posted by Jodie Alcopops on Jun 18
I am a huge fan of wine, i drink rose on a night out, white wine for a civilised meal and red on a Sunday with my Sunday roast.
One thing i love is trying different types of wine i never go for the same brand as there are hundreds out there so why always drink the same one? There has been some occasions though where i have had a glass of the most tastiest wine and had no idea where it came from with much regret!
Recently I have started to do a bit of research myself on French wines. I thought it was a must-do as I get through so many bottles a week myself and was pretty intrigued.
Starting off with the sweet white wine:
In order to get sweet wine at the end they leave the grapes longer before picking them so that they are dryer (over ripe) and there is more sugar in them. The grapes used are “Chenin blanc”. It’s quite simple really; it’s all to do with the right timing. A nice sweet wine that you can get in France in the Loire Valley is the “Coteaux du Layon”. This wine is perfect with a dessert or as an “aperitif”. Some good vintages for this wine are: 1989, 1995, 1997, 2003 and 2005.
The problem with rosé is that unless you know your wine you don’t know if it’s sweet or dry. There are a few ways of making rosé wines but a popular one is to leave the grape skin on whilst the grapes are being crushed but then filtering them before fermentation.
Just in case you didn’t know, there is a rumour going round that making rosé by mixing red and white is not going to be allowed in the EU, why, why, why?????
