The world considers wine as one of the most popular and important beverages ever invented. It is used in ceremonies, rituals, events and everyday fun sessions. Most wines are made by fermenting juice from grapes. To have a large yield of the fruit, grapes are grown in vineyards. A vineyard is a plantation of grape bearing vines. Usually, vineyards are developed for winemaking. However, they are also used for the production of raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. A vineyard is usually characterized by its terroir. A terroir refers to the geographical characteristics and natural factors of grapevine plantations. These factors include soil, underlying rock, altitude of the terrain, elevation of the terrain, solar orientation and microclimate conditions. The conditions of a vineyard’s terroir must be maintained. In fact, wine producing countries often impose tightly regulated laws on vineyards.

Winemakers, farmers, scientists and even universities have been constantly researching how to improve vineyards. There is even an organization, the International Grape Genome Program, dedicated to the development of vineyards. The organization continues to find methods to genetically improve grape quality, to increase harvests and to develop immunity against pets through natural resistance. New techniques of improving vineyards resulted in the progress of wine industries in New World countries like Canada. Furthermore, there is also an increasing degree of interest in cultivating organic, ecologically sensitive and sustainable vineyards. In viticulture, or the study and practice of vineyard production, biodynamics is increasingly practiced. Drip irrigation techniques that have been practiced presently provide water farther inland. This makes planting vineyards feasible in areas that were previously not fit for plants. Harvests increased and became more consistent.

There are other modern practices in viticulture. For example, there is a technique involving the spraying of water on vines to safeguard them from freezing temperatures during the cold season. There are also new grafting techniques so that vines can be transplanted from one region to another. Other developments include soil slotting, more efficient trellising, canopy management techniques and mechanical harvesting. Because of new viticulture technology and practices, vineyard plantations have increased in the New World. In fact, between 1990 and 2003, US vineyards increased to almost a million acres from 292,000 acres. In Australia, there are now 356,000 acres of vineyards from 146,000. Chilean vineyards increased from 161,500 to 415,000 acres.

When going into tasting rooms, there are certain etiquette rules one should follow. If you are wondering to yourself what these rules entail, you are not alone. The most basic rule for wine tasting is to start with white and work your way to the reds. Another hint is to go from dry to sweet within your white and red wines. Strong flavors can overwhelm the palate and can hinder your taste buds from experiencing the bouquets of each wine. Always save your dessert and ice wines for last. Those have the most sweetness and fullness attached to them and affects your palates ability to experience the next tasting.

When entering a wine establishment, do not be timid. Go ahead and walk straight to the bar; most places are fairly relaxed and informal. After you take a seat, you will be approached by a bartender or a barista. If you do not know much about the wine you are about to sample, just ask. Most servers who do wine tastings enjoy explaining the wine and the flavors that are incorporated. Remember to work your way from whites, to red, to ports and ice wine. Wine tasting can be an involved process. To help you understand various flavors of wine, keep a journal when participating in tastings. This will help you to identify specific flavors, regions, and full bodied wines. Also it will be a great reference for when you want a particular flavor of wine to pair with food or share with friends and family. There are a few things to look for when doing a tasting if you are planning on becoming a wine connoisseur: color of the wine, legs, the aroma, and fullness or flavor of that wine. Smelling and tasting the wine poured for you during a tasting are the two most important steps in the examination your wine.

Now that all of our bases are covered, let us talk about spitting after tasting. Movies show wine tasters spitting out the wine after they taste. This is not always the approach that needs to be taken. The reason why people spit out the wine after tasting it is mainly because of the alcohol content involved. As we have all heard, alcohol can hinder your judgment and this is true even with our sense of taste. You only truly need to spit out the wine if you are doing several tastings, more than ten, or if you are at a formal wine tasting. Tasting 20 glasses can cause you to become intoxicated even if you spit it out because alcohol is absorbed through the skin in your mouth.