Esters

Pear drop
A pear drop is a hard candy popular in England, and it gets its flavors from an ester called isoamyl acetate. Why is that important? Well, because esters are aromatic chemical compounds that are found both in wine and in certain foods. So if someone smells "pear drop" in their wine, they may indeed be identifying that ester. If you haven't had a pear drop, it actually reminds me more of bananas than pears, a sweet-smelling, candied bubblegum (think Juicy Fruit gum) version of bananas. That's the good news. The bad news is that if there is excessive isoamyl acetate in a wine, it starts to take on negative, acetone or nail-polish types of aromas.

About esters in wine
The word ester is a fairly common term in the wine buisness. Esters are quite common in organic chemistry as well as in biological materials. In wine, esters are formed in a reaction between alcohol and acids. By producing esters the wine then gives off its pleasant fruity aromatics. 
Read further:
http://www.wineland.co.za/articles/esters-wine-s-own-perfume

Hyperdecanting

Wine in the blender:
http://www.times-herald.com/closeup/20130808-FOOD-hyperdecanting
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/dining/decanting-the-flavor-options.html?_r=0
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/is-decanting-wine-worth-doing-103432638/?no-ist

Scientific proof that opening a bottle is not sufficient
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1683&dat=19980428&id=JDsqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZC4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6879,6796955

What is the relation (in numbers) between grapes, vines, bottles of wine and hectares?

This was the homework question of last week.
The following numbers are rough figures.

How much wine per vine?
One kg of grape will produce, after fermentation, around 0.7 - 0,75 litres of wine. Icewine only 0,11 litres.
Weight per grape: 1,5-2 grams
Grapes per cluster (=bunch): 75-100 grapes
Weight of a cluster: 150 gram (makes 1 glass of wine)
Clusters per vine: 40 clusters
Wine per vine: 5-10 bottles
A bottle of wine contains 500-800 grapes.
It is theorized there are approximately 40-50 million bubbles in a bottle of sparkling wine/champagne.

How many bottles of wine per hectare?
The density of plantation per ha will be determined by the space between rows (1–3.6 m) and the space between vines (1–2 m). The density can vary from 3,000 vines per ha to 12,000 vines per ha.
Depending on the vine variety, density of plantation and pruning scheme, harvest could yield between 5 and 20 tons of grapes per ha.
Average yield: 60 hl/ha (=0,6 L/m2)

Costs of winemaking
Costs of processing grape juice into wine can vary significantly depending on the style of wine produced, e.g. early bottled wine, long-ageing wine, wine aged in barrels, etc.
On average, it is estimated that producing 1 litre of wine sold in a 75 cl glass bottle costs around 0.5–1.2 euros/litre. Ageing wine in new barrels would increase this cost by 1 euro/litre.

Measures and Conversions

Area
1 hectare = 2.471 acres = 10,000 square meters = 100 ares = 24 ouvrees
1 are = 100 square meters (100 ares = 1 hectare)
1 ouvrees = 4.285 ares = 0.417 hectares
1 journal = 8 ouvrees = 1/3 hectare (3 journeaux = 1 hectare)

Volume
1 hectoliter = 100 liters = 133.3 bottles = 11.1 cases
1 queue = 2 tonneaux = 456 liters = 608 bottles
1 tonneaux = 1 piece = 228 liters = 304 bottles (Standard Burgundy cask)
1 feuillette = 1/2 tonneaux = 114 liters = 152 bottles
1 quarteau = 1/4 tonneaux = 57 liters = 76 bottles

Quarter bottle – Split or Piccolo (187.5 or 200 ml) – Just itty-bitty
Half bottle – Demi (375 ml)
Bottle – Imperial (750 ml) Standard
Magnum (1.5 liters) Equal to 2 bottles.
Jeroboam (3 liters) Equal to 4 bottles.
Rehoboam (4.5 liters) Equal to 6 bottles.
Methuselah (6 liters) Equal to 8 bottles.
Salmanazar (9 liters)12 bottles.
Balthazar (12 liters) 16 bottles.
Nebuchadnezzar (15 liter) 20 bottles.
Melchior (18 liter) 24 bottles.
Solomon (25 liter) 33.3 bottles
Primat (27 liter) 36 bottles.
Melchizedek (30 liter) 40 bottles.

