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- pama - 01-25-2003
I am doing research for a class I am tanking and have no idea what the difference between the following categories are. Could any one give me a definition or distinction between table wines, dessert wines, sparkling wines, and distilled spirits?
Your assistance is greatly appreciated!
- stevebody - 02-01-2003
Pama,
"Table wines" are usually ordinary blended wines that are intended to accompany food. This doesn't mean that they aren't wonderful sippers; some wineries call their finest blended wines Table Wine as a sort of reverse snobbery. When you read that, it usually means that the wine has a hearty profile and a generous acidity that makes it food-friendly. Can be red or white, usually dry.
"Dessert Wines" are almost always very sweet and intended to either accompany dessert courses or to BE dessert. Good examples would be most ice wines, black muscat, Orange or Chocolate Ports, and the Italian Reciotos. They come in many flavors and can be dazzling or insipid, depending on the maker.
"Sparkling Wines" are just what the sound like: wines with bubbles. The name is properly used to describe bubblies from anywhere other than the Champagne region of France, where they're called Champagne. They range from the Cooks/Andre/Korbel swill to the Italian "frizante" (slightly sparkling) to world-class dry and off-dry bubblies from wineries like Iron Horse, Schramsberg, and S. Anderson.
"Distilled Spirits" are liqueres, like Amaretto, Calvados, or Frangelico or any sort of Scotch, Bourbon, Vodka, etc.
Hope that helps.
- Kcwhippet - 02-01-2003
Actually, the term table wine has different meanings depending on where you are in the world. In New Zealand it refers to any non-fortified or non-sparkling wine. In the U.S. it refers to any still grape wine with an alcohol level between 7% and 14%. In the EU still grape wine has one of two legal nomenclatures - either table wine or quality wine. If it's "quality" wine, it can carry the designation of the AOC, DO, DOC, DOCG or whatever to denote that it complies with all the laws, rules and regulations mandated by the local government entity to enable the wine to have those designations on the label. In order to make wines a bit differently in a particular region, many winemakers prefer not to label their wines as quality, but make the wines the way they want to with the grapes they want to use, and they then label the wine "table wine" (or vin table, or vino di tavola, or whatever). So, you'll see wines like super Tuscans from Italy labelled vino di tavola instead of having the DOCG label, because the winemakers are making the wines they want, not the wines the government dictates they must make to use the DOCG label. It has nothing to do with reverse snobbery - it's a winemaker doing his own thing without government control making him grow only certain grapes a certain way with certain yields to produce a very particular style of wine. Sort of the libertarian winemaker movement.
Dessert wines are any wines with very perceptible residual sugar, usually from 6% and up, including fortified wines.
Sparkling wines are any wines from anywhere in the world which are bottled with natural or induced carbination.
Distilled spirits are clear liquids obtained by distilling fermented beverages with or without added flavoring agents. Aging in various types of containers adds color and character.
- Thomas - 02-01-2003
pama, you are a lucky devil--we don't normally do homework for students.
But I will throw a wrench into the mix, just to make you work a little...one of the two guys who answered you got the information spot-on; the other got it hazy but not necessarily incorrect.
- winoweenie - 02-02-2003
Hi Pama and welcome to the board. I too, Tanked meeny classes in college. Never spent the time to make an erroniouss report howm-so-ver. Too clever ! WW [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]