Posts Tagged ‘wine’

Wine decays teeth

Monday, October 26th, 2009

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 “Pale plonk packs an acidic punch!” says the BBC, Well, it does and it doesn’t. It also depends on the types of wine grapes as to how acidic the wine is and how long the wine is held in the mouth, as to how much damage is done. For example, wine tasters and merchants that can sample around 50 wines a day, holding the wine in their mouth for around 60 seconds are more likely to suffer from erosion than the typical wine drinker. Loads of noise on twitter for the story on http://twitter.com/winewarecouk and http://twitter.com/thirstforwine.

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So what does White wine actually do to teeth?

 

It should be pointed out that the erosion of teeth by wine is the result of extensive wine use that would also lead to damaged liver and all sorts of other problems. The typical wine drinker who sips a glass of wine at dinner or with their evening meal should not be ‘scared off’ by the tooth decay headlines, remember 100 year old women in Italy swear that wine was the secret of their longevity.

White wine stains teeth:

I think that anyone who has drank a few glasses of Red would agree that, yes, it does. Have you stopped to think at any time about this? “Red wine, unlike white, contains a highly-pigmented substance known as chromogen," explained Dr. Wolff of the New York University College of Dentistry, they goes on to explain that "The acids in wine create rough spots and grooves that enable chemicals in other beverages that cause staining, such as coffee and tea, to penetrate deeper into the tooth”.

Dr Wolff pointed out that all wine has the abilty to damage the tooths surface, red wine merely lets us know where that damage is.

How can you stop this erosion?

1) Alkaline mouthwashes are highly recommended

2) Proper brushing of your teeth with a soft tooth brush is encouraged.

3) Food is a fantastic accompaniment with wine as this helps the teeth repairt themselves from acid damage.

4) To aide remineralisation of your teeth, please wait for 20 mins after food before cleaning your teeth.

5) Cheese can also help as it contains calcium in a high concentration

I hope this is helped a little towards taking away the fear factor of White wine.

Think I need a drink after all that …

You’ve Eaten Indian Food, Why Not Drink The Wine

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

To complement a good dinner you need exquisite wine to go with it. When having a smart slap up meal the waiter would ask you what you would like to drink to which you would answer, “A bottle of your finest Nashik region sauvignon blanc wine or an original Maharastran Shiraz”. Like any good meal there are some essentials that you need, for example, glassware, an ice bucket to keep the wine cold (if it's white) and ideally someone to pour it for you. Whilst all of these are most often associated with fine French or Italian cuisine, India are now making a move for the market.

Indian wine is desperately trying to emulate the immense success of the sub-continents beer (Cobra Beer) and food (Curry). However India’s oldest winery only dates back to early 1982 so the industry is still really in the starting phases. India as a nation are trying to increase their revenue stream and commerical routes as much as possible by broadening their own horizons. Exporting wine as well as beer and food will be a great move for Indian commerce as a nation as this will un-doubtedly help their relation and profit prospects.

White wine and red wine go well with any meal and normally you would go for a wine that has been brewed and made in France or Italy for example, but Indian wine could change all of that. Sales have grown by 30% to 35% in India every year since 2002 and although only 2% of the population drinks wine, that still accounts for a staggering twenty million people. Last year alone the Indian market accounted for 1.2 million cases of wine being sold, representing a doubling of domestic consumption in just five years. Compared to global players in the wine industry – America last year produced 270 million cases – India remains a viticultural minnow but now producers believe they have spotted a receptive export for the globe and a massive avenue to make plenty of money.

For high qaulity crystal vases, wine glasses and whisky glasses, visit FC

How do you know the real price of wine?

Monday, October 19th, 2009

At Classic Wine Direct we’re pretty upfront about what we do – we can’t compete with supermarkets on price so we offer wines from off the beaten track instead. We believe that these wines are more interesting and quite simply, tastier. people who drink wine don't really know the true value of wine.

Back in 2006, Jean-Manuel Spriet, the then chief executive of Pernod Ricard UK, sent shockwaves through the wine trade by admitting that many of the “half price” wine deals in supermarkets were actually a rip-off.

having an important person within the wine trade admitting to being conned raised an eyebrow.

half price deals are not in fact deals at all according to Spiret. simply, a bottle reduced from £7.99 to £3.wines are often only worth £3.99.99 in the first place.

retails brands use the policy of marking up and then mark down. The customer will then beleive he is getting a quality wine for a bargain price. Confused? That’s the general idea.

the wine industry is believe the main wine drinker is obsessed with the £3.99 price tag.the cheap price to customers affects the ways the suppliers are producing their wines.

consumers really know what is going on but they just carry on doing it. At the end of the day, it just leads to the impoverishment of the wine trade”.

