Fun Fact Friday

You have made it to Friday ya’ll, good for you!  Here comes the weekend. 

Today’s Facts are brought to you by the letter W for..Wine:

1. The world’s biggest red wine consumers are the Chinese but a really small country is rocking first place per capita basis.  But which country drinks the most wine per capita? The Vatican with 74 liters per capita per year which is about 99 bottles of 75cl per year!
2. We have monks to thank for our wine.  Monastic orders such as the Cistercians and Benedictines preserved and innovated the art of winemaking during the Middle Ages.
3. Women get drunk faster from wine because of their water to fat ratio.  Women have a higher fat content than men and fat does not absorb any alcohol. 
4. Wine was discovered about 6,000 years ago in the Middle East.  The earliest remnants of wine were discovered in Iran, dating back to the Neolithic period (8500-4000 B.C.). 
5. Folks that are afraid of wine are called Oenophobics.
6. Though you’ll commonly hear grapes referred to as “fruit,” botanists technically classify grapes as berries since each fruit forms from a single flower.
   

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7. Red wines are made of purple and blue grapes while white wines are made from greener grapes.
8. Vineyards cover roughly 7.5 million hectares (almost 18 million acres) across the globe, with Spain, China, France, Italy, Turkey, and the United States being the top grape-growing countries.
9. The largest wine producers, however, are France, Italy, Spain, the U.S., and Argentina. France produced 1.2 billion gallons of wine in 2014.  The U.S. produced only 830 million gallons.
10. White wines are usually lighter, crisper and fruitier compared to reds.
11. White wine has less alcohol and fewer calories.
12. Grapes grown in sandy soil usually produce less acidic, “softer” wine. Soils with a lot of clay produce wines with deep, bold flavors.
13. While sparkling wine, meaning a wine with carbon dioxide bubbles, can be grown anywhere, only sparkling wine grown in the Champagne region of northeast France can be called Champagne.

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1. How to Taste Wine Properly:
   1. Look over the appearance of the wine. Noting the color and viscosity with your eyes can give an idea of how the wine may taste. For reds, give the glass a quick swirl and hold it up to the light: bolder varieties, like Cabernet and Zinfandel, will leave telltale ‘legs’ that stream down the inside of the glass.
   2. “In-glass,” meaning that the aroma is noted. Don’t be shy— wine experts stick their nose deep into the glass in order to pick up the complex nuances.  The first aromas to hit the nose are associated with aspects of the grapes, while later aromas are connected to the winemaking process and how the wine aged.
   3. Take a small sip of wine in order to get a good taste. Don’t glug, at least not yet. Roll the wine around your mouth with your tongue and note the different flavors. Purse your lips and inhale some air while the wine is still on your palate is also a nice way to spread the more complex flavors through your sinuses.
   4. After swallowing, note the aftertaste, which is likely different from how the wine tasted when it first hit your tongue.
   5. If you want to be fancy like a true wine connoisseur, write down notes about the wine and the vineyard.

Remember, you are NOT alone!  Until next time–Jenn.