Sparkling Wine

Wine is an alcoholic drink created by fermenting grapes. Yeast breaks down the sugar in grapes into ethanol and carbon dioxide. Wines and their classes and varieties are mostly based on the variety of grape used and the strains of yeast. Grapes develop specific biochemical characteristics depending on the cultivar, variety, temperature of the place of origin, the terrain and thus a wine's character depend on these and the production process, thus wines are strictly regulated by appellations and geographical indicators.

Although by wine, we mostly refer to Wine fermented from grapes, rice wine and other fruit wines have been in use since time immemorial.

To broadly classify wine, we can classify them into five major categories like Red, White, Rose, Sweet or Dessert and Sparkling.

1. White Wine a wine that is fermented from white wines, or even red or black grapes, it actually doesn't matter what colour the grape is, its the pigment anthocyanin that gives a Red Wine the colour. What wine is a wine that is fermented without the grape skin in contact. The colour can be straw-yellow, yellow-green, or yellow-gold. It is produced by the alcoholic fermentation of the non-coloured pulp of grapes, which may have a skin of any colour.

2. Red Wine is a wine made from dark coloured grape varities, the colour can range from intense violet, typical of young wines, brick red for mature wines and brown for older wines. As mentioned above other than the uncommon teinturier varieties of grape, which produce a red juice, the colour of wine comes from the skin of the grapes.

3. Rose Wine is a Red Wine that is not Red enough, so doesn't qualify as a red wine. It is the oldest known type of wine, and the colour varies from pale onion skin orange to a vivid near purple with a general pink colour in most, depending on the grape varieties and the wine making technique. it is the easiest to produce wine using the skin contact technique. The different techniques of producing rose wine are skin contact, saignée and blending.

Skin Contact or maceration is allowing the crushed grapes to macerate in spirit and release its compounds into the pre-fermentation must. The saignée technique is slightly more involved and it involves bleeding the juice and reducing the juice to fruit skin and pulp concentration in the must so that the wine has a richer texture and colour.

4. Dessert or Sweet Wines are hard to define but are generally sweet and strong and are drunk with a meal or typically served with a dessert, and to be precise, it is wine which has a pronounced sweetness and higher alcohol concentration than average, thus, even a Red Wine that is legally Red but is too sweet and strong, can be a Dessert Wine.

5. Sparkling Wine is a wine with natural carbonation, where carbon dioxide is created using a traditional method of a second fermentation of the wine by adding sugar to the fermented wine and letting it ferment again, either in a bottle or a tank. A Champagne and Blanquette de Limoux are two most important examples of Sparkling Wines.

Raspberry Liqueur

Raspberry Liqueur is what a liqueur is, a neutral liquor, wine or gin with added flavours and sweetness from fruits, herbs and other ingredients.

In Raspeberry Liqueur, raspberries are macerated with sugar in vodka, and vanilla pods are often added for a wider flavour profile, alcohol and sugar draw out the fruit's natural juices and essential oils into the spirit.

Few popular raspberry liqueur brands would be

• 1. Chambord Black Raspberry Liqueur.
• 2. Bols Black Raspberry Liqueur.
• 3. Giffard Framboise Liqueur.
• 4. St George's Raspberry Liqueur.
• 5. Mathilde Framboise Liqueur.