Wine Knowledge Blog

A dry or sweet (usually) wine made from partially dried grapes.

The grapes (white or red) are dried in a ventilated room (called a fruttaio) for a few weeks to 6 months. They are harvested early to retain good level of acidity after drying.

The dried grapes will, normally, be used for making sweet wines.

Once fermentation is completed, the yeasts that is responsible for converting sugar to alcohol will die and their dead cells(lees) will sink at the bottom of the tank or cask.

Only white wines will be deliberately left with the lees which will be broken down (know as yeast autolysis) to evolve yeasty flavors such as bread, biscuit and toast.

This is the process, after the normal or first fermentation, that lactic bacteria convert malic acids(found in apple)  into softer lactic acids(found in milk).

Malolatic fermentation is believed to be necessary for red wines. To white wines, it will be a choice of wine-makers. This is because the styles of white wine will alter after the secondary fermentation:

• acidity will be reduced, therefore, the white wines will be less refreshing
• new flavors such as butter and hazelnut will be developed
• some of the original fruit aromas will disappear

• 1) inexpensive
• 2) mid price
• 3) high pric
• 4) expensive
• 5) very expensive

This fungal disease is spread by damp and humid conditions. It gives more trouble to red wine grapes than white.

Dependent on the circumstances, the fungus attacks grape corp resulting in either gray rot (unwanted) or noble rot (desirable).

If a grape berry is affected by noble rot, it will lose its water and shrivel. The affected berry will thus have a higher sugar content and gain some unique flavors which facilitate the production of great sweet wines.

“Varietal” describes wines made primarily from a single named grape variety, and its name is usually printed on the wine label. Therefore, if you only see Chardonnay on a wine label, the wine is made of Chardonnay grape only.

If you find two names of different grape varieties on a wine label, it indicates that the wine is made by blending the two grape varieties together. For example, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are frequently blended together to make a wine, so you should see these two names appear on the wine label at the same time.

In wine tasting, typicity is a term used to describe how much a wine can demonstrate the typical characteristics of the grape from which it was produced, i.e., how much a Cabernet Sauvignon wine “tastes like a Cabernet Sauvignon”. It is an important factor to judge which wines, made of the same varietal, are better.

The typical characteristics of a grape variety could be very subjective as it may vary from people to people. However, if you learn more about wine through proper training, you should agree that each grape variety do have its own typicity.