What is Wine?

By: Kara Mae Adamo.

Wine is, at its most basic form, grape juice that has been standing around for a while.

Now, before a crowd of rioting vintners show up at my door with pitchforks, I’d like to make a fairly obvious point: there is definitely more to winemaking than putting a glass of juice out in the sun. But, in terms of composition, that’s basically what it is.

When wine stands around, it ferments. This is where the yeast in the grapes interacts with heat, creating carbon dioxide and ethanol. The juice becomes alcoholic and, ta-da!, wine is born.

All alcohol, for the most part, is a result of this basic chemical process. There are many differences between each individual type, of course, and I’ll get into those in later articles. One thing that does make wine different from other beverages is that the ingredients involved must be fruits and berries.

If your alcoholic beverage is made of anything else (grains, for instance), it’s technically a beer. Brandy is made from grapes, so it’s a wine. Vodka is–and I know most bartenders will raise their fists at this, but my Master Sommelier professors verified it–a beer.

Spirits are higher in alcohol and generally involve more during the distilling processes, but ultimately they actually fall in these two categories.

Generally, these fruits and berries are crushed before fermentation begins, but that isn’t always the case. Whole grapes can ferment, too. The process is called carbonic maceration and it results in soft, fruity wines like Gamay (an exceptionally popular wine from Beaujolais, France, where carbonic maceration has been embraced and mastered for centuries)

So, can any old grape in my fridge turn into wine?

Not really. The grapes used for wine are typically smaller, sweeter, and always have seeds. There are thousands of different types (called varietals) of wine grapes and almost all of them come from an original strain called Vitis vinifera.

Some wines–especially those grown in the “New World”–are bottled as a singular varietal, while others are used in blends: French Bordeaux, for instance, is always a blend of the same five principal grape varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec. Left and Right Bank Bordeaux wines involve tampering with the ratios of those grapes, but the same five are always present.

Generally, the wines ferment and age before they are blended, but this isn’t always the case. Port Wines are considered field blends because all of the grapes are fermented together.

I’ll go further into the winemaking process in a future blog, but this should cover it in terms of defining what wine actually is versus what it isn’t.

Until next time: stay safe, wash your hands, and find something fun to drink.

Cheers.

Kara Adamo is a bartender, booze nerd, and booze writer. She is the author of Fancy Grape Juice: De-Snootifying the World’s Snootiest Beverage; Artimals: Coloring the Whimsical Wild; and Brews & Hues: A Coloring Book About Beer. Adamo currently lives in Washington DC. She teaches online mixology courses and is currently working on the 2nd edition of Fancy Grape Juice. Stay tuned for her Drunken Nomads podcast, set to be released this fall.