1.
Wine
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Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented grapes. These grapes are generally Vitis vinifera, or a hybrid with Vitis labrusca or Vitis rupestris, grapes are fermented without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, water, or other nutrients. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol, different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts produce different styles of wine. These variations result from the interactions between the biochemical development of the grape, the reactions involved in fermentation, the terroir. Many countries enact legal appellations intended to define styles and qualities of wine and these typically restrict the geographical origin and permitted varieties of grapes, as well as other aspects of wine production. There are also made from fermenting other fruits or cereals. Wines made from other than grapes include rice wine and various fruit wines such as those made from plums or cherries. Some well known examples are hard cider from apples, perry from pears, pomegranate wine, Wine has been produced for thousands of years. The earliest known traces of wine from Georgia in Eurasia where 8000-year-old wine jars were found and in Iran with 7, the earliest known winery is the 6, 100-year-old Areni-1 winery Armenia. Wine reached the Balkans by 4500 BC and was consumed and celebrated in ancient Greece, Thrace, throughout history, wine has been consumed for its intoxicating effects, which are evident after the normal serving size of five ounces. Wine has long played an important role in religion, the earliest chemically attested grape wine was discovered at Hajji Firuz in the northwestern Zagros Mountains dating back to 5400 BC. The earliest evidence of a fermented drink was found in Georgia, where wine residue inside ceramic jars dates from 6000 BC. The earliest evidence of a production facility is the Areni-1 winery in Armenia and is at least 6100 years old, presumably. A2003 report by archaeologists indicates a possibility that grapes were mixed with rice to produce mixed fermented beverages in China in the years of the seventh millennium BC. Pottery jars from the Neolithic site of Jiahu, Henan, contained traces of tartaric acid, however, other fruits indigenous to the region, such as hawthorn, cannot be ruled out. The spread of wine culture westwards was most probably due to the Phoenicians who spread outward from a base of city-states along the Lebanese, Syrian, the wines of Byblos were exported to Egypt during the Old Kingdom and then throughout the Mediterranean. Evidence includes two Phoenician shipwrecks from 750 BC discovered by Robert Ballard, whose cargo of wine was still intact. As the first great traders in wine, the Phoenicians seem to have protected it from oxidation with a layer of oil, followed by a seal of pinewood and resin
2.
Wine bottle
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A wine bottle is a bottle, generally made of glass, used for holding wine. Some wines are fermented in the bottle, others are bottled only after fermentation, recently the bottle has become a standard unit of volume to describe sales in the wine industry, measuring 750 millilitres. Wine bottles are produced, however, in a variety of volumes and shapes, wine bottles are traditionally sealed with cork, but screw-top caps are becoming popular, and there are several other methods used to seal a bottle. Many traditional wine bottle sizes are named for Biblical kings and historical figures, the chart below lists the sizes of various wine bottles in multiples relating to a standard bottle of wine, which is 0.75 litres. The wineglassful—an official unit of the system of weights—is much smaller at 2.5 imp fl oz. Most champagne houses are unable to carry out fermentation in bottles larger than a magnum due to the difficulty in riddling large. After the secondary fermentation completes, the champagne must be transferred from the magnums into larger bottles, some believe this re-bottling exposes the champagne to greater oxidation and therefore results in an inferior product compared to champagne which remains in the bottle in which it was fermented. * For many years, the US standard wine and liquor bottle was the fifth, meaning one-fifth of a US gallon, some beverages also came in tenth-gallon, half-gallon and one-gallon sizes. In 1979, the US adopted the system for wine bottles, with the basic bottle becoming 750 ml. Wine producers in Portugal, Italy, Spain, France and Germany follow the tradition of their areas in choosing the shape of bottle most appropriate for their wine. Port, sherry, and Bordeaux varieties, straight-sided and high-shouldered with a pronounced punt, port and sherry bottles may have a bulbous neck to collect any residue. Burgundies and Rhône varieties, tall bottles with sloping shoulders and a smaller punt, schlegel variety, predominantly used in German wine growing regions, similar to Burgundy bottles, but more slender and elongated. Rhine, Mosel, and Alsace varieties, narrow and tall with little or no punt, champagne and other sparkling wines, thick-walled and wide with a pronounced punt and sloping shoulders. German wines from Franconia, the Bocksbeutel bottle, the Chianti and some other Italian wines, the fiasco, a round-bottomed flask encased in a straw basket. This is more used for everyday table wines, many of the higher-grade Chianti producers have switched to Bordeaux-type bottles. Many North and South American, South African, and Australasian wine producers select the shape with which they wish to associate their wines. For instance, a producer who believes his wine is similar to Burgundy may choose to bottle his wine in Burgundy-style bottles, other producers have chosen idiosyncratic bottle styles for marketing purposes. Pere-Anselme markets its Châteauneuf-du-Pape in bottles that appear half-melted, the Moselland company of Bernkastel-Kues in Germany has a Riesling with a bottle in the shape of a stylized cat
3.
