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- From: bradb@netcom.com (Brad)
- Newsgroups: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine,rec.answers,alt.answers,news.answers
- Subject: Wine (the beverage) FAQ, part1 of 10 [LONG]
- Followup-To: rec.food.drink,alt.food.wine
- Date: 30 Sep 2000 17:18:58 GMT
- Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
- Lines: 780
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
- Message-ID: <8r57a2$dei$1@slb6.atl.mindspring.net>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.b7.09.74
- Summary: A 10 part FAQ on the beverage wine with various asides
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.food.drink:47101 alt.food.wine:64079 rec.answers:61450 alt.answers:51500 news.answers:192797
-
- Archive-name: drink/wine-faq/part1
- Posting-Frequency: monthly
- Copyright: (c) 1995-2000 Bradford S. Brown (Notices/Disclaimers in pt. 10)
- Last-modified: 2000/06/01
- U.S. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq [newest]
- U.K. WWW (HTML) Mirror: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
-
- INTERNET GUIDE TO WINE
-
- FAQ for alt.food.wine
- rec.food.drink
-
- (Frequently Asked Questions and More)
-
- By
-
- Brad and Dri Brown
-
- ------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- Copyright 1995-2000 Bradford S. Brown
-
- PLEASE READ THE COPYRIGHT INFORMATION AND DISCLAIMERS AT THE
- END OF THIS GUIDE.
-
- This version is date 26 July 1997, though it has been updated to
- include more recent versions of Dean Tudor's List (see Appendix), up
- through April, 2000.
-
- To all who have sent me suggestions, please note many are not yet
- contained in this version. There's a lot more to come. Thanks for your
- help. If I have included your work and forgotten to give you credit,
- please send me a note.
-
- Posted updates occur approximately every four months or so. This
- is because there is a lot more involved in creating this document
- beyond the sheer typing. In order to create the Index and Table
- of Contents in a way which is suitable for use on the Internet,
- as opposed to being printed by page in a book, it must undergo
- some homegrown programs which produce those items. Also, the
- HTML version gets created in the same way. All of that isn't as
- easy as I would like it to be (maybe someday when there is time).
- Fortunately, at this point, a LOT of the "frequently asked
- questions" are already in the FAQ and I'm working on the finer
- details now.
-
- The authors may currently be reached at bradb@netcom.com
-
- A complete copy of this FAQ can be obtained by dropping us a
- note or through the WWW at:
-
- (US) http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq
- (UK) http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html
-
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- Introduction
-
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- _
- Drinking wine is an experience. To drink for the purposes of becoming
- drunk is not what drinking wine as an experience is all about. Wine is
- food. Just like the delight which comes from eating your most favorite
- food, wine, as food can provide similar enchantment.
-
- But drinking wine has somehow also entered into the realm of snobbery.
- This is a shame for it can (and does) prevent many from getting in on the
- enjoyment of this marvelous product of nature. For that reason, I have
- undertaken to prepare this guide, not as a wine expert (which I am most
- assuredly _not_), but as an average drinker of relatively good wine. My
- aim here is to try and explain about wine in a way that is understandable
- but, I hope, not forbidding. With this intent, I may offend some
- sensibilities or make some outright mistakes. Remember, I am relying on a
- little bit of knowledge, and everyone knows what happens with a little bit
- of knowledge. If I'm wrong about the facts, please let me know. If I get
- carried away and the tone gets too pompous, pretentious, or downright
- haughty, also let me know. Some *have* let me know that they think this
- thing I call a FAQ is a wee-bit, shall we say, "wordy.". Perhaps, but I'd
- rather err on the side of length. As with anything else in this world, you
- don't have to look at it!
-
- To the correspondent who let me know that I clearly personally knew
- nothing about wine and was merely copying the work of others, I think he
- missed the point. First, except where stated, so far as I know, I have
- copied nothing. Any new book or article contains the ideas of author,
- especially if he or she comes to the subject with enthusiasm. While I am
- no expert, I definely have some ideas about the subject, especially when
- it comes to breaking down the mystery and mystique that some seem to want
- to bring to the subject. Wine is food. People like to eat--and drink. If
- you choose to drink wine, do it to enjoy, not to be part of a cult.
- Second, this was and is still meant to be a FAQ for "Frequently Asked
- Questions." To cut down on the repetition of questions and answers in
- Usenet, we started this project. The Internet is a marvelous way of
- sharing information. See us here as a repository of that information
- (notice we don't necessarily say "knowledge" here).
