Amazing Facts About Dessert Wines

1. They are made mainly from special fruits that were left to ripen on the wine. The reason for this is to make the flavor stronger. The kinds of fruits used in making dessert wines are the ones that define the overall taste or flavor of the wine.

2. In the United States, it generally contains 14% alcohol, though, it may contain more than 14%. In the past, dessert wine were predominantly used as table wines. For this reason, ancient dessert wines only contain 12.5% alcohol or less. This means that the alcohol content is so mild that you can almost drink it as a substitute for water or any beverages during meal.

3. The more ripened the fruit is, the more alcohol is generated when produced into dessert wine. Majority of these wines are classified as unfortified and dry wine or those wines that don’t have spirits in them like brandy. The inclusion of spirits during the fermentation of the wine is the process of fortifying the wine.

Types of Dessert Wines

The very definition of a dessert wine is the topic of debate in the wine community. In the United States, the legal definition of a dessert wine is one that is fortified and contains more than 15% alcohol by volume. However, many people believe that it is the sugar content that makes the distinction. After all, some fortified wines with more than 15% alcohol are in fact aperitifs, meant to be consumed before eating, not after.

Sherry is perhaps the most well-known of after dinner wines. It is typically made in Spain. Port follows closely in popularity as a well-known dessert wine originating in Portugal. Marsala (from Italy) and Madeira (from Portugal) are other popular choices of fortified wines.

Basics of Dessert Wines

Dessert wines include wines that are easily spelled, such as Sherry, ice wine, and Port, to wines that you need to practically be a linquist to pronounce, such as Tokaji Aszu, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese, and Vin Doux naturel. These wines, by nature, are often highly sweet - offering kind words through the grape vine and willing to open the cellar door for others. This makes them hard to handle for those with a mouth not full of sweet toothes. For this reason, they are sold in small bottles, as well as larger ones.

Different wine gift baskets are suitable for various occasions. When choosing wine gift baskets several aspects have to be kept in mind to make them special personalized gifts. For instance, while gifting men wine gift baskets, a good bottle of wine is an excellent option, while for women wine accessories within the wine gift basket like corkscrews, crystal wine glasses and decanters are important. If the wine gift is for a novice wine enthusiast, then a well-written book on enjoying wine will be an excellent gift whereas an expert wine enthusiast might like receiving a stopper for the half empty bottle of wine along with the bottle of wine. A wine gift basket with an assortment of the finest wines is a gift that can enliven almost any occasion.

California Wine Gift Basket

The California Wine gift basket, however, has its own character and has its large share of demand in the United States. People send California wines in baskets to please and to thank someone. However, should you choose to send wine baskets as a gift through a company that does this for you, it is only legal to do so in AK, CA, DC, HI, ID, IL, IA, LA, MO, NE, NV, NM, ND, OR, WA, WV and WY.

Wine gift basket sales and orders are most profitable are during Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine’s Day. There are several companies who accept your order and offer a wide variety of basket designs and arrangements to choose from. You choose to include one or two bottles of either red wine, white wine, or both in the wine gift baskets.

Wine Country Gift Basket

A wine country gift basket usually contains two bottles of wine from ones favorite winery or wine shop, some cheese and crackers. A delicious assortment of wines, cheeses and chocolates make the wine country gift baskets extremely special. Fully assembled and impressive gift baskets combine everything there is to love about wines, cheese and chocolate. Wine country gift baskets make the perfect gifts for every occasion and can be enjoyed by men and women alike, even by people who are not wine connoisseurs.

Custom Wine Gift Baskets

Custom wine gift baskets are the perfect gifts for wine lovers as they may also include wine glasses, decanters and mini wine cellars. These gift baskets are very popular gifts as they offer the presenter various options of wines, accessories and accompaniments which best suit their budget. Even though they are slightly more expensive than the packaged wine gift baskets, they are gifts that will surely be appreciated by the recipient.

Most people will agree that wine and dessert go well together, holding hands as they skip into the sunset of your mouth. Just the very image of a glass of wine next to a plate of tiramasu is enough to make most people salivate, drooling like a person about to fall in love at first bite. It seems simple enough: a glass of wine, a plate of sweets, a taste bud or fifty, but wining and dining in this manner needs more than a twinkie and a bottle of sugary liquid; it requires proper pairing of food and wine for the ultimate experience. It also requires a knowledge of what the term “dessert wines” truly entails.

Facts About Dessert Wines

1. They are made mainly from special fruits that were left to ripen on the wine. The reason for this is to make the flavor stronger. The kinds of fruits used in making dessert wines are the ones that define the overall taste or flavor of the wine.