Barrel
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A barrel, cask, or tun is a hollow cylindrical container, traditionally made of wooden staves bound by wooden or metal hoops. Traditionally, the barrel was a size of measure referring to a set capacity or weight of a given commodity. For example, in the UK a barrel of beer refers to a quantity of 36 imperial gallons, wine was shipped in barrels of 119 litres. Modern barrels and casks can also be made of aluminum, stainless steel, someone who makes barrels is called a barrel maker or cooper. Barrels are only one type of cooperage, other types include, but are not limited to, buckets, tubs, butter churns, hogsheads, firkins, kegs, kilderkins, tierces, rundlets, puncheons, pipes, tuns, butts, pins, and breakers. An aging barrel is used to age wine, distilled spirits such as whiskey, brandy, or rum, beer, tabasco sauce, when a wine or spirit ages in a barrel, small amounts of oxygen are introduced as the barrel lets some air in. Oxygen enters a barrel when water or alcohol is lost due to evaporation, in an environment with 100% relative humidity, very little water evaporates and so most of the loss is alcohol, a useful trick if one has a wine with very high proof. Most beverages are topped up from other barrels to prevent significant oxidation, although others such as vin jaune, beverages aged in wooden barrels take on some of the compounds in the barrel, such as vanillin and wood tannins. The presence of these depends on many factors, including the place of origin, how the staves were cut and dried. After roughly three years, most of a barrels flavor compounds have been leached out and it is well on its way to becoming neutral, barrels used for aging are typically made of French or American oak, but chestnut and redwood are also used. Some Asian beverages use Japanese cedar, which imparts an unusual, in Peru and Chile, a grape distillate named pisco is either aged in oak or in earthenware. Some wines are fermented on barrel, as opposed to in a container like steel or wine-grade HDPE tanks. Wine can also be fermented in large tanks, which—when open to the atmosphere—are called open-tops. Other wooden cooperage for storing wine or spirits range from smaller barriques to huge casks, the tastes yielded by French and American species of oak are slightly different, with French oak being subtler, while American oak gives stronger aromas. To retain the desired measure of oak influence, a winery will replace a certain percentage of its barrels every year, some winemakers use 200% new oak, where the wine is put into new oak barrels twice during the aging process. Bulk wines are more cheaply flavored by soaking oak chips in them instead of being aged in a barrel. Sherry is stored in 600-litre casks made of North American oak, the casks, or butts, are filled five-sixths full, leaving the space of two fists empty at the top to allow flor to develop on top of the wine. NOTE, This section uses both the U. S. –Irish typical spelling whiskey and the British–Canadian typical spelling whisky, laws in several jurisdictions require that whiskey be aged in wooden barrels
4.