-
- Because of the sheer volume of information, I am not following the
- question and answer FAQ format. A Table of Contents and a comprehensive
- Index are provided instead. The choice of what to include was made up from
- the questions I have had about wine, suggestions from others, and from
- watching the Usenet groups on the subject. Suggestions, comments,
- criticism and whatever are welcome. While this already seems like a book
- to me, I've actually tried to cut down on the verbiage. It will probably
- get even longer through time. The discussion about the University of Davis
- (especially given the global reach of the internet) is a case in point.
- However, this being in nature a FAQ, topics which generate repeated
- questions or a great amount of replies deserve, in my humble opinion, more
- attention. Electronic "paper" is relatively cheap. In any event, I have
- take a great deal of time to try to make the index and table of contents
- broad enough to let the reader find just about anything--quickly!
-
- Living in Southern California means that I get to enjoy the huge diversity
- of the West Coast of the United States at, perhaps, a somewhat reduced
- cost. It also means that I can visit the wineries and winemakers that
- produce these wines from time to time. That is good. Unfortunately it also
- means that I have virtually no knowledge of the wonderful (and to me, much
- more expensive) wines of Europe and most of the rest of the world. This
- guide is a compilation of information, and can grow, through time, through
- the assistance of the Internet Community. Please send me comments,
- information, or anything else you think belongs here. I don't expect early
- versions to be earthshaking, merely distributed worldwide. What all this
- means is that if I have the chutzpah to prepare a wine guide as a relative
- novice, newcomers to wine can realize that they need not be put off by the
- sometimes arcane world of wine and can join it without fear!
-
- Since the making, drinking and enjoyment of wine is a huge subject (and I
- certainly don't know all the answers), I've been necessarily superficial
- in my answers (though perhaps longer, than in many FAQS!). This can lead
- to argument about the validity of what I have had to say. Since this isn't
- meant to be an encyclopedia, some sort of brevity is important. As I've
- said, I have received comments that say some of the portions are too long.
- Many feel that specific great wines of the world have been overlooked.
- This is true, not just because this--so far--isn't a book, but because I
- have made a conscious decision to not go too far out on a limb in
- incorporating information about things about which I truly know _nothing_
- and can't adequately satisfy for myself that the information sent to me is
- correct. They say that more information is published on the Internet in
- one week than is set to paper in a year. They don't say how much of it
- (including, of course, this FAQ) is correct. With this as with everything,
- caveat emptor--"Let the buyer beware."
-
- I stand in the position of chronicler first, wine enthusiast second. Why
- do I say this? I received a somewhat unfriendly note telling me that it
- was clear from the FAQ that I knew very little about wine and that I was
- merely repeating the thoughts of others. My response was that everything I
- wrote (unless I said otherwise) was made up by me, but very well may have
- been a distillation of information from elsewhere. On a subject upon which
- there has been written so much, it is almost foolhardy to think that one
- can contribute anything new in what is merely a primer on a subject, but
- my intent here was to at least give out some information in non-stuffy
- way, with my own views on the subject. Furthermore, as several have
- mentioned, this is a rather wordy document for a FAQ. Nevertheless, it
- tries to remain true to the concept of a FAQ, that is, to answer
- Frequently Asked Questions in the hopes that it won't be necessary for the
- friendly folks in the world, especially those who chat amongst themselves
- using Usenet, to keep repeating the same answers over and over and over
- and.... To that end, I am quite happy to try to distill the thoughts of
- others and repeat them here. Ere what's a FAQ for?
-
- In any event, everyone is urged to buy a book or two on the subject and
- read away. More importantly, drink away and have a good time.
-
- _PLEASE NOTE_
-
- This is a _work-in-progress_. Some, but not all, of the mistakes pointed
- out to me have been incorporated in this version. I'm still working on
- fixing the errors and will then move on to incorporating new sections that
- have clearly been areas of discussion in the Usenet groups I have monitored
-
- One final note on the drinking of wine vis-a-vis the information in this
- Guide. What _you_ like is the best rule of thumb. The experiences of
- others are a handy guide but these experiences often get shrouded in the
- myths, mysteries and ritual. This is off-putting and shouldn't be. In some
- parts of the world, wine is drunk daily as a part of the meal. There's no
- big conundrum about what glass to serve it in or how long to age the wine
- (since most is drunk young). In other parts of the world, the United
- States, for example, wine often is a restaurant's marked-up profit center
- and the "rituals" of wine are haggled over incessantly. Since this Guide
- is somewhat of a rulebook by virtue of its existence, I would like to lay
- to rest the idea that this is what I have in mind in creating it. Use this
- Guide to get into wine, if that is your goal. After that, just have fun.