2. In the United States, it generally contains 14% alcohol, though, it may contain more than 14%.

3. The more ripened the fruit is, the more alcohol is generated when produced into dessert wine. Majority of these wines are classified as unfortified and dry wine or those wines that don’t have spirits in them like brandy. The inclusion of spirits during the fermentation of the wine is the process of fortifying the wine.

Types of Dessert Wines

The very definition of a dessert wine is the topic of debate in the wine community. In the United States, the legal definition of a dessert wine is one that is fortified and contains more than 15% alcohol by volume. However, many people believe that it is the sugar content that makes the distinction. After all, some fortified wines with more than 15% alcohol are in fact aperitifs, meant to be consumed before eating, not after.

Sherry is perhaps the most well-known of after dinner wines. It is typically made in Spain. Port follows closely in popularity as a well-known dessert wine originating in Portugal. Marsala (from Italy) and Madeira (from Portugal) are other popular choices of fortified wines.

As a result, many dessert wines are not a result of the grape growing process, but of the amount of sugar added before or after fermentation. In Germany, for example, sugar is increased by adding grape juice after fermentation, which has the side effect of lowering the alcohol content. Other techniques for increasing sweetness include using grapes that have a specific type of mold on them, freezing out some of the water, or drying the grapes before fermentation.

Wines in Europe are a tradition; winemaking, an art. Here is where you will find the countries with highest productions and the ones more used to drink wine, where wine is a cultural symbol. Once inside Europe, wines in Italy gives a very brief description of most porpular Italian wines, to help you choose your Italian wine in a restaurant or for a home Italian dinner. Does your love for wine point to Tuscany? Consider staying in a working winery, combine learning and travel with a wine course, or take a simple wine tour in Tuscany.

Wine is cultivated throughout the world, with each wine region having unique characteristics that influence the style and taste of its products.Due to the different climate conditions of various wine regions, winemakers pay careful attention to the cyclical weather trends in their region. A constant analysis of a vineyard’s soil and microclimate is essential to harvesting quality grapes and developing the perfect wine.

There are also sparkling wines produced in other parts of the world using the French method, and American, Chilean, and Australian producers have been producing them for the past several decades. While most call themselves sparkling wines, some unscrupulous (mostly American) producers actually call their wines Champagne.

Enjoy your trip through the wineries of the world. Click on the wine region you are interested in, browse through the many types and styles of wine, or research the different types of grape from which some of our most interesting varietal wines are made.

The wine tours in Northern California are highly organized and accessible, but there are other tours going on around the world.  There are tours in Washington State, Virginia and New York.  Those interested in doing some world travel will find interesting tours in the great wine country of France.  Italy is another European destination with some great tours in the vineyards of that country.  Other tours are conducted in Argentina, Chile and Australia.  Real wine lovers would probably find any of these destinations a wonderful experience.

In Argentina, Malbec has become the signature grape, widely exported to the U.S. and around the world. However, its popularity has plummeted in France over the same time span as it has boomed in South America.

Organic wines are Earth-friendly, made in partnership with Nature from certified organically grown grapes. They are free of pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers and other synthetic chemicals, and essential natural preservatives like sulfur dioxide are kept to a strict minimum. In the cellar, modern and traditional techniques are combined, producing the best possible wines with the smallest possible impact on the environment.

Lazio, centered around the middle of Italy is a region split between two worlds – the Italy of the North, a prosperous industrial area bordered by the alps, where the climate is fairly hot, yet beset by cloud and rainfall, and the Italy of the South, hot and at times desolate.

A wine cocktail is a mixed drink similar to a true cocktail. It is made predominantly with wine (including Champagne and Prosecco), into which distilled alcohol or other drink mixer is combined. The distinction between a wine cocktail and a cocktail with wine is the relative amounts of the various alcohols. In a wine cocktail, the wine product is the primary alcohol by volume compared to the distilled alcohol or mixer.

Champagne Cocktail: 3 oz. Chilled Champagne, 1/2 oz. Cognac (optional), 2 Dashes Angostura Bitters, 1 Sugar Cube. Garnish: Maraschino Cherry & Lemon Twist
Drop a sugar cube in to a champagne flute. Soak the sugar with the bitters.
Pour in the cognac and fill with the glass with champagne. Drop in a cherry, and add the lemon twist on the rim.

