Drink and be merry!

The reason for me to have not written for so long I think is because I have not read anything of any interest to me in a long time now. I'm still working on being normal while on a job. mmmm........

Now, getting down to today's topic......
I'm what you call an absolute novice when it comes to the world of Wines, Names of the wines, Wine tasting, Vineyards, names of the countries that produce good wines so on and so forth...
And what's with this swirling of the wine in the glass before taking a sip and what exactly are they looking for when they smell the wine? - A daffodil? It all just alcohol buddy...
Yeah, I've been doing a lot of wining and dining lately and hence the topic.

Oh, I must've tasted many different types of wine. Here is how i go about it - go to a restaurant, ask for the menu card, choose a red or a white wine (desperately looking for a description underneath each one of those!) Look confident after you've pronounced the bloody french-dutch-Italian wine in your mind at least twice or thrice before spilling it out with a dazzling smile on your face all the time hoping that the guy actually buys it!! That's me people. The vain Me.

Yesterday I put an end to this by doing some research / some reading!! Here is what I found. If you guys are coming here after so long you might as well learn something with me and perhaps leave some of your wisdom in the comment box!

Let's drink to that folks.....

Here are a few extremely basic facts:

There are 6 different types of wines
Red Wine
White Wine
SparklingWine (in other words - Champagne!) Ah, I bet some of you didn't know that!

Rose Wine
Dessert Wine
Fruit Wine

The Last 3 as usual are not considered very special. But lets begin at the beginning.

Red wine - Made from red or black grapes. Names of the wine are based on the names of the grapes they are made from! ( I didn't know this, never thought of the 'WHY' factor)
Some popular grapes and hence the wines are - 'Pinot' family, 'Merlot' family, Australian Shiraz etc...... My personal favourite - Pinot Noir.

White wine - Made from white or light coloured grapes. Like other wines, white wines can be made from either one single variety of grape or by blending several. 'Bordeaux' is one variety that's well-known among the blended ones. I have not tasted enough in white wine to find a personal favourite yet! Still a long way to go.....

Sparkling Wine - Champagne Folks!!- Interesting stuff here!
Any wine with bubbles in it is a sparkling wine. Champagne is the most famous of all the Sparkling Wines. Apparently how the fizziness in the wine is brought about determines the texture and the taste of this wine. The name 'Champagne' is because of a particular variety of grape from the Champagne region in France that undergoes a process called champenoise that gives that bubbly effect.

Rose wine- No, no. It is not produced by blending red and white grapes sillys!!
Infact it is produced by crushing red grapes. Interestingly enough by not letting the skin of the red grapes be in contact with the juice for long, we can produce rose/pink wine. Howzaat? and believe me folks the pink wine looks so pretty but tastes very dry and very acidic.

Dessert Wine or sweet wine - It is produced not by adding sugar but by halting the fermentation of the grapes by adding a particular fungus that stops the fermentation and increases the sugary, fruity flavour in them. They were considered cheap! But I seriously feel every wine has a particular character that will have a following.

Fruit Wine - made from fruits i suppose, didn't bother read about this.

And yes, 'they' swirl to test the heaviness of the wine. The lines that the wines produce by the side of the glass and the time it takes to dribble would say how old the wine is!! I'm gonna try this folks! The smell ofcourse depends on our imagination! Apparently, the smell can actually remind you of a particular fruit, flavour, an emotion. Not sure about trying this!!

All this sudden knowledge has made me more curious about so many other things.
So I made a mini list of things i would like to know more about...... Islands, Kings and queens. Well, please feel free to add to my mini list.....

PS: One thing I'm least interested in knowing about is Flowers!