-
- Special thanks to the people listed in the Acknowlegment section!
-
- The most current copy of the FAQ is available in text format by e-mail
- from us at bradb@netcom.com. The most current WWW copies are found at:
-
- (U.S.) http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq (newest)
- (U.K.) http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html
-
- We hope you get some use and enjoyment out of our project.
-
- Cheers!
-
- Bradford Brown
- July , 1997
-
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- I would like to acknowledge those who have provided special assistance,
- and please forgive me (and e-mail me) for anyone I have forgotten! A lot
- of mail has been received and not all of it has been sifted through, yet.
- So far, thanks to John Bailin, Mike Christensen, Peter Curran, Thomas
- Hill, Mark Levesque, Jim Karegeannes, Sandra Kidd, Daniel Harris Lapin,
- Jason Brandt Lewis (who was kind enough to send me an entire f.a.q. on
- port--which hasn't been included yet--as well as detailed information used
- in "Fine Print, U.S. Style", Gloria Mercado-Martin, Matthew Mitchell,
- David Murphy, Marcelo Portnoy, Bill Rohwer, David Tan, John Thorngate, Roy
- Wilkinson. Some asked not to have their names included, our anonymous
- thanks are given. Some merely sent small notes with little additions,
- others provided large amounts of material. All of it was necessary and
- appreciated!
-
- A very special thanks to Paul S. Winalski who clearly spent a great deal
- of time pointing out and providing changes for a number of specific areas
- of the FAQ. His knowledge of wine and willingness to consistently help out
- the Internet community is appreciated and I thank him for myself and on
- behalf of all those who have learned from him.
-
- Also special thanks to Jarrett Paschel who first made the FAQ available on
- the World Wide Web.
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- FAQ HISTORY
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- Here's where we'll try to keep up with changes/additions to the FAQ.
-
- *July 1997*
-
- Various additions have been made. Usenet ASCII version updated to
- reflect WWW HTML version.
-
-
- *November, 1996*
-
- FAQ re-designed for the World Wide Web, including hyper-text links and
- graphics. Some re-writes and corrections made. Many additions waiting in
- the wings, so we wouldn't suggest re-reading the thing for a while if you
- have already been through it!
-
- _*Pre-History*_
-
- FAQ written solely for Usenet and text archival purposes, starting in 1994.
-
-
- Table of Contents
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- Introduction
- Acknowledgements
- FAQ History
- Table of Contents
-
- I. What is Wine?
-
- II. How Wine is Made
-
- + Growing Grapes
- + Phylloxera vastratrix
- + University of California at Davis
- + Harvest
- + Initial Processing of the Grape Juice
- + Turning Juice into Alcohol
- + Brettanomyces
-
- + From Fermentation to Bottle: Malolactic, Filtering and Fining,
- Barrel Aging and Blending
- + Bottling Wine
- III. Aging Wine
-
- IV. Storing Wine
-
- + Cellar Software
- V. Drinking Wine
-
- + Temperature to Drink
- + Opening the Bottle
- + Corks & Capsules
- + Corkscrews
- + Dealing with the Open Bottle
- + A Light Touch
- + Smelling the Cork
- + Decanting
- + Letting the Wine Breathe
- + Getting the Label Off
- + Flaws
- + Describing Wine
- + The Ritualisitic Art of Wine in Restaurants and other Quibbles
- + Restaurant Pricing
- + Glassware
- + Storing Wine After It's Opened
- VI. Buying Wine
-
- + What Wine To Buy?
- + Where To Buy Wine
- + What is Wine Worth?"
- + "My Signficant Other Doesn't Like Red Wine"
- VII. Wines
-
- + Red Wine Grapes
- + White Wine Grapes
- + What's In A Name?
