Wine Bottle Club - From Scratch!

So, we are at the beginning of our wine experience...
From wine tours, wine glasses, wine racks, wine cellars, wine gifts to wine tasting and wine making, everything on one site.

If you are asking - Why this blog site among numerous other sites?! - it's easy to answer. We are starting from scratch!
I know I like wine, and you know that you like wine. But how much do you know about it? I admit, I know just a few basic things - it tastes good and it can be a work of art.
So why shouldn't we start our little wine exploration trip. This month I will bring all sorts of different topics, and in months to follow I will explore in details every single aspect of wine experience. I'll try to find out everything I can, from the very beginning, and You just read and explore more...

Let's begin!

Wine accessories

Besides the characteristics of the wine, wine accessories are just as important.
Wine accessories include wine buckets, wine glasses, wine racks, corkscrews and many many more! Let's cover some of them in slightly more detail.

Wine Glasses
Wine glasses are very important as well. Different wine glasses should be used for different occasions as well as different types of wine. For example, a tall slender flute glass would be suitable for champagne but not red wine. Hence, you should take some time to choose wine glasses that are suit your needs.

Wine Buckets
This is one of the best wine accessories because with a wine bucket, not only can you keep your wine chilled, it also looks great and you can present your wine in style! Furthermore, wine buckets are very useful for parties or gatherings because it is very convenient as you and your guests wouldn't have to constantly "visit" the fridge for chilled wine.

Wine Racks
There is a huge variety of wine racks in the market ranging from the traditional designs to the creative to designer racks, etc. Besides allowing you to show off your collection of wine, some wine rack designs can even be looked upon as an art piece decorating your home! Various sizes are also available. Therefore, you can choose the wine rack according to the size and space allowance of your home.

Corkscrews
An absolutely essential wine accessory would be the corkscrew. Obviously because you need it to open your bottle of wine. There are various designs available and depending on your own personal taste and style, you can simply get one that is attractive to you! Also, do ensure that it is easy to handle and use.

Wine racks

It is a cliché that wines get better with age. How a wine ages will depend on how the wine is stored. Wine racks are a simple way to store unopened wines for the short-term.
Never put the wine rack on top of the refrigerator. All wines should be stored someplace cool. Find a spot in your house that stays about the same cool temperature year-round. The basement, so long as it is consistently cool, makes a nice place to store your wines.

You could also put the wine rack in an interior closet. These storage places are not glamorous, but they keep the wine’s taste. Also make sure the wine will not be vibrated, another reason not to keep it on the refrigerator. Don’t store the wine next to anything with a strong odor, which could overwhelm the wine’s flavor. Wine racks also keep the wine bottle horizontal, tipping the wine to the cork. Keeping the cork wet helps the wine keep.
Once you have a place to store your wine rack, you can have fun picking one out. Metal wine racks match any décor and there are hundreds from which to choose. Metal wine racks have a variety of styles. You can buy classical wine racks made from wrought iron, or more contemporary wine racks made from chrome or steel. Metal wine racks can stand alone, form a table, or be hung. Metal wine racks can cost between $25 and several hundred dollars. Wooden wine racks are just as diverse as metal wine racks. Small wooden wine racks hold three bottles, large wine racks around 50. Wooden wine racks for sale can form a table, be a storage chest, stand alone, or be functional stackable boxes. Wooden wine racks cost between $40 and several hundred dollars. If you cannot afford a cellar and would like to expertly store wines, invest in a freestanding, temperature-controlled wine rack.

Proper storage

Properly storing wine lets wine age, and keeps flavor so your wines can evolve. Purchasing a wine rack can be pricey, for those that want to store there collections. You can however purchase many varieties of pre-maid wine racking kits that can also improve your home decor. Proper storage of wine begins with proper planning of where you will put your wine rack or cellar. Storing your wine collections in the right environment is not only important it's crucial to keeping the wine flavor and giving the wine the right atmosphere to evolve. Store wine in a dark, cool, and slightly humid environment.

Never store wine in the sun or in an overly extreme environment. Store wines on their sides to keep the corks moist. Keeping the temperature of your cellar between 50 and 59 degrees Fahrenheit is crucial to the health and development of your wine collection. Always allow room for your wine cellar to expand. As your budget permits, you can add the decor of your dreams and build the dream wine cellar that completes you. You can hire an artistic designer or you can easily have your cellar designed for you online. Next, you can have hire an installation expert or buy a wine rack kit which are easier to put together than your entertainment center. Either way knowing what you want up front is the crucial first step to having a complete wine storage environment.

Wine glasses

It is essential to select a particular wine glass for a certain wine style, as the shape of wine glasses can considerably affect the wine’s perception.
Used for drinking and tasting wine, the proper use of wine glasses is also an important part of cuisine etiquettes. Part of the frequently neglected yet highly obvious thing about the correct use of wine glasses is the stem part of the glass. The proper manner to drink a wine from wine glasses is to hold its stem, then drink. It is not just for social or elegance purposes, yet scientifically, holding the wine glass this way matters the wine temperature.
The temperature of the wine, which turns out to play a favorable factor in the overall taste of the drink, is not at all affected if your follow the correct way of holding wine glasses. This is obtained since the stem of the glass is not directly in contact with the drink. The wine temperature will be a lot harder to control had one grasped the glass by its bowl since it is directly in contact with the drink.
The shape of wine glasses also plays an important role as this concentrates the aroma and flavor of the wine. The glass shape also straights the wine in the best spot of one’s mouth from its varietal. The stem of wine glasses is also an important part because it gives a way for the drinker to grasp the glass without causing the wine to warm. It will also avoid markings of fingerprints on the glass, making the glass easier to twirl.
Basically, there are three types of wine glasses: the champagne flutes, glasses for white wine and glasses for red wine.
Red wine glasses are characterized by having a wider and rounder bowl that gives the beverage a passage to breathe. This design also lets the wine to quickly cool after it has being hand contacted and warmed by the drinker. They have two particular styles: Bordeaux glass and burgundy glass.
Glasses for the white wine are narrower with tulip-shaped or straight sides. Its narrowness lets a chilled white wine to keep its temperature. Champagne wine glasses are tall, with narrow bowl on the top. This design is intended for the sparkling wines to remain desirable when consumed.

