No doubt you have enjoyed wine with meals, and have probably even bought a bottle or two. Like most people you are probally overwhelmed by the subject of wine. I will take you through the basics of wine in an easy to understand way.

First of all what exactly is wine? Wine is fermented grape juice. Fermented refers to the process of fermentation, or the converstion of the sugary grape juice into alcohol. In order for this process to work there must be some yeast involved. Yeast is a natural fungus that grows on grape skins. Sugar eating yeast is added to the process to better control the fermentation.

For the most part, wine is fermented in wooden oak barrels or steel vats. The vinter, or winemaker, then decides how lont to age it and at what temperature. Depending on the grape, the vintage, and the style of vinification, some wine can be drunk almost immediately, while others take years of aging.

There are about 25 varieties of grapes used by winemakers around the world. Each variety has a name. Sometimes a wine is named after a grape's variety and other times it is named for the region where the grape is grown. Wine comes in two primary colors, red and white, which is the two types that we will be exploring in this site.