Chez MishaLee
At Home with MishaLee...a lifestyle blog for self development and inner growth. Recipes, wine, healthly living tips, no sweat exercises all in one grat place!
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Thursday, December 11, 2008

Let's Talk Wine
Wine Words

For many of us the vocabulary used to describe wine is unfamiliar. Often, we may be intimidted by not knowing the "politically correct" word to describe what we are tasting in a particular glass of wine.

No Worries! Wine words is here to help.

Age...I don't know about most of you but I for one am not going to grow old gracefully but rather fight it all the way!

However, where wine is concerned getting older under controlled conditions most often improves the wine's flavour. All wine is aged, some only for a few weeks others to many years. Oh! And please don't save that bottle of champagne! Most do not get better with age. Now, back to the wine...Aging in barrels is a very slow oxidationand many vinyards are noving away from barrel aging infavor of stainless casks. While the barrels can impart flavors to the wine, most notably oak, aging in the bottle allows the wine to soften and harmonize. Eventually however, all wine will decline in the bottle and get a vinegary taste. When that happens it is not fit for drinking but can eaisly be used for cooking and salad dressings.

The Take Home Message: Balance** A tasting term, that indicates whether the variable flavours such as fruit, acid, smoke, cherry, chocolate, wood etc. are in the right proportion. Now, go forth and experiment with a couple of your favorite wines and food pairings.

Remeber...have fun and taste responsibly!