Wine Making History and Processes (medicine)

By Dave Southern

  Winemaking history started way back 6000 BC. It became popular in ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt. There are two general categories in making winethe still wine production and the sparkling wine production.

Wine making started thousands of years ago during the early Bronze Age. It was proven by archaeologists that the earliest wine production came from the sites of Georgia and Iran in early 6000 to 5000 BC. Another evidence of wine making is found in Macedonia, a part of Eastern Europe. Remnants of crushed grapes are discovered there. In Egypt, wine became a part of their recorded history and played a remarkable role in their ancient ceremonial life. Wine was common in the classical era of Greece and Rome, too. The Roman Empire improved the cultivation techniques in making wine by establishing plantations as well as storage and by shipping wine all over Western Europe and other countries.

Wine consumption became popularized from the 15th century onwards, surpassing the devastating phylloxera louse of the 1870s. Many religious groups such as the Christian Church and medieval Islamic hindered the production of wines because they believed that it was forbidden. However, the Muslim chemists and Geber started the idea of distillation of wine for medicinal purposes.

Today, wine making requires a deep scientific knowledge and profound understanding known as oenology. Oenology is the science of wine making. Laboratory tests increasingly supplemented and replaced traditional methods. They offer comprehensive information about the process by studying and practicing oenology.

There are two general categories in making wine. First is the still wine production which entails no carbonation. The second is the sparkling wine production which involves carbonation. The most widespread and recognized example of a sparkling wine is the champagne. In other regions, a sparkling wine is called Asti in Italy, Cava in Spain, and Cap Classique in South Africa.

Process of wine making

Once harvested, grapes are flattened. Depending on what kind of wine is being made, fermentation usually takes between one to two weeks. Yeast changes nearly all of the sugar content in the grape sap into crisp ethanol or alcohol. Following the first fermentation, the juice is moved to containers in preparation for the next stage. It is in this stage that grape sugar is gradually changed into alcohol and the wine becomes transparent. Some wines are set aside to age in oak barrels prior to bottling giving it the additional savor. Still other wines are bottled right away.

Pressing

Pressing is a process of separating juice from the grapes and their skin. Grapes are gradually mashed out. Then the total amount of juice is immediately separated and ready for vinification. Vinification covers all the phases between the coming of grapes in the chai and the transfer of wine into oak barrels. This day, a lot of winemakers apply pressure to increase and determine the amount of tannin extracted from the juice. Pressed juices or wines are generally lower in acid compared to the free-run juice.

Pigeage

This refers to a local French term for traditional process or stomping grapes in an open area or fermentation tanks. Grapes are crushed to the surface and carbon dioxide gases are released. Layer of skins and other solids from grapes are called caps. Caps are the best source of tannins. Traditionally, the caps are mixed into the juice each day by stomping it through the vat.

During the first fermentation, yeast cells are mixed with sugar and they multiply. They produce carbon dioxide also known as alcohol. The percentage of sugar is well calculated. Its density is able to obtain the desired alcohol percentage. After fermenting the alcohol, malolactic fermentation takes place. This is a process in which particular strains of bacteria converts malic acid into milder lactic acid. This kind of fermentation is generally done to immunize desired bacteria thus ensuring wine with softer taste and superior complexity.

Cold and heat stabilization

It is a process used in reducing tartrate crystals, commonly known as potassium bitartrate typically seen in wines. Tartrate crystals are similar to clear sand or grains or wine crystals. Cold and heat stabilization is next in wine making process. Unstable proteins are removed and tartrate crystals (or potassium bitartrate) frequently found in wine is reduced. After the stabilization process, secondary fermentation and bulk aging come next. This is then continued by laboratory tests as well as blending and fining. Preservatives application, filtration, and bottling process come last.

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Four Things A Private Tutor Cannot Do For Your Child
By Tim Heeter

  Obtaining the services of a private tutor is an excellent choice to help your child if they are falling behind in school or lacking motivation and confidence. The time spent with a private tutor can provided the needed skills to boost student’s grades, attitude and performance. Keep in mind, however, that there are certain things a professional private tutor cannot, or will not, do for your child.

Do This For Me Please

Children often ask and expect a private tutor to do their homework for them. A professional tutor will never give in to this sort of request. Instead the tutor will focus on building the student’s confidence and attitude about their school work. A professional tutor helps a student to see how to work through difficult tasks, thus reinforcing the need for the student to work on their own even as they help make it a possibility.

Impossible Expectations

Children will often procrastinate and begin studying for a test far too late. They often believe a crash session with a tutor will help them get all of the important points just in time. It is true that tutors can help with study skills and strategy. However, a tutor is never a replacement for consistent studying and hard work; those are exactly the skills they will try instill in your child.

