What's the significance and, more importantly, can we still actually drink wine even though that holiday was three months ago?
National Wine Day -- it sounds pretty official.
So what should we do since the word "drink" isn't in the title? Maybe it's more of an educational day? Wine is fermented grape juice. Other fruits can be made into wine. I've had homemade plum wine and it wasn't that good so I figure this is why we use grapes. Fermentation is just changing the naturally occurring sugars in the fruit to alcohol -- done by our little friends, yeast.
That's all nice, but what about the drinking? Maybe we should instead enjoy a nice glass or two of wine. And you should enjoy it because there's an amazing array of characteristics and variances in every wine. In fact, even in the same glass of wine. Have you ever noticed how sometimes that first sip and that last gulp from a glass can be different? How does it do that?
If it were really just fermented grape juice and they all tasted the same we'd have gotten bored with wine a thousand years ago. The differences in the varieties available, the variations in growing, and the winemaker decisions are all what makes each glass so enjoyable.
We are lucky in the U.S. because this year National Wine Day also happens to be another holiday, Memorial Day. So after saluting the veterans of past wars (don't forget to do that) it's time to fire up the grill. For me, grilled meats means either Zinfandel or Syrah, but enjoy whatever you want cuz it's your holiday.
Where did National Wine Day come from? As with most of these unofficial holidays no one is quite sure--could be Gallo, could be a wine distributor in Massachusetts, a retail liquor store in Texas, who knows? Who cares?
The next big holiday coming up is National Doughnut Day on June 5th so you have some time to figure out what wine to have with your doughnuts.
Happy National Wine Day!
No comments:
Post a Comment