Amphora
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An amphora is a type of container of a characteristic shape and size, descending from at least as early as the Neolithic Period. Amphorae were used in vast numbers for the transport and storage of various products and they are most often ceramic, but examples in metals and other materials have been found. The amphora complements the large container, the pithos, which makes available capacities between one-half and two and one-half tons. In contrast, the amphora holds under a half-ton, typically less than 100 pounds, the bodies of the two types have similar shapes. Where the pithos may have small loops or lugs for fastening a rope harness. The necks of pithoi are wide for scooping or bucket access, the necks of amphorae are narrow for pouring by a person holding it by the bottom and a handle. The handles might not be present, the size may require two or three handlers to lift. For the most part, however, an amphora was tableware, or sat close to the table, was intended to be seen, stoppers of perishable materials, which have rarely survived, were used to seal the contents. Two principal types of amphorae existed, the amphora, in which the neck and body meet at a sharp angle. Neck amphorae were used in the early history of ancient Greece. Most were produced with a base to allow upright storage by embedding in soft ground. The base facilitated transport by ship, where the amphorae were packed upright or on their sides in as many as five staggered layers. If upright, the bases probably were held by some sort of rack, heather and reeds might be used as packing around the vases. Racks could be used in kitchens and shops, the base also concentrated deposits from liquids with suspended solid particles, such as olive oil and wines. Amphorae are of use to maritime archaeologists, as they often indicate the age of a shipwreck. They are occasionally so well preserved that the content is still present, providing information on foodstuffs. Amphorae were too cheap and plentiful to return to their origin-point and so, amphora is a Greco-Roman word developing in ancient Greek during the Bronze Age. The Romans acquired it during the Hellenization that occurred in the Roman Republic, cato is the first known literary person to use it
5.
Buttery (room)
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A buttery was a service room in a large medieval house in which barrels, bottles, or butts of alcoholic drink were stored, and from which they were served into the Great Hall. The butler was anciently the household officer in charge of the buttery, and possibly for its provisionment, in the royal household such officer was termed the Marshal of the Buttery and was often a post discharged under the feudal land tenure of grand serjeanty. In less important households such an officer was termed the yeoman of the buttery, the words buttery and bottle derive from mediaeval French word botte and its diminutive bouteille, which in turn are derived from the mediaeval Latin terms buttis and butticula. The buttery was situated to one side of the screens passage, the butterys principal function was storage of wine and its preparation for serving. Candles were also dispensed from the buttery as was beer to those members of the household not entitled to drink wine. Today in colleges in Cambridge, Dublin, and Oxford, drinks are served from the Buttery Bar, the buttery generally had a staircase to the beer cellar below. The wine-storage area of the buttery, in keeping with the value of its contents, was often more richly decorated to reflect the higher status of its function. The buttery should not be confused with the department which stored and processed milk and its by-products such as butter and cheese. Kaufman proposed an apparently erroneous derivation, Cows were also kept near the castle to provide milk and milk by-product, life in the English Country House
6.
Jesus College, Oxford
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Jesus College is one of the colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship Street, Cornmarket Street and Market Street. The college was founded by Elizabeth I on 27 June 1571 for the education of clergy, a major driving force behind the establishment of the college was Hugh Price, a churchman from Brecon in Wales. Further accommodation was built on the site to mark the 400th anniversary of the college, in 1971. The life of the college was disrupted by the English Civil War, Leoline Jenkins, who became principal after the war in 1661, put the college on a more stable financial footing. Little happened at the college during the 18th century, and the 19th century saw a decline in numbers, students academic achievements rose in the early 20th century as fellows were appointed to teach in new subjects. Women were first admitted in 1974 and now form a part of the undergraduate population. There are about 475 students at any one time, the Principal of the college is Sir Nigel Shadbolt, former students include Harold Wilson, Norman Washington Manley, T. E. Lawrence, Angus Buchanan, and Viscount Sankey. The universitys professorship of Celtic is attached to the college, a post held by such as Sir John Rhys, Ellis Evans. Past or present fellows of the include the historians Sir Goronwy Edwards and Niall Ferguson, the philosopher Galen Strawson. Jesus College was founded on 27 June 1571, when Elizabeth I issued a royal charter and it was the first Protestant college to be founded at the university, and it is the only Oxford college to date from Elizabeths reign. It was the first new Oxford college since 1555, in the reign of Queen Mary, the foundation charter named a principal, eight fellows, eight scholars, and eight commissioners to draw up the statutes for the college. The college was intended primarily for the education of clergy. The particular intention was to satisfy a need for dedicated, learned clergy to promote the Elizabethan Religious Settlement in the parishes of England, Ireland and Wales. The college has since broadened the range of subjects offered, beginning with the inclusion of medicine and law, the letters patent issued by Elizabeth I made it clear that the education of a priest in the 16th century included more than just theology, however. Price continued to be involved with the college after its foundation. On the strength of a legacy, worth £60 a year on his death, he requested and received the authority to appoint the new colleges principal, fellows. He financed early building work in the front quadrangle
7.