Exotic European grapes in South America

16 May 2014, Claudia prepared an excellent dinner for Weber, Ronaldo, Malafa & Clea, and Rolf. Included: spanish dried sausages that Clea brought, zucchini with gorgonzola, fondue with ementhaler and homemade bread, pear with homemade nutella and chilli.
The Argentinian/Brazilian wines were from uncommon grapes:  arinarnoa, teroldego, bonarda.

Arinarnoa
Arinarnoa is a dark-berried wine grape variety, bred in 1956 as a crossing of two Bordeaux varieties. It combines the rich and fleshy Merlot with the acidity and spice of Petit Verdot. The wines are naturally deep in color and well structured – unsurprising, given its pedigree.
Grown mainly in the south of France for the Vin de Pays/IGP designations of the Languedoc and Provence, Arinarnoa has spread as far as South America, where varietal examples are made in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.
We enjoyed: Casa Valduga Arinarnoa 2010
Read more: http://www.vinhosdecorte.com.br/category/uvas-tintas/arinarnoa/

Teroldego (pronounce: tehr-AWL-deh-go)
Teroldego is a deeply colored red-wine grape grown in the Trentino-Alto Adige wine region of northern Italy. There is just one DOC for Teroldego (Teroldego Rotaliano) in its native Italy, and the variety is hardly cultivated anywhere else in the world. The Teroldego Rotaliano wines, from the flat, triangular-shaped plain of the Adige Valley, are made exclusively from local Teroldego grapes.
Teroldego produces deeply pigmented red wines with an intensely fruity characteristic, a style that has become something of an
The variety has recently been identified as one of the parents of Lagrein.
We enjoyed: Don Guerino Teroldego 2012
Read more: http://www.winereviewonline.com/Ed_McCarthy_on_Brazil.cfm

Bonarda
Bonarda is the name used for four entirely distinct red wine grape varieties; three from northern Italy and one from Argentina.
The oldest is Bonarda Piedmontese. This is an aromatic variety, now near extinction but it once rivaled Barbera and Nebbiolo in the vineyards of western Piedmont. Although quite capable of producing distinctive wines of good quality, it was replanted only sparsely after the phylloxera epidemic of the 1880s. This is most likely because Bonarda Piedmontese vines offered only very low yields, and winegrowers at that time took a pragmatic, economic approach as they sought to re-establish their vineyards.
The other two Bonarda vines are also from northern Italy, and both are currently used in the Po Valley. Here it is mostly known as Croatina – its name refers to its origins in Croatia – although it has often gone under the name "Bonarda" in southern Lombardy, most notably in the Oltrepo Pavese DOC. There are now even varietally labeled Oltrepo Pavese Bonarda wines, including a sparkling frizzante version, made from Croatina. Croatina is also used slightly further down the Po Valley, in the Colli Piacentini hills of western Emilia-Romagna.
Uva Rara is the third Italian "Bonarda" grape, also known as Bonarda Novarese (after Novara, a Piedmontese town located just south of Lake Maggiore). Like Croatina, Uva Rara is used in Oltrepo Pavese wines, but goes under its Uva Rara title. As suggested by its name, Uva Rara was once a rare vine here, although it is now one of the key red varieties around Pavia.
The majority of Bonarda grapes grown in the world are planted in Argentina, rather than Italy. Here, the grapes are used both in blends (often with the Argentine icon Malbec) and in varietal wines. The Argentine version of Bonarda is also known as Charbono, which has itself been confused with various varieties.
Popular blends include: Bonarda - Malbec.

We enjoyed: Argento Bonarda 2013 (Mendoza)

Wine as an antiseptic

CAN YOU GET ILL FROM TAKING THE COMMUNION CUP?

Contrary to popular opinion, wine, and other beverages of antiquity produced through fermentation, were probably more important in providing disease-free drinking fluids than in their tendency to intoxicate. Ancient Greeks drank their water mixed with wine, and also used wine to cleanse wounds and soak dressings. More recently, military physicians of the last century observed that during epidemics of cholera, wine drinkers were relatively spared by the disease, and troops were advised to mix wine into the water.

