Designing Your Character & Other Handy Things

Guide to Wine

Wine is an alcoholic drink made from fermented grapes and sometimes other fruits (called fruit wines). It has been drunk for thousands and thousands of years all over the world, and has a rich and confusing history behind it.

Wine is alcoholic because the sugars in the grapes ferment over time. It will get you drunker than beer, but not as drunk as "harder" drinks such as whiskey or vodka. Most wine has an alcohol content of about 10-15%, while beer is more like 4-6% on average. Wine is aged in wooden barrels most of the time, and as a rule of thumb: the older a wine is the better and more expensive.

There are three main types of wine: Red, White, and Rose.

Red Wine

Red Wine is made from dark black grapes and is served, room temperature, with red meats. Common types of red wine are named after the specific type of grape they are made out of. Some examples are:

MerlotCabarnet Sauvignon (or Cabs)Pinot Noir

Some reds are named after the area in which it is produced, such as Bordeaux and Chianti.

While the color of the grape juice itself is very pale, it takes on a dark red color from the skin of the grapes.

Then there is White Wine

White wine is made from lighter grapes (sometimes red grapes without the skin) and is served, chilled, with white meat. Like Reds, they are often named after the grapes they are made of. A few of these include:

Chardonnay Sauvignon blancRiesling

White wine is often lighter in flavor than red wines.

There is also "Rose Wine" or Pink Wine.

It is made with some of the grape skin still on it- enough to give it some color, but not as deep a color as red wines. These are sometimes called "blushes" or "rose"

Other vocab:

Fortified Wines are wine that have had extra alcohol mixed into them. This can be done DURING the fermentation process (which makes the wine sweeter AND more alcoholic) or AFTER the fermentation process (just more alcoholic)

Sparkling Wines (white and rose) have been carbonated. Yay! Celebration! Remember, the corks DO pop pretty loud on these.

Dessert wines (mostly red) are extra sweet. Have some with your fancy cheesecake, yes?

Vintages are wines made up of grapes all grown in the same year.

Breathing is when you open a wine bottle before you intend to serve it, letting the wine interact with the air before drinking.

Region Protected means that some wines can only hold a certain classification if they are grown and made in a certain region. For example, Champagne is a sparkling white wine that MUST be made in the Champagne region of France. Port, a fortified red dessert wine, MUST be made in certain areas of Portugal.

"Dry" means that the wine isn't very sweet and has a lot of tannins. The wine feels like it is literally drying out our mouth a little.

Tannins are a chemical in wine that make it "dry." They are found in higher concentrations in the skins of the grapes, so red wines often have more (but not always, as tannin levels vary between grape varieties)

Let's talk about descriptions

Wines are often described as though they were made of candy. Lots of fruity flavors and aromas and notes. They really go overboard.