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A Dutch wine bottle made in the 17th century, at The The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum

P:WINE

Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from fermentation of grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Although fruits other than grapes can also be fermented, the resultant wines are normally named after the fruit from which they are produced (for example, apple wine) and are known as fruit wine (or country wine). Others, such as barley wine and rice wine (e.g. sake), are made from starch-based materials and resemble beer more than wine; ginger wine is fortified with brandy. In these cases, the use of the term "wine" is a reference to the higher alcohol content, rather than the production process. The commercial use of the word "wine" (and its equivalent in other languages) is protected by law in many jurisdictions. Wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast which consume the sugars found in the grapes and convert them into alcohol. Various varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are used depending on the types of wine produced.

Wine stems from an extended and rich history dating back about 8,000 years and is thought to have originated in present-day Georgia or Iran. Wine is thought to have appeared in Europe about 6,500 years ago in present-day Bulgaria and Greece and was very common in ancient Greece and Rome; the Greek god Dionysos, and his Roman counterpart Liber represented wine. Wine continues to play a role in religious ceremonies, such as Kiddush in Judaism and the Eucharist in Christianity. ( Full article...)

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Image 1

Tempranillo in Viala & Vermorel

Tempranillo (also known as Ull de Llebre, Cencibel, Tinto Fino and Tinta del Pais in Spain, Aragonez or Tinta Roriz in Portugal, and several other synonyms elsewhere) is a black grape variety widely grown to make full-bodied red wines in its native Spain. Its name is the diminutive of the Spanish temprano ("early"), a reference to the fact that it ripens several weeks earlier than most Spanish red grapes. Tempranillo has been grown on the Iberian Peninsula since the time of Phoenician settlements. It is the main grape used in Rioja, and is often referred to as Spain's noble grape. The grape has been planted throughout the globe's wine regions.

In 2015, Tempranillo was the fourth most widely planted wine grape variety worldwide with 232,561 hectares (574,670 acres) under vine, of which 87% was in Spain where it is the most planted red grape variety. ( Full article...)
Image 2

A glass of red wine

The health effects of wine are mainly determined by its active ingredient – alcohol. Preliminary studies found that drinking small quantities of wine (up to one standard drink per day for women and one to two drinks per day for men), particularly of red wine, may be associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular diseases, cognitive decline, stroke, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, and early death. Other studies found no such effects.

Drinking more than the standard drink amount increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation, stroke, and cancer. Mixed results are also observed in light drinking and cancer mortality. ( Full article...)
Image 3

Vineyards and hillsides near the comune of Barbaresco.

Barbaresco is an Italian wine made with the Nebbiolo grape. Barbaresco is produced in the Piedmont region in an area of the Langhe immediately to the east of Alba and specifically in the comunes of Barbaresco, Treiso and Neive plus that area of the frazione San Rocco Seno d'Elvio which was once part of the comune of Barbaresco and now belongs to the comune of Alba. It was granted Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) status in 1966 and Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita status in 1980. The wine is often compared with Barolo—another Nebbiolo-based wine from the Piedmont area. Though the wines do share many similarities, there are some distinct differences between them. ( Full article...)
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Vin délimité de qualité supérieure ("delimited wine of superior quality"), usually abbreviated as VDQS, was the second highest category of French wine, below appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) in rank, but above vin de pays (country wine). VDQS was sometimes written as AOVDQS, with AO standing for appellation d'origine. VDQS wines were subject to restrictions on yield and vine variety, among others.

There were relatively few VDQS as they typically moved on to AOC status after a number of years. VDQS therefore represented a small part of overall French wine production. In 2005, VDQS wines made up 0.9% of volume amounting from 409,472 hectoliters of production. 42.3% of the VDQS wines produced in that year were white, with the remaining 57.7% being either red or rosé. ( Full article...)
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Warren Winiarski (born 1928) is a Napa Valley winemaker and the founder and former proprietor of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars.

Winiarski owns and operates Arcadia Vineyards in the Coombsville AVA of Napa Valley, which produces Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. In 1976, Winiarski won the Judgment of Paris blind tasting for his 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon. He oversees the Winiarski Family Foundation, which supports educational and charitable causes, in addition to teaching courses at the St. John's College Summer Classics program in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2017, Winiarski was inducted into the 11th class of the California Hall of Fame by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. for his global efforts to showcase and preserve the quality and history of California wine. The Smithsonian Institution, through its National Museum of American History, awarded Winiarski the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal on November 21, 2019. ( Full article...)
Image 6

Grenache noir in Viala & Vermorel

Grenache ( /ɡrəˈnæʃ/) or Garnacha (IPA: [ɡaɾˈnatʃa]) is one of the most widely planted red wine grape varieties in the world. It ripens late, so it needs hot, dry conditions such as those found in Spain, where the grape is believed to have originated. It is also grown in the Italian island of Sardinia, the south of France, Australia, and California's Monterey AVA, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara County and San Joaquin Valley.

