Wine Variety

Apart from red wine and white wine introduced in Grape Variety, there are some special wine varieties.

• Sparkling Wine: Nearly all sparkling wines are made using one of two methods: bottle-fermentation method and tank method. In both cases, the dissolved carbon dioxide that makes the wine fizzy is a by-product of a second alcoholic fermentation. Simply adding carbon dioxide is a third way of making sparkling wine.

• Sweet Wine: Three methods are used to make sweet wines. 

  • Interrupting the Fermentation 

    • Filtration 

    • Fortification: kill the yeast by added alcohol or SO2, e.g. Port, Sherry 

  • Sweetening:  

    • Add unfermented grape juice (süssreserve), e.g. Sherry 

  • Concentration: 

    • Dry the grapes, e.g. Recioto (Italy), Pedro Ximénez (PX) Sherry 

    • Noble rot (botrytis cinerea), e.g. Sauternes, Tokaji, Auslese, BA, TBA. The conditions of this method are: 

      • a problem-free ripening period to ensure fully ripe, healthy grapes; 

      • damp, misty mornings to encourage the growth and spread of the botrytis mould;  

      • warm dry afternoons to speed the drying out of the grapes; 

      • hand-picking is essential to pick all the grapes at the perfect stage of rottenness. 

    • Freeze the grapes, e.g. Eiswein, Icewine. Healthy grapes are left on the vine and harvested in winter while the water in them is frozen. The grapes are crushed while still frozen so that the ice crystals can be removed, leaving an intensely concentrated sugary grape syrup. 

In particular, Sherry and Port are two most famous fortified wines. Sherry is fortified after fermentation is complete, while Port is fortified during fermentation. 

• • Sherry Winemaking: 

    • Palomino grape variety is used for the dry style, while sun-dried Pedro Ximénez is used for the sweet style. 

    • Fermentation usually takes place in stainless steel tanks. 

    • Maturation is in old casks/butts using the solera system (usually with flor), which blends younger and older wines continually as they age. 

  • Port Winemaking: 

    • Blended black grape varieties. 

    • Rapidly extract colour and tannins from the skins during a short period of fermentation. 

    • Grape-derived spirit is added to the partly fermented grape juice to fortify. 

    • Ageing in old oak vessels. 

Different wine varieties have different labelling tradition, from which you can imply the quality of the wine. See the table below for a detailed classification.