Enjoying Italian Red Wines Is A Unique Pleasure

Commonly known as Italian reds, Italian red wines are world famous. As compared to red wines produced in other parts of the world, they stand apart due to their tarter taste, higher acidity, and aroma.

Unlike French wines, Italian red wines are not named after the grapes used for making them; instead they are named after regions in which they are produced. Italian red wine makers use different varieties of grapes. Many of these varieties are not available in any other part of the world.

Due to their sharper taste, Italian red wines are not preferred for simple sipping, but a bottle of red wine is a perfect companion during a meal. Valpolicella, Chianti, Barolo and Merlot are some of the best-known red wines.

Ideally, Italian red wines are best enjoyed in Italy, in the wine growing areas made famous over centuries of wine production - Chianti, Lambrusco and Barolo - with Chianti perhaps the best known of all with its distinctive raffia-clad bottles providing an extra air of foreign charm.

Italy's red wines are produced in great quantity and account for 20% of the world's production. Grown on mountainsides and hills with a great variety of soil and climate conditions, over sixty percent of the wine grown in Italy is red, with variations according to the different wine-growing areas. The cool, mountainous northern region of Emilia-Romagna produces crisp, austere wines, like Lambrusco which is light and slightly fizzy, so is often served cold. Renowned for its subtle berry flavors, Lambrusco's fizz comes from a second fermentation process done under pressure.

A very different red wine is Barolo, with a high tannin content which softens as it ages into a full bodied red much sought after by connoisseurs. Barolo comes from the Piedmont area and is made from Nebbiolo grapes. Another quite different red wine is Amarone, from the Corvina region, made from partly dried grapes with other syrupy fruits added. The sunny, temperate central region of Tuscany yields bold, lusty, full-bodied wines such as Chianti, with many different qualities according to the winery, but the best one is Chianti Classico. Normally Chianti has a fruity scent and tastes dry and soft. Chianti from Tuscany remains the all-time favorite with tourists particularly and is best enjoyed with a Tuscan sunset turning the fields to gold and the cypress trees a dark green as they outline the curves of the romantic Tuscan countryside.

There was a story, perhaps apocryphal, that Italian wines did not travel well and thus there was always enough kept at home in Italy for the Italians to enjoy. Not true today when Italian wines are exported all over the world for international wine lovers to enjoy as well. Choosing the right red wine to go with a meal can be as complicated as you wish, but a general rule is to enjoy it with red meat or strongly flavored food, as white wine seems to go better with chicken and fish. Rules are made to be broken however, if you find a red wine you particularly enjoy, you can drink it with any meal, especially if you are dining on Italy's rich cuisine.

Another notable Italian red wine is Barbaresco, similar to Barolo but it tends to be softer and slightly more graceful. There are just three, small growing regions for Barbaresco compared to Barolo's eleven. Barbaresco, too, requires aging to reach its full potential but is drinkable a little sooner than Barolo.

Bardolino is another famous red, lighter and fruity from the Veneto region of Italy. Named after the town of Bardolino on Lake Garda, this wine has faint cherry flavors and just a hint of spiciness. The star of Italian red wines however is Brunello Di Montalcino from a little medieval town just outside Siena. Brunello, "the nice, dark one" in local dialect, is Tuscany's most expensive, rarest, and longest-lived wine. Whether it is Chianti, Amarone, Barolo, or Barbaresco, enjoying Italian red wine is a unique pleasure, suitable for all occasions and for all seasons.

Various Types Of Sweet Red Wines That Even A Beginner Will Appreciate

Sweet red wines can be fruity, spicy, peppery and simply sweet! Read on to know more about the sweet red wines, their different flavors and types.

Red wines are slightly bitter in taste. This bitterness results from the fact that red wines are made from the skin of the red grapes, which are very tannin-like in taste. For a beginner, it can be quite a task to get used to the tannic taste of the red wines. This is where the sweet red wines come handy. Sweet red wines, unlike the other red wines, make use of the red grape skins only for a very short time during the wine making process. This gives them more of a sweet flavor, making sweet red wine for beginners an ideal initiation. Let us know a little bit more about the various types of sweet red wines that even a beginner will appreciate.