Wine has been shown to be an effective antiseptic even when the alcohol is removed. In fact, 10% alcohol is a poor antiseptic, and alcohol only becomes optimally effective at concentrations of 7;0%. The antiseptic substances in wine are inactive in fresh grapes because these molecules are bound to complex sugars. During fermentation these antiseptic substances are split off from the sugars and in this way become active. These molecules are polyphenols, a class of substances used in hospitals to disinfect surfaces and instruments. The polyphenol of wine has been shown to be some thirty-three times more powerful than the phenol used by Lister when he pioneered antiseptic surgery.

Same year wines can be diluted up to ten times before beginning to show a decrease in their antiseptic effect. The better wines gradually improve with age over the first ten years and can be diluted twenty times without a decrease of the antiseptic effect. This effect then remains more or less constant over the next twenty years and becomes equivalent to a new wine after another twenty-five years. (Modern antiseptics and antibiotics for disinfecting wounds have surpassed wine effectiveness because the active ingredients in wine are rapidly bound and inactivated by proteins in body tissues.)

In preparing communion, the hot water that is added to the wine will increase greatly the antiseptic effect of the polyphenols. Disinfection occurs more rapidly and more effectively at 45 degrees centigrade than at room temperature (22-25 degrees). Another contribution to the antiseptic effect comes from the silver, copper, zinc that make up the chalice itself, ensuring that microbes are unable to survive on its surface.

Throughout the centuries, no disease has ever been transmitted by the taking of Holy Communion. Diseases, such as Hepatitis B, known to be transmitted by shared eating utensils, have never been acquired from the communion spoon. HIV is known not to be transmitted through shared eating utensils, and considering the antiseptic qualities of the Holy Communion received by the faithful, there is no likelihood of acquiring HIV infection through the Common Cup.

Further reading:
http://gator1460-abraham-primary.hgsitebuilder.com/story-of-wine-

Primitivo wine tasting

Thanks Ronaldo Barreto for the interesting wine tasting of your favourite grape:

Primitivo di Manduria
Primitivo di Manduria is a heavy, blunt red wine; an effect of the warm growing conditions in Southern Italy's Apulia region.
The quality of Primitivo wine has been recognized in Italy for centuries. It was once mainly used for blending by more commercially successful wineries in Northern Italy. They relied on it to give their wines depth. Because of a general lack of commercialization in Apulia, Primitivo is still largely unknown outside of Italy. Small-scale producers have a hard time reaching the international market to compete on the same level as more famous Italian wine varieties.
The Primitivo grape variety was discovered to be genetically similar to California's Zinfandel. It has its roots in the oldest of wine traditions. The Primitivo grape is said to have originated in ancient Greece and been brought over by some of the first settlers of the Italian peninsula.
Primitivo di Manduria DOC is made from 100% Primitivo grapes (unlike other Primitivo wines, like Gioia del Colle Primitivo, which are blends). This wine is also characterized by an unusually high alcohol by volume percentage - around 14%. Wines made from Primitivo have notes of plum and spice, like Zinfandel, but because of different growing soils and climate, the fruit character is less jammy, the structure more akin to old world wines, with rustic notes of earth and spice, as well as tamed fruit flavors

Zinfandel
Zinfandel (also known as Primitivo) is a variety of black-skinned wine grape. The variety is planted in over 10 percent of California vineyards. DNA fingerprinting revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Primitivo variety traditionally grown in Puglia (the "heel" of Italy), where it was introduced in the 18th century, as well as to the Croatian grapes Crljenak Kaštelanski and Tribidrag. The grape found its way to the United States in the mid-19th century, and became known by variations of the name "Zinfandel", a name of uncertain origin.
The grapes typically produce a robust red wine, although a semi-sweet rosé (blush-style) wine called White Zinfandel has six times the sales of the red wine in the United States. The grape's high sugar content can be fermented into levels of alcohol exceeding 15 percent.
The taste of the red wine depends on the ripeness of the grapes from which it is made. Red berry fruit flavors like raspberry predominate in wines from cooler areas, whereas blackberry, anise and pepper notes are more common in wines made in warmer areas and in wines made from the earlier-ripening Primitivo clone.

