Wine
Travel through your tastebuds
Wine is an alcoholic drink made from fermented fruit. Yeast consumes the
sugar in the fruits and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide,
releasing heat in the process. Though wine can be made from a variety of
fruit crops such as plum, cherry, pomegranate, blueberry, currant and
elderberry, it is most often made from grapes, and the term "wine"
generally refers to grape wine when used without a qualifier.
Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are major factors in
different styles of wine. These differences result from the complex
interactions between the biochemical development of the grape, the
reactions involved in fermentation, the grape's growing environment
(terroir), and the wine production process. Many countries enact legal
appellations intended to define styles and qualities of wine. These
typically restrict the geographical origin and permitted varieties of
grapes, as well as other aspects of wine production.
Wine has been produced for thousands of years. The earliest evidence of
wine is from the present-day Georgia (6000 BCE), Persia (5000 BCE),
Italy and Armenia (4000 BCE). New World wine has some connection to
alcoholic beverages made by the indigenous peoples of the Americas, but
is mainly connected to later Spanish traditions in New Spain. Later, as
Old World wine further developed viticulture techniques, Europe would
encompass three of the largest wine-producing regions. Today, based on
statistics gathered by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine
(OIV) in 2022 the top five wine producing countries are Italy, France,
Spain, the United States and Australia.
