The Wines PROPERTIES OF WINE: INSTRUCTIONS FOR SAMPLING: THE SERVING TEMPERATURE OF WINE: HOW TO REHEAT OR COOL A WINE: SEVEN STAGES OF WINE TASTING THE MOST CURRENT TERMS TO CHARACTERIZE THE WINE The color or the Look: The Bouquet or the aroma: The Taste: The tannin: BREEDING AND PRODUCTION OF WINES DUE QUOTATION ROUSSILLON AND DUE QUOTATION ROUSSILLON VILLAGES: PRESENT VINES IN WINES FROM ROUSSILLON: THE ART OF MAKING WINE:: Traditional Vignification: Carbonic Maceration: The vignification in white:

PROPERTIES OF WINE:

The properties of wine are numerous; it is a food, it is hygienic (especially antiseptic) but it also has anti-stress properties when taken in reasonable quantities, say half a bottle per day and preferably consumed at the end of a meal on a full stomach. The tannins have their own distinct properties especially the procyanidine content which has been shown to limit the progress of atherosclerosis, and the polyphenol content which protects the bloodvessel walls.



INSTRUCTIONS FOR SAMPLING:

Preferably use a white tablecloth, since a coloured background does not allow the correct appreciation of the wine's colour. The glass should have a stem and foot and be of average size, with thin, transparent walls and a round or tulip shape in order to be able to swirl the wine. Open the bottle after wiping the bottleneck, and gently place upright on the table. Decanting is only performed in exceptional cases. This practice consists of separating off the wine solids and ventilating it in the slope of a carafe.



THE SERVING TEMPERATURE OF WINE:

The temperature is a determining factor in the appreciation of a wine:

- very fresh ( 7 to 9 °c):

• - natural sweet wines of fruity type
  
• - muscats
  
• - fruity and light dry whites (Côtes de Roussillon)
  

- expense ( 9 to 12 °c) :

• - rosés
  
• - new wines and primeurs
  
• - natural sweet wines ambrés
  

- chambrés ( 14 to 18 °c):

• - red wines (Côtes de Rousillon and CdR Village, Collioure)
  
• - red natural sweet wines (Banyuls, Maury, Rivesaltes tuilés)
  

Maximal temperatures being reserved for old wines, robust in nature.

HOW TO REHEAT OR COOL A WINE:

- to reheat:
Do not to use a direct source of heat (radiator, fire from woods . ..) that can cause localised overheating in the bottle. Better to place it one hour before serving in a warm place.

- to cool:
Use a bucket of ice or a wine cooler to serve the wine. This maintains the wine at the correct temperature throughout the meal. To cool, place it beforehand in a the refrigerator (whites and rosés ).
It is not unknown to slightly cool red wines, since it is obviously necessary to take into account the ambient temperature. The hotter it is, the more the wine will reheat during the meal.



SEVEN STAGES OF WINE TASTING

Wine is not solely appreciated with the mouth. To taste well it it is necessary to use the eyes, the nose and the palate.

-1- The "look" of the wine.
Pour the wine in a glass until a third full, hold it by the foot so as not to obscure the liquid nor reheat it. Incline the glass - Does the wine have a good colour?; is is clear bright or hazy?; can you see through it when you jou hold the glass to the light?

-2- Swirl
Swirl the wine in the glass with a gentle rocking motion. This makes the wine breathe more and its aromas are liberated. You better perceive the aroma of a young wine, or all the volatile elements that make up the bouquet of an old wine. Notice also whether the wine clings to the glass as you swirl it.

-3- The Nose
Lift the glass to your nose and inhale the aromas. Ask yourself has the wine a particular reminscent aroma - is it fresh, fruity, peppery, grassy, buttery, oily, rubbery or anything else that comes to mind?

-4- The Taste
Take a mouthful of wine, enough to cover your tongue, while keeping the mouth slightly open to allow aspiration.

-5- Aspiration in the mouth
Incline the head forwards, lips pursed, and then, keeping a straight tongue, breath in in order that the air crosses the wine. Breath out by the nose. This will result in the flavours and aromas being distributed on the entire palate.

-6- To roll the mouthful
Close the lips, relax the tongue and chew with the result that the wine grazes all the buccal cavity. After you have appreciated the taste of the wine, swallow it or spit it out.

-7- To rush the wine
If a young wine does not unveil its bouquet immediately, shake the glass with an abrupt gesture. That sometimes allows the liberation of more fruit from a young wine.



