Much has been debated for years in Switzerland over the perfect beverage to accompany a fondue. Some insist white wine is a good option as the alcohol is supposed to break down the Gruyère cheese. Others say just tea – without milk or sugar – is appropriate.

Wine with fondue slows digestion
A group of researchers from Germany and Switzerland recently set out on a mission to find out which drink provided the better digestion of the fatty cheese. They did not however, delve into which wine was the better accompaniment to cheese.

The experts in this small study gave 20 healthy men and women (aged 23 – 58), a cheese fondue with either a Swiss white wine and kirsch or black tea.

The people who drank the black tea digested the fondue in around six hours, compared to nine hours for those who had the wine and kirsch. Experts found absolutely no difference at all in symptoms like nausea, heartburn or indigestion among the groups.

Mark Fox, a consultant gastroenterologist from the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, England who led the research said, “the findings apply to any high-calorie, high-fat meal, like traditional Christmas feasts”. And where alcohol is concerned, he added “fatty foods take longer to be broken down in the stomach compared to other foods and adding alcohol complicates the process”.

So now we know that a cup of black tea, containing tannins, is the better accompaniment, if it’s digestion that concerns us, but I’m sure most of us would still opt for that glass of wine – or two! In fact, if we choose a red wine rather than a white, we will get some of those valuable tannins.

Wine and cheese properties
Why does wine complement a fondue so well? We must look at the constituents of both. As we all know most cheeses contain good quantities of calcium and fat. A 30 gram (1 oz) portion of cheese could provide between 20 and 25 percent of ones daily recommended amount of calcium.

On the other hand, the properties of wine couldn’t be more different. The nutritional values of a 100 gram (3.5 oz) sample of red table wine are as follows:

* Energy – 355kJ (85 kcal)
* Carbohydrates – 2.6 grams
* Sugars – 0.6 grams
* Fat – 0.0 grams
* Protein – 0.1 grams
* Alcohol – 10.6 grams

Wine contains numerous types of acid, and most of these acids, especially tartaric acid, must assist to an extent in the breakdown of fats. But, as usual the alcohol in the wine hinders the process.

When it comes down to what beverage to drink with a cheese fondue, science would probably recommend a cup of tea, while most of us would like to throw caution to the wind and go for the wine – or the kirsch.

We have only touched on the beverage side of the matter. Undoubtedly, there are many different cheeses to use in the fondue apart from Gruyère. I reckon the sky’s the limit here, so choose what cheese you like the most, and match it up with a wine, kirsch or even tea. And don’t overdo the alcohol intake!

Rob Hemphill has been a professional in the wine industry for over 20 years, and is now a freelance marketing writer. Specializing in wine consultancy he has a wide knowledge of vines, vineyards and wine growing techniques as well. Good food and wine pairing makes all the difference, and can enhance both.

To learn more about wine and food pairing, please visit Understanding Wine where you will find a wealth of interesting information.

Ever made Homemade wine before? Don’t know how to, why not visit http://winemakinghome.blogspot.com.

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But if it is only the cheese you care about, it may not matter what the wine is, but to enjoy the wine and also to do it credit, it pays to give careful consideration to the pairing.

In the past, more people drank red wine with cheese, or so it seems. Yes, it was often served at dinner parties and in restaurants, but why? Drinking white wine with any sort of cheese marries up so much better, as the acidity in the wine cuts beautifully through the fat in the cheese.

Though it does depend on what type of white wine. A lovely, youthful and lively white would be preferable to a rich, heavy, oak-aged white. Perhaps a Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc from a cool climate wine growing country would suffice?

A few experts go as far as to offer a sweet white wine or even an Oloroso sherry from Spain as the accompaniment. Personally, I can’t come to terms with a sickly sweet wine with a dry, fatty cheese, but again it comes down to personal choice.

Many cheeses taste of salt and fat, while some pungent and creamy. These characteristics frequently deaden any rich, tannic red wines, on the other hand, fresh, fruity dry whites can handle them well. Rarely do sweet whites make for excellent matches, but this one is a classic combination – Sauternes with Roquefort.

