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About Wine
People have been making, using and enjoying wine for over 5,000 years.
It has been produced in many different countries and cultures each using its particular style and methods. Wine is used in many aspects of life including for cooking, refreshment, religious services and celebrations. Ideas and methods of winemaking are still evolving which helps to make it an endlessly fascinating subject.
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How wine is made:
The process can vary in many ways but the basic steps of making a still wine are:
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Pick the grapes – this can be done by hand or by machine.
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Crush the grapes - the stems and bits not wanted while crushing the grapes into liquid are removed. The skins and seeds are removed for white wine to get rid of any colour, whereas the skin is left on for red wines.
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Ferment the grape juice – yeast is added to the grape juice which makes sugar turn into alcohol. For red wine this process usually continues until all the sugar is converted into alcohol, producing a dry wine. White wines can also be fermented until dry, but for some varieties fermentation is stopped before all the sugar is converted, making it sweeter and less alcoholic.
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Age the wine – depending on the variety, this can take months or years and happen in stainless steel tanks or oak barrels.
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Put the wine in a bottle – the wine is filtered first and then bottled using a cork or a metal screw top closure.
The taste, appearance, aroma and quality of a wine can be affected by the many possible variations that can occur in each of the steps outlined above. For example, wine from barrels will be different to wine kept in steel tanks because the wood of the casks will impart some of its flavours to the wine as it ages.
A few facts about wine
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The standard bottle of wine contains 750ml.
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Italy is the largest producer of wine in the world.
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Champagne is made from white grapes (chardonnay) and black grapes (pinot noir and pinot Meunier).
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There are more than 170 wineries in Great Britain producing wine from grapes grown in over 800 vineyards.
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Over 24.7 billion litres of wine are consumed worldwide each year.
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The most widely planted grape variety is cabernet sauvignon.
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St Vincent is the patron saint of wine and is celebrated on 28 January.
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A single bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti produced in Cote de Nuits, Burgundy can sell for over £25,000.
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According to his own calculation, Winston Churchill drank more than 42,000 bottles of Pol Roger champagne during his lifetime; equivalent to a bottle and a half every day.
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The Lerkekåsa Vineyard in Telemark, Norway is the most northerly in the world. It was planted in 2008.
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The price of a bottle of wine retailing for £10 includes £3.90 of tax (£2.23 excise duty and £1.67 VAT).
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Some thoughts about wine:
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“Life is too short to drink bad wine." - Anonymous
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“Wine and friends are a great blend” - Ernest Hemingway
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“Beer is made by men, wine by God” – Martin Luther
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“I 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'm not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it - unless I'm thirsty.” – Lily Bollinger
Drink responsibly!
Wine can be a source of great enjoyment but like many things in life,
it is best enjoyed in moderation.
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NHS guidelines recommend that all of us should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol a week, spread across 3 days or more. That is equivalent to 6 medium (175ml) glasses of wine
or 6 pints of 4% beer.