It is generally spicy, berry-flavored and soft on the palate and produces wine with a relatively high alcohol content, but it needs careful control of yields for best results. Characteristic flavor profiles on Grenache include red fruit flavors (raspberry and strawberry) with a subtle, white pepper spice note. Grenache wines are highly prone to oxidation, with even young examples having the potential to show browning (or "bricking") coloration that can be noticed around the rim when evaluating the wine at an angle in the glass. As Grenache ages the wines tend to take on more leather and tar flavors. Wines made from Grenache tend to lack acid, tannin and color, and it is often blended with other varieties such as Syrah, Carignan, Tempranillo, and Cinsaut. ( Full article...)
Image 7

Beaujolais ( /ˌboʊʒəˈleɪ/ BOH-zhə-LAY, French: [boʒɔlɛ]) is a French Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) wine generally made of the Gamay grape, which has a thin skin and is low in tannins. Like most AOC wines they are not labeled varietally. Whites from the region, which make up only 1% of its production, are made mostly with Chardonnay grapes though Aligoté is also permitted until 2024 (on condition the vines were planted before 2004). Beaujolais tends to be a very light-bodied red wine, with relatively high amounts of acidity. In some vintages, Beaujolais produces more wine than the Burgundy wine regions of Chablis, Côte d'Or, Côte Chalonnaise and Mâconnais put together.

The wine takes its name from the historical Province of Beaujolais, a wine-producing region. It is located north of Lyon, and covers parts of the north of the department of Rhône, the Rhône-Alpes region and southern areas of the department of Saône-et-Loire, in Burgundy. While administratively considered part of the Burgundy wine region, the climate is closer to that of the Rhône, and the wine is sufficiently individual in character to be considered apart from Burgundy and Rhône. The region is known internationally for its long tradition of winemaking, for the use of carbonic maceration, and more recently for the popular Beaujolais nouveau. ( Full article...)
Image 8

Cabernet Franc in Viala & Vermorel

Cabernet Franc is one of the major black grape varieties worldwide. It is principally grown for blending with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the Bordeaux style, but can also be vinified alone, as in the Loire's Chinon. In addition to being used in blends and produced as a varietal in Canada and the United States, it is sometimes made into ice wine in those regions.

Cabernet Franc is lighter than Cabernet Sauvignon, making a bright pale red wine that contributes finesse and lends a peppery perfume to blends with more robust grapes. Depending on the growing region and style of wine, additional aromas can include tobacco, raspberry, bell pepper, cassis, and violets. ( Full article...)
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Ordinaire is a wine bar, wine shop, and bistro-style restaurant in Oakland, California. Located on Grand Avenue in the Grand Lake District, Ordinaire had its grand opening in September 2013. Ordinaire only sells natural wine, produced from organic grapes with minimal chemical and technological intervention. Owner Bradford Taylor opened Ordinaire while pursuing a Ph.D at the University of California, Berkeley with a dissertation on the sense of taste in early 20th century modernist literature. Taylor is also an organizer of an annual natural wine festival in Oakland called Brumaire, which has held events at Ordinaire.

In addition to selling and serving wine, Ordinaire serves small plates and periodically partners with chefs to open as a pop-up restaurant called Bistro Ordinaire. Food and wine critics have praised Ordinaire for its selection of wines and hip yet unpretentious atmosphere. Amid a wave of interest in natural wine in the United States, Ordinaire has helped to establish Oakland as a natural wine hub. The shop has been described as an important site for natural wine culture within the East Bay, the San Francisco Bay Area, the West Coast, and the United States as a whole. ( Full article...)
Image 10

Zinfandel grapes ripening on the vine

Zinfandel (also known as Primitivo) is a variety of black-skinned wine grape. The variety is grown in over 10 percent of California vineyards. DNA analysis has revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grapes Crljenak Kaštelanski and Tribidrag, as well as to the Primitivo variety traditionally grown in Apulia, Italy, where it was introduced in the 18th century, and Kratošija in Montenegro. The grape found its way to the United States in the mid-19th century, where it became known by variations of a name applied to a different grape, likely " Zierfandler" from Austria.

