Why not add some wonderful wines to make your creative family beach vacations a bit more special.

Wonderful wines are produced from grapes, sunshine, good soil, talent, dedication, and a bit of luck.

The Process
It starts from selecting the proper grape, and ends with the bottling of the finished wine. There are a number of steps that take place "in between". After harvesting the grapes, they are crushed, and allowed to ferment. In red wine, the grape skins are fermented with the juice, while white wine is fermented with the juice alone. In the case of rose wines, the juice of the red grape is allowed to contact the skins long enough to generate a pinkish color, then removed.

The Chemistry
During the fermentation process, the yeast converts most of the sugars in the grape juice into alcohol. From here, depending on the type of wine, some are aged in oak barrels, while others are bottled directly. The aging process of the wine can take from a few months, to over twenty years.

The Quality
The quality and type of grape, above all other factors, determines the quality of the wonderful wine being produced. Other factors include the time of the grape harvest, the way the grapes are cut, and the weather during the growing season.

Popular Grapes
Here are some popular grapes for the production of wonderful wines.

Merlot
Merlot is a grape which bears a strong resemblance to the Cabernet Sauvignon. It makes wines and mature very fast, and are generally softer in texture. It is often blended with Cabernet Sauvignon to soften the blend even more. With top Merlot grapes, the wine is dry and rich in flavor and smooth going down. At the other end of the scale, it is dry, with little taste and texture, and not very pleasant. It should be served slightly below room temperature. A good way to achive this is to place it in the refrigerator for only 15-20 minutes.

Cabernet Sauvignon
The Cabernet Sauvignon is the best grape for red wine production. It can be aged from 5 to 10 years to achieve top notch flavor. In appearance, it is a small dark thick skinned grape, and it needs slightly warmer weather than other grapes in order to achieve full maturity.

Pinot Noir
The name comes from the french words for "pine" and "black", and refer to the dark purple pine cone bunches of grapes that grow on the vine. It grows in cooler regions, and although it produces some of the best wines in the world, it is very temperamental and difficult to not only cultivate, but ferment into wine. It is a lighter wine, and therefore has developed a folowing amongst those who would like a less alcoholic wine.

Zinfandel
Zinfandel has extremely hight sugar levels, and as a result, it was originally grown for table grapes. Given this high sugar content, when fermented, it is not uncommon to produce a wine of 15% alcohol, or even more. The taste of the red wine produced depends primarily on the ripeness of the grapes that were picked.

Chardonnay
Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape that ferments into a beautiful white wine. It is an important ingredient in many of the sparkling wines that are produced throughout the world. This grape variety is known for being relatively easy to grow, and very adaptable to diverse growing conditions. It is a hardy grape, and vines can produce great quantities of the grape. It is a very popular wine to be served with chicken and other white meats, such a turkey.

Sauvignon Blanc
The Sauvignon Blanc grape gets it's name from the French words "sauvage" (meaning wild) and "blanc" (meaning white). This variety of grape originated in France, in the regions of the Loire Valley and Bordeaux, but it is now grown in various countries such as Chile, South Africa, Australia and California, USA. It produces a wine that is dry, and a major component of some famous dessert wines. As it does not benefit from the aging process, it is usually consumed soon after being bottled.

Add some of these wonderful wines to your creative family beach vacations.

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