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What is Wine?
Wine is an alcoholic beverage made with the fermented juice of grapes.

Technically, any fruit is capable of being used for wine (i.e., apples, cranberries, plums, etc.), but if it
just says “wine” on the label, then it’s made with grapes. (By the way, wine grapes are different from
table grapes.

Wine Basics

Most wine is made with grapes, but they are not like the ones you find in the grocery store.
Wine grapes (Latin name: Vitis vinifera) are smaller, sweeter, have thick skins, and contain
seeds. There are over 1,300 wine grape varieties used in commercial production but only about
100 of these varieties make up 75% of the world's vineyards.

Today, the most planted wine grape in the world is Cabernet Sauvignon ("cab-err-
nay saw-vin-yon").
What are Wine Grapes?

Wine grapes are different from table grapes: they are smaller, sweeter, and have lots of
seeds.

Table Grapes Are Fat and Sassy. Table grapes are grown in a way to make them more physically
appealing. They are larger, seedless, with thicker pulp and thinner skins to give them that ideal ‘pop’
when you eat them. Table grapes have less acidity and also less sugar than a wine grape.

Wine Grapes Are Lean and Mean. Wine grapes are grown to produce the sweetest and most
potent grapes. They are smaller, riddled with seeds, have thicker skins and higher juice content (vs.
pulp). Wine grapes are delicate and difficult to transport. When you eat a fresh wine grape, they ooze
apart, leaving you with crunchy bitter seeds and chewy grape skin.

Standard eating grapes have a Brix level of 17-19, whereas wine grapes are closer to 24-26 Brix at
harvest. Brix is the scale to measure percentage of sugar in a liquid.

Seedless grapes are easier to eat, but they are less flavorful than seeded table grape varieties.

Most commonly cultivated grapes are Vitis vinifera

We said that about 90% of cultivated grapes in the world are Vitis vinifera.
Vitis vinifera is commonly called The European grapevine with ancestral roots in Iran.
It includes wine grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and table grapes like Red Globe grapes.

The Wine Grape Family Tree

The Origin of the term “Vintage”

Wine grapes take an entire season to ripen, and thus, wine is produced just once a year. Hence, the
origin of the term vintage. Vint stands for “Winemaking” and Age for the year it was made.

When you see a vintage year listed on the label, that’s the year the grapes were picked and made into
wine. The harvest season in the northern hemisphere (Europe, US) is from August–September, and
the harvest season in the southern hemisphere (Argentina, Australia) is from February–April.

Non-Vintage (NV) Wine

Occasionally, you’ll find a wine without a vintage listed on the label. Typically, this is a blend of
several vintages together; and in the case of Champagne, it will be labeled with “NV” which stands
for “ Non-vintage”

SINGLE VARIETAL Wine

A single-varietal wine is made primarily with one type of grape. It’s common to see the wines labeled
by the name of that grape variety. For example, a bottle of Riesling is made with Riesling grapes. It’s
useful to note that each country has different rules for how much of the variety should be included to
be labeled as a varietal wine.
Percentage of grapes required to be labeled as a single-varietal wine.
75% USA*, Chile, South Africa, Australia, Greece
80% Argentina
85% Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Spain, New Zealand
*Oregon requires 90% of the varietal

WINE BLEND
A wine blend is a wine made with a blend of several grape varieties.
Blending is a traditional winemaking method, and today there are several famous wine blends
produced in classic winemaking regions. Most wine blends are mixed after the fermentation (and
aging) is complete. When grapes are blended and fermented together is called a field blend. A
famous example of a field blend is Port wine.

Five Main Types of Wine

Red Wine
Still wine made with black grapes. Red wines range from light to bold.
White Wine
A still wine produced from white and occasionally black grapes. Flavors in white wines span from
light to rich.
Rosé Wine
Still wine from black grapes produced by removing the skins before they stain the wine deep red.
Rosé is also made by blending red and white wine together. Both dry and sweet styles of rosé are
common.
Sparkling Wine
A style of winemaking involving a secondary fermentation that makes bubbles! Sparkling wine can
be red, white, or rosé and ranges from lean and dry, to rich and sweet.
Dessert Wine
A style of winemaking involving fortifying wine with spirits. Typically, dessert wines taste sweet, but
many dry, fortified wines exist, such as dry Sherry.

1) What is wine?
2) What are the main differences between table grapes and wine grapes?
3) What is Brix?
4) What is vitis vinifera?
5) Can wine be kosher?
6) What does kosher mean?