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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 See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge
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INTERNET GUIDE TO WINE
FAQ for alt.food.wine
rec.food.drink
(Frequently Asked Questions and More)
By
Brad and Dri Brown
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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
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Introduction
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_
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
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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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.
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FAQ HISTORY
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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
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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
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User Contributions:Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: |
Throughout history, we can see how we have been strategically conditioned to come to this point where we are on the verge of a cashless society. Did you know that the Bible foretold of this event almost 2,000 years ago?
In Revelation 13:16-18, we read,
"He (the false prophet who deceives many by his miracles--Revelation 19:20) causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666."
Referring to the last generation, this could only be speaking of a cashless society. Why so? Revelation 13:17 says that we cannot buy or sell unless we receive the mark of the beast. If physical money was still in use, we could buy or sell with one another without receiving the mark. This would contradict scripture that states we need the mark to buy or sell!
These verses could not be referring to something purely spiritual as scripture references two physical locations (our right hand or forehead) stating the mark will be on one "OR" the other. If this mark was purely spiritual, it would indicate both places, or one--not one OR the other!
This is where it really starts to come together. It is shocking how accurate the Bible is concerning the implantable RFID microchip. Here is information from someone named Carl Sanders who worked with a team of engineers to help develop this RFID chip:
"Carl Sanders sat in seventeen New World Order meetings with heads-of-state officials such as Henry Kissinger and Bob Gates of the C.I.A. to discuss plans on how to bring about this one-world system. The government commissioned Carl Sanders to design a microchip for identifying and controlling the peoples of the world—a microchip that could be inserted under the skin with a hypodermic needle (a quick, convenient method that would be gradually accepted by society).
Carl Sanders, with a team of engineers behind him, with U.S. grant monies supplied by tax dollars, took on this project and designed a microchip that is powered by a lithium battery, rechargeable through the temperature changes in our skin. Without the knowledge of the Bible (Brother Sanders was not a Christian at the time), these engineers spent one-and-a-half-million dollars doing research on the best and most convenient place to have the microchip inserted.
Guess what? These researchers found that the forehead and the back of the hand (the two places the Bible says the mark will go) are not just the most convenient places, but are also the only viable places for rapid, consistent temperature changes in the skin to recharge the lithium battery. The microchip is approximately seven millimeters in length, .75 millimeters in diameter, about the size of a grain of rice. It is capable of storing pages upon pages of information about you. All your general history, work history, criminal record, health history, and financial data can be stored on this chip.
Brother Sanders believes that this microchip, which he regretfully helped design, is the “mark” spoken about in Revelation 13:16–18. The original Greek word for “mark” is “charagma,” which means a “scratch or etching.” It is also interesting to note that the number 666 is actually a word in the original Greek. The word is “chi xi stigma,” with the last part, “stigma,” also meaning “to stick or prick.” Carl believes this is referring to a hypodermic needle when they poke into the skin to inject the microchip."
Mr. Sanders asked a doctor what would happen if the lithium contained within the RFID microchip leaked into the body. The doctor replied by saying (...)