You often read articles about wine, but in the end, what is wine? After all, we rarely take the time to really understand what wine is. So, to fill that gap, we are offering you this first episode of the club. The club aims to help you learn wine so you can enjoy all your future tastings.
Definition: what is wine?
According to the dictionary, wine is an alcoholic drink that comes from the fermentation of grapes. But you have to go further to understand the true meaning of wine. The oldest trace of wine as fermented grapes dates back 5,000 years to Mesopotamia. So it would be wrong to say that wine is merely a simple alcoholic drink. You have to go further than that to understand what wine is, and that is what we are going to do together. So, wine comes from grapes. The juice extracted from them undergoes fermentation: that is, the transformation of sugar into alcohol. That is what makes wine. We will have time to look more closely at fermentation, but for now let us be content with this definition. You thought you were done, but wine is full of subtleties. It is hard to talk about wine in general because, in fact, there are three kinds of wine.
What is wine? The three kinds of wine
These three kinds of wine are:
- Still wine;
- Sparkling wine;
- Sweet wine;
First, still wines. They are red, white or rosé. There are actually other colours of still wine, such as orange wine for example! But let us stick to the basics first. These wines undergo fermentation and are then aged in containers of various shapes. There are many ageing techniques, in oak barrels for example, in clay amphorae, or even underwater for the more original. They are then bottled. The winemaking process is not the subject of this episode, but you can find an excellent article on our blog about it, and we will come back to it later. Still wines account for three quarters of the wine produced in France. Next, sparkling wines. The first that comes to mind is champagne. And yes, you may not have known this, but champagne is indeed a wine. There are other types of sparkling wine such as pétillant naturel, also called Pet Nat, crémant, vouvray, clairette de die, blanquette de Limoux and many others. The way these wines are made, that is, the winemaking, is slightly different compared to still wines. Sparkling wines undergo a second fermentation in the bottle: that is what gives them their bubbles! Sparkling wines account for 8% of the wine produced in France. Finally, there are natural sweet wines or fortified wines. These are wines to which a spirit has been added that stops the fermentation. This technique keeps the sugar, since the transformation into alcohol is halted. Examples include… Natural sweet wines or fortified wines account for 17% of wine production in France.
Wine culture
We could stop there on the definition of wine, but that would make you miss a large part of the story. Wine is not just a matter of fermentation, it is also a world in its own right. It has a whole ecosystem with châteaux, families, distributors, merchants, critics, and consumers. Making wine is an incredible profession. Drinking wine means living up to the know-how of the women and men who make it. This is not about sticking your little finger in the air, far from it. There is plenty to learn in order to enjoy wine properly. For example: How do you taste a wine? Where does wine come from? What are the grape varieties? How do you pair food and wine? How do you store wine? What are tannins? How do you buy your wine? What are the faults in wine? How do you read a wine label? How do you serve wine? In France alone, wine means 363 Appellations d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) and 74 Protected Geographical Indications (IGP). There really is a lot to learn! In short, you will have understood, there are enough questions to keep us busy for many episodes. I will be glad to answer all your questions about wine and to help you enjoy it to the fullest!
A few figures on wine
Before ending this episode, I cannot leave you without giving you a few figures on wine. It will give you an idea of the big picture to really understand what wine is. Of course, there is no need to learn them by heart.
Wine: the macro data
According to Vin et Société, in 2018 France produced 4.6 billion litres of wine, that is 17% of the wine on the planet. That tells you how important wine is in France and how much there is to learn about it. France is the second-largest wine-producing country in the world, behind Italy and ahead of Spain. It is also the second-largest consuming country, behind the United States and ahead of Italy.
Wine in France
In 2018 again, 85% of households bought wine for consumption at home: that is 3.7 billion bottles of wine consumed. 96% of French people think wine is part of France’s cultural identity: so let us set off to discover it in the next episodes of the Club. Beyond the figures, wine is also millions of passionate people, of whom you are already one or are about to join through the next episodes of this podcast. You can go even further in discovering wine by signing up for free to our club: you will receive valuable advice in your inbox. It is free, it is interesting, and if you ever change your mind, you can unsubscribe whenever you like. So go ahead and sign up to our club. I will see you in the next episode to learn even more and enjoy wine together. Join the club
