Wine based drinks
Personally, I don’t recommend wasting a good wine on mixting it with other drinks and stuff, but I shall publish a list of wine based drinks and have you decide what is worth.
Brandy is a general term for distilled wine which has been aged for at least two years (looks like wine, but tastes differently).
Calimocho is a cheap alcoholic drink, comprising 50% red wine and 50% cola drink ( funny name).
Mulled wine is a red wine, combined with spices and usually served hot (it is extremely apreciated especialy in the winter, but most of true wine lovers do not considere it their kind of drink).
Sangria is a wine punch, comprising red wine, chopped fruits, sugar and a small amount of brandy or other spirits (this may seem more of a drink that is worth the sacrifice of the wine).
Spritzer is a tall, chilled drink made ofwine and soda water (you must have at least heard of it…).
Zurracapote is a popular Spanish alcoholic drink comprised mainly of red wine, spirit, fruit juice, sugar and cinnamon (interesting people).
These are just few of them, but usually only poore quality wine is used to preparate them.
Riesling - strong personality wine
Mentality and spirit combined with a great personality are always bound to make a great brand, revealing the value within. German mentality and spirit combined with great German personality are easily recognised in German wine. That goes double if we are talking about Riesling.
Riesling is Germany leading grape variety, known for its characteristic “transparency” in flavour and presentation of terroir.
Riesling normally ripens between late September and late October, but there are late harvests that can be picked as late as January. These late harvests are then turned, after the effect of the fungus Botrytis Cinerea (”noble rot”), or by freezing, and by the removal of water, into a richer wine.
These concentrated wines have more sugar, more acid (to balance all the sugar), more flavour and more complexity.
That and the fact that Riesling is rarely blended with other varietals, hardly ever exposed to commercial yeast and usually never exposed to oak flavour, make of Riesling a very strong wine. As powerful as the German spirit, Riesling is an imposing figure on the marquet, unique and proud by the exactingness of its obtaining.
Chocolate love story wine
It seems more and more that wine and love have prety much in common. Just finished talking about Romeo and Juliet, and now its time to find out about a bavarian called Gustav Clauss and his love for a greek girl called Daphne. Of course it’s a legend! But it’s a really nice one, telling us about the name of a wine. Mavrodafni is a greek wine initially vinified in large vats exposed to the sun. Once the wine reaches a certain level of maturity, fermentation is stopped. Then the Mavrodafni distillate and the wine, still containing residual sugar, is transfered to the underground cellars to complete its maturation. There it is “educated” by contact with older wine using the solera method of serial transfusions.
Mavrodafni presents aromas and flavours of caramel, chocolate, coffee, raisins and plums, and is one of the few wines that can accompagny chocolate-based desserts.
But wait! I haven’t told you the end of the love story… Well, Mavrodafni translates as “Black Laurel” but the legend I was talking about sais that the name of the wine was chosen by Clauss after his beloved Daphne. So, we could say it ended with a bottle of the finest wine.
Bitter wine
There is a song called “Bitter wine”, but I’m not going to tell you about the song. The topic of this blog is a wine called Amarone, one of Italy’s reason of pride on the European marquet. Amarone, officially called Amarone della Valpolicella Classico is perfect for the wine drinkers that seek a sense of ripe, fruit, power, roundness and adventure in their red wines. That is the combination that makes Amarone so popular these days.
To produce an Amarone, a winemaker takes the harvested grapes and lays 
them on a straw mat, often in an attic or other warm room. The grapes then dry over the course of several months creating a raisiny flavour that is a distinctive character. The name of Amarone comes from the italian word “amaro”, which means “bitter”. However, tasting Amarone, you may notice a sweet edge to it that can be explained in the concentrated sugars that grapes pick up during the drying process.
So, Amarone is not entirely bitter, it is a sweet wine too. Or is it? Bitter and sweet in the same time? (that should be really interesting to taste, don’t you agree?) I wondered and wondered how can it be, but the fact is that its taste, color and aroma are fully explained by the way it is obtained. And that is not all I figured. Remember the story about the two lovers in Verona who ended so tragically? Yes, that’s the one: “Romeo and Juliet”. Sweet bitter tale isn’t it? Guess in what province of Italy is Amarone produced.
Sweet choice of wine
The names of wines are very important in the wine industry, that is because they are supposed to be bought and for that it is required a certain image on the marquet. Besides that, wines are usually ambassadors of their regions and they give pride to those who worked hardly to obtain them. That is why naming a wine should be a really interesting job. Should you just do the common thing and give it the name of the land it’s grown on? Should you treasure the grapes and make the vine famous leaving the flavour of the wine speak about the grapes that were sacrificed in their special red or white greatness? Should you just choose a commercial combination of words that say nothing and disappear in the dust? It’s hard to say what would be the perfect choice and how good would you manage to sell your name but preserve your respect for what a wine could mean in its entire, complex and beautiful way.