The grapes typically produce a robust red wine, although, in the United States, a semi-sweet rosé (blush-style) wine called White Zinfandel has six times the sales of the red wine. The grape's high sugar content can be fermented into levels of alcohol exceeding 15 percent. ( Full article...)
Image 11

The wine shelf at Saltbox

The Australian wine industry is one of the world's largest exporters of wine, with approximately 800 million out of the 1.2 to 1.3 billion litres produced annually exported to overseas markets. The wine industry is a significant contributor to the Australian economy through production, employment, export, and tourism.

There is a $3.5 billion domestic market for Australian wines, with Australians consuming approximately 500 million litres annually. Norfolk Islanders are the second biggest per capita wine consumers in the world with 54 litres. Only 16.6% of wine sold domestically is imported. ( Full article...)
Image 12

A cluster of Nebbiolo.

Nebbiolo ( /ˌnɛbiˈoʊloʊ/, Italian: [nebˈbjɔːlo]; Piedmontese: nebieul [neˈbjøl]) is an Italian red wine grape variety predominantly associated with its native Piedmont region, where it makes the Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) wines of Barolo, Barbaresco, Gattinara, Ghemme, and Roero, together with numerous DOC wines. Nebbiolo is thought to derive its name from the Italian nebbia or Piedmontese nebia, meaning " fog". During harvest, which generally takes place late in October, a deep, intense fog sets into the Langhe region where many Nebbiolo vineyards are located. Alternative explanations refer to the fog-like glaucous veil that forms over the berries as they reach maturity, or that perhaps the name is derived instead from the Italian word nobile, meaning noble. Nebbiolo produces lightly-colored red wines which can be highly tannic in youth with scents of tar and roses. As they age, the wines take on a characteristic brick-orange hue at the rim of the glass and mature to reveal other aromas and flavours such as violets, tar, wild herbs, cherries, raspberries, truffles, tobacco, and prunes. Nebbiolo wines can require years of ageing to balance the tannins with other characteristics. ( Full article...)
Image 13
Labels of the Italian wine Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2004 from the Pegrandi vineyard produced by Vaona. The label indicates that this is a DOC class wine from the Classico region of Valpolicella.

The following four classifications of wine constitute the Italian system of labelling and legally protecting Italian wine:
- Denominazione di origine (DO, rarely used; pronounced [denominatˈtsjoːne di oˈriːdʒine]; English: "designation of origin");
- Indicazione geografica tipica (IGT; [indikatˈtsjoːne dʒeoˈɡraːfika ˈtiːpika]; "indication of geographical typicality");
- Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC; [denominatˈtsjoːne di oˈriːdʒine kontrolˈlaːta]; "controlled designation of origin"); and
- Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita (DOCG; [denominatˈtsjoːne di oˈriːdʒine kontrolˈlaːta ɛ ɡaranˈtiːta]; "controlled and guaranteed designation of origin").
( Full article...)
Image 14

Vineyards in the Napa Valley AVA

California wine production has a rich viticulture history since 1680 when
Spanish Jesuit missionaries planted Vitis vinifera vines native to the Mediterranean region in their established missions to produce wine for religious services. In the 1770s, Spanish missionaries continued the practice under the direction of the Father Junípero Serra who planted California's first vineyard at Mission San Juan Capistrano.

Its contemporary wine production grew steadily since the end of Prohibition, but mostly known for its sweet, port-style and jug wine products. As the market favored French brands, California's table wine business grew modestly, but quickly gained international prominence at the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, when renown French oenophiles, in a blind tasting, ranked the California wines higher than the primer French labels in the Chardonnay (white) and Cabernet Sauvignon (red) categories. The result caused a 'shock' in viticulture industry since France was regarded as foremost producer of the world's finest table wines. This event contributed to expanding the recognition and prestige of vintners in the New World, specifically, the "Golden State." ( Full article...)
Image 15

Oak wine barrels

Oak is used in winemaking to vary the color, flavor, tannin profile and texture of wine. It can be introduced in the form of a barrel during the fermentation or aging periods, or as free-floating chips or staves added to wine fermented in a vessel like stainless steel. Oak barrels can impart other qualities to wine through evaporation and low level exposure to oxygen. ( Full article...)

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... that illustrator Abigail Larson once designed a wine-bottle label for the Edgar Allan Poe Museum?
... that a wine closet at 15 Central Park West originally cost up to $80,000, while a storage bin cost $35,000?
... that when Fred Franzia created Two-Buck Chuck, he was said to have "turned the wine industry on its head"?
... that the headless body of Thomas Aquinas was boiled, possibly in wine, after his canonization?
... that Benjamin Wallace wrote a book about wine bottles allegedly owned by Thomas Jefferson?
... that Julia Marden was the first known person to create a Wampanoag twined turkey-feather mantle since European contact 400 years earlier?
... that Adele reduced the length of " I Drink Wine" from fifteen to six minutes because her label thought that no one would play a fifteen-minute song on the radio?
... that the Louis M. Martini Winery began selling wine on December 5, 1933 – the day on which Prohibition in the United States was repealed?