White Zinfandel
Though it has a white prefixed to its name, white Zinfandel is a delicious sweet red wine. White Zinfandel is pink in color and is much sweeter in taste than most of the red wines. The reason behind this is that when this wine is being made, it is brought in contact with skin of the red grapes for a very short time. This, besides explaining its pink color, also tells us why white Zinfandel is not as nutritious and healthy to drink as some of the darker red wines.

Port
Another variety of sweet red wine is the dessert wine, named Port. Port is richer and thicker than the other sweet red wines. It also has higher alcohol content than other wines. This is because it is fortified with brandy when it is being made. Its thick, rich flavor helps the beginners to get used to tannin-like taste of the red wine. Port wine tastes the best with cheese and chocolate.

Once the beginners get used to the taste of sweet red wines mentioned above, they can move onto semi sweet red wines, such as Merlot, Shiraz and Chianti.

Merlot
Merlot red wine is made from the Merlot grapes. It has a kind of a "plum-flavor" to it. Compared to other red wines, it seems gentler on the tongue. Merlot wine has often been used for blending, but it tastes equally good on its own. It tastes the best with meat, burgers or any kind of appetizer.

Chianti
Chianti is a red wine which has a fruity taste to it. Chianti is made from grapes of a number of varieties. It is an Italian wine, which has a sweet flavor to it, and goes especially well with pastas, lasagna and pizzas.

Shiraz
Shiraz wine is made from the Syrah grape. Shiraz is an Australian wine which has a very spicy, pungent taste to it. This Australian wine has a peppery taste and goes especially well with spicy dishes.

Dornfelder
A German sweet red wine, which is fast becoming very popular in America is Dornfelder red wine. Dornfelder sweet wine is very fruity in taste and its color is dark red. It produces aromas of yeast and berry, and is very gentle to taste. It has a citrus, cherry-like taste to it and is meant for both beginners as well as old drinkers.

A sweet red wine, it is said, is meant for people who are starting to drink wine, till they get used to it and graduate to more rich and darker red wines. Personally, I feel that a sweet red wine can be appreciated by any body who has a sweet tooth, whether he or she is new or old to wine drinking. So if you love candies, chocolates, sweets and pastries, go ahead and enjoy the pleasure of sweet red wines too.

Red Wine Makes You Think A Lot

Within the wine world, wine represents a level of dry wines do well if it can be are they not take into consideration brewed sweet red. The reason is straightforward, regardless of becoming referred to as sweet red, but sweet and not the merits of sweet red, the other way for the Wine Tasting Teachers had been criticized defects. A great bottle of sweet red only have sufficient acidity to drink with fresh and delicious, not to be fed back teeth.

Which are simple for the white wine, the only access to a modest quantity of acid, which may be very easily satisfied the taste of a sweet red to reach the sweet but not too sweet taste is necessary to discover ways to get a lot of acid. But this is actually a sweet red complicated to resolve the contradiction, for the reason that the natural sugar content to decrease the acidity increased.

To solve this dilemma, brewers will use cold climate grape varieties to grow up sweet red wine, this grape will contain substantial quantities of acid, soon after the way through the late harvest grapes to fully mature, to be able to find the acid and sweet balance. Some locations in Italy, but also the late harvest of grapes on the straws on the dry inside the sun, to concentrated grape sugar. Due to this, only the above mentioned, is really a kind of level of sweet red wine.
Typically, the color of sweet red wine isn't very bright, usually some dark, sweet red wine grapes since far more than ripe picking, grape itself, the color depth, and second, the time from brewing to finished wine than the average to lengthy. Consequently, the sweet red wine color of the color shown.

Sweet red family Port wine just isn't only to strengthen an vital member of the wine, but also the most renowned family, a sweet red.

This is often a war-harvest wines. About half of the 17th century, British and French conflicts, and finally the outbreak of war, guns and gunpowder blocked the road British French wine. Therefore, a British traders went to Portugal to take risks, he finally discovered the Douro Valley (Douro) anomalies along the lots of gorgeous vineyards, and creativity of the British wine preferences Porter. Immediately after that, a lot of wine after Porter Porto, Portugal (Porto) ports to the United Kingdom, Port wine (Porto) name that's derived from the name of this port. Because then the British fell in enjoy with this wine, until these days a substantial number of imports every year from the Port wine in Portugal.

