What is wine made of ?

WHAT IS WINE MADE OF ?

Well, don’t laugh ! This question is important.

Let me tell you a short story. Recently, I was in a supermarket and, as you can imagine, I stopped by the wine counter. I was looking around, going from one rack to another one, handling bottles in order to read their front and back labels. A Lady, around 50 years of age, seeing what I was doing, came up to me and, with a strong foreign accent, said : ” Sorry, we don’t want to disturb you (her husband was behind her), but could you tell us why you are looking at the bottles that way ? We are looking for good wines to fill our cellar. We love to drink wine. May be you could give us some advice”. I thought : at least these people like and drink wine and are curious. After a short moment of surprise I said : “I hear from your accent that you might come from a European eastern country, am I right ?”. “We come from Russia” she answered. I replied : “Well, actually I read the labels of each wine because I am looking for a wine with Mourvèdre”. She looked puzzled, and asked : “What is that ?”. I said : “It’s a grape variety from the south of France”. Frowning she said : “What is a grape variety ?” !!!!

Well, here we are ! She knew nothing about grape varieties ! Like so many other people on the planet who drink wine but who don’t know what they drink. Actually, it is not a shame at all. Before entering in the wine business I used to drink wine, from time to time, but I knew nothing about it !!

Wine comes from ripe grapes which, after a natural chemical process of maceration, gives the juice called wine. The grapes grow on vines which grow in soil.