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“

Good wine is a necessity of life for me.

”

— Thomas Jefferson

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Sine Qua Non (also known as SQN) is a California cult winery known for its Rhône style blends, a tendency to avoid repetition, and a very limited production of wine that is highly difficulty to obtain. The winery is located in Ventura County, within the Central Coast AVA.

Founded in 1994 by Manfred Krankl and his wife Elaine to supply the restaurant Campanile, the wines have been titled with names such as Queen of Spades, Twisted & Bent, Imposter McCoy, The Bride, Poker Face and Red Handed, and the bottles come uncommonly shaped with distinctive labels featuring own artwork. ( Full article...)

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The following are images from various wine-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Night harvest by hand of wine grapes in Napa, California (from Winemaking)
Image 2Harvested Cabernet Sauvignon grapes (from Winemaking)
Image 3Stainless steel fermentation vessels and new oak barrels at the Three Choirs Vineyard, Gloucestershire, England (from Winemaking)
Image 4 Georgian Kvevri, a jar dated to the 6th millennium BC found at the Shulaveri site ( Georgian National Museum). (from History of wine)
Image 5Manual grape gathering (from Viticulture)
Image 6Crushed grapes leaving the crusher (from Winemaking)
Image 7A vineyard in Brhlovce, Slovakia (from Viticulture)
Image 8A mechanical destemming machine in use at Chateau Montelena winery in Napa Valley (from Winemaking)
Image 9A wine labelling machine with adhesive labels in France (from Winemaking)
Image 10Grape cultivation, winemaking, and commerce in ancient Egypt c. 1500 BC (from History of wine)
Image 11Central component of a mechanical destemming. Paddles above the small circular slots rotate to remove the larger chunks of stems. Grapes are pulled off the stems and fall through the holes. Some small amount of stem particles are usually desired to be kept with the grapes for tannin structure. (from Winemaking)
Image 12Anatomy of a grape, showing the components extracted from each pressing (from Winemaking)
Image 13Shipping wine in Roman Gaul: amphoras (top) were the traditional Mediterranean vessels, but the Gauls introduced the use of barrels. (from History of wine)
Image 14Archaeological sites of the Neolithic, Copper Age, and early Bronze Age in which vestiges of wine and olive growing have been found. (from History of wine)
Image 15The corkscrew-shaped feed auger sits on top of a mechanical crusher-destemmer. Grape clusters are fed into the machine, where they are first crushed, then destemmed. Stems exit at the end, while juice, skins, seeds, and some debris exit the bottom. (from Winemaking)
Image 16Wine boy at a Greek symposium (from History of wine)
Image 17In ancient times, berries were crushed by foot in a barrel or pit. (from Winemaking)
Image 18Wine grapes from the Guadalupe Valley in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico (from Winemaking)
Image 19Mechanical harvesting of Sauvignon blanc grapes in Côtes de Duras, France (from Viticulture)
Image 20Examples of downy and powdery mildew on a grape leaf (from Viticulture)
Image 21Grape harvesting depicted in a medieval book of hours (from Viticulture)
Image 22A Napa Valley vineyard on the side of a road (from Viticulture)
Image 23Monastic cellarer tasting wine, from Li Livres dou Santé (French manuscript, late 13th century) (from History of wine)
Image 24Satyr working at a wine press of wicker-work mats (1st century AD relief). (from History of wine)
Image 25Hellenistic mosaics discovered close to the city of Paphos depicting Dionysos, god of wine (from History of wine)
Image 26Entrance to the Areni-1 cave in southern Armenia near the town of Areni where a winery dated to c. 4100 BC was found in 2007. (from History of wine)
Image 27Wine grapes on Long Island (from Viticulture)
Image 28Dionysus in a vineyard; amphora dated to the late 6th century BC (from History of wine)
Image 29Antique wooden wine press in front of World Heritage vineyards (from Winemaking)
Image 30Testing wine for sulphur dioxide level (from Winemaking)
Image 31Vineyards in Italy (from Winemaking)
Image 32The world wine export 2020 shows the annual wine export production of various countries. (from Winemaking)
Image 33A cap of grape skins forms on the surface of fermenting red wine. (from Winemaking)

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Ice wine

Credit: Dominic Rivard

Ice wine grapes frozen on the vine at Niagara Peninsula, Canada.

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