THE MOST CURRENT TERMS TO CHARACTERIZE THE WINE :

The color or the Look:

• Amber: beautiful yellow colour going on the browned deepened (old sauternes)
• Brick: red pulling on the brown characterizing some old red wines.
• Caramel: loook of some syrupy wines, aroma (Madeira)
• Clear: limpidity of the wine, cleared of its dregs
• Crystalline: limpid and brilliant
• Tile: red wine whose color has blurred

The Bouquet or the aroma:

• Autumnal: olfactive feeling of dead leaves, humus, truffles, mushrooms
• Bouchonné:disagreeable cork odour, defect of the wine.
• Spicy: odour and taste of a wine with the aroma of spice peppers clove cinnamon
• Floral: young wine with the perfume of flower
• Sulfur:Sulphur Anhydride is often used as an antiseptic in the vinification process. Overuse makes its presence undesirable since it tickles the nose.
• Vanilla : scent of vanilla taken by some high wines matured in new oak
• Violette: specific odour of certain wines, odor of violette

The Taste:

• Acidity: the acidity is responsible its nervousness and its vivacity
• Sourish: too acidic, undesirable characteristic of a young wine
• Astringence: rich in tanin, provokes a contraction of mucous membranes of the mouth
• Constructed: rich in alcohol and in tannin, robust(often wine of ward)
• Complex: tells of a wine endowed with multiple characters and richness
• Strengthened: where all the qualities emerge with intensity
• Smooth: supple, pleasant and soft, slightly robust
• Sweet: soft
• Balanced: the constituents of basis are smelted, acidity, tanin and alcohol
• Expense: youth and full of sap, light wine, slightly tannic
• Fruity:whose perfume reminds of that fruit, apricot, citrus fruits, blackcurrant . ..
• Smoked: taste reminiscent of smoked foods
• Gouleyant: wine that drinks easily
• Oxidized: dish, with a flavor oxidized
• Soft: fat and unctuous, sweet and without bitterness
• Stung: sourish, that has the taste of vinegar
• Rough: qualifies some tannic and young wines
• Dry: wine without softness, whose whole sweetness has been transformed by the fermentation
• Green:very young wine , the grapes used have not completely matured

The tannin:
One of the main constitutents of red wine that provokes a contraction and an astringence of the walls of the mouth. Ever-present in the great wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy, Côtes du Rhône, they act as preservative agents during the ageing, softening over the years of maturation to add to the overall roundness of the wine. Tannins come from the skin and the raffle of the grape. (Raffle: pédoncule and pédicelle that sustains grains of the grape) The raffle is more pungent than the skin.






BREEDING AND PRODUCTION OF WINES

NATURAL SWEET WINES:

This vineyard, installed in an environment of dryness and well exposed to the sun, gives a grape rich in sugar, coloured, to the weak output. Formerly this wine kept very badly and travelled badly by boat or by cart. Only after having discovered the principle of mutage to the alcohol, a technique that consists in adding the alcohol during the fermentation, did they discover that they could be preserved correctly.

Today designations Sweet Natural Wines are:

Banyuls, Banyuls Great Vintage, Maury, Rivesaltes, Muscat de Rivesaltes and Great Roussillon

The elaboration of these A.O.C. is very strict:

• - Four vines "noble"are devoted to this production:
  • Grenache,
  • Macabeu,
  • Malvoisie,
  • Muscats.
• - A weak output
• - Content in sugar raised
• - Mutage to the alcohol

DUE QUOTATION ROUSSILLON AND DUE QUOTATION ROUSSILLON VILLAGES:

These are red wines, rosés or whites from Côtes de Roussillon and red Wines exclusively from Côtes de Roussillon Villages. The designation is strictly regulated, in selected soil function, vines used, the quality of the grape (content in sugar), the type of vignification . ....etc

a) rosé and red Wines :

Black Carignan, black Cinsault, black Grenache, Lladoner pelut black, black Syrah, black Mourvèdre, white Maccabeo. Wines have to come from an assemblage of at least three vines, the total of the two more important not to ahead exceed 90% of the vines plantation. The Maccabeo has to represent to the maximum 10% of the vines plantation for red wines and to the maximum 30% for rosé wines. The Carignan has to represent to the maximum 60% of the vines plantation.. The Syrah and the Mourvèdre, totality or separately, have to represent to the minimum 20% of the vines plantation.

b) white Wines :

White Grenache, white Maccabeo, white Tourbat, told Malvoisie the Roussillon, white Marsanne, white Roussanne and white Vermentino. The totality white Grenache, Marsanne, Roussanne and white Vermentino has to represent to the maximum 50%of the vines plantation.



