Wherever you are in the world, there are a few basic rules to follow. Here's an idiot' s guide to wine and what makes it so special - plus some tips on which wines are both cheap and tasty. Wine is fermented grape juice or grape 'must'. Naturally occurring or cultured yeasts catalyse sugars present in the grape juice and turn them into alcohol. Put simply, sugar is turned into alcohol.
Grapes come in different varieties.
Different grape varieties have different skin thicknesses, sugar and acid levels. Grapes can be red or white depending on the pigment in their skin, but the juice obtained from both colours of grape is white. It is only by soaking the skins of red grapes in the juice that red wine is obtained. In actual fact, white grapes are often greenish in appearance, like the Chardonnay grapes that are used in Champagne. The best wines do not come from leafy, bushy young vines with loads of fruit on them, but from extremely old, sometimes even unhealthy vines planted in poor soils and in poor conditions.