Confraria revives on a side path

The Confraria do Vinho Palmas has been quiet for a while.
To get people out of their habitat to a wine meeting has appeared to be a hard job in Palmas.
A balance must be found among the level of entertainment, the group emotions and the ambitions to learn about the subject.
Recent attempts by Casa Valduga to unite Palmas restaurant keepers at a wine tasting -including a presentation by a Casa Valduga wine expert- failed embarrassingly, because of the absence of participants, despite confirmation to attend.
But Marcâo, member of the confraria and distributor of Casa Valduga wines in Tocantins, is not giving in.
A this moment his tactics are as follows:
Marcâo organizes a meeting once per month at his office alias wine house, which is ideally suited for wine tastings. Invited are mainly the members of Cigar Club Palmas, who know one another for a decade. They will be served a dinner and various wines, for a costprice.
Conclusion so far:
Replacing the wine tasting forms by a plate of risotto seems to have done the job: at least ten people have attended the last meetings.

Pictures: Casa Valduga wine presentations at Marcâo's wine house in September 2011.

Rosé & Risotto

Quinta-feira somos bem-vindos a beber nossos vinhos na casa de Marcão.
Tema: rosé + risotto
Local: Casa de Marcão (806sul alameda 20 lote 25/27)
Dia: 18 de Novembro 2010 quinta feira 20:00 - 22:00
Custos:
vinho: R$30 / pessoa
risotto: incluido
Reservar: por email o ligar para o Marcão 9978-1809

Risotto é feito com vinho

O Risotto é feito no Norte da Italia por mais de 500 anos e durante algum tempo foi apenas um acompanhamento, mas hoje com os diversos ingredientes utilizados em seu processo é definitivamente um prato unico que não precisa nada para acompanhar.

Panela
Escolha a panela certa: fundo grosso e duplo, grande o suficiente para termos uma quantidade igual de arroz por ela toda e para uma absorsão de caldo uniforme.

Metodo Básico de Preparo de Risoto
Esta receita básica é repedida em quase todas suas variações. Estou dividindo esta em 3 etapas.

Ingredientes (Rendimento: 6 pessoas)
Aproximadamente 1 litro de caldo (pode ser de galinha, carne, peixe ou de legumes). Você pode fazer o seu próprio caldo que fica mais saboroso, ou usar um tablete de caldo pronto.
- 1 colher de sopa de azeite + 1 colher de manteiga
- 2 cebolas cortadas em cubos finos
- Sal e pimenta a gosto
- 400g de arroz para risotto (o mais conhecido é o Arbório, mas pode ser também o Carnaroli ou o Vailone Nano)
- 100 ml de vermute branco seco (Martini Dry) ou vinho branco seco
- 70 g de manteiga

Etapa 1
Aqueça o caldo. Em uma outra panela aqueça o azeite e a manteiga. Adicione a cebola com uma pitada de sal. Refogue por 5 minutos.
Adicione o arroz (não lavar!) e comece a fritá-lo. Mexa constantemente de forma a não queimá-lo; ele não deve ficar dourado. Depois de 2 minutos adicione o vermute ou o vinho branco. Ele vai chiar e se misturar com todos os ingredientes da panela. Diminua o fogo. Quando sentir que o vinho está evaporando, começa a segunda etapa.

Etapa 2
Assim que o vermute ou o vinho branco for absorvido pelo arroz, acrescente a primeira concha de caldo quente e a pimenta do reino moída na hora. Não se esqueça de esfregar o fundo da panela deixando-o bem limpo para que o arroz não grude. Vá acrescentando mais caldo à medida que ele for evaporando. Tome cuidado para que ele não fique com muito caldo, empapando demais o arroz. Essa etapa deve demorar 15 minutos. Experimente o arroz de tempos em tempos até que ele esteja no ponto. Ele deve ficar al dente, levemente úmido, mas sem muito caldo.

Etapa 3
Retire a panela do fogo e adicione a manteiga. Prove e corrija o sal.

Rosé

Até pouco tempo, existia muito preconceito no Brasil quanto ao vinho rosé.
Infelizmente, ainda existe preconceito. O brasileiro consome pouco vinho branco e rosé porque não conhece a bebida. Há 15 anos, o rosé era extremamente diferente. Tomávamos um vinho mal feito, mal elaborado e docinho, pois esse era nosso paladar. Agora, estamos começando a aprender a tomar vinho. O rosé hoje é produzido de uma forma mais moderna. Há rosés de altíssima qualidade, que convém ao nosso clima. Num almoço, na beira da piscina, um vinho rosé passa a ser muito mais interessante do que uma cerveja ou um destilado.

Recomendamos ler: revistabluewine.com