- + Meritage
- + The Fine Print, U.S. Style
- + Champagne
- + Port
- + Dessert Wines
- + Botrytis
- + Eiswein a.k.a. Icewine
- + Other Sweet Wines
- VIII. Wines Around the World
-
- + Argentina
- IX. Food and Wine
-
- X. Learning about Wine
-
- + Starting Out
- + Cyberbia
- + The Internet
- + Internet Resources
- + Miscellaneous Electronic Stuff
- + Printed Materials
- + Books
- + Mazagines and Newsletters
- + Miscellaneous
- + Courses on Wine
- + Wineries
- + Wine Tastings
- + Critics
- XI. Physiologic Notes on Wine
-
- + Allergic Reactions
- + Calories
- + Pregnancy
- + Wine as a Sleeping Aid
- + Lead in Wine
- XII. Touring the Wine Country
-
- + California
- + Canada
- + France
- XIII. Miscellany
-
- + Importing
- + Kosher Wine
- + Making Your Own Wine
- + Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster
- + Recipes
- + Shipping
- Appendix A. An HTML Wine Bookmark Page
-
- Legals
-
- Word List
-
- The following represents a key word list for the Wine FAQ. If you
- have obtained the FAQ in parts, you should reassemble the parts and
- then you may use your favorite software to search for the words as
- they appear throughout the document.
-
- If you have access to the WWW, the HTML version of the Wine FAQ
- contains the following index with hypertext links to the appropriate
- place in the FAQ where they appear.
-
- Supported web site are located at:
-
- (U.S.) http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq
- (U.K.) http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su3ws/wine-faq/wine-faq.html
-
-
-
-
- 4-ethylphenol
- 75% Varietal Rule
-
-
- A.O.C.
- AVA
- Accessible
- Acetic bacteria
- Aging Wine
- "Aging" wine by shaking
- Ah-So
- Air Conditioners and Storing Wine
- Alcohol Content
- Allergic Reactions
- All-in-One Page
- alt.food.wine
- American oak
- Appellation
- Appellation d'Origine Controlee
- Approved Viticultural Areas
- Argentina
- Austere
- AxR #1
-
-
- Baby Icewine
- Bacteria
- Balance
- Balthazar
- Barbera
- Barrel Fermentation
- Beaujolais Nouveau
- Beerenauslese
- Bentonite
- Beverage Media
- Big
- Bleaching corks
- Blend
- Blind Tastings
- Blush
- Bookmark Page
- Books
- Bordeaux
- Bordeaux (Meritage)
- Botrytis cinerea
- Breathe
- Brandy (and Port)
- Brettanomyces
- Brettanomyces (as a flaw)
- Brix
- Buttery (fermenting wine)
- Buttery (desribing wine)
-
-
- Cabernet Franc
- Cabernet Sauvignon
- California and Touring
- Calories
- Canada
- Cap
- Capsules
- Carbon Dioxide (Champagne)
- Carbon Dioxide (Fermentation)
- Case
- Cellaring
- Cellars
- Central Coast of California
- Champagne (Champagne)
- Champagne (What is Wine?)
- Chardonnay
- Chateauneuf-du-Pape
- Chateau d'Yquem
- Chenin Blanc
- Chlorine
- Chocolate and Wine
- Cholesterol as affected by Wine
- Clarification
- Clay
- Closed
- Complex
- Corkage
- Corked
- Corks
- Corkage, fair
- Corkscrews
- Cotes du Rhone
- Courses on Wine
- Critics
- Crud in the bottle
- Cryoextraction
-
-
- Dean Tudor's Wines, Beers and Spirits of the Net
- Decanting
- Decanting Port
- Declared Year
- Dekkera
- Dessert Wines
- Deuxiemes Crus
- Disgorgement
- Distillation
- Distilled Liquor
- Double Magnum
- Dry
- Duck and Wine
- Dumb
- Duouro
-
-
- Egg whites
- Eiswein a.k.a. Icewine
- Electronic Stuff, Miscellaneous
- Enology
-
-
- FAQ Design
- Fermentation: What is Wine?
- Fermentation: Juice into Alcohol
- Fillette
- Filtering
- Fining
- Flabby
- Flaws
- Foil
- Food Combinations
- Food and Wine
- Fortified Wine (and Port)
- Fortified Wine (What is Wine?)
