Wine grape varieties

White and red grapes are the major grape varieties. Varietal wines are wines that are made from single grape breed. But many wines combine numerous grape varieties.

Wine quality is affected by the factors such as soil, climate, viticulture and wine making techniques. When the grape variety is well suited to the soil and climatic structure the quality of wine is maximized. Wine types with distinct flavor are produced by many native grape varieties.

To give different taste and color each type of wine uses different grape variety. Attributes such as color, size, skin thickness and acidity differ in all kinds of grapes. These attributes are influenced by the area in which the grapes are cultivated. To manufacture a high quality wine, a qualified winemaker knows how to merge and choose the grapes from many varieties.

The Wine grapes categories are:

Red grapes. During the month of August to November the red grapes grow in plenty. These grapes are rich in vitamin c and have a sweet pulp. Pinot noir, Syrah, Nebbiolo and Zinfandel are some of famous red grapes.

White grapes. Grapes that are green, yellow, pink or brown in color are called white grapes. The world's famous white wine is the Chardonnay, because of its gamut flavors and styles.

Touriga Nacional

Touriga Nacional comes from Portugal, which boasts a huge array of grape varieties that are in most cases barely seen anywhere else. It makes brilliant, fascinating, deeply coloured, world-class, spicy, ageworthy wine. 

Touriga Nacional is most famously found in Porto, and is grown all over the Douro (the port region). It is universally recognised as being the best port grape. However, since it has become difficult for the producers in the Douro to sell all their production of port, they are making more and more table wines, with the Touriga Nacional being widely used. Quite right too. The Douro is definitely the region to watch currently for the finest Touriga Nacional table wines. It does have a major drawback: it produces extremely low yields, in the Douro each vine produces on average around 300 g of grapes when other varieties will produce 2 kg. The vine is vigorous and healthy (not susceptible to fungal diseases), and needs to be pruned very hard, it produces tiny, jet-black-coloured grapes.

Touriga Nacional has a thick skin and small clusters of berries which help to contribute to the colorful and tannic wine it creates. In addition to the flowers, tannins and extract the Touriga Nacional brings to the Port table, the grape is an integral part of the blends of still red wine found in both the Douro and Dao valleys, producing wines that are heavy in both red fruits and structure. Yields are low, but recent clonal selection has improved production.

While some of the best and most expensive wines of the Douro and the Dao contain high percentages of Touriga Nacional, usually even the every day reds have at least a small portion of this varietal.

In theses days Touriga Nacional became popular grape variety in almost every wine region of Portugal and gives very good and high quality red wine.  Touriga Nacional grapes gives the amount of extract in the wines. The grapes can produce intense, very aromatic wines with high tannin content. 

Tannins

The term ''tannin'' is commonly used in wine circles, but many people aren't really sure exactly what it means.

Why is the subject of tannins an important one for the wine trade at large, and not just winemakers and anoraks? First, suspect that whatever your involvement in the trade, you’ll be familiar with the term ''tannin'' and it’s a word that you’ll have used frequently, perhaps, without a clear idea of what you are referring to. Second, it’s a field of active current research, and data that are only now just accumulating are pointing towards a very different understanding of the role of tannins in red wines than that traditionally espoused by wine textbooks. 

Introducing tannins

The term ''tannin'' is an old one, and comes from the practice of using extracts from plants to cure leather (the process referred to as ‘tanning’). This process exploits one of the key properties of tannins: they have a strong tendency to link up with a range of other chemical entities, most particularly proteins.

Tannins are therefore defined functionally. They are polyphenolic compounds that bind to and precipitate proteins. It’s a slightly complicated picture: not all polyphenols can act as tannins, and not all phenolics that bind proteins are tannins, but it’s still a useful definition.

Tannins and red wine colour

Here’s another story that could do with some revision. Researchers are now beginning to understand the nature of colour in red wines, and the picture emerging is challenging traditional understanding in this area. Colour in red wines actually falls into three categories. First we have the anthocyanins, the primary pool of colour from the grape. Young wine is packed with anthocyanins, which are very reactive: they interact with both sulphur dioxide and oxygen, which bleaches them. Their colour is also influenced by the pH of the must. At lower (more acidic) pH they are redder; at higher (less acidic) pH they are bluer. It turns out that anthocyanins are unstable, and aren’t that important for the long-term colour of red wines. In addition to anthocyanins there are two major fermentation-derived colour groups. The first of these is the pigmented polymers. These are formed by the chemical linkage between tannins and anthocyanins. This is a covalent (strong) linkage and is very important in forming stable colour in wines. The evidence suggests that most of the pigmented polymer formation occurs during fermentation. The third group is called the anthocyanin-derived pigments, which arise from reactions between anthocyanins and other phenolics and aldehydes. This is a massive, complicated class of non-bleachable pigments, and is an area of intense current research, with new members are being added all the time. The anthocyanin-derived pigments are still quite reactive and they can go and form further combinations with tannins to form pigmented polymers. There’s also current interest in the phenomenon known as copigmentation. This is the stable combination of anthocyanins with phenolic ''copigments''—colourless molecules which combine with the anthocyanins to increase colour intensity.  

