Posted by Amy Plennes on Sun, Nov 14, 2010 @ 03:34 PM
Here at Trattoria di Carlo we believe there is no greater combination than great food, great wine and great friends. With over a 100 wines to choose from when you visit di Carlo, we thought it would be nice to give you a little wine background and maybe a few wine tips and basically just discuss wine in general.
So, where do we begin? How about starting at the begining.
One might ask what is the difference between red wine and white wine? Basically it comes down to the type of grape, fermintation and of course the finished product.
The grapes used are significatnly different between red and white, because of the color. Even though the juice from most grapes is basically clear the color of the skin is what is going to give the wine color.
During the fermintation process, more pressing of the red grapes releases more tannins and colors into the wine, which is how we get that deep, velvety color and flavor of red wines. After the fermenting process, the wine is likely to be stored, matured and conditioned in oak barrels for several months. This adds additional wood tannins and flavors. Since this would most likely overpower the subtler flavors of white wines, only Chardonnay and a few others are aged in oak. However, these same tannins, help intensify and add richness to a red wine.
In the end this is why red wines have such rich flavors with real meaty, spicy atributes and why white wines have such lighter, fruiter flovors and smells.