"One not only drinks wine , one smells it,observes it,taste it,sips it and-one talks about it."

...May our love be like good wine, grow stronger as it grows older...
Old english toast


Your wine should always be stored with the bottles lying down.This will keep the cork moist preventing it from drying up and leaving air in,to spoil the wine.


A great site . This site is an interactive version of the pocket-sized guide to French Wines and Foods, containing many special features, including a pronunciation database of audio downloads and photographs of over fifty bottles and 10 cheeses. And a special section called "pairings" - a reference list that links specific wines to recommended foods .



WINE PUBLICATIONS ON LINE




THE TERMS OF WINE

  • acidity
    Tasting astringent;sharp, pickink the tongue.Wine must have a certain amount of natural sourness;otherwise it is bland and characterless.But too much makes it tart.A wine that is acid is different from a wine that has gone sour.
  • aftertaste
    The impression left on the palate after the wine has been sipped.A good wine that leaves a lingering impression is sometimes said to "have a tail".
  • aroma
    The almost immediately recognizable scent of fruit or flower in a young wine.When the wine matures, aroma is superseded by the more complex bouquet.
  • astrigent
    Pleasantly crisp and dry(when the tannin is in correct proportion) ; puckery(when tha tannin is too pronounced , as in some young wines).
  • balance
    Harmony of all the elements -acids, esters, tannin, fruit, alcohol-whose sum is wine.A wine with balance has neither marked deficiencies nor over pronounced characteristics; it is fully representative of its type and class.
  • body
    The substance ,weight,consistency,or materiality of a wine .Body can be felt by the whole mouth;one can almost bite a full-bodied wine.
  • bouquet
    The fragrance (associated with finer and older wines). The appreciation of which is one of the great pleasures of wine drinking.Bouquet ,being complex,invites more careful analysis than the much simpler aroma.
  • coarse
    Rough-textured and heavy; lacking finesse.
  • corky
    Having a musty odor ,the consequence of a defective or diseased cork.
  • dry
    The opposite of "sweet" as applied to wines ; a dry wine is one in which little or no risidual natural sugar is left after fermentation.
  • dull
    Flat. A dull wine, though not undrikable,will not improve.
  • finesse
    Encompasses delicasy,character ,breed. A wine possing many admirable qualities may still lack finesse.
  • finish
    What remains on the senses but mainly on the palate , after you swallow.
  • fresh
    Expresses the engaging quqlity of young or even infant wines.Freshness is found especially in whites and roses and many Beaujolais wines.
  • fruit
    The taste and smell ,not necessarily of the original grape ,but sometimes of other fruits,indicating the retention of the original grape sugar.
  • heavy
    Too full bodied ,overendowed with alcohol perhaps,just short of coarse.The second glass does not tempt.
  • light
    The opposite of heavy or full bodied .To be fine, a light wine must be blessed with charm and elegance.
  • nose
    The term covers fragrance ,aroma ,bouquet- the qualities that can be dicerned by the olfactory organ.
  • robe
    The color of the wine ; its chromatic clothing.The term is usually reserved for fine wines.
  • robust
    Sturdy and full-bodied.
  • round
    Harmonius ,satisfying to the mouth, full; the opposite of thin.

    • White wines should be served chilled ,1/2 an hour in a wine bucket with ice cubes or water or 2 1/2 hours in the refrigirator....Red wines are at their best at room temperature.

    ...If god forbade drinking would He have made wine so good...
    Armand Cardinal Richelieu

    Email address: pfrenet@nbnet.nb.ca.

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