It really is inside the fermentation process by adding brandy to artificially interrupt the fermentation (the process of the grapes into wine, when the alcohol reached 15 degrees, the typical yeast will lose its vitality, can not continue to put sugar into alcohol) so as to retain the part of the grape sugar. The greatest feature is sweet, the aroma, the superior Porter often reminiscent of "sweet" that word, accompanied by a little caramel, BBQ, coffee, toffee and dried ripe berries of the seductive atmosphere drinking amongst individuals who have been intoxicated.

And Port wines have similar brewing procedure had been referred to as Palestinians argue (Banyuls), sweet red wine. It can be produced in Roussillon region in southern France, the difference is, this sweet red wine with Grenache (Grenache), Chiali brewing (Carignan) brewed, alcohol is typically slightly lower than the Port wine?? 16 degrees.

Though there was ice wine within the charming red figure (ice red), but the sweet white family members of yet another renowned noble rot sweet wines are in no way encroach on the site of red, simply because white grapes infected with botrytis mold will into a sweet, sweet fragrance of white and red grape varieties are given birth to a strange taste, so nobody to do so. In addition to static

Wine, the sparkling wine of the world there are some sweet red wines, both sweet and thick as the ink-like red blisters, also has lovely pink bubble pleasant. Only, as in recent years, growing like a natural, no added modified really dry champagne, so sweet and pink champagne is now rarely seen.

Drinking Red Wine To Keep Hearts Young

The answer to the so-called "French paradox" may be found in red wine. More specifically, it may reside in small doses of resveratrol, a natural constituent of grapes, pomegranates, red wine and other foods, according to a new study by an international team of researchers.

Writing June 3 in the online, open-access journal Public Library of Science One, the researchers report that low doses of resveratrol in the diet of middle-aged mice has a widespread influence on the genetic levers of aging and may confer special protection on the heart.

Specifically, the researchers found that low doses of resveratrol mimic the effects of what is known as caloric restriction - diets with 20-30 percent fewer calories than a typical diet - that in numerous studies has been shown to extend lifespan and blunt the effects of aging.

"This brings down the dose of resveratrol toward the consumption reality mode," says senior author Richard Weindruch, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of medicine and a researcher at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital. "At the same time, it plugs into the biology of caloric restriction."
Previous research has shown that resveratrol in high doses extends lifespan in invertebrates and prevents early mortality in mice given a high-fat diet. The new study, conducted by researchers from academia and industry, extends those findings, showing that resveratrol in low doses and beginning in middle age can elicit many of the same benefits as a reduced-calorie diet.

"Resveratrol is active in much lower doses than previously thought and mimics a significant fraction of the profile of caloric restriction at the gene expression level," says Tomas Prolla, a UW-Madison professor of genetics and a senior author of the new report.

The group explored the influence of the agent on heart, muscle and brain by looking for changes in gene expression in those tissues. As animals age, gene expression in the different tissues of the body changes as genes are switched on and off.

In the new study - which compared the genetic crosstalk of animals on a restricted diet with those fed small doses of resveratrol - the similarities were remarkable, explains lead author Jamie Barger of Madison-based LifeGen Technologies. In the heart, for example, there are at least 1,029 genes whose functions change with age, and the organ's function is known to diminish with age. In animals on a restricted diet, 90 percent of those heart genes experienced altered gene expression profiles, while low doses of resveratrol thwarted age-related change in 92 percent. The new findings, say the study's authors, were associated with prevention of the decline in heart function associated with aging.

In short, a glass of wine or food or supplements that contain even small doses of resveratrol are likely to represent "a robust intervention in the retardation of cardiac aging," the authors note.

That finding may also explain the remarkable heart health of people who live in some regions of France where diets are soaked in saturated fats but the incidence of heart disease, a major cause of mortality in the United States, is low. In France, meals are traditionally complemented with a glass of red wine.
The new resveratrol study is also important because it suggests that caloric restriction, which has been widely studied in animals from spiders to humans, and resveratrol may govern the same master genetic pathways related to aging.

"There must be a few master biochemical pathways activated in response to caloric restriction, which in turn activate many other pathways," explains Prolla. "And resveratrol seems to activate some of these master pathways as well."

The new findings, according to Weindruch and Prolla, provide strong evidence that resveratrol can improve quality of life through its influence on the different parameters of aging such as cardiac function. However, whether the agent can extend lifespan in ways similar to caloric restriction will require further study, according to the new report's authors.