Alcoholic drink
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Long-term use can lead to alcohol abuse, physical dependence, and alcoholism. Drinking alcohol plays an important social role in many cultures, most countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption, some countries ban such activities entirely. However, alcoholic drinks are legal in most parts of the world, the global alcoholic drink industry exceeded $1 trillion in 2014. Alcohol is one of the most widely used drugs in the world. For instance, in 2015, among Americans, 89% of adults had consumed alcohol at point, 70% had drunk it in the last year. Alcoholic drinks are divided into three classes—beers, wines, and spirits—and typically contain between 3% and 40% alcohol by volume. Discovery of late Stone Age jugs suggest that intentionally fermented drinks existed at least as early as the Neolithic period, wine is a fermented beverage produced from grapes. Wine involves a longer process than beer and also a long aging process. Sparkling wine can be made by means of a secondary fermentation, fruit wines are made from fruits other than grapes, such as plums, cherries, or apples. Sake is an example of rice wine. Beer is a beverage fermented from grain mash and it is made from barley or a blend of several grains. If the fermented mash is distilled, then the drink is a spirit, beer is the most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world. Cider or cyder is an alcoholic drink made from any fruit juice, apple juice, peaches. Cider alcohol content varies from 1. 2% ABV to 8. 5% or more in traditional English ciders, in some regions, cider may be called apple wine. Mead is a drink created by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits, spices, grains. The alcoholic content of mead may range from about 8% ABV to more than 20%, the defining characteristic of mead is that the majority of the drinks fermentable sugar is derived from honey. A distilled drink or liquor is a drink produced by distilling ethanol produced by means of fermenting grain, fruit. Unsweetened, distilled, alcoholic drinks that have a content of at least 20% ABV are called spirits
8.
Sherry
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Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the town of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain. Sweet dessert wines are made from Pedro Ximenez or Moscatel grapes. The word Sherry is an anglicisation of Xeres, Sherry was previously known as sack, from the Spanish saca, meaning extraction from the solera. In 1933 the Jerez Denominación de Origen was the first Spanish denominación to be recognised in this way. Jerez-Xeres-Sherry and sharing the same governing council as D. O, after fermentation is complete, the base wines are fortified with grape spirit in order to increase their final alcohol content. Wines classified as suitable for aging as Fino and Manzanilla are fortified until they reach an alcohol content of 15.5 per cent by volume. As they age in barrel, they develop a layer of flor—a yeast-like growth that helps protect the wine from excessive oxidation and those wines that are classified to undergo aging as Oloroso are fortified to reach an alcohol content of at least 17 per cent. They do not develop flor and so oxidise slightly as they age, because the fortification takes place after fermentation, most sherries are initially dry, with any sweetness being added later. In contrast, port wine is fortified halfway through its fermentation, Sherry is regarded by many wine writers as underappreciated and a neglected wine treasure. Jerez has been a centre of viniculture since wine-making was introduced to Spain by the Phoenicians in 1100 BC, the practice was carried on by the Romans when they took control of Iberia around 200 BC. The Moors conquered the region in AD711 and introduced distillation, during the Moorish period, the town was called Sherish, from which both Sherry and Jerez are derived. Wines similar in style to Sherry have traditionally made in the city of Shiraz in mid-southern Iran. Wine production continued through five centuries of Arab Empires rule, in 1264 Alfonso X of Castile took the city. From this point on, the production of sherry and its export throughout Europe increased significantly, by the end of the 16th century, sherry had a reputation in Europe as the worlds finest wine. Christopher Columbus brought sherry on his voyage to the New World, Sherry became very popular in Great Britain, especially after Francis Drake sacked Cadiz in 1587. At that time Cadiz was one of the most important Spanish seaports, among the spoils Drake brought back after destroying the fleet were 2,900 barrels of sherry that had been waiting to be loaded aboard Spanish ships. This helped to popularize Sherry in the British Isles, because sherry was a major wine export to the United Kingdom, many English companies and styles developed. Many of the Jerez cellars were founded by British families, in 1894 the Jerez region was devastated by the insect phylloxera
9.