Wine tasting

Wine tasting is a technique that takes some practice and skill to master. Obviously, wine tasting is the most important activity that goes along with writing a wine review and scoring a wine.
Wine tasting starts with simply looking at the wine. You should look at the wine by pouring it into a clear glass and holding it in front of a white background. This allows you to observe its full color without any background effects. Color differences can be very subtle, and can indicate many aspects of the wine.

For example, colors in white wines give different flavors, or might indicate age. You could also tilt the glass to observe the color of the wine's "rim." In wine tasting, a purple color in the rim could indicate a young wine, while brown could mean a mature wine.
We now know that most of a taste actually comes from our sense of smell. Thus, after observing the wine's color, during a wine tasting you should smell the wine's "bouquet" or "nose." This helps identify subtle tastes that your tongue won't recognize. Then, take a sip of the wine and swish the wine around in your mouth. It was first thought that only certain taste buds on the tongue were able to detect certain tastes like sweetness or bitterness.
We now know this is not true, so swishing the wine in a wine tasting allows all of your taste buds to experience the flavor. While you're tasting it, you should be able to develop a first impression, or what tastes are most apparent from the wine. Next, take a breath with the wine in your mouth to get an idea of the texture of the wine -- light, rich, smooth, or harsh. Last, you can either spit out the wine or swallow it, and get an idea for the wine's aftertaste.

Wine tours

Wine is commonly produced all over the world on properties we refer to as wineries. In addition to wine production, in order to finish the production processes, larger wineries may also include areas such as: warehouses, bottling lines, laboratories, expansion tanks, tank farms.

The grapes which are used in wine production at these wineries can come from vineyards owned by the wineries themselves, or it can be made from grapes that are bought and imported from other vineyards around the world. As wineries are becoming popular attractions for tourists, many different types of wine tours are now offered by many wineries around the world.

Wine touring often includes experiencing the actual production of wine, however, they are often revolved around tasting the wine, as well. To allow everyone to participate in this aspect of touring, many different types of wine tours are being made available. These types of tours most generally include personal guides for the tours, as well as vary with their modes of transportation.
With wineries becoming such popular tourist attractions, just about any type of wine touring is now available. Custom touring plans are often offered by wineries. These type of tours are where a personal guide will go over various touring options with you, and help you to determine which type of tour would best fit the needs of your individual group. These guides will often suggest an itinerary, and revise it any way you may want it to be revised.

Wine - what, when, where

Wine is a drink that has been enjoyed by humans for thousands of years. Recent archaeological finds have now even found wine dating back to almost 5,000 years in China. There are several different basic types of wine. The most basic breakdown is red wine and white wine. When the grapes that make these varieties of wine are combined, a rose or blush wine can be created. If the wine is allowed to ferment in a way that produces carbon dioxide bubbles, it becomes a sparkling wine.

Wine is healthy?

Research programs on other factors in wine have resulted in several studies in the past few years on the antioxidant and protective effects of wine compounds. Several compounds in wine inhibit platelet aggregation and act as antioxidants to prevent the breakdown of LDL cholesterol into atherosclerotic plaque. One in vitro study even found that these compounds were more effective than vitamin E in inhibiting LDL oxidation.

Wine making

If you are interested in wine making then you need to do a little homework before you get started. Wine making is not something that you can just plunge into and learn along the way, you need to do some research so that you know that you are not missing any vital wine making steps or processes. If you do miss these wine making your wine could very well turn out tasting like anything but wine.
Wine making is a something fun that you can do in your spare time and at the end you will have a glorious result. Wine making is something that people tend to get hooked on because the very first batch is not usually perfect, it may taste delicious but it will not be perfect. As you learn about wine making and as you get the wine making experience behind you your wine will get better and better. You will undoubtedly pick up tips and tricks to help you improve your wine making capabilities.
The vast majority of wines use the grape for a reasons and this is because this little grape will have so many of the necessary wine ingredients already infused into it. In wine making your success is going to be all about balance and chemicals and the grape has many of the necessary chemicals in it already.
For good and delicious wine making you need to have the right balance of sugar, tannin, moisture and nutrients, well, it just so happens that the grape fits the bill to perfection. This allows for the grape to ferment, as it needs to for successful wine making. Choosing the right grape is only the beginning of your wine making journey though.
There are many different grapes that you can use and when you get more skilled at wine making you might want to add a little of some other fruits to the mix to give your wine some extra depth and flavoring. Read about the different grapes that can be used in wine making and how they affect the outcome of the wine making process. You know what kind of wine you like so this will give you an idea of which direction to take your wine making in.

Define "Wine"

So, let's find out what Wikipedia has to say about wine...

Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermentation of grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients. Wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast which consume the sugars found in the grapes and convert them into alcohol. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are used depending on the types of wine being produced.