Red wine/white wine

[Thomas]

Let's try to make this simple:

All grape pulp is the same color, but not all grape skins are.

Red skinned-grapes are crushed and fermented and then pressed into wine after fermentation--the color of the skins is extracted during fermentation.

White (green-skinned) grapes are crushed and pressed into juice before fermentation.

Rose wines are (generally) produced by crushing the grapes, allowing them to ferment on the skins for a short time and then pressed and allowed to complete fermentation.

Some white wines are produced from red grapes--Champagne, for one, and some white wines are produced from pink grapes--Gewurztraminer, for one. If the grapes are pressed and then fermented there isn't time enough for color extraction.

There are a few ways to keep residual sweetness in wine, each depending upon technology plus local wine regulations. In some places, winemakers can add sugar; in others, they cannot.

Once fermentation begins, yeast multiply until all the sugar is consumed (yeast eat sugar, converting it to alcohol and creating carbon dioxide). So, to create a sweet wine, you must stop the fermentation before it completes. Yeast manipulation that applies to creating a sweet or a dry wine has to do with the type of yeast used, not the quantity. Some yeasts are easier to stop than others; some yeasts are good in cool fermentation; some yeasts, after fermentation begins, demand that you get out of the way.

As for wines solely for women; with the exception of one fellow on this board who refers to sissy whites, most of us view wine by its individual charcateristics. There is no such thing as a wine for men or a wine for women--there are wines for individual tastes.

Now, let's all go play golf at the PGA with the women...

[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 05-19-2003).]