Indications of Champagne is rather diverse, because every wine trader (there are well over 120 of them) has it’s own style, bases an a long tradition. Brut without a year marking, champagnes with a year mark, prestige wines (mixtures of different harvests) and Rosé (colored pink by adding a tiny bit of red wine) champagnes are the main kinds of champagne. For cocktails, a classical brand brut without a year will do quite well. Barkeepers use champagne for classics like the champagne cocktail, but are starting to use this festive drink in other cocktails as well, because it makes the cocktails more refined.

Wine-based cocktails come in endless varieties: red wines, white wines, champagne, other sparkling wines, and fortified wines can all make great cocktail ingredients. When making wine cocktails, it’s generally a good idea to use inexpensive wines—fine wines are best appreciated for their complexity and nuances, not for what they add to mixed drinks. In fact, plenty of wines that are great for making cocktails are sold for under $12 per bottle. Though champagne-based drinks are served without ice, other wine-based cocktails can be enjoyed either straight up or on the rocks, unless otherwise noted.

By far the natural cocktail wine is sparkling wine. The Champagne Cocktail (Victor Laszlo ordered one in Casablanca, though his character seemed more of the ginger ale type) is elegance itself: a sugar cube, a few dashes of wonderful bitters, topped with Champagne and garnished with a twist. The simplest Mimosa is a Champagne and orange juice mix, garnished with an orange slice; variations call for a dash of orange liqueur (Curaçao, Gran Marnier, Cointreau or Triple Sec). An April in Paris is essentially the same thing without the juice: an ounce of the orange liqueur topped with Champagne (less pulp evidently).

Mix whisky with vermouth rosso and hey presto, you have the Manhattan! Indeed, vermouth  is a versatile mixer that can be mixed with almost any spirit. Then there are a whole range of champagne or sparkling wine-based cocktails: the Bellini; the Champagne Cocktail (half peg brandy, lemon twist, dash of bitters, top with champagne); the evocative Kir Royale; and my favourite Black Velvet, a mix of champagne and Guinness stout!

Planning a wedding reception, office party, or cocktail event can be stressful.  How much wine do I need?  Will it match with the food being served?  How to I do wines for a multi-course dinner menu?  What’s the right wines for a cocktail hour? Planning wines for an wedding, dinner party, or large event doesn’t have to be stressful at all.  We can make it easy!

Couples naturally want their wedding to be perfect, from the fit of the dress to the awe factor of the cake. Highballs and punch ladled from big bowls have long been staples of wedding ceremonies, yet many of today’s brides and grooms seek more sophistication in the beverages they serve at their reception, with wine playing an increasingly large role.

A wedding is a special event that you and your family will remember for the rest of their lives. So, why not choose a location as memorable as the moment?At Gloria Ferrer Sparkling Wine Caves, you’ll find everything you need to set the stage for a romantic evening wedding, such as charming porticos reminiscent of Old Spain.

Discriminating brides and grooms have chosen to have their weddings and receptions at this lovely facility for years. Our research shows that the first wedding reception on this property was held July 8, 1913. This unique location features a working winery and beautiful spacious grounds with lovely old trees, which are the perfect background for your special day. You and your photographer will find many wonderful photo opportunities to capture all your fond memories.

The biggest single cost of your wedding wine is normally the champagne. You’ve got three choices here: branded big-name champagne, cheaper-house champagnes or New-World sparklers. You can save a fortune (between £7 and £10 a head) by not being a slave to advertising and going for a champagne with a fancy label.

Depending on where you live, the variety of wines you have to choose from is either vast and perhaps daunting or less generous and more accessible. You may or may not have the option of choosing wines for your wedding, depending on your caterer or banquet hall manager. But if you do plan to play sommelier for your wedding reception, we’re here to help.

Although sparkling wine is a wedding fixture, you should consider serving one red and one white still wine if the reception includes a meal or hors d’oeuvres. Professional wedding planners advocate serving equal amounts of red and white wine (if only so you don’t disappoint half the crowd). For those who want to pour just one wine with the meal, there is a happy compromise: dry rosé, a wine that’s refreshing and

Look: Check out the Color and Clarity.Pour a glass of wine into a suitable wine glass. Then take a good look at the wine. Tilt the glass away from you and check out the color of the wine from the rim edges to the middle of the glass (it’s helpful to have a white background - either paper, napkin or a white tablecloth).

Wine tasting also serves to compare a particular wine with others that fall into the same price range, region or vintage - its quality, whether it is typical of the region it was made in, whether it uses certain wine making techniques and if it has any faults. It may sound hard to believe, but practiced wine tasters can actually tell if a wine was made through oak fermentation or malolactic fermentation. Their taste buds and their noses are simply that well-developed.