•Art. 4. - (Replaced, D. 4 May 1995) - To receive the controlled origin designation "Côtes de Roussillon Villages", wines have to come from an assemblage of at least three of following vines, to the exclusion of all others : Black Carignan, black Cinsault, black Grenache, Lladoner, pelut black, black Syrah, black Mourvèdre, Maccabeo. The total of the two more important does not have to exceed 90% of the vines plantation. The syrah and the mourvèdre, totally or separately, have to represent a minimum 20% of the vines plantation. The Maccabeo has to represent to the maximum 10% of the vines plantation. The carignan has to represent to the maximum 60% of the vines plantation.



PRESENT VINES IN WINES FROM ROUSSILLON:


GRENACHE, MACABEU, MALVOISIE, MUSCAT TO SMALL GRAIN, MUSCAT Of ALEXANDRIE, CARIGNAN, BLACK GRENACHE, LLADONER PELUT, CINSAULT SYRAH, MOURVEDRE.

• CARIGNAN: vigorous and rustic, it accomode of stony and thin grounds (schists) has the basis of the vines plantation, gives a wine of a high alcoholic degree, strengthened, constructed and a beautiful color sustained.
• GRENACHE: gives wines with high alcohol content (12° to 13°), little acid, colored and fruity.
• LLADONER PELUT: close to the grenache.
• CINSAULT: brings the fineness, the fruity and belongs the trilogy carignan, grenache, cinsault.
• MOURVEDRE: colored wine, well constructed, rough at the start, excellent after ageing.
• SYRAH: originally from the middle east, to aromas of violette.
• MACABEU: gives fine and fruity wines, plant vigorous sensitive to the dryness
• MALVOISIE: Rustic, average production, murit late, demand of soils very hot, fine and agreeable flavor.

THE ART OF MAKING WINE:

-1- Two kinds of vignification for red wine


Traditional Vignification:

In this case mature bunches are slightly broken down directly on arrival at the vineyard. They are then transferred to vats where the fermentation begins after a few hours. The transformation of sugars into alcohol and in Carbon Dioxide releases the heat; alcohol and heat disintegrates cells and skins and the moût thus obtained turns violet. In some cases the heat has to be controlled so as not to alter the fermentation. The fermentation is almost ended after 8 days. - Since the moût has to absorb the maximum tannin from the skins, indispensable to the structure of a wine, the period in the vats may be prolonged by one to two weeks, according to the intuition of the vine grower. - On the other hand, if one desires to obtain a fruity and supple wine, weak in tannins, to drink rapidly, the moût has to be run into a vat during the fermentation. After the flow of the wine ceases, the mark is subjected to several pressings, until total extraction of the juice, (wine of press), weaker in alcohol, richer in acidity, tanin and in colour. According to need one can add this wine of press to the wine of drop.

Carbonic maceration:

This type of vignification is especially employed for the production of wine primeur. In this case, whole bunches, not burst,are placed in a tight vat, under carbonic gas pressure. In the course of the two weeks approximately of maceration, produces, in intact grains, a fermentation intracellulaire that transforms partially sugars in alcohol, while reducing their content in malic acid. The juice of drop is drawed off, the pressed grape and the two juice are convened in a vat and finally fermented, normally in two days. One obtains then from tender wines, fruity, aromatic, a great charm fresh and young bus.

-2-The vignification in white:


In principle, the difference between vignification of white wines and that red wines resides in the fact that grapes are pressed immediately pick, the juice being fermanté without contact with the skin. White wines are essentially made with the white grape, but one can equally use the black grape (alone the skin of the grape is pigmented), provided that it is picked just mature and pressed immediately, without initial treading. At a certain stage of maturity pigments begin to tint the juice. In this case, if the black grape is transformed like white wine technique it results a rosy wine. The white grape passes the most often to the press, the juice is not appreciably assigned by the brief contact with the raffle. So as to keep all their fruity and their freshness of aroma, white wines have to ferment to temperatures more lower than red wines ( temperatures often controlled). In the beginning the vats or casks are filled to 3/4, to feed yeasts in oxygen and to allow thus the departure of the fermentation. Then, to an advanced stage of the fermentation one makes the full of casks to keep the wine under cover the air. A rapid processing continuation of clarification ( centrifugation, refrigeration, filtering) stabilizes often these wines and allows their placement in bottle.

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