does not age very well and is less complicated that Chardonnay.

Pinot Gris

The grape used for this wine is brown in color and is quite successful in a place called Oregon. This wine is white and is crisp and dry with a rich spicy flavor.

Pinot Noir

This grape is considered as one of the premier ones in France, specifically in the region of Burgundy. This grape, though a bit difficult to grow, when grown well actually tastes complex and rich. It tastes more like raspberries, cherries, mint.

Riesling

Considered as a great wine among the other wines in the world, Reisling need to grow in one of the cool climates such as Germany. Its acidity is quite high and is very fruity and floral in taste. This wine ages well.

Semillon

This type of wine comes from white grapes that contains acidity that is quite low and has a roundness that is peachy. This wine partners well with Sauvignon Blanc. This is an inexpensive wine.

White Zinfandel

This wine is light blush pink in color and is usually made in the United States, specifically in California. The grapes called Zinfandel are red in color and is separated quickly from the skins when they are crushed and fermented. This results in a wine that is light pink in color. Zinfandel white grapes are made in a style that is sweet in order to balance it with the grape’s acidity.

All in all, wines will always be available for those who value its exquisite taste, flavor, aroma and the process it goes through just to make it exquisite for the palate.

Lee Dobbins, an avid wine drinker, writes for http://wine.leisure-webzone.com where you can learn more about wine and when to use it properly.

Champagne is one of the greatest drink in the world and here are some musings on bubbly from famous figures…

?my only regret in life is that I didn?t drink enough Champagne?
John Maynard Keynes

?there comes a time in every woman’s life when the only thing that helps is a glass of Champagne?
Bette Davis

?in victory, you deserve Champagne, in defeat, you need it?
Napoleon Bonaparte

?no government could survive without Champagne. Champagne in the throats of our diplomatic people is like oil in the wheels of an engine?
Joseph Dargent

?I only drink Champagne when I’m happy, and when I’m sad. sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. when I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I am not hungry and drink it when I am. otherwise I never touch it - unless I’m thirsty?
Lily Bollinger

?three be the things I shall never attain: envy, content, and sufficient Champagne?
Dorothy Parker

meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of Champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.
Winston Churchill

?come quickly, I am tasting the stars!?
Dom Perignon

?remember gentlemen, it’s not just France we are fighting for, it’s Champagne!?
Winston Churchill

?gentlemen, in the little moment that remains to us between the crisis and the catastrophe, we may as well drink a glass of Champagne?
Paul Claudel

?in a perfect world, everyone would have a glass of Champagne every evening?
Willie Gluckstern

?Champagne is the one thing that gives me zest when I feel tired?
Brigitte Bardot

?why do I drink Champagne for breakfast? doesn’t everyone??
Noel Coward

?too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right?
Mark Twain

?I had taken two finger-bowls of Champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental and profound?
F Scott Fitzgerald

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Red wine is definitely distinctively different than white wine. The universe of red wine is full of characters. From the delicate Pinots to the strong, bold Zinfandels, the red wine petulant swings back and forth over a wide range of colors and flavors.

There are many reasons why red wines are thought to be superior or more complex than their counterpart, white, but what makes a red wine red? There?s more than meets the eye. If the only difference between red wines and white wines were the color, wine drinkers wouldn?t care whether they drank one or the other. In reality, the differences between white and red wine are far more than skin deep.

Thousands of different types of grapes in the world quality as wine grapes. All these grapes fall into one of two categories, according to the color of their skins: white or black.

Red wines are red because they are made from so-called red grapes (the reality is that these grapes are either purple or black.) During the winemaking process the pigmentation of the grapes skin colors the grape juice- and consequently the wine from that juice. Only red grapes can make red wine.

In addition for being responsible for the color of red wines, red grapeskins contribute certain flavors and texture characteristics to red wines. Red wines not only look completely different from white wines, but they also taste very different.

One substance that red wines take from their grapeskins is tannin. Tannin is a substance that exists in the skins of red grapes. Tannin is usually classified as a bitter or dry flavor. If used incorrectly, the wine can taste harsh and astringent from the tannin. The presence of tannin is the single most important difference between red and white wines. Some reds are naturally lower in tannin than others, but no matter what, all reds do contain some level of tannin.

Tannin is also responsible for that feeling behind the jaw and that dry feeling that is often contributed to red wines. It is a slightly acquired taste, but after many tastings, wine enthusiasts come to love and look forward to the whole mouth experience that the tannins give wine drinkers.

Take the time to sample as many red wines as you can. There are endless possibilities of taste, color and complete wine experiences. And what better thing to explore than wine?

John Gibb is the owner of Wine guides For more information on wine check out http://www.Wines-Guidance.Info

It?s only been within the past 30 years that American wineries have made since a large mark on the world. For hundreds of years it?s been the French and the Italians that have defined the world of wine, so how did America become a front runner? Here?s a brief history of the grape and it?s evolution in the United States.

Spanish missionaries planted the seeds for winemaking in 1779 in and area that is now known as California. At the time the land was still Mexico?s and the missionaries were bringing the seeds to the San Juan Capistrano Mission. A century later European immigrant farmers began to move to this area. These immigrants were mostly Italian, but there were also French, German and Hungarian farmers that had knowledge about the winemaking process. These farmers moved to California to produce wine. Since the French, Italians and Germans had a preference for red wine, most of the early American wines were red. Even the people who came to California during the gold rush stayed behind and found a different kind of fortune, the kind found on a vine.

Some of the vineyards that these farmers planted over 100 years ago are still in existence today. Many of the fine wine shops in California carry wines containing grapes from these vines. Those same wines are often award winning vintages. These wines are a major part of the United States wine family vine and are a must have for collectors.

Prohibition almost completely destroyed the wine growing and producing industry in the United States. After prohibition was overturned, the Depression and World Wars also put a damper on the production of wine. Without buyers, it was hard for producers to stay afloat. It wasn?t until the late 1970?s that winemaking started to become what it is in the US. Before the 1970?s there were very few producing wineries in the United States. 90% of them were based in California specializing in red wines, true to their predecessors.

Today there are thousands of wineries spread out around the United States. The states best known for wine production are California, Oregon, Washington and Michigan. The growth and popularity of wine in the past 30 years is amazing and shows no signs of slowing down. Many wine enthusiasts hope that it never does.

John Gibb is the owner of Wine guides For more information on wine check out www.Wines-Guidance.Info