Battle of Backbone Mountain

The Wine Portal

Wine corks
A Dutch wine bottle made in the 17th century, at The The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum

Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from fermentation of grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Although fruits other than grapes can also be fermented, the resultant wines are normally named after the fruit from which they are produced (for example, apple wine) and are known as fruit wine (or country wine). Others, such as barley wine and rice wine (e.g. sake), are made from starch-based materials and resemble beer more than wine; ginger wine is fortified with brandy. In these cases, the use of the term "wine" is a reference to the higher alcohol content, rather than the production process. The commercial use of the word "wine" (and its equivalent in other languages) is protected by law in many jurisdictions. Wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast which consume the sugars found in the grapes and convert them into alcohol. Various varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are used depending on the types of wine produced.

Wine stems from an extended and rich history dating back about 8,000 years and is thought to have originated in present-day Georgia or Iran. Wine is thought to have appeared in Europe about 6,500 years ago in present-day Bulgaria and Greece and was very common in ancient Greece and Rome; the Greek god Dionysos, and his Roman counterpart Liber represented wine. Wine continues to play a role in religious ceremonies, such as Kiddush in Judaism and the Eucharist in Christianity. (Full article...)


Selected articles - load new batch

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

Selected quote

Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.
— Thomas Aquinas


Related portals

Selected winery

Cabernet Sauvignon vines at Chateau Montelena.
Cabernet Sauvignon vines at Chateau Montelena.
Chateau Montelena is a Napa Valley winery most famous for winning the white wine section of the historic Judgement of Paris wine competition. Chateau Montelena's Chardonnay was in competition with nine other wines from France and California. All 11 judges awarded their top scores to either the Chardonnays from Chateau Montelena or Chalone Winery, another Californian winery.

In 1882, entrepreneur Alfred Loving Tubbs bought 254 acres of land just north of Calistoga at the foot of Mount Saint Helena. Tubbs had made a fortune from the rope business during the Gold Rush, and knew the area from visits to the White Sulphur Springs Resort nearby. He planted vines, and by 1896 Chateau Montelena was the seventh largest winery in the Napa Valley.

However, winemaking ceased at the Chateau with the onset of Prohibition in the United States and afterwards the Tubbs sold grapes but did not make wine.

In 1958 the Tubbs family sold the Chateau to Yort Wing Frank, a Chinese electrical engineer, and his wife Jeanie, who were looking for a retirement home. The Franks created a garden in the style of their homeland, and excavated Jade Lake.

In 1968, Lee and Helen Paschich bought the property, and brought in as partners lawyer James L. Barrett and property developer Earnest Hahn. Jim Barrett replanted the vineyard and installed winemaking equipment in the historic buildings and it began producing wines again in 1972.

Four years later, the Chateau Montelena Chardonnay 1973 won first place in the Judgment of Paris. A bottle of that vintage is in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. (Full article...)


General images - load new batch

The following are images from various wine-related articles on Wikipedia.

Selected picture

Grapevine during flowering
Grapevine during flowering
Grapevine during flowering
Credit: Andy Melton
Grapevine during flowering


Topics

List articles

Categories

Related WikiProjects

Things you can do


Here are some tasks you can do for WikiProject Wine:

  • Photo request: Just about all of them! Any pictures of wine regions, grape varieties or wine would be useful. In particular we need wine region maps that can be licensed for Wikipedia.
view • • discusshistorywatch

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

  • Commons
    Free media repository
  • Wikibooks
    Free textbooks and manuals
  • Wikidata
    Free knowledge base
  • Wikinews
    Free-content news
  • Wikiquote
    Collection of quotations
  • Wikisource
    Free-content library
  • Wikispecies
    Directory of species
  • Wikiversity
    Free learning tools
  • Wikivoyage
    Free travel guide
  • Wiktionary
    Dictionary and thesaurus

More portals

Purge server cache