WHY  WINE?

Why is wine good for you?

Benefits of wine 

There’s a lot of health benefits you can get from drinking wine. Here are some known benefits… 

  •  Wine is full of antioxidants that attack free radicals.

  • Wine helps your Immune System.

  • It can reduce the Risk Of Heart Disease

  • It can also lower your cholesterol

  • In moderation, it can reduce the risk of cancer

  • at risk for type 2 diabetes? Wine can also help 

Process of Creating Wine

Step 1 – The first step in making wine is Harvesting. 

Step 2 – Crushing. Once grapes are harvested and sorted, it is now time to de-stem and crushes them. 

Step 3- Fermentation. Pressing and crushing is then followed by the fermentation of grapes.

Step 4 – Clarification. Filtering of tannins, proteins and dead yeast from the wine. 

Step 5- The final stage of creating wine is Aging and Bottling. The wine is then transferred into stainless steel tanks, oak barrels or bottles. Many of the winemakers prefer using oak barrels for the aging process because it adds a smoother and vanilla taste-like flavor to the wine. 

What brings about the diverse flavor of wine?

1. Sweetness

As much as all wines go through the fermentation process; the sweetening occurs before it. Normally, you may think that sweet wine is a result of the addition of sugar, no. There are four ways in which you can sweeten alcohol- white wines.
             Fortification: Port and Sherry are the common sweet wine brands worldwide. The process simply means the addition of distilled spirit, just before fermentation begins. The scientific principle of this is the fact that the spirit kills the yeast reducing the alcohol content.
 The result is the unfermented residual sugar. You can opt to add it at the end of the fermentation process to get dry wine
           Ice wine: The extremely low temperatures associated with the winter season produce the grapes for the expensive ice wine. It is a common dessert among high-end customers. When the grapes freeze, there is a high concentration of sugar-it doesn’t freeze.
 The freezing process is just before fermentation. The key component is that the grapes must be free from any molds to get the sweetened wine. Germans and Canadians understand the pricing and sweetness of this wine.
          Moldy grapes: This sweetened wine is made from grapes infected with molds. The mold drains all the water in the grapes leaving a high sugar concentration.
 The mold thrives in a damp and moist environment. The main fungus responsible for this is Botrytis. It is a time-consuming process- the reason why the wine is costly.
        Straw wine: You know raisins used in fruit cakes? These are grapes with very low water content. It is the same principle to sweeten wine by drying them for the dehydration process. Once it’s dehydrated then there is a high sugar concentration.

2. Tannin

Tannins are associated with red wines and, in most cases, they are bitter. Unlike most of the wines made from the grapefruits, tannin comes from seeds, bark, and skins.
 They are brewed over a long period to harden the taste. If you haven’t understood the taste of tannin, take a black tea bag and put on your tongue that is a similar taste.

3. Acidity level

Acidity or alkalinity of wine is measured on a scale of between 0-14. A low value up to 6 indicates an acidity scale. 7 is always a neutral number while any number above 7 to 14 is an alkaline wine. The best way to determine an acidic wine– common among red wine- is to sip a glass of wine then open your mouth.
 If you are salivating then be sure that that is the reaction is an acidic wine if not, there will be no excess saliva production. 

4. Aroma compounds

The wine flavors and aroma wholly lies in the production process. Time is a crucial component in wine processing. The longer it stays during the fermentation process the better the flavor.
 This explains why some wines smell like the grapes themselves, while others smell like the flowers, others have the taste of seeds if not, no aroma to all but the taste dictates the difference.

5. Alcohol

Since ethanol is the unifying factor between wine and alcohol, the alcohol content of wines is between 5- 15 percent. The high the alcohol content then the drier the wine. It is not a must to have ethanol in all the wines.