Wine writer Hugh Johnson gives some easy pairing rules, he suggests that the harder the cheese is, the more tannins are required in the accompanying wine. The creamier the cheese is, the more acidity is needed to deal with those fatty molecules.

Red wines complement very few cheeses. Aubert de Villaine, co-owner of the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, remarked at a showcasing of his red wines “cheese kills the nuances in red wine” – not a match made in heaven!

In England in the 19th century, consumption of red wine and cheese was not considered to be ladylike. At the end of dinner, the women would retire so that the men could get on with the serious drinking of port and claret. The cheese accompanying the drink was of course Stilton.

But before we write off drinking red wine with cheese, there are numerous matches that will work, like drinking a simple, light red wine with it. However, most people would never follow a big red wine from the main course with a simple, light red for the cheese course. They would inevitably pop the cork on a white. The tide has turned!

Has the relationship really gone sour on drinking red wine with cheese? I don’t think so, but it is not nearly as popular today as it was 60 years ago. For me, a crisp and refreshing white wine matches almost any cheese just perfectly.

To learn more about wine and food pairing with wine, please visit Understanding Wine where you will find a wealth of interesting wine information.

Ever made Homemade wine before? Don’t know how to, why not visit http://winemakinghome.blogspot.com.

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If you are, indeed, going to make those labels yourself, make them pleasing to your receiver. This means you have to look into some things and do some planning. For example, you have to choose the right material on which to print your label. The typical paper used for wine labels is rather thin, so if you want to make your wine more attractive, explore the different types of paper available in the market. You can have a thin board which is available in a variety of colors or anything that is thick enough not to roll from the edges inward. You’d like something that’s going to stay on for a long time.

Whatever the background of your label will be (and this will probably be the color of your paper), make sure everything you put on it is a match. If you’re going for a purple background, don’t have your text in another dark color or you may not create the right impact with your message. Even if you only plan to put in your name and that of your receiver, that text is still going to matter when it comes to the total appeal of the label. So make sure you’re able to balance the color of your text against that of your background.

And then, you’d like add in an image to make the label more attractive. Your choice could depend on a few things, but mostly, it should go with the occasion, if there is one, and your level of closeness with the person you’re giving wine to. For example, if you’d like to gift your boss with your homemade wine on his birthday, avoid having an intimate image of a woman on your label if you don’t want to get in trouble with his wife. On the other hand, if you’re giving that wine to your mother for an civic award she just received, don’t put in an image of a man and woman locked in a kiss. Although you have the free rein when you talk about customized wine labels, you should remember that it will not only be you who will have an experience with this wine. After all, the more important person in the picture is still the one who receives the gift.

The quality of the print on your label will, of course, matter. There are many websites offering  customized wine labels services. To  personalize wine labels  has recently become a trend as people seek to convey their messages through their gifts of wine more clearly.

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Materials and ingredients

This recipe for Concord wine will yield approximately 5 gallons of wine, and the following materials will have to be purchased. You will need one 6 gallon screw-top poly-fermentation bucket, a wooden long handled spoon, a nylon mesh bag, a 3/8 ” siphoning hose, an electric juicer, and a 5 gallon dark glass wine carboy with cork. For the ingredients you will need to purchase 40 lbs. of Concord grapes, 6 ½ lbs. of sugar, 2 tbsp winery yeast, ¾ tsp peptic enzyme, 1 tbsp acid blend, 1tsp wine tannin, and a gallon of water.

Mixing the ingredients

Wash the grapes well; remove any bad grapes and discard all of the stems. You will then run all of the grapes through the juicer, emptying it into the 6 gallon screw- top fermentation bucket that has been lined with the nylon mesh bag. Repeat this process until all of the grapes have been run through the juicer. When you are done, tie the top of the nylon mesh bag and squeeze as much juice from the pulp into the fermenting tank. After you have squeezed the grapes, leave the mesh bag of pulp in the juice and add all the other ingredients except the water, the yeast, and the sugar. Bring the water to a boil on the stove, add the sugar to dissolve it, and set aside until it cools down to 75 degrees. Pour the sugar water to the fermentation tank, secure the lid, and let it sit for 24 hours.

