Wine

Index:

The wine
Wine history
Wine colour
Portugal wine production regions
Wine serving warnings
Aperitif Wine
Which Wine should be served with the meal
Digestive Wine and end of meal

The wine

It's an alcoholic drink made from the fermentation of the grape juice. The etymology origins of the word come from the ancient Greek and throw Latin vinum, witch mean wine or grapevine.
Wine is an excellent gastronomic complement and it can be used to provide a special taste to some dishes. A special meal or moment can win a new dimension if it goes along with a good wine.

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Wine history

Wine has great historical and religious history that come from different periods of Mankind. Each culture has a different opinion about his history. From the historians point of view the correct wine origin is impossible to determine because wine was discovered even before writing. Wine experts say that this drink could have been discovered by accident, due to fermentation of some forgotten smashed grapes left in some container.

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Wine colour

The three different colours of wine are red, white and rosé. In Red wine production it's used red grapes with long contact with grape rind. The different intensity in colour depends on the grape origin, on the duration of rind contact with the drink and with the used age process. In white wine production are mainly used white grapes. When red grapes are used to produce white wine the fermentation process is made without grape rind. Rosé or rosy wine have a in between colour and can be produced with two methods. The first with red grapes, with a light initial contact with the grapes rind witch give a light red colour. The second method to produced rosé is to mix red and white wine.

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Portugal wine production regions

Portugal has several wine regions with their one special characteristic. One wine region is a geographical area to grow and produce grapes in large scale with the goal of produce grapes, wine and raisins. Only as an example we can point it out some of the regions: Alentejo, Bairrada, Peninsula de Setúbal, Ribatejo, Estremadura, Pico, Douro e Dão.

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Wine serving warnings

Storing wine correctly has a great impact in the final result of our meal. Wine should be kept in horizontal position with temperature below 20ºC and in a place with very little light.
Before serving a wine we should check his temperature. The good producers present in the label the ideal drinking temperature but some times we don't have this information. For red wines the temperature should be between 16ºC and 20ºC. White or rosé or champagne should be served fresh between 8ºC and 12ºC. The process of cooling is also important we should use a refrigerator or a ice bucket and never the freezer. The freezer fast cooling might change the properties of a good wine and can ruin our meal.
Red wines should be open some minutes before serving. The goal of this process is to allow the wine to bread and evolve. Young strong red wines and the aged reds with deposit should be decanted. Decant is to transfer the wine to a bottle or jar where wine will evolve and will release some of his more closed taste. However careful is advised on aged reds where decant will have a bad impact and the wine should be immediately served after decanted.
The correct glasses to serve wine are also very important and we should never use water or soda glasses to present your wine. Wine glasses must be transparent and never colourful glasses. The opening of the glass must be narrow than the body in order to concentrate the wine taste. White wine glasses are usually smaller than the red ones. This size should be big enough to receive a good portion of wine without being full. The glass should be served half full or two thirds of wine.
During a meal with several dishes if we serve different wines we should start with the light and weak and finish with the heavy and strong one.
Please don't forget not to server wine or other alcoholic drink to children or teenagers under 18 years old.

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Aperitif Wine

In order to increase the mood or to prepare the atmosphere for upcoming meal we could serve a wine as an aperitif. We can start with a fresh rose, a white dry Porto or any other white fresh and light wine. For best results it must fulfil these characteristics: dry, light and weak.

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Which Wine should be served with the meal

In the last decades wine consumption in Portugal have suffer a decrease with the new generation preferring beer or soda as drink when having a meal. In the last years this decrease stops due to the fact that the significant increase on quality of the Portuguese wines and also due to the efforts of the Portuguese producers and distributors. In the Portuguese and international markets you can find excellent Portuguese wines in a relatively good price. We recommend that you should try different types, regions and producers until you find the ones that will match your preference and the meal you cook.
One golden rule to follow is: if it's a meat dish we should choose a red wine and if it's fish a white one. Fish and sea food also go along very well with fresh bubbling white or very fresh rose wine, specially if the summer season. Bubbling wine is also a good choice for a starter. Red wine is perfect for smoked pig meat or cheese. When serving noodles the wine choice will depend only on your one personal taste.

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Digestive Wine and end of meal

We can present a digestive wine that should be sweet, heavy and strong. Only as an example we can offer a sweet white wine, a red Porto or a Muscatel. In Portugal the tradition say that a very hot and strong espresso is also a good digestive. For the one that like to smoke a good cigar is also a good end of meal.

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