Wine coolers

Wine coolers are used to store wine bottles and chill them to the right temperature. It is also called wine refrigerator. Regular refrigerator could be suitable for storing wine, too. But since, it may be too cool or constant opening of the door causes a fluctuation in the wine temperature, it is not suitable at all. Temperature that is essential for the integrity of the wine is maintained by the cooler. Along with the some refrigerator units the wine cabinets is fixed. Wine cooler maintains a temperature of about 8º to 12º C and about 60-70% humidity. Some cooler allow you to maintain different temperature for storing and chilling different varieties of wine. The wine lover can taste the wine at its appropriate temperature, thereby enhancing its texture and flavor if it is placed in the wine cooler.

The wine cooler is equipment that may refer to:

Small table top used to chill a single bottle. These coolers are useful particularly in the warmer climates to serve the wine at the right serving temperature. These coolers are suitable for white, rose and sparkling wines.

Large ones in the refrigerator style used to store dozens of bottles. This model is used by the people who are accessible to the wine basement. These units allow the user to select the temperature suitable for the wine and even have options that manage two separate areas for different wines. Thermostat controls some of these units.

Wine labels

Wine labels are the important source to know more about the wine. The wine labels tell the consumers the wine type and its origin. Wine label is the only resource with which the consumer can evaluate the wine before purchasing them. Information like type of wine, country of origin, quality, alcoholic content, producer, bottler, and importer are the main things that have to be included in the wine labels.

Judging a wine by its label

Most of the wine lovers choose their wine by seeing the labels. The way of looking at the label may vary from one person to another for example the novices are attracted by the artistic labels and the snobs are insisted by the famous names in the label. Whatever it may be the wine label reveals the most important thing about the wine - The Flavor.

Required Information

European Union's wine authorities want more information that specifies the quality of wine should be printed on the label.

US law requirements on the wine labels are:

• Brand name
• Type of wine
• Bottled information
• Alcohol by volume
• Net contents 

Kinds of labels:

There are three different types of bottles. They are:

• Varietal-based
• Terroir-based
• Sheer fantasy

Wine ratings

Wine Magazines use either of these methods:

 * Ratings are based on tastings by the magazine’s editors and other qualified tasting panelists, either individually or in a group setting. Tastings are conducted blind or in accordance with accepted industry practices. Price is not a factor in assigning scores to wines. Only wines scoring 80 points or higher are rated, but wines considered flawed or uncustomary are sometimes re-tasted to confirm the intitial impressions.

* Each wine region is the sole jurisdiction of one Editor who has, after much time and research, developed an expertise in that region’s offerings. During a tasting, other editors are on hand and can offer opinions, but the final say is had by that main Editor. All tastings are conducted “blind.” and tasters are told only the general type of wine (varietal or region) and the vintage. If a wine tastes corky or flawed in a major way, or if it scores below 70, a new bottle of the same wine is tasted again. By the same token, wines that score very highly are re-tasted to confirm such favorable first impressions. 

European wines are tasted in the districts that yield them, where fresher, perfectly stored examples will be readily available. Ratings are based on how good a wine will be when it reaches its peak, regardless of how soon that will be. If barrel samples are being rated rather than finished wines, that is revealed, since a world of difference can exist between these two stages of a wine’s life.

Wine Magazines typically use a 100 -Point Scale:

95-100 — Classic, a great wine.
90-94 — Outstanding, superior character and style.
80-89 — Good to very good, wine with special qualities.
70-79 — Average, drinkable wine that may have minor flaws.
60-69 — Below average, drinkable but not recommended.
50-59 — Poor, undrinkable, not recommended.

Reached The Everest

Cooperativa Agricola Ribadouro started to export Pauliteiros wine to Nepal. The wine will reach Nepal in the end of May. The contact of representer in Nepal is ''K&K International''.