Spiret’s insight provides us with a depressingly cynical view of the way wine is both sold by the big retailers and supplied by the big wine brands. More worryingly it gives us an insight into what the big retailers really view their customers to be, namely lazy and ignorant.

spiret was making us aware of the tricks of marketing wine.

Given that supermarkets represent two thirds of wine sales in the UK, these practices also have a direct effect on the public perception of the value of wine.

if the normal drinker believes that they are getting a £7.00 bottle.wine values range from £3.99.99 bottle then it follows that it will be much harder for the independent wine retailer to sell something whose real value is (and always was) £7.99.

this type of marketing leaves it open to all sorts of underhand practices.

However, if the political mood continues to be against discount selling for alcohol, it will be interesting to see how the big retailers find a real price for wines they have knowingly mis-sold for the last 10 years.

 

Learning About the Wine Making Process

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

Since homemade fruit wine making is an interesting hobby, many of us look for good wine making instructions to make this hobby more successful, easy and fun. Truly, whenever we think about wine making, we cannot resist thinking about grapes. But the fact is you can use other fruits as well.  Using an instruction guide such as the ultimate fruit winemaker's guide will help you with your winemaking ambitions.

Harvesting or picking is always the first step in making wine, as you need to have gathered the materials for your wine before you can begin making it. A combination of science and old-fashioned tasting go into the harvesting process, and harvesting can either be done mechanically or hand, whichever you prefer.

You might want a citrus wine favor. If so, you can use oranges, apples, grapefruit or gooseberry. If you want something a little less citrus flavored, you might try bananas, cherry, pear, peach, strawberry or grapes. There are people who use dandelions and rhubarb as well as watermelon and ginger root to make wine.

The next step in the wine making process involves fermentation. This is really where the magic is in the process and if left to its own devices, the must or juice will begin to ferment naturally within about eight hours, with the aid of wild yeasts in the air.  In clean wineries and vineyards however the fermentation process is quite different. Once fermentation begins, regardless of the chosen path, it will normally continue on until all of the sugar has been converted to alcohol and a dry wine is produced.

Once this fermentation process is completed the clarification process begins. Filtering and fining are also usually done at this stage, filtering which can be done with everything from a course filter that catches only large solids to a sterile filter pad that wipes wine of all life. Fining on the other hand, occurs when substances are added to a wine to clarify them. Finally in the wine making process is the stage of aging and bottling. You can either bottle the wine immediately, or further aging can be done in bottle, stainless steel or ceramic tanks.

You can really personalize this process and make it your own as long as you include the basics, and you will have a lot of fun and produce some fantastic wine that you can share with your family and friends. Wine making is a time honored tradition, one that has become incredibly popular in the world of today. If you have not tried making your own wine before then it is definitely something that you should try out sometime in the near future.

Is My Wine Choice Correct?

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Friday lunchtime is nearly upon us. This week seems to have been very long and busy.

The hours are counting down to the weekend and that means a few bottles of my favourite wine will be drunk.

Usually it's a few bottles on Friday and Saturday nights and then just one bottle on Sunday. Unfortunately on a Monday morning I have to be up bright and early ready for another busy week at work.

Unfortunately I am still a bit of an amateur when it comes to choosing the right wines. Occasionally I have been known to serve a white instead of a red.

For Friday's dinner I was contemplating serving up a nice piece of steak. To accompany this I think I should be choosing a nice Cabernet Sauvignon. However my predicament is I am an absolute lover of any sort of Shiraz, so perhaps I should get a couple of bottles of this.

This Saturday my family are coming round to my house for a party. Normally when my family come round, they don't bring their own wine, so that means I always have to get extra supplies in. Probably I will decide to buy a case of Cava as this really is my absolute favourite wine. My dilemma will be should I get Rosado Cava or Reserve Cava, or perhaps, as it’s a big event, I should just get a case of each.

On Sunday night there will be just be the two of us and I think after our weekend of heavy drinking we will just enjoy a nice cup of tea.

I can't believe it but that is another weekend done and dusted. Soon it will be Monday morning and the alarm will be buzzing nice and early, heralding the start of another busy week at work.  Oh roll on Friday.