- France and Touring
- French Oak
- Freezing wine
- Fume Blanc
-
-
- Gamay
- Garnacha
- Gelatin
- Generic Wine
- Gewurtztraminer
- Glasses, storing
- Glasses, washing
- Glassware
- Gold Country of California
- Gopher
- Graft
- Grand Premier Cru
- Grapes
- Grape Skins and Color of Wine
- Grassy
- Grenache
- Grey Rot
-
-
- Half Bottle
- Hard
- Herbaceous
- Humidity and Storing Wine
- Hybrid
-
-
- Icewine a.k.a. Eiswein
- Imperial
- Importing
- International Standards Organization (ISO)
- Inert Gas
- Internet, The
- Internet Resources
-
-
- Jails, Wine
- Jeroboam
-
-
- Kosher Wine
-
-
- Labels, Removing from Bottle
- Lactic acid
- Laying Down
- Lead as a health hazard
- Lead Contamination from Foils
- Lead Poisoning
- Learning about Wine
- Lees
- Leverpull (tm)
- Light
- Light and Storing Wine
- Liqueur de Tirage
- Listservs
- Louse
-
-
- Madeira
- Madeirized
- Magazines and Newsletters
- Magnum
- Making Your Own Wine
- Malaga
- Malic acid
- Malolactic fermentation
- Marbles in the bottle
- Marsala
- Mature
- Marie-Jeanne
- Medical Notes
- Menodocino
- Mercaptan (and bottling)
- Mercaptan (as a flaw)
- Meritage
- Merlot
- Methode Champenoise
- Methuselah
- Microsoft Wine Guide
- Mold
- Mold (and Dessert Wine)
- Moldy Corks
- Muscatel
- Must
-
-
- Napa
- Nebbiolo
- Nebuchadnezzar
- Newsletters and Magazines
- Nigara Peninsula
- Nitrogen
- Noble Grapes
- Noble Rot
- Nose
-
-
- Odors and Storing Wine
- Okanagan Valley
- Oporto
- Opus One
- Oxidize
- Oxygen
-
-
- Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster
- Parker, Robert
- Paso Robles
- Petite Sirah
- Phylloxera vastratrix
- Pinot Noir
- Plastic Corks
- Pint
- Port
- Port (Dessert Wine)
- Porto
- Pregnancy
- Premier Cru
- Proprietary Wine
-
-
- Quinta
- Quinta do Noval
-
-
- rec.food.drink
- Recipes
- Refrigerators and Storing Wine
- Rehoboam
- Reidel
- Remuage
- Returning a flawed bottle
- Reserve
- Restaurant Pricing
- Riddling
- Riesling
- Room Temperature
- Rose
- Rot
- Ruby Port
-
-
- Saccharomyces
- Salmanazar
- Sauterne
- Sauternes (aging wine)
- Sauternes (Dessert Wine)
- Sauternes (grapes)
- Sauvignon Blanc
- Second fermentation
- Sediment in Champagne
- Sediment
- Sediment (and Port)
- Semillon
- Semi-Generic Wine
- Sherry (Dessert Wine)
- Shipping Wine
- Shiraz
- Signficant Others Who Don't Like Red Wine
- Single-Quinta Vintage Port
- Smelling the cork
- Sonoma
- Sparkling Wine (What is Wine?)
- Sparkling Wine (Champagne)
- Split
- Stainless steel
- Starting Out in Wine
- Still Wines
- Storing Wine
- Storing wine after the bottle is opened
- Sugar
- Sulfites
- Sulfites and allergies
- Sulfite "free" wines
- Sulfur
- Sulfur Dioxide
- Sweaty socks
- Sweet Wines of the Loire Valley
- Sweet Wines of the Valpolicella District
- Syrah
-
-
- Table Wine
- Tannins
- Tastings
- Tawny Port
- Temecula
- Temperature and Drinking Wine
- Temperature and Storing Wine
- Thin (and harvest)
- Thin (describing wine)
- Torrontes
- Touring the Wine Country
- Trichloranisol (TCA) 2,4,6
- Trockenbeerenauslese
-
-
- Unfiltered
- Universal Disenfectant
- University of California at Davis
- University of California at Davis: A Graduate's Opinion
- University of California at Davis: Brett
- University of California at Davis: Courses on Wine
- Unfiltered
- Usenet
-
-
- Vacu-Vin (tm)
- Varietals
- Varieties
- Varietal
- Varietal Wine
- Variety
- Vertical Tastings
- Vibration and Storing Wine
- Vinegar
- Vines
- Vins Delimites de Qualite
- Vins de pays
- Vins doux naturels
- Vins ordinaires
- Vintage
- Vintage Date
- Vintage Port
- Viticulture
- Vitis vinifera
- Volatile Acidity
-
-
- Weather
- White Port
- Wild yeast fermentation: Juice into Alcohol
- Wild Yeast Fermentation: UC Davis
- Wine and Spirit Education Trust Diploma
- Wine Cellars, Building Your Own
- Wineries and Learning about Wine
- Wineries On-Line
- Winery Tastings, Charging For
- Wines of the World CD-ROM
- Wives who don't like red wine
- Wood
- Wood Port
- World Wide Web
-
-
- Yahoo.com
- Yeast
-
-
- Zinfandel
-
- --
-
-