Notice the color of the wine. It often helps to hold the glass up to light or hold it against a white background, like a white napkin.Color can give you a clue as to the age of the wine. White wines generally gain color as they age. Red wines lose color. That is, young red wines are more red or burgundy while older wines tend to show a hint of tawny brown around the rim.

While firmly holding the stem of the wine glass, gently swirl the glass in tiny circles on a flat surface for 10 to 20 seconds allowing oxygen to penetrate the wine. The purpose of swirling wine in a glass is to aerate the wine and release vapors, evaporating from the sides of the glass, for you to smell. As the wine coats the sides of the glass, it releases its bouquet.

Tasting wine is more of a challenge. You need special tools, the proper environment, keen concentration, a good memory and a vivid imagination. But after three or four glasses, the basic effect is the same either way. Discovering the wines that you like can be learned from reading books, websites, or recommendations from friends, but nothing beats wine tasting.  Each time you attend a tasting you will increase your knowledge and love for wine.

Wine-tasting group communication is currently evolving into a so-called “virtual” method invented by individuals who agree on a set of tasting principles and, although separated by great distances, obtain a previously approved group-selected bottled wine, or wines. On or about an agreed future date, the bottles are uncorked, poured and tasted.

Sweetness :This the fruit flavor tasted at the front of the tongue. This comes from the wine’s fruit flavors as well as any fermented grape sugars left in the wine. If there is no perceived sweetness, a wine is dry.

A lot of people fret about matching just the right food with the exact wine to complement it, but this tasty decision isn’t really as tough as all that. It may help to keep in mind the simple reality that humans have been making wine to go with food for more than 5,000 years, and most wines go very nicely with most dishes. It’s easy to go right, and hard to go wrong, as only a few combinations don’t work well.

The Wine Lovers’ lexicon incorporates our old “Talking Grapes and Wines” pronouncing glossary of wine grapes and wine regions as well as our “Wine Tasting Dictionary” of wine-tasting terms and wine descriptors. It’s all aimed at helping you speak with confidence, whether you’re ordering wine in a restaurant or shop or talking with friends and business associates about wine.

Enjoy world-class wines from our California wine club-of-the-month series. Come along as we visit small, family-owned wineries in the lush valleys of California, where winemakers are handcrafting a wide range of magical wines from classical Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, and Chardonnay to newer enthusiasms like Pinot Noir, Syrah, Sangiovese, Pinot Grigio, and Viognier.

Wine travel is fascinating way to meet local people and absorb the culture. In my recent trip to France, my husband and I discovered the exceptionally gracious manners of the people of the Loire Valley. On each day of our visit, we were delighted by the extremely polite, albeit completely down-to-earth, people we encountered. Every time we entered a shop or a restaurant, it never failed that we were greeted with a cheerful Bonjour. Whenever we purchased something, it was a grateful smile accompanied by an “Au revoir, Merci”.

A fantastic yet elegant wine that is exceptional for any occasion. A true white romantic will explore this classic wine taste. But keep in mind that some wine lovers tend to shun the obvious in favor of the quirky, the lovingly crafted or the esoteric. (That’s why we roll our eyes when we hug them.) For those wine lovers, there are a number of other worthy new volumes on store shelves with the potential to surprise:

VinVillage is an exciting new social networking organization for wine lovers that has launched throughout the country. VinVillage has created locally based social wine groups and is connecting them with “like-minded” wine lovers in their home cities and around the U.S. by bringing the membership together with an exciting local and online “wine life-style” experience offering unique and exclusive wines, events, products and services.

FastLife has blended the subtle notes of fine wine with the excitement of fast dates, creating Canada’s first ever Wine Lover’s Speed Dating! This tannin-tinged event will kick off with an introductory wine appreciation lesson by a professional sommelier. Then it’s on to the dating where participants will embark upon a series of eight-minute mini-dates, with each date accompanied by  a different wine and delicious gourmet hors d’oeuvres.

Homemade Strawberry Wine: Ingredients: 7 pounds whole fresh strawberries, (fresh picked, if possible), washed and hulled, 2 gallons boiling water, Juice of 1 lemon, 5 pounds sugar. Preparation: In a large earthenware crock, mash the strawberries. Cover with boiling water, add lemon juice, and quickly stir for about two minutes. Cover with a clean linen cloth. Let rest in a cool, dark place, stirring daily for one week.