Professional tutors work hard to help their students build confidence and academic independence. Do not be surprised if your child complains that a tutor is making them work too hard. This is what tutors do best; increasing the level of your child’s competence, responsibility, and academic independence.

Get Me Out of This Mess

Students often believe that a private tutor exists as a cure all for poor academic performance. It is wrong to assume that poor test scores can be alleviated with a few sessions with a tutor. While grades and academic performance of students with private tutors do indeed improve over time, a professional tutor may very well discontinue with students who simply want quick GPA fixes. Tutors attempt to help students who need consistent help while catching up in difficult subjects. A tutor cannot truly help a student who is reluctant to commit to a period of hard work and their best effort.

Tell Me What To Do

Lastly, a private tutor cannot help your child if they are not prepared for their tutoring sessions. Keep you tutor up to date by sending them updates or e-mails about what your child is studying in school. Alternatively, you might also consider putting the tutor in direct contact with the student’s teacher to keep you out of the middle. This will help your tutor to be prepared to address needed subjects and make the most out of each tutoring session.

In turn for keeping your tutor informed of student needs, a private tutor is able to address the progress a student is making and make personalized recommendations for further study as needed. This constant feedback from student to tutor, and tutor to student, is what makes the tutoring relationship so powerful.

Tim Heeter helps students struggling with Science and Math. He invites you to a FREE Demonstration of How to Improve Grades, Motivate Your Child, and Boost Confidence With 1 on 1 Online Tutoring Inside His Unique Online Classroom With Voice and Whiteboard Interaction. Click here for a free online tutoring demonstration.

How To Use A Telescope For Research
By Ben Needles

  Would you like to do scientific research with your telescope? Do you have a preconception that to do serious research with telescopes needs an astrophysics degree and a telescope costing millions of dollars? Not so, even with a small hobby telescope you too can do great research with your home telescope.

Galileo used a telescope which is much inferior to todays telescopes, even the telescopes your can buy for your home. Galileo saw Saturn with ears, whereas most of the telescopes available today for the home can see Saturn in greater detail. You too can participate in scientific research in the comfort of your own home, and without an astrophysics degree!

* Astronomy Research - The Moon
I love the Moon, especially when looking with a telescope. The Moon is so close to use that the Moon offers us much ability to research. We could research the luminosity of the Moon over the periods of a month, and scale everyday on a chart of maybe 1 to 10 the luminosity.

A bit trickier, would be to measure the Moons distance from us, and is fully possible even with a telescope for the home. You could make drawings of the Moons craters and check up on a map of the Moon to find out what the name of the crater is. You could take a look and find how fast the Moon really moves, by making points in the sky and measuring how long it takes the Moon to travel that arc.

* Astronomy Research - Saturn
Saturn also offers us much research, even for amateur astronomers. You can see the planet over time coming closer and going further. You can see the belt in different positions, you can view different detail, and make drawings. You can look at the moons and find there positions, and figure when they are in eclipse, in relation to you.

* Astronomy Research - Jupiter
Again with Jupiter, we can do similar research as with Saturn. You can look at that giant swirling cloud on Jupiter and use it as an indicator. Then you can find out how long it takes for the planet to revolve. Also you can observe the tilt of the planet which could easily swallow up the Earth many times over. Jupiter has many moons, so Jupiter makes a great point for research as you can see the moons around Jupiter and in different angles at different times.

* Astronomy Research - The Sun
Viewing the Sun with a telescope must NOT be done directly, as the Sun is so powerful in an instant it could render vision useless. The Sun can be viewed indirectly, however, by projecting the Suns image onto a white card or if your telescope is in your house, one way that I have used successfully is to project the Sun to the ceiling. Note it will take time to find the Sun as you can not use any of the lenses to source it into view. It is far too risky and please heed this warning.

When you project the Sun, you can find great detail such as Solar flares on occasion, Sunspots regularly. Over several days and months can see the Sun is an active and living star with constant activity.

* Astronomy Research Without A Telescope
For many years, I did not have telescope, so I was only able to do astronomy research without a telescope. All is not lost and can be great fun. You can monitor Pleiades, the Orion constellation and many other constellations in the sky, depending where you are and what time of the year it is. This serves to prove a great piece of knowledge for when you buy a telescope, as you can navigate the heavens much more easily. The Moon also offers great research without a telescope, as you can see the phases of the Moon, and still measure color, and luminosity.

Amateur astronomy research is fully possible, even with a small telescope. You can make great discoveries, and though they may not make impacts on science, it is fully possible to make a more fun and meaningful hobby. When you add to this a good and disciplined research method of cataloging your findings, you will amass a great amount of personal knowledge on the objects in the heavens. You also may be able to find the next Halleys Comet!

About the Author (text)

Now to take action! You will need a telescope, and or astronomy binoculars, and a notebook. Visit http://www.buytelescope.co.uk and http://www.buyingbinocularsuk.info

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