Types of Wines
The various types of wines differ as much as the characteristics of wine itself. The first step in finding and appreciating a good wine is understanding the fundamental types of wine, from dry to sweet, and red to white. Does this Spark an idea?
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Red Wine
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Red wine is made by including the grape's skins in the crushing process. The skins also give the wine what are called tannins, which are seen as the backbone of a red wine, giving it structure.
White Wine
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White wine is made by removing the grape's skin and seeds prior to the crushing process. White wines lack much of the tannin present in red wines, typically leading to lighter bodied wines.
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Dry Wine
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A wine becomes classified as a dry wine when yeast converts all but 1 or 2 percent of a wine's sugar into alcohol during fermentation.
Sweet Wine
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Sweet wine is classified as 3 percent residual sugar in a wine after it has been fermented. This leaves the wine with a sweeter taste than a dry wine, but still not too sweet to be eaten with many foods.
Dessert Wine
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A wine becomes known as a dessert wine when the yeast in fermentation have only converted 95 percent or so of the wine's sugar into alcohol. This is usually obtained by the winemaker's intervention near the end of fermentation, halting the conversion process.
Fortified Wine
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A fortified wine is a wine to which a spirit, typically brandy, has been added.
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