After one week, strain the mixture through a double-layer of cheesecloth into a large, clean bowl, discarding strawberry pulp. Combine strawberry liquid with the sugar, stirring to dissolve sugar. Pour into cleaned crock and let stand another week, stirring daily. After the second week, pour the strawberry liquid into 1-gallon glass wine bottles and cork loosely. Let rest in a cool, dark place for 3 months.When wine is clear and no longer fermenting pour into individual bottles, cork, and age at least 1 year before drinking this delicious strawberry wine.

Strawberry Wine : 3lbs. fresh strawberries, 1/2 lb. chopped golden raisins, 2-1/2 lbs. light brown sugar, 2 tsp. citric acid, 1/4 tsp. grape tannin, water to make 1 gallon, wine yeast & nutrient Place all ingredients except yeast in crock. Crush fruit with hands and cover with 5 pints boiling water. Stir with wooden paddle to dissolve sugar and simultaneously mash the strawberries. When cooled to 80-85 degrees F., add yeast. Cover and stir daily. Strain on 7th day, transfer to secondary fermentation vessel, top up to one gallon, fit fermentation trap, and set aside. Rack after 30 days and again after additional 30 days. Add additional one cup sugar and 1/3 tsp citric acid dissolved in 1/2 cup water and ferment another 30 days. Rack, ferment additional 30 days, then rack again.Bottle when clear. Allow to age at least 9 months.

To drink a strawberry wine is to experience something unexpected. Many people imagine strawberry wine to be thick and sweet, much like what you’d find on the table at IHop. While I’m sure there are many strawberry wines that have been made sweet, its real strength lies in its ability to taste remarkably good even when it is completely dry. This is an oddity for most fruit wines since they usually need to be sweetened back at least a little to help retain their fruity character and in some cases to round off an undesirable rough edge.

Strawberry Wine with Food: Strawberry Wine is ideal with dessert (particularly the sweet ‘Cornish Berries’ Strawberry Wine), salads and barbecues. A sparkling strawberry wine is ideally suited for consumption at the beginning of a meal or party – Champagne style. It provides a great talking point and whets the appetite for a first course.

For England strawberry wine is an ideal wine to make for the amateur and the professional. Strawberries are easy to grow in large numbers in the English climate, and to make wine from this fruit is fairly easy and purely requires some patience and a bit of trial and error. The taste can be made pleasant enough so really it deserves a much better reputation than it has.

Making wine at home can be a deliciously fun hobby! With some inexpensive equipment and a myriad of recipes and ingredients, the amateur wine maker can follow simple steps to create a satisfying home brewed product. Wine making supplies are readily available through local stores that cater to wine hobbyists or online outlets that offer catalogs of items for sale. Homemade wine can be a delicious and unique addition to your entertaining menu and will allow you to express your own creativity and unique tastes.

Things you’ll need: 1 qt. of fruit, any kind, 1 package of active yeast, 2 cups of sugar, 1 gallon of water (separated as 1 cup hot water, 2 cups warm water and 13 cups), Colander or cheese cloth, Container with tight-fitting lid.Mash and crush the fruit with a spoon or masher and transfer it to the clean, 1-gallon container or jug. Mix the 2 cups of sugar in 1 cup of hot water. Make sure the sugar is completely dissolved. Let this mixture cool to room temperature.

Once cooled, add the sugar mixture to the fruit and stir. Dissolve the package of active yeast in 2 cups of warm water. As you mix this, the yeast may foam. Combine the yeast mixture with the fruit and sugar. Pour the remaining 13 cups of water into the container and stir the complete mixture. Place the lid on the container and store it in a dark, cool place for 2 to 3 weeks to enable the mixture to ferment. Strain the fermented mixture through a cheese cloth or colander to get a smooth consistency, and pour the finished product into a container for use.

Sterilization is mandatory for all utensils, bottles and corks, especially corks. One should use commercially available plastic corks until you know how to properly
sterilize natural corks.

Your Fermentation temperature may be too hot or too cold. The yeast in your liquid is better suited for its job if the temperature is between 70 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit, with approximately 72 degrees being the ideal temperature. If the fermentation is too cool it may become sluggish and ferment very slowly or it may not ferment at all. Fermentations that are too warm may allow microorganisms to grow in your wine causing it to have a bad flavor or may even cause the wine to be spoiled.

The procedure of racking the wine is essential to winemaking. Racking is the process of siphoning the wine off the sediments into a clean secondary fermentation container. This can be done with a flexible plastic tube. Racking is usually done on a regular basis over several months until the wine is clear and ready to be placed in bottles.