Runcu, Gorj
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Runcu is a commune in Gorj County, Oltenia, Romania. It is situated on the foot of Vâlcan Mountains,17 km West of Târgu Jiu, the commune is composed of seven villages, Bâlta, Bâltișoara, Dobrița, Răchiți, Runcu, Suseni and Valea Mare. Runcu village was first mentioned in a document issued in 1486 by Vlad Călugărul, the dominant class of Wallachia maintained interests in the area during most of the Middle Ages. According to some sources, the church was founded in the early 17th century by Domnița Florica, daughter of Michael the Brave. Stone and bronze age archaeological finds, as well as artifacts from before the Roman conquest, indicate that Runcu, Runcu is the birthplace of folk music singers Ioana Zlătaru and Maria Apostol. Scenes from the Romanian films Bătălia din umbră, Iancu Jianu, haiducul, Iancu Jianu, zapciul and Ecaterina Teodoroiu were shot in Runcu village, Runcu and Sohodol Valley on Panoramio Runcu and Sohodol Valley - photos and text in German Map of the Vâlcan Mountain showing Runcu commune
10.
Wine tasting
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Wine tasting is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. While the practice of wine tasting is as ancient as its production, modern, professional wine tasters use a constantly evolving specialized terminology which is used to describe the range of perceived flavors, aromas and general characteristics of a wine. More informal, recreational tasting may use similar terminology, usually involving a less analytical process for a more general, personal appreciation. Whereas wines are regularly tasted in isolation, a quality assessment is more objective when performed alongside several other wines. Wines may be selected for their vintage or proceed from a single winery, to better compare vineyard and vintages. Alternatively, in order to promote an unbiased analysis, bottles and even glasses may be disguised in a blind tasting, to ensure impartial judgment of a wine, it should be served blind – that is, without the taster having seen the label or bottle shape. Blind tasting may also involve serving the wine from a wine glass to mask the color of the wine. A tasters judgment can be prejudiced by knowing details of a wine, such as origin, price, reputation. Scientific research has demonstrated the power of suggestion in perception as well as the strong effects of expectancies. For example, people expect more expensive wine to have desirable characteristics than less expensive wine. When given wine that they are told is expensive they virtually always report it as tasting better than the very same wine when they are told that it is inexpensive. French researcher Frédéric Brochet submitted a mid-range Bordeaux in two different bottles, one labeled as a table wine, the other bearing a grand cru etiquette. Tasters described the grand cru as woody, complex, and round and the supposed cheap wine as short, light. Similarly, people have expectations about wines because of their origin, producer, vintage, color. For example, when Brochet served a wine he received all the usual descriptions, fresh, dry, honeyed. Later he served the same wine dyed red and received the usual red terms, intense, spicy, supple, deep. One of the most famous instances of testing is known as the Judgment of Paris. Against all expectations, California wines bested French wines according to the judges and this event was depicted in the 2008 movie Bottle Shock
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