That is why I wonder what could have made someone think to name a wine “Aleasa Dulce”, which means something like “The Sweet Chosen One”. This wine is bound to have an aroma that delights your senses even before opening the bottle. Of course, the choice of the appellation is not that of a single person and it has its history over the ages. Beautiful from the first sound (who said wines cannot sing music to your ears?), Aleasa Dulce is a full bodied dessert wine with a fresh, fruity bouquet and a round, sweet palate. It is made from the selected sweetest Traminer grapes. It is mostly recommended to be enjoyed with pastry and fruits.
Romania, wine tradition
Where do I begin? Well, its hard but still I will start with… the beginning. Greeks arrived in Dacia (present day Romania) 3,000 years ago and brought the vine. We should say that the first wine was a red one. The geographical position and climate were an advantage, needless to say the natives loved the sweet, tasty and powerful flavour.
The vineyards extended and diversified until they obtained white wine and more. During the history of the land, wine as people had its rough times too. The vines were burned, distroyed by pests but they managed to grow from their own ashes as Romania is one of the greatest exporters of wine in Europe. That is also due to various vines brought here from the Western Europe (France, Germany), vines that found a unique soil and special conditions developing their native taste with new flavours.
The wine tradition of this country is bound to reveal interesting aromas and delicious brands as Beciul Domnesc, and not only.
Breathing … wine
The moment of opening and drinking a bottle of wine is as important as time is essential in the maturation of the wine. The labels on certain bottles suggest that they should be set aside for an hour (or so) before drinking, that is in order to let the wine breathe, while other wines are recommended to be drunk as soon as they are opened.
Allowing a wine to aerate before drinking is an operation depending on the type of wine. Usually, the younger wines benefit from some aeration, while older wines do not. The duration of the breathing period is at the dispense of every consumer, but also recommended, generally, on the label. It would be better to aerate the wine less, rather than to exagerate the exposure in order to lose the flavour.
Note that aerating a wine involves more than removal of the cork.For aeration to provide any benefit whatsoever, the wine must be decanted. The glass in the picture has the necessary wide flat bottom and a wide neck for easy pouring and cleaning. However, a simple glass would do the trick just as well if you are not the extremely perfectionist type of wine drinker.
Vinho Verde
A category of wine that is unique and typical of Portugal is Vinho Verde. It is the first portuguese wine to be sold in the European markets. Vinho Verde is produced from grapes which do not reach great doses of sugar. Therefore, it does not require an aging process. These are very light wines and naturally gassy.
Vinho Verde always requires low temperatures before serving. There are red, white and, more rarely, rose varieties of the apellation Vinho Verde, but only the white wines are exported. Vinho Verde provides only one of many reasons that make Portugal a country with a powerful personality in wine growing.
Premium wines
Expensive high-class restaurants will present on the menu a list of exquisite wines that are … what else than expensive.Those are called premium wines, white or red (especially red), being often at their best years or even decades after bottling. That certainly can bring out the flavour in enjoying a meal in a beautiful restaurant, most of all if we are talking about dinner and you are well accompanied (you get the picture!…). However, there is a bad part in this expensive wine story (and I’m not just talking about the price). Premium wines may spoil after such long storage periods, unknown to the drinker about to open the bottle. The wine may be used again in order to obtain a drinkable wine, but the unpleasant situation persists. Of course, diners refuse to bear the expense and return the wine, and that is why restaurants will often charge between two and five times the price of what a wine merchant may ask for an exceptional vintage.
So be prepared when asking for a premium wine in a premium restaurant in order to have the premium experience you are seeking.
Born old. Youth and wisdom
There is a saying: give me the youth and strength of a 20 years old and the wisdom of a 60 years old. To put in another way, I want to be young and wise in the same time.
Hard to obtain this if you are a human being, you can still admire the phenomenon in its entire flavour opening a bottle of wine, in particular Moscatel wine (Portugal).
Moscatel is a liqueurous wine from the Setubal Peninsula. Since 1870, most of Setubal Moscatel have been grown with special care. And the most known is “Moscatel Roxo”, a wine that only becomes commercialized after aging 20 years in a cellar.
Born to our senses (consumers’ senses) only after 20 years of aging in silence, this wine will offer a distinctive red experience of taste and aroma.
