Welcome, to the first edition of the Fermented Sister’s wine and spirit blog.
Well here it goes a fermented rant about wine. First off the name “Fermented Sister,” as I sit at my desk writing the Three Sisters Mountain (Canmore, Alberta, Canada) looms out my window. Yes definitely an ahhhh moment. Which explains the Sister, the fermented part is a passion of mine, which of course is wine. What is there to know about wine, well frankly more than I will ever probably know, however the most important and truly only thing one needs to know about wine is what you like. How great is that, finally something that truly is focused on your own happiness. If you feel you have to drink a certain wine to fit in, that is your ego, and out of place in this environment, wine is simply a liquid form of personal pleasure meant to captivate the one that allows it to cross their lips.
There are over 5000 grape varieties in the world, relax the plan is to get acquainted with the better known ones first than we can delve into some of the unique varietals of world. And of course there is more to life than just wine, (hard to believe but it is true), there is fortified wines, cognacs, spirits like scotch, and what kind of Canadians would we be if we skipped the over beer.
Ah I wouldn’t dare sign off without giving you some insight. Let us begin our journey.
Winemakers say that wine making begins in the vineyard with the growing of the grapes. The terroir, a conceptual term that includes soil makeup, drainage, slope, geographical location, climate, amount of sunlight, wind, rainfall, frost, and even the natural vegetation in the area (to list a few) all play a factor in the viticulture process which greatly influences the taste, aromas and flavours of wine.
Soil types are one aspect that is said to be carried over through to vinification. During tasting, critics (or just real fabulous people like you) may speak of minerality qualities. There are regions famous for their soil influenced wines, German Rieslings exhibit a slate like taste, and French chardonnays may display wet river stones. Nearby plants like evergreen, rosemary, jasmine, even eucalyptus can be tasted in wines were these plants grow.
Now for the wine flavours, how does a wine taste like cherry or apple have when it is made from a grape? Each grape has its own biological and chemistry makeup, these give us the main tastes of sweet, sour or bitter (rarely is there a bitter wine), and the aromas qualities that we associate with foods like fruits, spices, herbs and minerals. The aroma compounds found in these are often the same found in wine once they have gone through their chemical interaction, and metabolic yeast action in the wine making process.
Information overload, you tell me, and I have one question for? We have to keep this fun for everyone. If on a date and after 3 bottles of wine your date is still not pretty, how does one bow out and run graciously?
Until next time, Cheers from
“ the Fermented Sister”
Have a burning question to ask, email me at fermentedsister@gmail.com
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