Fermentation

At the end of the 24 hour waiting period, open the fermentation tank and add the yeast. Pull out the nylon mesh bag and squeeze out the juice once again from the grape pulp. The fermentation process takes about 5 days to complete and you will want to occasionally open the vessel and stir it with the wooden spoon daily. At the end of the 5th day, remove the nylon mesh bag and squeeze the juice from the pulp and discard. Then wait for 24 hours and siphon the juice from the fermentation tank into the 5 gallon carboy. This is an important step in the process because you will not want to siphon the sediment at the bottom of the fermentation tank into the carboy. If the wine does not reach the neck of the carboy, add water, then cork the carboy and set in a cool dark area. The wine should be ready to bottle in two months, and while you can drink the wine at that time, it is best to let it age for two years.

Now that you know how to make wine, you can experiment making homemade wine. And after you have successfully brewed wine you can try other wine making recipes.

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If you think about it, wine making is chemistry and like any scientific project it sometimes takes a bit of experimentation to obtain successful results. Homemade wine recipes should be looked at as guides. Adjustments may have to be made based on the ingredients used. If anything is off you may have an undrinkable mess on your hands.

At the heart of all home wine recipes is the main flavor ingredient such as grapes, berries and apples or plants like dandelion and clover. Sugar and yeast are vital elements, plus acid, nutrients and water. There are also certain chemicals needed for wine.

Let’s take a look at the fruit, the sugar and the yeast.

One of my favorite blackberry wine recipes calls for 4 lbs. of blackberries. If the berries are exceptionally sweet and flavorful you may need less fruit. If the berries are lackluster you may need to add 1-2 lbs. of additional fruit. Using a larger quantity of fruit will produce a fruitier more flavorful wine and you may decide to modify the recipe even if the fruit is acceptable.

All fruit contains natural sugars and the sugar content is essentially dictated by how long the fruit remains on the vine. The content is expressed in percentages.

Typical supermarket fruit (4-8%) is picked long before it is vine-ripened in order to survive the trip to your grocers without rotting. Frozen fruit (10-13%) has more sugar because it is picked and frozen closer to ripening. Produce picked at a farm or purchased at a farm stand is usually fresh and fully ripened (15-18%) and has the highest sugar content. This is to say that the amount of sugar called for in a recipe may need to be adjusted up or down depending on the starting sugar content of your chosen fruit.

It should be noted that the sugar you add at the beginning of the fermentation process has nothing to do with how sweet the wine will turn out. This sugar is added simply for the wine yeast to turn into alcohol. If wish to have a sweet wine, you will add sugar (along with stabilizers) after the final fermentation.

Yeast is the true work horse of the whole wine making process. Yeast partners with the sugar to begin the fermentation process. Fermentation produces the alcohol. Isn’t that what we’re all here for? The right type of yeast is very important.

Make sure you have yeast that is specifically designed for wine making. No, you cannot use bread yeast. Like sugar, fruit has its own naturally present yeast. Yeast cultivated for wine making comes from the skin, seeds, etc of the spent fruit.

In using a homemade wine recipe you must be careful to consider these points. You will naturally find yourself adjusting ingredients to fit the condition of your fruit and the number of gallons you wish to produce. There are many sources for reliable recipes, but interpreting a recipe and knowing when to make adjustments comes after considerable experience, experimentation and unfortunately, a few dreadful batches of wine.

I’d like to share one of my favorite homemade wine recipes – blackberry. And while you’re there check out the Complete Illustrated Guide to Homemade Wine. This easy to follow book brought my wine making skills to a whole new level. Best of all it contains over 175 delicious recipes for making wine at home.

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