Travel right now happens to be quite restrictive, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot explore a far away place, right at home, in your glass. This week, City Vino takes you to South Africa with four wines from the country. Let us embark on our wine trip.
Saturday March 27, 2021, begins the seven-day most sacred, and widely observed holiday of Passover (Pesah or Pesach) that commemorates the Israelites’ liberation from 400 years of slavery in Egypt. Its name is derived from “passing over” of Jewish houses, where the first-born were being slayed during the last of the ten plagues.
While discussing wine, terms like AOC, AOP, DOC, DOCG, AVA, and appellation are often thrown around. The acronyms and words all equate to a recognized geographical area where wine is made. Within that geographical area, there are often rules, laws, and regulations that dictate what grapes can be grown, the weight of the grapes that can be harvested off one acre or hectare, barrel aging requirements, and what percentage of grape varietals have to be in a bottle labelled with the geographical term.
Argentina is responsible for 45 percent of the production of wine in South America, and is the sixth-top wine producing country in the world. As of 2018, the country has over 489,000 acres of vineyards.
“Pét-Nat,” or “pétillant naturel,” is the term given to sparkling wines made with a single fermentation. Fermentation is started in-tank, then the wine is put into a bottle and topped with a crown cap, like those on beer or glass soda bottles. The yeast in the bottle will continue to ferment the sugar in the grape juice, and the carbon dioxide that is a byproduct of fermentation has nowhere to go, except into the wine itself, yielding a sparkling wine.
