Question 1

What is wine?

Accepted Answer

Wine is a beverage produced by the alcoholic fermentation of the must or mash of fresh grapes. Grapes are the name given to the berry fruits of the noble vine(Vitis vinifera vinifera) that grow in panicles. Wine is considered a luxury food and a cultural product.

Within the European Union, wine has a minimum natural alcohol content of 8.0 to 10.0 percent by volume - depending on the wine-growing zone of the producing country - and a maximum alcohol content of 15.0 percent by volume as a rule.

Question 2

What types of wine are there?

Accepted Answer

The three most common types of wine are white wine, red wine and rosé wine. All three types of wine can be still wine or sparkling wine or semi-sparkling wine occur. In addition, there is Orange Wine as a fourth colour direction. The individual types differ essentially in the production process and the colour of the grapes used.

White wine is usually made from light grapes by must fermentation. White wine made from dark grapes by must fermentation is called Blanc de Noirs.

Red wine is made from dark grapes by must fermentation.

Rosé wine is made from dark grapes by must fermentation after a short maceration period.

Orange wine is made from light grapes through maceration.

Still wine is wine without carbon dioxide. Sparkling wine and semi-sparkling wine is wine with carbonic acid, whereby sparkling wine has a higher carbonic acid content than semi-sparkling wine. The carbonic acid can be added to the wine or produced naturally by means of a second fermentation

Question 3

Who invented wine?

Accepted Answer

The "invention" of wine cannot be attributed to any specific person. Wine culture is already several thousand years old: already in ancient times (from 8000 or 6000 BC), people knew about the fermentation of grapes into an intoxicating drink; the discovery may well have been a coincidence. Wine then developed into an important agricultural product that had economic as well as medical, social and ritual significance. In antiquity, every advanced civilisation had a deity who was close to wine and the enjoyment of wine, for example Osiris in Egypt, Dionysus in Greece and Bacchus in Rome. According to the Bible (Book of Genesis), Noah was the first person to cultivate wine.

According to the latest scientific findings, viticulture probably has its geographical origin in the Near East, in the area of today's Georgia (where viticulture history goes back more than 7,000 years), Armenia and south-east Anatolia, i.e. in Transcaucasia and historical Mesopotamia. From there, over the centuries, wine culture spread across the Mediterranean to Central Europe and finally to the New World

Question 4

Where does wine come from historically?

Accepted Answer

Wine culture is several thousand years old. Already in ancient times (from 8000 or 6000 BC), people knew about the fermentation of grapes into an intoxicating drink; the discovery may well have been a coincidence.

Even then, wine developed into an important agricultural product that had economic as well as medical, social and ritual significance. In antiquity, every advanced civilisation had a deity who represented wine and the enjoyment of wine, for example Osiris in Egypt, Dionysus in Greece and Bacchus in Rome. According to the Bible (Book of Genesis), Noah is considered the first person to cultivate wine.

According to the latest scientific findings, viticulture probably has its geographical origin in the Near East, in the area of today's Georgia (where viticulture history goes back more than 7,000 years), Armenia and south-east Anatolia, i.e. in Transcaucasia and historical Mesopotamia. From ancient Persia, wine culture spread over the centuries across the Mediterranean to Central Europe and finally to the New World.

The roots of European viticulture lie largely in the wine culture of ancient Greece. Professional viticulture already existed in the Mycenaean culture in the 16th century BC, and in the 8th century BC the Greek poet Homer described wine as the drink of heroes in his "Iliad". Both the Greeks and the Romans then brought the knowledge of viticulture and winemaking to the territories they conquered in Europe and North Africa. In Greek and Roman drinking culture, wine had an important social and religious role.

In the Middle Ages, wine culture flourished in Central Europe, also due to the influence of the Church. From the 11th and 12th centuries AD, the wine trade and production in France began to flourish in the south-western regions(Gascony, Bordelais, Cahors) and in Burgundy. In the 16th century, wines from Portugal (Douro), Spain (Andalusia) and Hungary (Tokaj) achieved greater international fame, and the 18th century saw the beginning of the triumphant advance of fine sparkling wines from the French Champagne region. A milestone in European wine history was the classification of vineyards in the Bordeaux region in 1855. In Italy, from the second half of the 19th century, the growths from Piedmont (Barolo) came to growing fame.

The German name "Wein" comes from the Latin word "vinum", which was also the inspiration for the names in numerous other European languages: "wine" (English), "vin" (French), "vino" (Italian and Spanish), "vinho" (Portuguese); the Greek word "oinos" is also related to it.

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Basics

Frequently asked questions about the basics of wine

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