AMIS DU VIN are two day delivery, importers of high quality French Wines. The firm was created by David Chapman secure wine ordering, and Philippe Durand. David handles and high quality french wines, controls the UK operations and Philippe searches for the wines in France from his base in Paris. All our winemakers and growers are known specialist in french wines, to us personally and these close relationships help to maintain the consistency in the quality we search for. Our commitment to you is simple. We give wine advice, you our guarantee that the wines you buy will always be of superb quality and value. NEWS AND EVENTS WINE TASTINGS Tastings are wine tasting, held on a regular basis. Dates for 2002 will be announced soon. GIFT WRAPPING Presentation gift packs are now available for one, two or three french wine region, bottles of wine. These are wine coloured box packs which are very tasteful. If you want to make a gift for a special person give us a call on fine wines, 020-8393 3444 or email us on amis.duvin@btinternet.com so that we mail order wines, can quote you. CELEBRATORY DATES For french wine importer, those special occasions we can provide wines dating from 1918. Gifts such as these will make a great impression and will never be forgotten. These mail order champagne, wines may be limited in availability according to the quality of the vintage. Give us a call on 020-8393 3444 or email us discount wine delivery, on amis.duvin@btinternet.com so that we can help you with this important decision. Wine, term for an alcoholic drink made by fermenting the juice, in fresh or concentrated form, of fruits or berries. Most wine, however, is made by fermenting the juice of fresh grapes alone, and wine as an unqualified term is commonly understood to meet this secondary definition. The alcoholic strength of wines varies from about 7 per cent alcohol by volume (abv) to about 16 per cent abv; most wines are bottled at between 10 and 14 per cent abv. Fortified wines (see Production below) range from 15 per cent abv to 22 per cent abv. II. Wine's Complexities Wine is, arguably, the most complex of agricultural products. No other is capable of expressing so many sensually palpable nuances. These are the consequence of many factors, chief among them soil type, climatic conditions, grape or vine variety, and winemaking practices. III. Production The principle of winemaking is simple. Freshly harvested grapes are crushed to release their juice (known as must), which is rich in fermentable sugars. Airborne wild yeasts, or the addition of cultured yeasts to the must, provoke fermentation. The main products of fermentation are ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide, the latter being released from the fermenting must as a gas. Fermentation normally ceases when all the fermentable sugars have been converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide, or when the concentration of alcohol reaches a level too high for the yeasts to tolerate. The must is now wine. There are, however, many variants of this process. The main variants come into play in order to produce white wine, red (and pink, or rose) wine, sparkling wine, and fortified wine. Other variants are used to improve the quality of any of the above wine styles. The juice of most grapes, including most red grapes, is colourless. White grapes are quickly pressed after being harvested and the juice separated from the grape skins before fermentation to produce white wine. (If most of the red grape varieties are treated in this way, the result will also be a white wine; this technique of producing white wine from red grapes is widely practised, for example, in the Champagne region of France. It is not, however, possible to make a red wine from white grapes.) To make red wine, by contrast, red grapes are merely crushed before spending a part or the whole of their fermentation period, plus in many cases a period of pre- or post-fermentation maceration, or soaking, in contact with the grape skins. All of the colouring matter, plus many flavour compounds and tannins, are stored in grape skins, and fermentation and maceration release these. Their release is often intensified by techniques of mechanical rousing, or stirring, during this period. Pink or rose wine is generally made using red grapes which are left in contact with their skins for a short period only; it is less commonly made by blending red and white wine.
